The Election Business

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Oh Jeeze.

It used to be so much simpler to stand for election.  I wonder how much Lincoln spent on his campaign, or how much Woodrow Wilson spent.

Consider how much anguish we feel about this election, the drama, the vitriol, the stupidity, the videos, the inanities we must deplore, the numerous polls so assiduously deconstructed for us, the rumors about poor health, the complaints about being unfriendly to the pestilential press.  The debates, the blogs, the ...  AAAAAAAAAARGH!

The money is almost the least of it.  Every succeeding election is presented as the election that will perhaps allow future elections to be held.  The war to end all wars.  A referendum on whether the political process is dead.  A desperate poll on whether the American Way is The Right Way.  Whether the American Dream has died.  Whether This Planet Will Survive.

Listen kids.  The quadrennial Presidential Election is simply one about who will be the President, and Vice President, for the next four years.  It should not be about the future of the planet.  It is not about the future of the planet.

Having said that, I have to observe that the systemic changes in the political process by the GOP has given a sense of desperation to the process, which has actually backfired on them.  By various means (not least that of pretending that being sophisticated about national politics was something that the crafty Democrats do to misguide the population), gerrymandering, stacking the Supreme Court, fooling with the tax code, enabling money in politics via the People United thing, all these things have brought us to this escalating sense of desperation that we feel today.  And brought the GOP a presidential candidate that they do not like.  Ironically, we're not in a position to savor the irony, because the joke is on everyone.  We now have to get out and beat the bushes for those who will vote in November.  Why can't we just peacefully vote, and then come home and have a beer?  Why must we all be active members of the political machine?  Why must we all chip in $15 to help defeat ... whomever?  But no.  Even Al Franken wants us to work like hell until November.  But he doesn't realize that we can't stop then either.

And it isn't as though the desperation will subside after the election is over.  It will be strife for the foreseeable future.  There will be no weekend.  It will be election season from now until forever, AND WE WILL LOSE EVERY TIME.

Only one force could bring us to this state.  That force is Business.  It is in the interest of some business or other---very likely many businesses---that the political process should be in permanent overdrive. Not a day goes by that the Media does not whine that Hillary Clinton doesn't provide them with more sensational fodder.  Business is considered a powerful force for good.  But it is a powerful force for anxiety and fear.  And a powerful force for pissing me off.

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