Email Overload - The Peril Of An Election Year

[ "Let Inga Tell You,"  La Jolla Light, published August 17, 2026] 2026

I've written before about my husband Olof's and my different political persuasions. It's been the source of a lot of lively discussion at our dinner table over the years. It's also a familiar dynamic for me as my mother was a liberal feminist Democrat and my father a conservative Republican. I was fortunate to have the experience of a lot of spirited but respectful debate.

But Olof and I are now facing a different problem. We both hate our political parties. And I mean profoundly. Olof, a lifelong Republican, hasn't voted for or contributed to his party in a long time. He is still holding out for the Republicans to return to what he thinks of their former glory.

I, of course, think they never had one.

Unfortunately, however, he refuses to change his official voting status to "Declined to state"  as I did with the Democrats some years back solely for self-defense. Having two political parties in the same household was resulting in some 25 or more political robocalls to our landline every day in the months before elections.

I should also note that even changing my voting affiliation, it only reduced the robocalls by 25%. The Republicans were the major perps.

Of course, most people have solved this problem by doing away with landlines. But even though 95% of the calls that come in on it these days are announced as "spam risk," I m attached to the concept of a landline even though I almost exclusively use my cell phone these days.

In previous election years, I used to love to play with all the relentless Republican fundraisers who thought they were calling a friendly number only to get me. "Do you think that marriage should be between one man and one woman?:  they'd query when I picked up the phone. "HELL NO!" I d yell before summarily disconnecting.

Unfortunately, disconnecting modern phones isn't nearly as much fun as it used to be. There was always something so inherently satisfying about being able to slam down a telephone receiver. Clicking an Off button or worse, tapping some wussy touch screen does not give one the emotional release that the solid connection of a plastic receiver on a telephone base could ever give. No wonder the whole country is so full of pent-up anger. For that reason, until recently, we still kept one wall-mounted landline with traditional receiver in our home for use during election seasons.

But lately I've made contributions to several Democratic candidates not realizing that my email in-box would become buried in emails. It's even worse than all those robo-calls. "Unsubscribe"  can't keep up with it. Can't I just contribute to persons whom I support without my email address, and apparently my soul, being sold to sites I never signed up for?

I'm starting to feel hostile about it.

OK, I was already feeling hostile even before. I voted for our current San Diego mayor and City Council member for my district. And have lived to regret it. In my view, they seem to have been kidnapped by aliens. How else to explain one incredibly stupid decision after another? The trash fee debacle. Balboa Park parking fee fiasco. Removing requirements for parking in new construction. And the piece de resistance: closing restrooms in the height of summer in our most populated public parks.

Seriously, the mayor and City Council ought to be relegated to porta-potties for which they have to pay a fee on user-hostile machines. Or maybe even no porta-potties at all. Their reserved parking spots should be turned into bike racks.

I'm beginning to wonder if candidates for public office should have to pass a common sense test. Public restrooms should be an inalienable right, probably only left out of the Declaration of Independence for lack of invention yet of the flush toilet. Otherwise, I have every confidence it would have been included. Voting to close them down for budget reasons should be an automatic exit from office.

I've mentioned before that both Olof and I have voted across party lines on many occasions over the years. Plenty of Republican candidates have had my vote, and certainly lots of Democrats have had Olof's, especially in recent years.

But what happens when you think your party, with the exception of specific candidates, has totally failed you? Where is the "None of the Above" party? The "Anybody but you guys"  party? The "If you re an incumbent I would vote for a homeless guy before you"  party?

Instead we've got the Parties of Pusillanimity. Both Olof and I often wonder out loud what our fathers, who fought in World War II (Olof s father was a Navy pilot in combat in the Pacific) would have to say about all this. We're pretty sure we know.

I realize I m sounding like everyone's crabby curmudgeon relative they're afraid to invite to Thanksgiving dinner. But I m desperately hoping that this new party can show up by 2028. You've already got my vote.

But in the meantime, please, please please, leave my email alone.