Thanks for your answer Mike. That help understand the history behind the current process.

We're still stuck with the monarchy system here. It's more of a protocol kind of thing than a real monarchy system, but it still amaze me to see that we are still under that anticated system in the 21st century. I hope that a politician will someday have the guts of getting us rid of that.

>The answer to part of your question is the U.S. is not a direct democracy, it is a democratic republic. That means we elect representatives rather than each of us voting directly. This goes back to the founding of the U.S. and the U.S. Constitution. It was, more than anything else, a compromise -- a compromise between states' rights and federal rights, and also between those who favored democracy in a pure form and those who wanted a system closer to the English monarchy.
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>We use the word "democracy" loosely but there probably hasn't been a democracy in the true sense of the word since the ancient Greeks gathered on hillsides. And even then I bet women, slaves, etc. couldn't vote.
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>I don't know this but suspect the drawn-out nature of our Presidential primaries was the result of smoke filled room politicking between states and other interest groups. Personally I don't mind it because many of us get the chance to see the candidates for a while before we are asked to choose. The flip side is the nominees are usually (not this year) chosen before primaries are held in many states. Those voters essentially only have a choice between two candidates, the nominees of the only two meaningful parties.
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>I know I am not addressing your entire message. A college class could spend a semester on this topic.