Is this really Democracy?!?!

Let me start with the positive...
This nomination/election season has been magnificent. Since all the candidates declared their candidacies, serious issues have been addressed and the masses have been invigorated. Most, if not all, the primaries garnered record turnouts; numbers like this havent been seen since the 1970's. For a change people saw the process working; their voices would be heard, their votes would count!

Then things started to change...
The Republican nominee front runner became clear, and his name was John McCain. An experienced senator from the old people state of AZ. This scared the shit out of the Dems. McCain would be a formidable advesary for any Democrat and with the race so close, things have turned contentious. Once the forgone conclusion to be the nominee, Mrs. Clinton was losing, and BIG. With Mr. Obama maintaining a solid lead in delegates despite "losses" in all the big states, we would see the "change" for which we voted.

But my gut tells me different...
Malcolm Gladwell says to trust your gut, your snap decisions, which scares me. Now that the race is close and Mrs. Clinton feels cornered, politics as usual is emerging. The fear-mongering tactics of the republican party and the mud-slinging of the general election have started. Howard Dean, the DNC chair and former VT govenor, was on the "Today" show the other day at which point he stated that the hotly contented superdelegates are "chosen to do whats best for the party."

OH SHIT! The stage has been set for the perpetration of a crime...
Would Mrs. Clinton suceed in convincing the delegates to ignore the will of the general democratic voting population to vote for her, the "more ready" contender. Do they realize how many young and first time voters they will disenfranchise with this move? And what is with all this talk of seating FL and MI delegates when no one but Mrs. Clinton was on the ballot in those states? They ignored party rules, they were stripped of their powers, that cannot be changed now! I am a democrat, socialist at heart, and I so badly want to have faith in my government.

BUT MY GUT TELLS ME DIFFERENT!
My gut says that come August in Denver, Mrs. Clinton will be the nominee by theft. McCain will win in a landslide for more reasons than one. We will spend "100 years" in Iraq and the Persian Gulf protecting "the people" (read oil interests) and our country will continue to be divided. The national deficit will grow, education and health care will suffer, and the income disparity will continue to balloon exponentially.

The posibilities are frighteing. Why did this have to turn into politics as usual?