I'm telling you, people, DEMOCRACY DOESN'T WORK.

In a survey by the Washington Post and Harvard, more than half of all Americans agreed with the following statement: “Politics and government are so complicated that a person like me can’t really understand what’s going on.” No, this was not a survey from the 1960s...this was less than ten years ago, and a new study completed last year showed no significant change in response to that question compared to the results from the original survey.

During the height of what many consider the conservative revival in America, almost half of Americans couldn't tell the difference between capitalism and communism; a 1987 survey found that 45% of adult respondents believed that Karl Marx's principle "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" was part of the U.S. Constitution.

A 1991 poll by the American Bar Association found that only 33% of Americans surveyed knew what the Bill of Rights was. That means that, even using the most generous possible improvement in civics comprehension as estimated by the U.S. Department of Education, more than three out of five Americans DON'T KNOW WHAT THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS.

If somebody admits that driving laws are too complicated to understand, and if that person cannot identify a stop sign, then we don't allow them to drive. Yet, propose any system of basic requirements for voting and everybody screams "Elitism! Evil Aristocracy!" Why is that? Information on civics and voting is available for free to the public, just like information about traffic laws and driving...so why should licensing the one be considered elitist, but not the other? Rich people can buy cars that handle better and can get professional driving lessons, so does that mean the system of licensing drivers is elitist because it favors the rich?

Here's the real reason why I am so up in arms about this today: in the grocery store check-out line I over heard a cashier discussing the splendid work being done by "our Vice President Rumsfeld" with a middle-aged customer. Yup. Rummy has be promoted by the morons of the Midwest. Both of these people can vote in the upcoming elections, even though they cannot correctly identify the Vice President of the United States. These two people can, with their votes, completely cancel out and reverse my vote.

Fucking democracy.