Democratic?

Anyone familiar with my blog should notice the theme that the United States is far from being a democracy. The Constitution is written to thwart popular rule. Case in point is the electoral college. Dubious Bush did not win the 2000 election by a popular vote, he won it through the electoral college.

So, why do the politicians kiss the wrong asses?

Because there is money in the current system and it totally obfuscates the fact that there is really no popular representation of the people. And the government is in no way responsible to the people.

Yet, people wish to believe that an presidential election process which lasts four years is responsible to the people. What has me going on this rant is the comment from someone in Virginia on NPR's Morning Edition saying that he plans on voting for Mitt Romney. Now as someone who voted for Bill Bradley in the 2000 PA primary and Kucinich in the 2004 primary that this is a great thought, but our friend's protest vote is the rough equivalent of abstaining. In fact, at this point, the candidates are pretty much decided. Hilary Obama/Barack Clinton for the Demicans and McCain for the Republicrats.

But, no matter who wins, it will be business as usual with the sideshow issues of abortion, gun control, and, the new one, Iraq/War on Terror. The whole time, the leaders are causing the united States to fall further and further behind the world.

Matt Miller wrote an article on why we need federal standards in Education in the atlantic and was on Today's "Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane". See Also http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/miller-education.

The problem is that the US is behind in health care, transportation, and education. Miller pointed out that third world countries are already passing us by. He predicts there will be another "Sputnik moment" during the Beijing Olympics when people see how far ahead they are as far as infrastructure.

Of course, the leaders don't want to take any leadership position and they are under no obligation to do so. This is because of the pretense of a democratic process, there is no real input from the people. The process takes so long that qualified candidates pull out.

The real winners are the party leaders and the lampreys who feed off the process. This won't change as long as there is money to be made.