The tragic loss of American lives in Yemen as the result of a terrorist attack on our Navy coupled with hostilities and instability in the Middle East makes it all the more important who our next president will be. Considering the current president's record and the lack of a quality candidate to succeed him, the outlook for our future is disturbing.

If the 2000 presidential campaign and debates have taught us anything, it is the fact that George W. Bush and Al Gore amount to little more than special interests, candidate mishandlers, political hucksters, media pundits and manipulative pollsters.

Indeed, the candidates are not real, even to themselves, and that's become a frightening reality of the Clinton legacy. Instead of getting the "best of us to represent the rest of us," we are getting, "divide and win at any cost."

Certainly, this presidential and congressional election will be the most important transfer of power ever relinquished by the voters. The future of America will depend on it. Considering society's rapid social, political and economic changes our prospects are doubtful at best.

Throughout our history, we and those before us have allowed representative democracy and the republic to slip through our fingers, and there's no way to retrieve it short of a constitutional amendment. Therefore, it's time to re-evaluate our fractured society and to re-examine ourselves.

Clearly, we will see that it's a case of America vs the United States. And we've been losing the battle in the court of public division to the demagogues of social aggression, political terrorism, legal anarchy and media-driven chaos.

But the information technology and communication revolution has provided us with the opportunity to have real democracy with voting networks connected to voter's homes. It's time for self-government with nonpartisan direct democracy. It's time for mutual understanding and cooperation.

And alas, our education system, replete with decades of experimentation and decline, makes it time for direct education too.

Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
The Direct Democracy Center