For those of us who support the notion of maintaining the integrity of the great American experiment in personal liberty and economic freedom within the framework of a representative republic operating on democratic principles, the events unfolding before us are the stuff of Orwellian nightmares. Like watching a slow-motion train wreck, we have tuned in day after day to the spectacle of the once celebrated fairness of the American election system descending to a level that would make third-world banana republics, the old Soviet satellites, and Mideast pretend democracies blush.