When people suggest their votes matter I can't help but to ask: Do you really believe that? I mean it sounds like the way things ought to work, but do you really believe it? I'm not really convinced we (americans) live in any sort of democracy. I think it'd be optimistic to suggest we live in a meritocratic oligarchy.

I do like the idea of democracy, but modern politics seems like an endless subversion democratic ideals. In a lot cases it's not even a debate. In a heavily gerrymandered area with a first past the post voting system and a party lock-out, you can mathematically prove your vote doesn't matter. That doesn't even get into rigged primaries, party registration requirements, vote counting rules, or unsecured electronic voting that amounts to low key ballot stuffing. It doesn't touch the many forms of money in politics. Gross political advertising justified as money equals speech and funded by dark money from super-PACs, Shell-companies, and whatever other ways rich people hide their money. Legal lobbying that amounts to bribery through promises of campaign donations or post-political careers.

Not even our own culture seems to favor the practical implications of democracy. Protest require permits. Peaceful protests are ignored until they interfere with economics, then they're demonized and made illegal. Peaceful protests become violent and it's attributed to entire causes rather than acknowledging outliers, unassociated individuals, or government initiation/brutality. When they stay peaceful they don't resist arrest or become in contempt of court. They just line up to pay some fine and continue being ignored. Yet anyone who challenges this system's a stupid brute who had it coming.

There's no contact between the government and its people. You can't contact a representative because they use and ignore their bots. I certainly don't see any politicians or people talking about the issues I've listed here. We're separate classes of people who work and live under different rules. It's hard to care when you can't make a difference. When you're subverted at every turn, politics just feels overblown.