No End In Sight

Super Tuesday has come and gone. In years past this event sealed the primary season, and the de facto winners could switch over to bashing each other instead of members of their own party. However, we seem to have come to a new era in American politics where nothing is clear or simple. Once again we've had a contest where the results were too close to make any kind of significant change to the situation.

Super Tuesday may be over, but the election still has yet to be decided in the later date states. Now this is great if you happen to live in a frequently ignored place (Washington), but it is still frustrating to have the population/party so very divided. It would be nice (yeah yeah wishes/horses I know) if we could have one stellar candidate who wows most people and wins an easy primary victory. I suppose there is a small measure of satisfaction to be found in the fact that the other side is having the very same problem.

I find myself wondering why we are such a divided country, (on both left and right) and what made us so much more decisive in previous times. Perhaps there is less willingness to simply vote for a party pick. Perhaps people have become more decidedly one-issue voters (whatever the issue may be). Perhaps more diverse segments of society are voting than ever before, and they have vastly different agendas. Or perhaps it's the effect of reality television. I say this only partly in jest. Maybe so many people are now programmed to love the underdog they actually switch their vote when they see one candidate or the other coming out on top. I really, really hope it isn't that last one. Nevertheless, record numbers of voters ARE coming out to the polls, and that has to be a good thing for the democratic process. Now if we could just make up our collective minds (he he) then the real election process could start in earnest.