Election cycle: Turbulent and traumatic or crazy and fun?

Democrats and Republicans in the United States do not agree on much these days. However, one thing they can agree on is how chaotic the last few months have been for both parties.

"Topsy, turbulent and traumatic" is how one top Democratic strategist described this election cycle.

"Chaotic, crazy and fun" is how a Republican consultant put it.

This year saw Democratic nightmares become reality.

Joe Biden choked in front of tens of millions of people during a disastrous CNN debate with Donald Trump.

It led to the shortest presidential campaign in US history.

"I think we [Democrats] lost our way," said Brett Bruen, a former White House Official under president Barack Obama.

"I think it's been quite a rollercoaster ride and obviously a lot of us were concerned that Biden simply didn't have it in the gas tank to go another four years. If Harris loses this race, it will come down to the fact that Biden hung on too long," said the President of the Global Situation Room.

Mr Bruen said Kamala Harris did not have enough time to assemble a team and a message.

"She was caught in this position where she's thrust into a campaign and has to go 100 miles an hour," he said.

"She had to put together not only the team but she had to articulate her positions or policy, and this is where, quite frankly, she struggled the most. How does she differentiate herself from Biden? I think one out of a sense of perhaps loyalty, but also out of a sense of not having spent enough time developing," he added.

Joe Biden, stepping aside, changed everything.

"I would say the most important moment in this election was the debate at the end of June. That was the most consequential presidential debate in our history" said Kevin Madden, former spokesperson for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2012.

He said this election cycle will have lasting implications.

"We've spent $15 billion, probably across all of the candidates, up and down the ballot and so much of the communications directed at these activist party base voters has been about one side is going to steal the election and if the other side wins, democracy will be in peril," Mr Madden said.

"That has created a very strong level of tension right now in the American electorate and it's going to be a challenge for the country to come together," he said.

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The two failed assassination attempts on the former president, and now convicted felon, added even more drama to this historic American election.

With so many headlines, it is easy to forget Donald Trump's extraordinary rise, once again, to the top of the party following his 2020 defeat.

"If Trump wins it is going to be the greatest political comeback in history," said Jerrod Dobkin from Message Inc, who is working on Republican Senate campaign in Pennsylvania.

Mr Dobkin said that Mr Trump has a "unique ability" to survive anything and he is the only one that can build a coalition to bring the GOP back together.

"Part of all that...infighting in the family, I actually think it's healthy for democracy, healthy for the country, because that's hopefully how we get the best outcomes for the people," he added.

Democrats and Republicans will be glad to put this tumultuous campaign behind them.

Polls closing today may wrap up campaign anxiety but it unleashes another uncertainty for the future of both parties.