…lection prolongé

Back in my column from August 2, you’ll find these quasi-prescient snippets: “This election will be the most expensive, money-gagging in the history of Humanity. … The super-PACs of the Republicans are getting turbocharged with Dumpsters full of cash. … The Repubs, following well-established Rovian media strategies, will completely assault the airwaves. … The Dems will fire back in kind. … We, the hapless citizens, will be caught in this merciless crossfire.”

I certainly didn’t have to have one strand of Nostradamian DNA in my chromosomes to make those “predictions.” October was indeed out of control. Phone calls coming in for another twenty bucks to help this guy running for a seat in Iowa, robo-surveys on a daily basis, email appeals to help, help, help because dad blast it we can’t allow ourselves to get outspent because the fate of America hangs in the bloody balance!

Now, the frenzy is over. And while the schaudenfreude factor involving the exasperation of the Rovians in terms of their inability to make off with the election via their blitzkriegs of ads was palpable, we do have to take note—the media countryside is bombed out, strafed, and stinking.

Our elections have become abominations of excess. In the aftermath of 2012 (especially here in swing state Nevada), I would just like to quietly remind—it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time for us to look at the French, admit they know better, copy them.

The sheer length of our campaigns has become daunting. Basically, candidates have to declare way more than a year out from their national conventions, then get cracking with their feasibility studies, desirability surveys, and five-digit barbecue dinners. In France the campaign for the election that took place on May 6, 2007, officially began on April 9, meaning a month for the voters to do research, figure it out, and make a choice.

This year, we pumped millions and millions of dollars into the media machine. While television and radio station owners won’t like the idea at all, as they wallow in their gigantic stacks of Benjamins, the French are smart enough to cap the money a candidate can spend on his campaign. In ’07, French candidates couldn’t spend more than 16 million Euros before the first vote, and no more than 21 million Euros in the second election. (The French have two elections, with the first being like our primaries/caucuses, where the field gets honed to two finalists.) Contrast this reality to the current orgy of spending that’s becoming the ugly norm here. This year’s tab for both parties—$2 billion.

Finally, in France, there are no political ads on television. Zero. In the aftermath of the snarling digital spitwad fight that just splattered upon our idiot boxes, I’d have to say, I’m OK with that. Way, way OK.