Which of the following records will the 2012 election break?

[old timey villain]

Number of people as a % that actually turnout. The Presidential Election turnout % wise has been up every year since 1992. The Presidential Election nowadays is an event like the Super Bowl!

One thing foreigners tell me about their impression of American presidential elections is what a spectacle they are. Yeah, Europe beats us in turnout, but no election anywhere has the same amount of sheer entertainment and spectacle a US presidential election has. Our campaign season lasts almost an entire year while many European campaigns will last less than a month. And the money both parties spend is unheard of in most other countries. 50-60% of Americans may vote but you can bet that 100% of us are forcibly exposed to the elections whether we like it or not.

Not sure if I'm proud of ashamed of this.

[old timey villain]

Number of people as a % that actually turnout. The Presidential Election turnout % wise has been up every year since 1992. The Presidential Election nowadays is an event like the Super Bowl!

One thing foreigners tell me about their impression of American presidential elections is what a spectacle they are. Yeah, Europe beats us in turnout, but no election anywhere has the same amount of sheer entertainment and spectacle a US presidential election has. Our campaign season lasts almost an entire year while many European campaigns will last less than a month. And the money both parties spend is unheard of in most other countries. 50-60% of Americans may vote but you can bet that 100% of us are forcibly exposed to the elections whether we like it or not.

Not sure if I'm proud of ashamed of this.

It sure looks like a giant waste of resources to us outsiders. What possible reasons could there be to be proud of it? (honestly curious)
To me the whole point of campaigns is to get people to vote (for your candidate obviously) and given the low US turnout, the extremely long and costly campaigns and all the showmanship involved in them seems almost counterproductive. Would the turnout even be significantly lower with a short euro-style 4 week campaign?

As you may or may not know, Americans tend to be proud of things people from any other country would be ashamed of. It's the "I'm American f*** you" attitude. For instance, we have an unnatural attachment to inhuman portions of greasy, cholesterol laden foods. A lot of Americans are proud of the amount of people we execute on death row. Remember Rick Perry at the GOP debate last fall? And we subsidize the exorbitant lifestyles of worthless socialites like Kim Kardashian by watching their reality shows and even buying god awful merchandise they slapped their name onto.

And as much as people complain about mud slinging in presidential elections, we can't get enough.

[old timey villain]

Maybe I should further explain. Every country engages in cultures and practices that people from other countries disapprove of. It's cultural differences. But you have to admit that in the US, we tend to have that inferiority complex that keeps us from feeling ashamed when our way of life is criticized. In fact, we often become emboldened to keep doing it to spite other people.

I'd say I'm guilty of this. I truly believe that the US still holds outdated ideals that have been completely wiped out from most other industrialized countries, like the death penalty for instance. Or the fact that a nationalized healthcare system is still viewed with such fear in America, when it has been implemented successfully in the rest of the first world. I mean, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is weak sauce, it does nothing but hand over millions of new customers to the insurance industry, and the tea party acts like we're the Soviet Union now. Give me a break.

Ok, ok, I'm getting off topic. My point is that while I recognize our shortcomings, it just pisses me off when Europeans try to bring them up. Their clucking disapproval is just so smug and insincere. Like deep down, they're so happy that they can still feel superior to us.

Or when they try to convince me that things are so much more "evolved" in Europe. Sorry, but sitting around at a cozy brasserie on your two week vacation with your copy of Rousseau doesn't make your entire continent more evolved. Racism still exists there and it's a huge problem. I couldn't believe it when the French government tried to ban Hijabs in the name of liberalism, like they were trying to rescue Muslim women from oppression. No, it was a thinly veiled attempt to protect french tradition and culture, which many think Muslim immigrants are threatening to dismantle. I just hate the hypocrisy.

Sorry for the rant folks, I know I went way off topic. I guess the overall point is that inefficiency in the democratic process exists everywhere, so one should not be so quick to label our elections as a sideshow based on the sheer spectacle of them. Elections still matter here.