Let’s face it the midterm elections – held across the U.S. on Tuesday, Nov. 2nd – are not the pop-culture event that the presidential campaign was. But I want to give you a heads up that there is some seriously interesting, dramatic and dare I say crazy shit happening in this country right now.

You may have heard that in California, they’re straight-up voting on whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use. It’s been polling at about 50-50, so voters and voter turnout will determine whether there’s an historic win or huge setback for the legalization movement.

In all 50 states, every member of the U.S. House of Representatives is also up for re-election, and in two thirds of the states a U.S. Senate seat is up for grabs.

Now that might not sound quite as exciting as legal weed. And it might not be what everyone’s talking about in the parking lot. But let me tell you – this campaign is providing some serious drama. Like an epic second set, or a twisted reality show, there’s tension and mystery. No matter what your ideological viewpoint, and even if you don’t follow politics at all, you will probably find this campaign pretty interesting if you get caught up now.

Here are the basics:

Democrats are trailing big time in many polls, and risk losing control of Congress.

Unemployment is close to 10 percent and people are pissed off.

“The Tea Party,” a loosely-organized group of Republicans calling for less government, lower taxes and in some cases more religion in society, just racked up a string of wins in primary elections.

The Republican Party establishment was dead-set against these seemingly fringe candidates representing their party, but folks like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and other social conservatives got behind them, and so did the voters.

This sets up a big showdown: unpopular Democrats vs. far right Republicans

So what’s going to happen?

Well, if Democrats fail to win back “swing” voters the Tea Party candidates may sway independent voters to their side, the way they did with Republicans in the primaries. Republicans could then sweep nearly every contested election and win back one or both houses of Congress. If that happens they’ve vowed to overturn the Obama health care bill, lower taxes across all income brackets, and cut spending on social programs. Many American voters think that’s just what the country needs.

However if some of the Tea Party candidates prove too Conservative or, too uhm kooky, to attract swing voters, and the sleepy Democratic base gets alarmed enough to turn out to the polls in force, then Barack Obama’s party may hang on and get another two years of control.

For the best example of how this is all playing out, look at Delaware. If you haven’t heard, the Republican candidate for Senate in that tiny state has spoken out publicly against… masturbation.

It was more than a decade ago – on an MTV series called “Sex in the 90’s” – but through the miracle of You Tube, the clip of U.S. Senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell talking about why not to bury your meatstick is making the rounds.

The Republican Party had actually spent millions to keep O’Donnell off the ticket, flooding voters with recorded phone calls from her former campaign manager calling her a “fraud.” The chair of the Delaware Republican party publicly said that because of her extreme stance on a number of issues and political inexperience, O’Donnell could not be elected “dog catcher.” But backed by a Palin endorsement, O’Donnell beat the nine-term Congressman the party had backed.

Democrats were laughing, and think that beating her in the general election will be a shoe-in. But will it? Painting Tea Party candidates as extremists didn’t work for the Delaware Republican establishment, so who says it will work for Democrats?

And what about in more conservative states like Alaska, or Kentucky or Nevada, where Tea Party candidates also beat party-backed Republicans in primaries?

No one is quite sure what will happen. It’s like the best sort of reality TV. Unpredictable, entertaining, and dirty. And just like American Idol, we the American public gets to decide who wins.

Andy Bernstein is the executive director of HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization that promotes participation in democracy within the music community. Portions of this article appeared in Surrender to the Flow