I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

I am this morning reading Jihaad Vs McWorld, and am enjoying it greatly. As I read, it occurred to me that some part of the American myth needs a bit of straightening out. Well, actually, perhaps a better idea would be for a bit of separation to occur. It's interesting how in our mythos we have always married capitalism with democracy and treated them a bit synonymously.

I know that this seems a bit obvious but it's not. Once I had love and sex confused. Now I know they are completely independent of one another, and only rarely coincide to be in the same room at the same time.

But the same holds true for capitalism and democracay. This country was started as a democracy. It is now a capitalist society, and these two are no longer the bosom buddies they once were.

Why do I say that? Well, we are about in the world, setting up tents, so to speak, and offering to sell arms here and a new government there. We've exported McDonalds around the world, and I am glad to say that most people seem happy to receive the golden arches. But the last election showed us that while we are a healthy capitalist economy, we are no longer a healthy democracy. For the first time in obvious fashion, these two have departed company in the US.

Now, they have been parting company for many years, but this is the first time it is flagrantly done so in the voting process. We now know our offices can be bought. We know our elections can be, shall we say, artfully altered so that the desired results come.

Well, desired for who exactly....

Why those rich capitalists who need government offices under their oversight so their interests can be furthered.

Ahh, it's all so simple to me now that I am no longer lost in the dream that somehow we are still a democracy.

A capitalist society with imperialist tendencies is more like it.

Wake up from the dream. Think your vote counts? Think again.