Democracy

The candidates are black, white, and Hispanic, male and female, extremely wealthy and not wealthy, from all regions of the country, sons of CEOs and sons of firemen, former doctors, lawyers, business executives, and preachers, Harvard MBAs and state college graduates. They include advocates of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and no withdrawal, nationalized health care and private health care, tax boosts and tax cuts. These fourteen spent the last year wooing voters, courting contributors, selling their ideas and qualifications.

If you say there is no choice, the candidates are all the same, or this isn't real democracy that's your right. Complaining is the sound of democracy. But behold the contest. Does your favorite football team always win? And when they lose do you cry, "it's fixed!" The same is true in American elections.

The contest for power isn't a pretty minuet, it's a dance of sexual seduction: manipulation, flattery, coyness, and pleading. It appeals to insecurity, greed, and vanity, as well as love and generosity. For some, the result is ecstasy and for others, anger and humiliation. Do you blame the lover who isn't honest, patient, and gentle? Are you? Then why do you denounce politics?

Every four years Americans overthrow their government. We do it without riots, tanks and firing squads. We've taken the violence out of an inherently violent activity. So all of the other facets of our human nature become our weapons.