Long before the first primary vote was cast, Glenn Greenwald identified all the pathologies that would follow.
Six months before the first primary vote was cast in the current election cycle, Glenn Greenwald wrote a prescient item setting forth for his readers what they could expect in the coming months. Early on in the process, voters "like to flirt with candidates who present themselves as ideologues, but ultimately choose establishment-approved, establishment-serving functionaries perceived as electable," he explained. "In those rare instances when they nominate someone perceived as outside the establishment mainstream (Goldwater, McGovern), those candidates are quickly destroyed. The two-party system and these presidential campaigns are virtually guaranteed -- by design -- to produce palatable faces who perpetuate the status quo, placate the citizenry, and dutifully serve the nation's most powerful factions."
It has all come to pass.
The remainder of his column set forth all the pathologies our polity would suffer through over the course of the campaign. As I recount them, take solace in this comforting fact: Whether your candidate wins or loses, we're on the cusp of a respite from the awfulness of election season.