Of course it is exactly this kind of "who cares man, they're all the same anyway" kind of thinking that causes them to be all the same. If the 50% of Americans who can't be arsed to vote actually decided to start giving noticeable numbers of fucks about things, they'd be a political force to be reckoned with, and politicians would be forced to do something. Hell, if the 50% of people who do vote would quit throwing their votes at anyone who made them feel more secure in their comfort zones, it would change politics forever.
That won't happen though, because "democracy is a sham." That's true but only because we allow them to be true, by virtue of not giving enough fucks. Maybe there aren't enough fucks to give. Even in places where people give large fucks like Spain and Greece, it isn't enough to stop the wheels of the machine, so I'm not entirely convinced that Americans are even capable of comprehending the enormous back-breaking fuck they would have to give.
Ultimately, it isn't the government's fault, it's our fault. It's a cliché but we are the government, and when we refuse to exercise our duties as self-governing bipeds, somebody's going to do it for us.
I disagree for two reasons. 1. Most people who are apathetic don't think "it's all a shame" they think "Man, I hope I don't miss that new episode of Breaking Bad." They just don't care at all, could not even begin to care because they are so far behind the curve of being able to process our political landscape into something their shriveled brains can grasp.
2. It isn't that kind of mindset that makes candidates similar. It's their policies. I remember a young liberal who came up to me in the last election and said, "OMG aren't you excited about Obama." I said, "Uh, no." Lots of people were excited about him, far from apathetic. And yet...
As for voting power, I am inclined to agree that if people did actually give a damn, and were capable of making informed decisions and using the machinery of democracy to their own benefit, which I think was the original idea, things might be different. I guess we will never know.
And even if The People, all of them, did stand up and say, "Hey we are going to take back our country now!" well then... I actually can't stop laughing at the thought of that. What would Justin Bierber do with all that time on his hands?
