Even at the founding of the American government, people found it hard to concentrate on anything else. I noticed this in the events surrounding the creation of the Constitution. From that you can see there is  a kind of collective consciousness. [That was an idea around I guess for a long time,-- but in particular I recall it was a subject of an argument between Ibn Rushd and Aquinas].

Nowadays it does seem hard to concentrate on anything else besides the coming election -even for people who have at all other times no interest in politics.

I am however not sure if perhaps it is possible to rise above that. I recall that during the time I was at the Mir in NY, I was  unaware of politics at all. And that was not just me, but rather because I was immersed in an atmosphere of people that were highly involved and dedicated to learning Torah.