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The American political system is badly broken. It chases and rewards money, not ideas or character. It protects the two institutionalized parties and penalizes all others. It thrives on superficiality and spin, and avoids critical thought at all cost.

And of course, any patriotic American will tell you it's the best system of government in the history of the world. And God help you if you publicly disagree.

This double-barreled shotgun of egocentricity and intimidation is what keeps us from fixing the system. Hell, we can't even find the will to fix the easy and obvious problem — the Electoral College.

There is no rational excuse whatsoever for maintaining what the New York Times correctly calls "an anti-democratic relic." It not only undermines the principle of "one man - one vote," but it forces the national debate to focus on what is important to the relatively few "battleground" states:

In 2004, only 13 states, with 159 electoral votes, were [battleground states]. As a result, campaigns and national priorities are stacked in favor of a few strategic states. Ethanol fuel, a pet issue of Iowa farmers, is discussed a lot. But issues of equal concern to states like Alabama, California, New York, and Indiana [are] not.

The Electoral College is an idea whose time has come and has long gone. Why do we still cling to it? Simple — egocentricity and intimidation.

A group called National Popular Vote, which apparently recognizes our irrational defense of All Things American (even undemocratic and outdated things like the Electoral College), has a plan not to abolish the Electoral College, but simply to ignore it. You can read about the plan here.

At best, the plan is what the computer industry would call a kludge, a cobbled and somewhat embarrassing workaround. The elegant solution is simply to dump it.

But Americans are too egocentric or intimidated to do that. And a kludge is better than no solution at all.