This Presidential Election is Beginning Way Too Early

Yes - the photo I am using in this Cloud Nine Higher - C9H blog post is not the White House. It is the Tennessee state capitol here in Nashville. And this is about the election for President of the United States. But let me get to my point. The real voting takes place in state capitals and in state capitols on or about the first Saturday in December. That is when the electors you vote for in early November meet to cast their ballots. No, you won't really be voting for Donald Trump, Mike Pence, or any other candidate. You vote for electors, and they send their ballots for President and VP to Vice President Pence to be formally counted in January.

If you have been following Tennessee politics at all in recent years and have any sort of pulse, I will go ahead and save you any anticipation and doubt. President Trump will win Tennessee's eleven electoral votes that will be formally cast in this building in December of 2020. His poll numbers have consistently run higher here than his overall approval rating nationally. Both United States Senators are from his Republican party. Seven of the nine U.S. House members are from that same Republican party. And the last time a Democrat carried Tennessee was eons ago in more ways than one. Bill Clinton narrowly won our state in 1996.

None of us in these United States need sixteen + months to evaluate the candidates, size up Donald Trump's first four years, and decide on how we will vote. The national media is doing all of us a big disservice by running battleground state polls, staging debates, and acting like it's already September of 2020.

Yeah Yeah I realize that it's a free country and a free economy. If it increases the number of viewers who tune in to MSNBC, FOX News, CNN, or any national news outlet, they have the right to carry it and to sell advertising time for it. We have plenty of junkies out there and a divided country where, at any point in time, roughly 40-50% of voters are wasting time and counting the minutes until they hope to see Donald Trump angrily conceding a loss. The other half of the country hopes to celebrate four more years. 

But all of that is beside the point. There is always plenty to focus on when it comes to running the greatest nation on the face of the earth. North Korea. Skyrocketing debt. Immigration. The economy. And we need to focus on those matters of business and then some with the people we elected in 2016 and 2018.

This is the age of instant information in real time. The candidates understandably need to be on the trail raising funds. Gone sadly are the days when Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford ran campaigns on federal campaign money. Money talks, and it is necessary for a bona fide run for the White House (like it or not).

But, as a nation, we have a summer of 2019 to enjoy, lives to live, and a lot of time ahead of us until Decision 2020 arrives. In Nashville, we have a mayor and a council to elect in August of 2019. Ramping up coverage too early invites fatigue later on. Remember 2016? As the election approached, even the most die-hard political types got sick of seeing Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump duke it out day after day.

The year 1968 saw the first of party caucuses and primaries in the various states to give voters a stake in the process of selecting the major party nominees. So the presidential election began in February. But then states gradually became hungry for attention and to be "first in the nation" to vote. Those primaries now begin in January.

Time for us to chill out, look to formulate a regional primary system with staggered voting during the late winter and early spring months, and let the real coverage begin after the party conventions. The party out of power traditionally makes its case first, and Democrats will gather in Milwaukee in July. Republicans will gather and respond in Charlotte right before Labor Day. 

And until then, we need to stay in the "here and now" and leave 2020 off of our priority list until it gets here.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Jesus Christ in Matthew 6:14

James A. Rose

Publisher