I'm Enjoying This Election

I think this election is thrilling. But a lot of people don't.

I talked to someone yesterday who said, basically, "This country is so messed up, what with this crazy election and everything." I regularly hear people complaining about how the Democratic primary just keeps going and going. But that doesn't mean anything's messed up.

It's called democracy in action. We just haven't had anything close like this in a long time, preferring to crown someone early on (Queen Hillary, takest thou the mantle to smite the evil Republicans). This is like a Super Bowl going down to the wire. Yes, it's going into a lot of overtimes at this point, and we'd all like to turn off the TV and go to bed. But yet, this is "we the people" at work. It's what our country is about. People aren't being arrested, beaten, or prevented from voting, like in other countries. We the people are deciding something gravely important.

The super delegates are not "we the people." They can overturn the popular primary vote. The question is: will they? Or will they respect the voice of the people? That's what I'm waiting to see. But at the same time, we respect the systems that we vote into place. The Democrats, by their own vote, adopted the super-delegate system. And as a country, we adopted, together, the system which enabled George Bush to become president despite not winning the popular vote.

So it's either "we the people," or "we the system which we the people adopted." Either way, it's American democracy in action. And I find it thrilling to watch, despite all the collateral pettiness.

Posted on May 1, 2008 10:12 AM|

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