What Happened to the Content of Their Character?

I'm angry.

And if you're a citizen of the United States, you should be angry, too.

Our electoral system is irreparably broken, and our elected officials don't seem to care.

This current presidential contest in no way reflects Democracy or a healthy Democratic system, so when Mr. Village Idiot spouts that he would like to spread the American version of Democracy to other, less politically fortunate countries, he's doing his usual head-in-the-sand thing.

I live in Michigan. And I've been a card-carrying Democrat as long as my state's Democratic Governor has been a U.S. citizen, and she is doing everything she can to ensure that my voice won't be heard. She wants her candidate to have the nomination, and she's trying to block the idea of a do-over. (For more on this, see this post).

I read the blog of a wonderful writer from Los Angeles. She's been documenting, beautifully, the racial divide that's getting wider as the Democratic campaign continues.

I have someone I love very much in New York. She's been like a second mother to me over the years. And yet, I'm not sure she's speaking to me right now, because in her eyes I've betrayed my gender with my choice of candidates.

We are lucky to be able to vote for our elected officials. But make no mistake - we are NOT voting directly. And there's tons of party politics between what happens between you and yourself in that voting booth and whether your vote actually counts.

Carville and Dean were on Good Morning America on Thursday spouting about the fact that this election is wonderful for the Democratic party because there's real debate and people are so excited that they just can't decide between two excellent front runners.

Just one question for them: are they on crack?

We all have to vote our conscience. And that should entail looking at the issues and looking at the, yes, as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it, "the content of their characters." Those should be the reasons that we choose our candidates.

Not because of what they have between their legs. Not because of the color of their skin.

I would no more vote for Hilary Clinton because she's a white woman than I would vote for Barack Obama because he's a black man. Nor would I vote for John McCain because he's a white man. I mean, let's face it - there have been some good, white male Presidents. So, that should mean we should all vote for McCain, right?

Sure.

We are already a nation divided by race, economics and religion. We are in crap shape economically, our young people are dying in droves overseas in conflicts that the majority of us do not believe in, our health care system is a mess and our children are failing educationally compared to almost every other industrialized nation.

We are still one of the wealthiest nations in the world and we can't fix these problems?

Well, we sure can't if we are all off in separate camps and refusing to work together. We can't if we don't truly have votes. If our voices can't be heard by Washington. If our majority of votes never rule once the Super Delegates, Electoral College and, yes, some pissant Secretary of State from Florida get involved.

We need majority rule. We need better education so that when we vote we are looking at issues, not categories. We need a Congress of brave human beings who will work for good, rather than for Pork and the next election.

Our system is broken and America is failing.

This needs to be our only priority.