The Arena: Not a Sprint, a Two-Year Marathon

With the amount of coverage surrounding the 2016 elections in the media, it can be hard to remember that polls do not open for another 14 months. Before that, two teams will have won the World Series, millions of babies will be born, and a similar amount will be added to our tuition bills. The United States is more or less unique in having a system of almost two-year-long elections for president. According to The Daily Beast, for instance, British election campaigns cannot be longer than 17 working days by law. Our own system takes more than 17 (working) months.

With no legally set dates, the temptation of a first mover advantage drives candidates to declare as early as possible. Ted Cruz declared as the first Republican in March of this year, more than 600 days before the election. Joe Biden was the first relevant Democrat to announce his bid for nomination before the 2008 elections in January of 2007.

But the American process has its benefits. For one, in a longer campaign, voters are exposed to more information. The system draws everything out of candidates, including personal beliefs that could affect voters. Republican candidate and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee recently stated that Dred Scott “is still the law of the land.” (The 1850s court case Dred Scott v. Sanford asserted that African Americans were not American citizens. Beyond being a terrible and racist decision, Dred Scott was replaced by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.) Perhaps in a shorter election, a ridiculous remark like this -- apparently meant to show Huckabee’s support for Kim Davis, the county clerk that refused to issue gay marriage licenses -- would never happen. With a longer election campaign, blithering idiots like Huckabee get found out much earlier. Only candidates at least acceptable to the majority in a given party last until the general election. That’s why Trump and Huckabee stand little to no chance in the long run.

Second, long elections bring otherwise fringe candidates and figures opportunities to express their views on a larger scale. I don’t give Republican Rand Paul much of a chance at the nomination, but his libertarian views such as bringing back the gold standard and taking apart the NSA deserve some level of discussion in our society. On the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders, a socialist from Vermont, has brought forward views like free public education through university. Of course the extreme of fringe candidates is Donald Trump. I never said the system was perfect.

Third, the process is just fun. There are always debates and speeches happening as well as candidates saying dumb things. This column isn’t going to look at every single event and analyze it out of context trying to make it relevant; that’s CNN’s job. When voters in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids head to their local caucuses on Feb. 1, 2016, the events that are happening this week probably won’t stand out in their decisions. On the contrary, it is much more important at this point to look at larger trends and themes in the election process.