The campaign season will come to a close after a long and difficult battle between the two, or more if you include primaries, candidates. Whether they have chosen to support the incumbent Barack Obama or the challenger Mitt Romney, people all across America can agree on one thing this November 6th, its about (expletive deleted) time.
It seems like every four years the campaign season grows even longer. We seem to just finish watching the inauguration of one president, change a channel and see first attack ads for the next election. Even the political pundits like John Stewart, whose jobs become definitively easier when an election campaign is on, have begun expressing a sense of fatigue to the continued struggle.
I must admit I don’t envy Romney should he win this year. If current trends are anything to draw on, he will need to start planning his campaign for the 2016 election season, (starting 2013 by the way) pretty much immediately after entering the oval office. Obama, at least, would be free from the need to run for re-election. Nevertheless if we continue to allow the political campaigns to grow unchecked we will see more problems than just the pervasiveness of advertising.
Campaign spending, thanks to super PACs, has reached record levels this season. According to the New York Times, the two campaigns have spent a combined total of nearly $2 billion dollars in the last two years, not including outside spending from other super PACs, which is more difficult to determine. I am sure I am not the first person to point out that this is clearly ridiculous. To put this into perspective, if televised guilt ads can be believed, that amount of money could feed an entire country’s worth of starving children in a third world nation for years or could provide adequate care for virtually every stray animal in America.
That a large portion of this money has been spent on the never ending attack ads that have been seen for months if not years in every available media source is an even greater disgrace. However, in the candidates’ defense, it is not entirely their fault. If they want any realistic chance to get elected they need to put virtually every strategy they have access to into play. This of course costs money, ergo their spending will naturally increase dependent on the availability of funds and legal limitations. No, what is really to blame is the American election system.
Consider the UK. It may have its flaws, like every country, but they do have some good ideas about how a campaign should be run. Thanks to rather restrictive laws, individual candidates for political office are limited to a very small number of advertising methods. As a result, campaigns remain much lower in the UK, not to mention they don’t have to deal with extensive political ads everywhere.
In any event, I must admit to a little bit of jealousy for those of you who are reading these words right now. You have passed through the trials and tribulations of the election season and emerged with the capacity to read and understand written text. You are one of the chosen few who can maintain their sanity even in the darkest of times (the weeks leading up to election day). I unfortunately still have a ways to go before I can call myself free of campaign season. Perhaps a bunker is in order…
