Am I the only one who finds it frustrating that we focus *so much* on the presidential election?

[herding cats]

14. It is a national problem.

Voter turn out in midterms is always bad, but when it's a presidential election year a lot of people decide to speak up again and turn out. Some people blame it on the media, but I don't buy that excuse. They benefit from a ratings/advertising boost in midterm elections as well. It's apathy for the most part, which is sometimes validated in the voters minds by how their vote won't change anything anyway, so why bother voting in the first place, etc. On the flip side of that coin is, their party has it wrapped up in their state of residence so they don't have to bother going to the polls this election.

I've seen also a bit of confusion as to how the political process actually works recently too. Some people are being swept up in the recent propaganda the president is responsible for creating legislation. Such is the nonsense which spreads across social media daily. Not just influencing it, or in some cases being able to stall it, but is the entity in government which actually drafts it. This is partially how the RW has managed to keep their less knowledgeable followers on fire against Obama. In 2016 they'll just redirect this lack of knowledge in our political system to the Democratic candidate for president. It's scary when you stop and think about it. They don't even understand the basics of the process, but they're sure as hell going to vote for their candidate anyway!

If we (the majority of Democratic voters) really cared about the course of this country we'd be actively involved at all stages of the process, from the bottom up. We should be on fire to get a chance to bring candidates up we want to see elected. Staring with our local races where our voices have the most power, to our state elections and finally our national one. That's the only way we're ever going to create any sort of lasting change, we have to show our party we're serious about what we want. The way to do that is by changing who our local governments have representing us first; doing so changes the tone of discussion and as such the minds of the people, but getting that message across is increasingly exhausting in today's political climate.