Our last few newsletters have explored the carnival aspect of US politics and compared this to highly impactful civic innovation happening worldwide off the carnival circuit. The US political casino is producing multi-billion dollar election spectacles every two years that seem to be in inverse proportion to the health of US democracy. Additional notes and source links for these newsletters follow below.

MIDTERM CASINO
The final tally for midterm spending by the Center for Responsive Politics and Open Secrets was $5.2 billion, the most expensive midterm election in US history, at least $1 billion more than the previous record in inflation adjusted dollars.

THE GREATEST POLITICAL SHOW ON EARTH
In a historical irony given Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling, Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin offered a nearly perfect description of “carnivalesque” spectacle as embraced by Donald Trump during his rise to the presidency. Bakhtin describes carnival as a “moment when everything is permitted” because of a bond between performer and audience in their embrace of the idea that everything is relative.

A NEW HARLEY FOR $32.7 MILLION
In the most expensive midterm in history, the most expensive House race in the country took place in Orange County, California’s 48th Congressional District to replace 20 year Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. The final tally was $32.7 million in spending, although the official total lags behind at “only”  $28.9 million, much of it from outside sources. It is estimated that winner Harley Rouda, a multimillionaire with his own PAC, spent between $1.38 to $1.6 million of his own money and took $4.3 million from Michael Bloomberg.