A United State of Election

It's times like these that I enjoy not being American. The current Midterm Elections are at the same time shockingly depressing and thoroughly unsurprising. It has been almost two years since Barack Obama took office, and America is still in trouble. Not good enough say the voters of America, who have promptly put back in power the people who got them in trouble in the first place.

What's worse, the misleadingly named Tea Party is the growing force in American politics, and moderate Republicans are quickly disappearing from the political landscape. There has been a Tea Party tidal wave which will end in a wet slap on the forehead of anything that is decent.

It was obvious that the hype surrounding Obama was overblown. It was like people forgot that this was politics they were taking about. He's not a God. One man cannot pull an entire nation out of an economic black hole of its own creation, reverse egotistical cultural malaise in months, not years, no matter how good his speeches are. People got disappointed very quickly when miracles did not occur immediately. Thus the Democrats have lost control because people could not be bothered voting for them. Used to instant gratification, they were disgusted when it was denied them.

This is the sort of thing that happens when the nation is kept in a near constant state of 'Election'.

In the US there is a Presidential Election every four years, which also includes House, Senate, Mayoral and Gubernatorial elections. In between these are Midterm elections, where every house bar the white one is involved. Prior to these proper elections, the major parties hold primaries, in which candidates are voted on by registered members of the parties, and any registered independents who lean that way. These tend to occur in the six months leading up to the election in question. So at the very least, the electioneering goes on for a year before hand. Recently it's been getting longer and longer, with every second of it picked apart and analysed by 24 hour cable news cuntery. Every poll means something, every misspoken word a disaster, every speech broadcasted all the time, constant attack ads paid for by some unscrupulous bastard, constant pleading for money, more money, WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY.

You can see why some people just say "fuck it, I'm not voting"? It's all too much. No wonder nothing happens. At all times, a large amount of people are trying to get re-elected. Everyone's playing defence.

Can you imagine an Australian campaign going for over a year? There would not be enough rope for everyone to hang themselves. People's life-force would ebb and disappear into a fog of bullshit. We'll get there in the end because it's already started. The official election campaign may only go for six weeks, but the unofficial campaign starts months before, and gets earlier every time. We now have two 24 hour news channels, and there are plenty of arseholes queuing up for both. Campaigns are becoming more negative, less informative and nastier.

America is our future, so watch, and get depressed.