Why are presidents elected?

I (depending on the day) have the somewhat cynical belief that the founding cornerstone of America is not democracy, but capitalism. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who has noticed that recently, not long before the economic crisis began, Americans began to notice that they were too far in debt and started saving money and reigning in their spending to avoid going broke. However, when the country's economy is based on people spending money they do not have, you will run into problems.

Democracy exists to allow people to feel that they are a part of running their country. But what happens to those in the minority? They are often left behind, run over by their own neighbors. Democracy is by nature the rule of the majority. What about the over 40% of Americans who voted for McCain? They certainly have a right to more seats in the house than the republicans got.

But after all of this I admit that was quite a rant. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel about the American electoral system.

(Just for the record, I am not American, I am Canadian. And in feel much the same way about all of this here, our electoral system is quite similar)

Jam it back in, in the dark.