LA CROSSE, Wis. — Local Democrat Kevin Forrester automatically responded “STOP” to a friend’s genuine request for financial help after months of conditioning, sources report.
“I feel bad, but I don’t see how I can be blamed for that,” Forrester said before instinctively texting “STOP” to a text regarding medical bills. “We’re coming off a crushing presidential election loss that may very well be the death knell of our democracy, and I’m still getting texts from Democrats asking for me to pitch in money. I live in a swing state. Last election season was just an onslaught of text messages every day. I tolerated it then because I knew how important defeating Trump was, but we lost. They’re still sending me text messages asking for money to do things like save NPR and support Democrats in special elections. As soon as I saw the text with ‘need just $5,’ I responded without even thinking.”
Forrester’s friend Chet Hafron was hurt by his actions.
“I’m not happy that I need to rely on my friends’ help, but I’m going through a tough time right now,” Hafron lamented. “I lost my manufacturing job as a direct result of Trump’s tariffs, and I just needed a couple bucks for gas so I could get to a job interview. Luckily, I sent out a few text messages, so I was able to fill up and get there, but Kevin’s response really brought me down. He and I have been friends since we were in kindergarten. I understand that he has to respond like that to several texts a day, but he should have taken the time to see the text was from me.”
Political scientist Sally Lodolla reacted to the situation.
“This is just another example of how the modern political climate is tearing people apart from one another,” Lodolla offered. “We’ve had Fox News, Facebook and Twitter pitting Americans against each other for years now, but I’m now starting to see the same thing happen with Democratic phone banking. Especially after such a gutting loss as last November, Democrats are wary of text messages asking for money, and it’s making them far less likely to help loved ones who sometimes need help. It’s extremely upsetting to see, so I guess we can look forward to not having elections anymore in a couple years.”
At press time, Forrester reflexively marked a message from his mother as Junk after she texted to tell him about her new phone number.