A long time ago, so far back that I can’t really remember, I was told that every vote counts.

But usually the majority was so large in any election that I thought to myself "yeah right."

I’m probably not the only person who now has a completely different understanding of just what that means, since now the decision to elect the leader of the entire western world hinges on a few hundred votes in Florida.

First of all, let’s get one thing straight.

The United States of America is NOT a democracy. It is a Republic. Remember the Pledge of Allegiance – "and to the Republic for which it stands."

You can also look at any paper money in your possession and you’ll see that what I am telling you is true.

The founding fathers not only didn’t trust ‘We the people,’ but they also pandered to the interests of those who would later adopt the same philosophies and edicts of the rulers they fought so hard to get away from.

OK, so you may be thinking to yourself, not having the president of the people is un-American.

That is not true. It is un-democratic but those are the rules.

This may seem harsh and unexpected to hear, but removing the Electoral College is not the answer to what happened to us on November 7th.

Removing the balance in which the process operates now could have a very bad effect one day.

Look at the geographic map of the election.

City versus farm country.

Money versus debt.

While I’m not a poor farmer, I could have been and I would have wanted to have not only a say but also influence on what happens in a presidential election.

Removing the Electoral College would just make it a pure numbers game.

In that one, we lose.

With that being said, I think this debacle brings to the surface problems that have always existed in the system.

The Republican Party is fighting a hand count of some Florida counties, and would have people believe that 96 percent of the people who didn’t have a problem with the so-called butterfly ballot, were simply smarter and that no fraud took place.

The four percent of mostly Jewish votes whose tallies ended up going to Pat Buchanan, a man who doesn’t believe the Holocaust took place, are just out of luck.

So if you have a hundred dollars in your wallet, what is the threshold for theft? Following that logic it means I can steal four dollars and it’s OK.

I think not.

We may not get to see a re-vote in Florida because of the ramifications involved and the Nader factor removed.

But hopefully the federal government, Congress, and/or the court will end up deciding on a more universal system for voting.

The system in place obviously is flawed. I mean, if you can go from a 1,900 vote lead to only 300 on a recount, it means something is wrong.

Voting needs to move into the 21st century.

Computerized balloting, weekend voting and universal poll closing times are some of the options lawmakers MUST evaluate.

If you and your children aren’t watching the developments of what’s going on, you should be ashamed of yourself.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime to learn about how this country is really run and what real power is all about.

It also lets you know what the rules of the game are, how old those rules are and what the logic was behind the creation of them.

It will give you and/or your children the chance to position yourself in the future, to play a greater role in power brokering.

This may be the final legacy of the Clinton presidency.

His foolish mistakes made this a close race for Al Gore.

So, in fear of George W. Bush as commander-in-chief, more of us not only registered to vote, we also exercised that right in record numbers.

The will of African-Americans may have fallen short this time, but we know what the parameters are and what we are capable of as a voting block.

In the annals of story telling, G.D.W.I. will always be known as the guy who was the son of a president whose brother was the governor of the state that gave him the election.