Yesterday morning, I was checking the story that Democrats are now in third place in Iowa for voter registration — behind Independents and Republicans. Someone posted a comment, “Can we just hold the election tomorrow? I am getting so tired reading about politics every damn day.” I’ve had some of my ISU students say the same thing.

Therein lies the rub.

The American political process has become a “permanent election” as political scientists call it. After we host an election, all the candidates have to begin raising money for the next election (two years down the road for Congress or four for president). There is no longer any respite from the endless advertisements, snarkiness and hot air emanating from the punsters, “magic screens” larger than most people’s houses, John King and Rush Limbaugh.

I’ll admit that this year, the GOP primary season has been more painful than any time in history. It started a year before the Iowa caucuses and exploded with super PAC money. Now, we are only halfway through the primaries, but it seems like an eternity.

Will the Wisconsin, Maryland and D.C. primaries finally end the pain? Will Rick Santorum concede? Will Newt Gingrich drop out? Will Ron Paul suspend his march to who knows where? Will Mitt Romney be crowned the winner Wednesday after this trifecta?

In short, no, though Romney will sweep these states.

The problem is that Republicans are deeply divided over who should lead the ticket. In her debut as a TV anchor, “Sarah Palin doesn’t sound too gung-ho about Romney on ‘Today’ show,” as the Washington Post put it. Palin is somewhat of a weather vane for me for the “anyone but Romney” crowd.

The problem is that powerful millionaires can now keep campaigns going way past where rational, small investors in campaigns would have stopped giving (see Gingrich and Santorum).

The problem is that Paul marches to his own tune and has a loyal following that “believes” in the Revolution regardless of how much his campaign is bringing up the rear or third place.

The problem is that secret money can now be shoveled at these political contests in an effort to shape policy and public opinion in the direction of narrow interests.

The problem is that the Republicans structured their primary and caucus rules in such a way that no one could easily win early because the delegated were dribbled out proportionately and in excruciatingly slow stages often stretching out for months (caucuses, county conventions, congressional district conventions, state conventions, selection of super delegates, allocation of “bonus delegates”.)

That’s a long list of problems that guarantee that in 2012, the process is more obscure, non-transparent, slow, costly and, yes, frustrating for the consumers of news and information. It’s our fault. It could be different.

Will it be different next time?

I doubt it. It’s gotten nastier, negative and more expensive every year.

Get used to it. Use your clicker to change channels. Surf nonpolitical websites, or learn to enjoy it and think of it as a game show. That’s what I do.