The institutional system of a country is not an easy "engine" to manage. Once you become a politician at the highest level [elected to the Parliament or member of government, in US I would add Governors] you have to deal with procedures and a complicated system of interrelations [I've been elected myself in Italy, so I've got some experience about]. This is not a justification for whom lives politics as a mere matter of interests, anyway it's an "extenuating circumstance" for those politicians guided by good will and positive ideals. There is a rule in politics: idealist politicians once elected will turn into pragmatic politicians [even Obama, if you think well, hasn't been able to escape from this not written law].
Clear, this is in the core of a Republic: if you don't vote you express your will not to mind about the management of the "public thing" [Republic], so ... whichever will be the policies of the new President, you evaluate that the changes in your daily life will be irrelevant. And then, don't complain ... vote next time.
Particular effect, the mechanism of the Great Electors distorts the result of the popular vote. I knew this, but I was thinking to the case in which in a State the Great Elector has been elected by Dem or Gop votes and decides to vote for the opposite candidate [changing the result of the vote in that state]. Has this ever happened?
There is nothing wrong with being pragmatic, being willing to take a step or two backwards to advance two or three later on. Nothing wrong with compromise with the other party where perhaps you get 70% of what you want and the other party gets 30% or something like it. The art of politics is knowing what is possible. But here in the good old USA over the last several years we have entered into an era, at least in congress where compromise and pragmatism has become dirty four letter words. Both of the two major parties have developed an my way or the highway attitude. Give me 100% of what I want and you take nothing. Each party would rather get zero, nothing, zilch than give the other party 5 or 10 percent of something. It is called polarization. It has become where the majority of Americans are not represented, most are in the middle somewhere, center, center right or center left where the parties have drifted off to the far extreme right and left. A common complaint, perhaps. But there is definitely a disconnect between the people and their leaders in Washington.
You have early voting, some states as much as 6 weeks before election day. Ohio in 2012 opened their polls up before the first presidential debate. Here in Georgia it is usually 3 weeks. Registering, there has been people going door to door to get people registered and buses or drivers picking people up to take to the polls. So basically there is no excuse and I am not certain having more ill or non-informed people voting is that great of an idea anyway. Now my son has never voted and never registered. He is approaching 50. He sees voting a waste of time because regardless of who is in power or in office, to use his words, Washington is going to do what Washington wants to do regardless of what the people want. Republican, Democrat what difference does it make, it is still business as usual and nothing changes. I have to agree with him, the faces change, but Washington keeps on chugging away in its own stupid ways. Rewarding the moneyed folks who give them their tens and hundreds of million of dollars. Voters are just a necessary evil in their mind, they do do what they want regardless of what the people want. I do vote, but it has been third party in five of the last six elections.
Thanks for the kind words. On the plus side (if any) the ICU day shift has some REALLY cute nurses and some cute female doctors. The down side, of course, is the food. They put you on a low-carb, low-sodium, low-sugar, low-fat diet. I think they have conclusively proven that it is possible to make "bacon" out of cardboard. All this is one reason why I may not do any (or many) more letters. The research & writing are a lot of work & more energy than I seem to have. Besides, I've started reading a lot of the stuff I should have read in college (50 years ago) but didn't because I spent my spare time drinking beer & chasing women. All this has little to do with politics.
I want to vote for someone I believe in. I don't believe in Hillary, Bush, Rubio or Biden. I don't like any of them. Lately seeing as how Fox news has their minds made up that they want to influence the decision in Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio's favor and then you have Univision and Jorge Ramos trying to swing whoever is left over to vote for Hillary, the only way I could see to combat that is to vote Libertarian or Green Party. Sadly I think no matter what we do, Jorge and his hordes of followers which outnumber the majority who hate Hillary, will manage to convince people to vote for Hillary.
It's a mess all right. Fox pushed everything off the rails by attacking Trump and trying to coronate Bush and Rubio as you said. Now Trump is running the table and a large number who like him still aren't convinced that he has the right temperament for the office. Then there are the far right radicals who want every candidate to swear allegiance to the most severe anti abortion dogma. And a lot of the candidates are kissing that ring. It's chaotic. But it's still early, with plenty of time for the candidates to distinguish themselves and for Americans to decide. What baffles me is how Clinton, who hasn't accomplished anything of note aside from being involved in catastrophes, could have any supporters at all.
