If you want to get a picture of one of the things that is most fundamentally wrong with this country, all you have to do is take a peek at last night's debate. I'm not talking about the fact that "debate" doesn't exist in this country anymore, or the fact that one of the participants was a lying idiot.

I'm talking about something maybe even more serious--that behind the podiums were two rich white men. And when you tune in on Tuesday to see the vice presidental "debate," you'll see two rich white men.

In the 21st Century, positions of leadership are the entitlements of wealthy white males. When I see all of these Democratic women and people of color fawning over John Kerry and John Edwards, it sickens me. The only way that women and minorities can truly be represented is by having power, and that power isn't going to be handed to us by those who have it. The only solution is to vote them out of office and put in people who are more representative of American culture.

But to accomplish that, there first has to be a new consciousness-raising, an antidote to the internalized misogyny and racism that pervades the culture. The result would not necessarily be an increase in liberalism, since many ethnic and racial minorities are very conservative, but it would at least be reflective of the real makeup of America.