In a little over 17 months we will be electing the next President of the United States. But with the amount we are talking about candidates you would think that it was tomorrow. While I find it comical to watch the official and unofficial candidates have to answer question or be held in contempt when they don't it is really no way to pick a leader. What would be great is if we ignored them until Labor Day. Let them make their appearances, raise their money etc. but I find the process terrible. Do we really need this much time to decide who we want to elect. We know that in the end the Democrats will most likely nominate Secretary Clinton and the Republicans will likely nominate Gov Bush or Gov Walker. Do we need the circus?
Agreed. How sad it is that money will drive another Bush or Clinton into the White House. Don't you think it would be awesome if Presidential elections had less to do with money, and more about the citizens? All that said, let's have a beer and let the circus run its course for a while.
There was a time not that long ago when the general election campaign didn't start until after Labor Day of the election year. As for the primaries, they didn't start until February and there was only around 16-20 of them with the party leaders of the remaining states deciding whom their delegates would support. This changed in either 1976 or 1980. Candidates would wait to declare their intention until January of an election year. Now with all the 24 hour news channels and it now taking billions of dollars to run for president, a candidate has to start earlier.
Did you know that the Founders, during the Constitutional Convention, originally decided to make the term of the president consist of one seven-year term in office precisely to avoid the time wasted on campaigning? It was one of the first items decided on when discussing presidential powers with almost no debate. For some reason, shortly before the Constitution was done, it was changed and there are no notes of why it was done. It is thought that this was a last minute change requested by several states to get them to sign on to ratification of the Constitution.
Everybody is interested in 2016, because other than a couple of trade deals being negotiated in secret there's nothing interesting to talk about for the next 17 months.
People are enjoy this stuff. Why rain on the parade? Plus it is arguably the most important decision we make, collectively. It's still about the citizens. It's just that the citizens demand massive quantities of commercials or they won't vote for a candidate, and so commercials they shall have! I hadn't thought about it before, but maybe all the political commericals lower our cable bills, and maybe they're the only reason free radio and networks exist? So perhaps you should celebrate the oncoming onslaught of attack ads by getting yourself some craft brews instead of PBRs as George Soros subsidizes your entertainment.
No need, but think of Roman times; Circus Maximus. A lot of people need a circus, want to hear politicians or their favorite leader speak (emotional 'security', because that is how it works in human society, watch this forum, communications like wild fire, because it is to much out of balance. Can less or more politics push society too much out of balance? If so, than politics is like an emotional addiction, even while people did not had politics and television in Roman times, they had Circus Maximus. Not much has changed over the past two thousands years. You can better exit the society aka hierarchy and live on an island, if every family could live sustained (basic things to survive) without the big system you would have a planet without trouble.
It's a little annoying yes. Truth be told I planned on not paying attention to the primaries, but can't really do that when everyone is talking about them. We really need to get our campgain rules in shape. Starting with money in politics. No candidate needs $2 billion.
Well the issue is that the nominations start nearly a year before the elections. IA and NH have their primaries in January. And people care about who the candidates are going to be, and the primaries are how that's determined.
