What has made these interminable months so bad?



During election season, "chatter, gossip and worthless speculation about the candidates' prospects ... drown out most other political matters .... A presidential term is 48 months; that the political media is transfixed by campaign coverage for 18 months every cycle means that a President can wield power with substantially reduced media attention for more than 1/3 of his term."



For politicians, election season ends up "bolstering orthodoxies and narrowing the range of permitted views."

"Perhaps the worst outcome of the protracted obsession with presidential campaigns is how it intensifies partisan tribalism, and bolsters divisions among ordinary Americans who have far more in common than differences," Greenwald wrote. "Because presidential elections are such a stark either/or affair, many people feel compelled to choose one side and then elevate its victory into the overarching -- even the only -- political priority that matters. For that reason, even those willing to criticize their own side's Leader a couple of years before the election become unwilling to do so as the election approaches, on the ground that nothing matters except boosting one's own team .... That, in turn, further reduces the already-low levels of independence, intellectual honesty, and -- most importantly -- accountability for those in power."



For partisans, "loyalty becomes the ultimate Litmus Test of whether you're on the side of Good: it's the supreme With-Us-or-With-the-Terrorists test, and few are willing to endure the punishments for failing it."



To sum up, "the winner-takes-all, Most-Important-Election-Ever hysteria that precedes" elections creates "the illusion of fundamentally stark choices. That's what makes the 18 months of screeching, divisive, petty, trivial rancor so absurd, so distracting, so distorting. Yes, it matters in some important ways who wins and sits in the Oval Office chair, but there are things that matter much, much more than that -- all of which are suffocated into non-existence by the... election circus."

This particular circus is about to shut down for two-and-a-half years. If only we could pack it into fewer months next time.

