by Helen Woytovech

Created on: September 23, 2008   Last Updated: December 07, 2010

Being a born-in-America citizen and voter for umpteen years, I look at the American "democratic" voting system with a jaundiced eye. I never could understand how giving open reign to a stranger by assigning my local vote during the primaries to an "electoral" member, an electoral member unknown to me as a voter.

By the election time this caucus representative has gone through county and state stages whittling the selection to one to represent the party. End result my vote goes by the wayside, given to the candidate I did not select. This is tantamount to meaning I have no choice in who I want as candidate - so why vote?

Yes, as they say the majority rules, but with all the buy/sell agreements, behind-the-scene antics, and deals among politicians, does the majority really rule and do the ballots reflect the majority? The old New York, Chicago, Florida, California, Las Vegas, Mafia, Good-Old-Boys, representatives paid by lobbyists, influence and control are still larger influences.

As a voter, I could educate myself by spending hours researching the candidates for all the offices, but would this research really weed out the truth regarding a politician? The average voter myself included - trying to make a living and raise a family, lacks time to delve into researching a candidate so he relies on the newspapers and political public relation statements which many times are embellished. Politicians pay a good price for public relations people and administrative help to do this research. I wonder if a candidate would hire me!

All political aspirants climb the ladder over the years and obtain support by working with a political party, developing contacts in the political arena. Without money or contacts the common unknown citizen has no chance.

As evidenced in the 2008 Democratic primaries, in the event of a close vote by the "electoral college", the "big" boys were to be called in to decide the party candidate - this is "democratic?" To add insult to injury, have these big boys supposedly from high echelon business and political positions voted in their home states. Hmm! Two votes each? As in 2000 between Bush and Gore - a close national election - the Supreme Court arbitrarily named the winner, this is "democratic"?

What happened to one voter/one vote proposed several years ago? As with many political issues, it was a big one-bang issue buried in the bureaucratic red tape - never to be heard again.

On top of this farce, our political officials are trying to force the ideology of "democracy" on other countries. As retorted to the United States who debased China for the punishment they gave an American teenager for his graffiti episode: "fix your own problems before telling us how to fix ours". The United States should be concentrating on critical problems within its own borders before advising other nations.

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