The election for president of the United States — as well as many other positions in numerous governments around the country — will occur on Election Day, which this year is one week from today on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 — but one annoyance about elections pertaining to travel seems to consistently occur…
One Annoyance About Elections Pertaining to Travel
…and that is typically when candidates campaign for their election or reelection to office. If a candidate flies into an airport — especially when using an airplane that is designated as Air Force One, which “is now standard practice to use the term to refer to specific planes that are equipped to transport the Commander-in-Chief” — the entire airport usually shuts down and delays or cancels flights for a period of time.
Ground transportation is another encumbrance: when a candidate is traveling in a motorcade from an airport to where he or she is campaigning, roads and highways are temporarily shut down along the actual route and in areas immediately adjacent to it, which usually causes massive traffic jams within the vicinity that can last for miles.
Final Boarding Call
If an elected official has an urgent need to conduct official business that is in the best interests of his or her constituents, by all means should he or she be able to have a conveyance immediately available and have top priority over anyone else to travel and ensure that that official business is resolved in an effective manner as soon as possible…
…but I have always questioned the use of resources that are paid by taxpayers to inconvenience those same taxpayers for the purpose of campaigning for election or reelection. I cannot think of another occupation which allows — and, perhaps, even encourages — the use of official property for self promotion rather than conducting official business for which that person was elected to do. With the “election season” starting as early as two years in advance of Election Day every four years, one might wonder how does the person who is in charge of running this country actually get any work done?
I have never attended a rally or political campaign event. Furthermore, I have been fortunate to be able to avoid potential interruptions in my travels that are directly affected by politicians who are campaigning to be elected — for the most part, anyway — but to have travel delayed or significantly impacted simply because someone is trying to win an election seems like an annoyance which suggests that the system needs improvement, in my opinion.
One would think that advances in technology could help to reduce the number of rallies and campaign events that are held in person — such as social media as one example — but I suppose they only help to fuel more of the live events that can potentially inconvenience travelers.
Why not increase the number of rallies and campaigns at venues that are near Air Force bases and other airports that are not used by the general public to help minimize interruption of travel?
What are your thoughts on this topic? How would you feel if your flight was significantly delayed or canceled simply because of someone who is campaigning to be elected to office?
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
