The best government money can buy.

If you're reading this on Tuesday, today is Election Day. If you're up late reading it on Monday night, tomorrow is Election Day. If you missed it, and you're reading this on Wednesday, skip ahead to the exciting conclusion. For now, here's a little blurb that appeared on Yahoo News Monday night:

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, aided by an extraordinary outpouring of Internet support Monday, hauled in more than $3.5 million in 20 hours.

Then, there's this:

Freed from the constraints, the presidential candidates collected $377.5 million in donations through September 30, more than double the $176.1 million raised during the same period four years ago, Federal Election Commission figures show. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each raised around $79 million.

In Pennsylvania, judges are elected and not immune to a spending spree:

Democratic high court candidate Seamus McCaffrey, also a state Superior Court judge, spent nearly $600,000 of the more than $1.3 million available to him during the October 26 reporting period. Almost all of that spending, $541,585, was on media, records showed.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. They spend millions to get a job that pays thousands. The money is raised by contributors who can urge their clients ... err ... elected officials to support their favorite causes because they paid for it. Nothing in America speaks louder than money. If we're lucky, what is right will prevail, but only if right raised more money than the rest. Usually, we aren't lucky, which is why most Americans have soured on the election process. The good news is that the TV commercials will have stopped by 8pm on Tuesday - for another year.

Presidents are elected by a majority of 40 percent of registered voters, who represent a little less than half the population. The most powerful man in the world is elected by a minority of people. It's a measure of how most people have soured on the political process. In 2004, George W. Bush got 62,040,610 votes in a country of over 300 million people. Bush raised $367,227,801 at a cost of $5.92 per vote, and John Kerry spent $5.52 for each vote. I want my money back.

Today (tomorrow or yesterday) is one of those "off year" elections, where the most important things on the ballot are the questions. Questions worded such that the desired outcome will prevail. They're worded so oddly that they need an "Interpretive Statement" on the ballot so that we can understand the question. It's no wonder that most politicians are lawyers.

I'll be there, bright and early Tuesday morning doing my duty as a citizen, but the bigger part of me feels as though it doesn't matter much. The political machine, even the local ones, are so big and run so smoothly that we seldom know we're being screwed until they're pulling it out. I wish I wasn't so cynical, but I think the lessons of history will bear me out.

It's eerily similar to that essay I wrote last week on the foibles of religious tithing, only this alter is a municipal building, courthouse or legislature. The Gods are flesh and blood and don't require faith because they are all too real. Politicians don't collect as much money from ordinary citizens as religions do, but the money is supposed to go to a similar cause. A better life on Earth, rather than a better afterlife - but a better life nonetheless. Pity that both causes are lost.

Drug companies, tobacco companies, insurance, alcohol and firearms are big contributors because they have the most to lose from having someone elected who wants to do the right thing. Because he knows he wouldn't have been elected if it hadn't been for the money they gave, he is forced to do their bidding. Sadly, it will never change because it will take a majority of elected officials to turn their backs on corporate contributions, and that's a pipe dream at best.

Blue states. Red states. It all starts with green.