(Image via Screenshot)
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that she feels the U.S. should shorten its presidential campaign cycle.
She argued that the current campaign cycle has gone on too long, and Americans are “past the point of learning anything new.”
A mother of two, Crow said she "practically hurdles over the couch” to stop her kids from watching the news because of the "hate talk" being exchanged between the two major candidates.
“This has gone on so long that we’re not learning anything anymore,” she said. “It’s become just sensationalized … vitriolic, hatred – just hate talk really. And I don’t want my kids exposed to it. And that’s a terrible feeling when you’re considering voting for the highest office in the land and you’re protecting your children from them catching any of it.”
“Other countries have managed to shorten their campaign cycles,” she went on. “Certainly there has to be a way we can do that as well.”
Crow said the rhetoric on both sides has been “extremely damaging.”
“I feel like we’ve gotten past the point of learning anything new,” she said. "We’re not talking about the issues.”
“I know I’m not the only one that feels this way,” Crow added, suggesting a cycle of six months instead of two years.
Check out the interview below.
Crow started a petition in October to shorten the election cycle.
“We love our country,” the petition reads. “It is because we love our country that we want to limit the length of the campaign season. By tweaking the Presidential primary calendar, the DNC and RNC could drastically reduce the amount of time we are exposed to presidential campaigns.”
“Countries across the globe have limited campaign seasons to as short as 6 weeks,” Crow writes. “The American people have been extremely disrespected in this campaign season with the ugliness that pits us against each other and with nonsense and fear-mongering… We cannot sustain another lengthy slugfest like what we have witnessed for the past two years and ask both the DNC and RNC to reform the process and shorten our election season.”
The petition has reached over 34,680 signatures. Once the petition reaches 35,000 signatures, it will be delivered to the DNC and the RNC.