Primaries have about 10% turnout. Yet America claims the mantle of "democracy"?

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. And they are not involved because they feel they

cannot make a difference with who is nominated for office, or why.

I have been told as much more than once.

And until people feel that voting makes a difference, and that means machines, (local and national) do not take the precedence they do...

Look, I grew up in a country where we knew we lived in an oligarchy. We bothered to vote, in fact our voting numbers were much higher than those of Americans, but we all knew we were engaging in a futile exercise. But we cynically said, we needed to stay in practice for when it mattered.

When I talk to voters in my local area I hear the same kind of cynicism.

When I moved to the States I could not vote. Immigrants do not vote. Once I got the right to vote, I will vote in every election, but I know it is the exact same effect as when I was back home voting. The effect is next to none, if at all. And I do not think you can tell me I do not get it. I am willing to bet I have sat at more government meetings than I care to think about, or than most here.

I get it how it works, and when voters, or chiefly ex-voters, tell me why they no longer bother, I can only think of the glorious days of the 1880s. My degree is in History and the Gilded Age is very close to today. Oh and the power structures, for both parties, like it that way. In fact, it makes voter suppression that much easier.

Voters need a stake, and right now they simply feel they do not have one. And that is a function of deep dysfunction.