Money makes the world go ’round.

Nothing is a more fitting example of this rather sad financial fact than the American political machine.

As we creep towards Election Day, I truly believe the American people have been dehumanized by the entire electoral process.

Human beings become voters. Personal tragedies become “issues.” Personal beliefs become “agendas.”

Words like demographics, deficit reductions and quotas evolve into abstract political concepts that are to be analyzed, manipulated and disseminated to a public that feels increasingly impotent in its ability to affect change in their own country.

This election has proven that very few politicians consider it their duty to serve the public, but that the public exists as a vehicle through which the powerful may continue to manipulate and control their environment.

The lack of direction Bob Dole’s campaign has suffered is the direct result of everything that’s wrong with politics: He wants to be president not necessarily to serve his constituency, but because it will be the crowning achievement for the ultimate Washington politician, the last and most impressive feather in his political cap.

Dole’s almost laughable ability to flip-flop on any issue proves that he is not in this race to serve the American people.

The man has yet to even read his party’s platform. If he did, he’d realize his own personal ideology is at odds with several aspects of the platform.

No matter how vital the issue, be it affirmative action or his 15 percent tax dream, Dole has proven that he’s willing to sell his soul for your vote.

Dole had called Steve Forbes’ flat tax plan “snake oil” in February, but later said he’s willing to buy into supply-side economics.

“I’m willing to be another Ronald Reagan, if that’s what you want,” he said.

Dole would probably be willing smear his naked body with tapioca pudding and sing “Ice Ice Baby” at the Super Bowl half-time show if he thought he could win Texas in the deal.

Not only that, but I truly believe the stress of this election is taking its toll on Dole’s sanity.

Witness this recent prose he unleashed on a high school in Michigan, whose school nickname is the Bobcats:

“Obviously, I’d be proud to be in the home of the Bobcats. Bob Cat. Keep that in mind. We’ve never had a Bob in the White House. We do have a cat in the White House. Socks. But we don’t have a Bob in the White House.”

…??? What the hell is he talking about? Call us when the shuttle lands, sir.

Not that President Clinton is the political and social savior of America. His willingness to shift his stances on issues with alarming regularity according to the latest polls indicates a moral cowardice that is detrimental to America.

Clinton or Dole. This is the choice that America has been given.

Or so we’re told.

Despite the fact that there are at least five other candidates running for the White House, Time magazine puts Clinton and Dole on its cover with the headline “The Choice.”

Why are the Democratic and Republican parties considered to be a voter’s only prerogatives?

Because money makes the world go ’round. And it certainly provides the locomotion for American “democracy.”

The candidates of the two major parties have at their disposal record amounts of “soft” money (limitless gifts from individuals and corporations).

“Independent” TV ads — political advertisements produced by special interest groups such as the AFL-CIO and multi-national corporations now flood the airwaves.

It was bad enough when voters had to sift for actual facts through smear campaigns by the politicians themselves, but now we have to deal with Coca-Cola and the NRA telling us how to vote as well? This is how democracy works?

In America, unfortunately, yes. Financial contributions may be a necessary element of campaigning, but the fact that money is required to get elected brings into focus a disturbing truth about American politics: Those with money influence government, and those without, do not. Plain and simple.

Dole, in his frustration at not being able to gain ground against Clinton in the polls, recently stumbled upon a viable thought: “The country belongs to the people, not the New York Times.

Where is the outrage in America? Where’s the outrage?”

Admittedly, Dole was referring to American voters apparently ignoring the ethical lapses of the Clinton administration. I really don’t see what he’s complaining about, considering Ronald Reagan’s administration experienced more ethical lapses than any since Nixon.

But Dole is correct in stating that America does not belong to the New York Times. Nor does it belong to General Motors, the Republican Party, AT&T or the CIA. It belongs to the people.

The common, everyday people who break their backs at crappy jobs and struggle to make ends meet for their families.

People who can’t afford to give a candidate $5,000. People who can’t produce 30-second television advertisements. People who can’t organize a special interest lobby in Washington.

In other words, the majority of us. The majority who are told that they’re throwing their vote away if they vote for Ralph Nader or Harry Browne.

I ask this: if you vote for Dole or Clinton not because you believe in them, but because you’ve been told the candidate who truly represents your interests “doesn’t have a realistic chance of winning,” aren’t you throwing your vote away anyway?

We, the majority, as a result of the political system’s reliance on large amounts of cash, are being shut out, manipulated and finally, ignored when Election Day has passed.

We must take the electoral power out of the hands of politicians and special interest groups who more and more represent fewer and fewer. We must, or democracy in our nation will die.

Where is the outrage, indeed?

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Tim Davis is a senior in theatre from Carlisle. He is the editorial page editor of the Daily.