密歇根新闻广播 为什么美国的总统选举过程如此漫长

 

Election Day marks the finish line of a grueling, fractious and long campaign.

It started with Ted¹ Cruz announcing his candidacy in March 2015.

Twenty months later, many Americans are expressing their exhaustion² with the process.

Many people are looking wistfully to other countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, which elect their leaders in a few weeks and then move on.

Michigan State University associate professor of political science Matt Grossmann sat down with us today to talk about how the process for electing our president became so protracted³.

According to Grossmann, the reason we have such long elections comes down to giving voters a say throughout more of the process.

In 1968, the Democratic Party heads nominated Hubert Humphrey to run for the presidency⁴, "in a scene of protest outside and inside the convention hall," he said.

"It led people to ask whether we could have a broader primary process where the voters could be brought in rather than the party bosses."

He told us there are ups and downs to having such a long election season.

"The gain is, people do learn a lot of information," Grossmann said."They normally wouldn't pay that much attention to politics, but campaigns put it right in front of them … so they learn more about the differences between the political parties, the issues that confront the country, even potential policy solutions."

"The downside is we get annoyed with it and frustrated⁵ with it, and we tend to learn things we don't like about the candidates more than things we do like about them."

Listen to our conversation above for more.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

3 protracted   

adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The war was protracted for four years. 战争拖延了四年。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We won victory through protracted struggle. 经过长期的斗争，我们取得了胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》