Maybe I’m just a pessimistic old curmudgeon, but it seems to me that the real losers in an election, federal, state, or local, are the voters, the American public.  Here are some scenarios and some reasons.

Elections are generally close, unless a candidate is running unopposed (alas, that often happens in states of one color or the other, or in “safe districts” the politicos have gerrymandered in such a way that an opposition candidate has no chance).  By close, I’m talking about winning margins of sometimes just hundreds of votes on a local level and just thousands for a national office.  Majorities are too often simple.  There are no mandates.

Some people would just say, “That shows the two-party system is alive and well.”  Maybe.  But with our national discourse so polarized, the problem is exacerbated.  The two parties are strong, pander to their own base, and insult each other.  There are politicians who step above the fray, for example, the imminently sage and reasonable Colin Powell, a Republican who endorsed Obama.  He stands in stark contrast relative to daffy Donald Trump whose “October surprise” was yet another attack on Obama’s race and claim to U.S. citizenship.

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