That's Entertainment: Popular Alternatives to the Presidential Campaign Circus

Although more than 50 million Americans have already voted --- by mail or in person --- "Election Day" formally falls on November 5. The candidates are making their "final arguments" in the media, pulling all stops out of their efforts to get supporters to the polls, and holding big events to enthuse those voters.

So, how's that going for them?

Last Friday, about 30,000 people turned out for Kamala Harris's rally in Houston Texas.

Last Saturday, about 20,000 attended Donald Trump's campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Last Friday, about 65,000 fans packed the Superdome in New Orleans to watch Taylor Swift perform. And paid through the nose to do so.

Last Sunday, about 62,000 football enthusiasts shelled out big bucks to watch Swift's beau, Travis Kelce, score his first touchdown of the season as the Kansas City Chiefs --- the only as yet undefeated team in the National Football League --- take down the Raiders, 27-20 at Las Vegas's Allegiant Stadium (yay Chiefs Kingdom!).

Each of those high-priced events drew more in-person attendees than the "free" events of Harris and Trump ... combined.

Oh, and over the weekend, the third film in Marvel's Venom franchise opened with a "disappointing" $51 million in US ticket sales. At an average ticket price of $12 or so, that means 85 times as many Americans decided they'd like to spend a couple of hours with Tom Hardy than with Trump or Harris.

Media coverage of presidential campaigns makes them out to be the most important things going on, 24/7, for months on end.

Americans obviously disagree. They'd rather take in a concert, a sports event, or a movie than attend a campaign event.

I suspect many of them would rather mow the lawn, or do laundry, too.

And who can blame them? To pull out an old saw I've quoted before, politics is Hollywood for ugly people ... and for ugliness in general.

Every presidential campaign is a big bad trip of dueling ideological and moral accusations, all of them disgusting, many true.

We'd all be better off if we could safely ignore it in favor of almost anything else.

Unfortunately, it refuses to ignore us.

Whoever wins the presidency, we'll all be worse off going forward than we would be if the White House was demolished, its occupants put to flight, and salt sown in the earth where it once stood.

But at least we'll have entertainment to distract us from the inevitable carnage, right?

originally published at the Garrison Center