Dear Politics,
We’ve sure been having a lot of fun lately. Presidential primaries and caucuses in 30 states; 24 Democratic debates and nearly as many Republican – if anything, I feel we’ve really gotten to know each other better. But good relationships need space. With all of your drama, your scandal and personal baggage, it’s like I can’t even breathe sometimes. What I’m trying to say, Politics, is that I need a break.
Tomorrow, Emerald readers, is a big day on the campaign trail. Voters in Vermont, New Hampshire, Texas and Ohio will excitedly press buttons, pull levers and check boxes with short, eraserless pencils to cast their vote for nominee in the presidential election.
And let’s give ourselves credit, young America: We’re turning out in record numbers – people are energized, thanks in no small part to the presence of a certain senator from the “Land of Lincoln.” And there’s a quiet consensus that, should he outperform his opponent in tomorrow’s primaries, the Democratic nomination will be his to lose.
There’s just one problem. That election is exactly eight months – 246 days – from tomorrow. Two hundred forty six! CCXLVI! How many more times are we going to see tabloid-worthy campaign stories in our newspapers and on our TVs between now and then? How much political analysis can one be exposed to before needing some time alone, away from the repetitive, monotonous and mundane?
Politics is a lot like sex: If you go all out from the start, you’re going to wind up crying and embarrassed 30 seconds later. No, you’ve got to be patient, and willing to work for what you want.
Patience is what this nomination process has been lacking. There’s a lot of calendar space between now and the election of our 44th president, and 20-plus debates by each party – before either officially names a candidate – exceeds redundancy.
I don’t even have to name names anymore, because surely you know all the players by now. In a just-completed phone interview, my 12-year-old brother was easily able to identify Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominees for president – this despite juggling the responsibilities of a girlfriend and an X-Box Live account.
The process is saturated. Just as the months leading up to primary season reeked of excess, so too does the election process. Oregonians won’t have a voice in the presidential contest until the May 20 primaries, but we’ve heard so much already. What more is there to say?
The media deserve blame for flooding the airwaves with a fair share of nonsense. When news networks report on gossip stories from the campaign trail and masquerade them as “breaking news,” it provides the network’s ratings with a real boost. Forget about its other consequence, pushing non-viewers further and further away from the idea that politics matter. Can someone in a position of authority please tell Ted Turner there is no such thing as 24 hours of news each day? If there were it wouldn’t be called news; it would be called life.
I know, I know, we’re a part of something larger than ourselves – writing the next chapter in our nation’s history, passing the torch to a new generation, fighting the power, all that good stuff. Who am I to complain about overexposure, when I’m contributing to that process by writing about it?
The rhetoric feels tired, that’s all I’m trying to say. History is subjective: Neither I nor anyone else knows for sure if this election is going to be historic. It’ll be history in the sense that every presidential election is, but no one will care if we have our first black or female president if they suck at their job. So I’ll leave it to people with more time on their hands to discuss historical merits, because right now I’m too tired to care.
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