Let the donkeys and elephants out, it’s campaign time. The time of year when everybody promises bi-partisan leadership, but all shades of purple are purged from the political arena.

Before the general election next November, every state has a primary election for each party with more than one nominee. Since Obama is running as an incumbent, the GOP primary gets all the attention this year.

Florida jumped out of order by scheduling their GOP primaries for January 31. This move places the state’s primary ahead of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina. By law, these four states are allowed to have their primaries first. Cue the chaos.

After that news broke, South Carolina announced their primaries would be even earlier, January 21.

That’s still not the end of it. Following the news of South Carolina and Florida, Nevada announced that it would determine it’s new primary election date upon finding out what the new date will be of New Hampshire’s primaries.

Primaries are all a jumble and today’s political arena is similar to a poorly produced episode of Tom & Jerry.

Nothing good will come of this game of leapfrog. The new schedule will only end up hurting the candidates and the nation.

America’s election process is incredibly smooth compared to other countries, but it’s still not pretty. And it’s only romantic in theory. We don’t want to prolong this process, but we don’t want it fast tracked either.

Moving the primaries into January truncates the race for the nomination, and the cock fight that is general election only gets longer.

Politicians always end up fighting dirty. As elections draw closer, political ads quickly fill with scowling faces, crying babies and terrible voting records. The  debate is reduced to “vote for me, because that guy is a flip-flopping, baby-killing, warmongering communist.”

Campaign season quickly turns into a game with the average American serving as the pawn.

The people benefit more from the primary than the general. The nation needs time to decide which candidate is suitable for the next round. The longer primary season gives time for each of the front runners to be fully examined by the voters.

The only possible benefit that would come with the earlier primary election would be a chance for third-party candidates to make themselves better known once the primary hype is over. But because our nation has digressed into what is basically a two-party system, the likelihood of that happening is slim.

If the primaries are moved into January the nastiest political ads will interrupt network showings of Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving Special and A Christmas Story. Political discussions already pepper family dinners; the extra prodding isn’t necessary. If there’s ever a time for peace, let it be the holiday season. Family dinners don’t need to be more awkward.

Moving the date of the primaries into January adds to the dirtiness of debates, subtracts from the value of the issue and multiplies the amount of corporate endorsement money poured on the fire. We don’t want to have to vote for the person we hate the least.