Apparently, media on both sides haven't gotten the memo. We're in a post-scandal society now. No one is shocked by nastiness or even corruption. They expect it. They accept it.

Standards of decorum and propriety are for peacetime, for a society unified by a common identity and set of values.

That's not us. We don't have anything in common anymore. The sides seek total dominance, not loyal opposition.

The Union survived the Civil War. It survived the civil rights era. It dealt with slavery and Jim Crow. But it was able to do those things because its people across the board believed in inalienable human rights.

Real racism and real white supremacy were offenses against the rational conscience, and our moral spirit.

But today, rationality is evaded, even punished. Morality is relative, and therefore meaningless.

We lack the mechanisms to even recognize problems, let alone solve them.

So, don't expect any October surprise to move the needle. Nobody's evaluating. Nobody trusts. Nobody cares.

The election is war. And it's to be won at all costs.

That's why no one cares about ballot harvesting, past nepotism, or anything yet to come out.