Reply #27: They are preselected by the oligarchy, like in Iran.

[followthemoney]

The government of Iran is more transparent, in one respect, than that of the United States in that there is a specified and named Guardian Council that the Iranian public is aware of.

In the U.S. we can only observe the cause and effect of our own ‘Guardian Council’ without a general acknowledgment of its existence much less have a name this group can be commonly referred to as we would, say, refer to the Senate.

On Democracy Now! Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi Joins Defense Team of Jailed Iranian American Journalist Roxana Saberi, Shirin Ebadi says, "Elections are not free in Iran. Every candidate must be pre-qualified by the Guardian Council before they can receive votes."

When can the United States back away from its claims of being a democracy and present to its people the reality of its own as yet unnamed oligarchy and the power it wields over this country's elections and economy?

As long as Americans fail to understand the system in which we live there is no chance of changing it.

But then, the oligarchy understands this only too well.