Politics As Unusual: Strategists Left with Crow on Their Plate and Egg on Their Face

By Doris O’Brien

 Americans are notorious for not knowing how our government is run.  Yet every couple of years we are entrusted with the solemn task of choosing those who run it.

The 1905 train excursion that carried President Theodore Roosevelt through Sayre, Pennsylvania. Photo credit: Sayre Historical Society

As if to excuse our ignorance, gurus often assure us that democracy is a messy process.  And in an election cycle, it can seem like an interminable one.  

The period allowed for campaigning in the United States is far longer than that of other countries.  Canada, for example, recently elected a new Prime Minister within the span of a few months.  Meanwhile, our 2016 race will grind on for more than another year.  

There is little justification, of course, for such lengthy and costly campaigns. And while we have altered or streamlined many other facets of the voting ritual —  e.g.  who can vote (blacks, women, 18- year- olds)  and how (vote-by-mail and electronic voting ) —  we cling stubbornly  to the tradition of drawn-out elections that hearken back to a time when politicians traveled long distances by horse and buggy just to  communicate with their constituents.  My mother recalled how as a young child she  perched by gaslight on her father’s shoulders at  a New York whistle-stop to  get a glimpse of presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt exhorting an eager crowd from the rear platform of his campaign train.

The mind-boggling technological improvements over the last century would seem to mandate a leaner campaign season.  But politics has become big business — part solemn, part monkey, and part entertainment.  There’s no guarantee that the magic of sophisticated electronics would matter much, anyway,  in the fickleness of  a good old-fashioned political fight. And despite strides toward greater polling accuracy, the most sophisticated strategists can be left with crow on their plate and egg on their face.  

Maybe that is why we tolerate politics.  And why some  political junkies even find it exhilarating.  The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune rain down indiscriminately on all who presume to seek power.  Politics at its most challenging  is a miasmatic brew of ups and downs, twists and turns,  highs and lows, successes and disappointments.  Yet most voters detect in the mix a soupcon of promise that their vote can actually make a difference.    

That’s probably been the nature of the beast since some ambitious caveman settled by the fire and grunted his way to tribal leadership.  And while some earmarks of politics never seem to change, others do.   Every election is in some way different from those that came before.  And Election 2016 is a doozey!