If Voters Knew Any Better, They Wouldn’t Vote

Of course, voters don’t know best. They don’t know better. They don’t know much of anything at all. If voters understood what politicians needed to do, they wouldn’t be voters. They would be activists or revolutionaries.

At a minimum, they would learn how the complex system of our way of government actually functions.

Sadly, even a lot of elected officials only know how their own role works. They don’t know how to operate much outside of that. This is why it’s so commonplace for Congress members to blame the other party when they don’t have a majority. Otherwise they would figure out ways to get things done outside of their limited role. But they don’t. Today, many politicians fill the space that activism is supposed to occupy. Why do we see cabinet officials and Trump administration operatives breaching the constitution like law-breaking vigilantes?

Why do Cory Booker, Hakeem Jeffries, and Chuck Schumer deliver rousing speeches about what the nation must do? All while pretending they can’t act because they don’t control Congress.

At first glance, democracy appears to be the great equalizer – a system where every citizen has a say in how their government runs. But the truth is, if voters knew better, many would choose not to vote at all. Not because they don’t care, but because the electoral system is rigged against them from the start.

Democrats & Republicans Are A Uniparty, Not Real Competitors

Both major political parties – Democrats and Republicans – have abandoned any pretense of true representation for the majority of voters. Trump may have been called a “populist” because of how he placated to people with that kind of disposition. But in the first 100 days of Trump’s 2nd administration it became clear that was a load of lies.

Democrats may be acting like they care about the “working class” voters. But they lost whoever that group of people is. Democrats and Republicans have become two opposing sides – of the same dirty coin. They may be distinct at local levels of government. It’s possible that even within state-wide bodies or leadership positions these parties have different platforms. People think of them as diametrically opposed on things like abortion or the border. Yet all too often it appears that their disagreements are minor or mostly theatrical for the cameras.

Voters have little power to shape the policies that affect their lives. They go to the polls, elect a candidate, and retreat into their own lives. They leave elected officials to do as they please. If their candidate wins, they celebrate the victory. But for most voters, that’s where their involvement ends. If their candidate loses, they complain about the decisions being made. There are ways citizens can use the system(s)of government to their advantage. But voting itself offers no true way for them to directly affect change.

Apathy Breeds Apathy

And the most jarring part? This apathy is reciprocated. Both major parties are just as disinterested in those who don’t fit neatly into their ideological boxes. Those who are unregistered, those who refuse to subscribe to either party’s dogma, are often looked down upon and ignored. Rather than courting potential voters, both parties treat them with disdain. The unregistered voter bloc is now the largest in the nation. Yet both Republicans and Democrats are content to leave them out of the conversation. They are more focused on their own power than on truly engaging with the electorate.

The failure to address independent voters’ concerns reveals the ultimate flaw in our representative system: it assumes voters know best. In reality, voters often face little choice but to pick the lesser of two evils. If voters understood what was truly happening behind the curtain, they might question whether voting is worth it. In a system where both sides fail to deliver meaningful change, voters are simply choosing which party will hold the reins of power – not what that power will actually be used for.

Voters Aren’t Really Choosing – They’re Settling

In representative democracy, voters admit they don’t know best. That’s why they elect someone else to make decisions for them. If voters truly believed they could make better decisions, they would advocate for direct democracy – where laws are put to a popular vote ballot initiative.

In the past, such a system might have been impractical. The logistics of organizing nationwide votes on every issue would have been a nightmare. But today, with the rise of online technology and secure digital voting systems, it’s not only possible but arguably easier to facilitate direct democracy. Yes, there are concerns about security and the risk of fraud. But isn’t that a lesser evil than the blatant corruption we see today? In a world where we can handle nearly every aspect of our lives online – from banking to healthcare to socializing – why is it still out of reach to let citizens directly vote on matters that affect them?

Which Side of the Aisle Do You Want Robbing You?

Unfortunately, our current system thrives on a complex web of political machinations, where elected officials operate far removed from the day-to-day concerns of their constituents. No matter what you are told on an election campaign trail, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Especially if Presidents are ultimately going to blame Congress, or if Congress will blame the President. Somehow our system of checks and balances has become some kind of collusive blame deflection.

Their decisions are influenced more by campaign donations and lobbying interests than by the will of the people they represent. And so, voters, resigned to their lack of real influence, cast their ballots as an act of settling, not as a vote of faith in the power of the system.

This dynamic – where voters are left to choose between the two main political factions – breeds disengagement, apathy, and frustration. It’s no wonder, then, that we see such an erosion of trust in government institutions. The system we currently live in doesn’t give voters the opportunity to truly choose the best path forward for the country. Instead, it forces them to choose the “lesser evil” – and they do so out of a misguided belief that voting is a civic duty that will somehow bring about change.

The Unregistered Voter Is The Overlooked Majority

Let’s talk about the unregistered voter. They are, ironically, the largest bloc of voters in America. Yet, they are the most ignored. Both major political parties have no interest in courting them, and in fact, both hold them in lower regard than they do their political adversaries. It’s almost as if the parties themselves have devolved into cult-like factions, promising rewards only to those who join their ranks. Independent voters and non-voters alike are seen as threats to the political status quo, not as potential partners in a solution to the country’s many problems.

For Democrats and Republicans alike, unregistered voters are an enigma, and instead of engaging with them, both parties have opted to demonize them. Democrats see the unregistered as “apathetic” or “uninformed,” while Republicans view them as “misguided” or “unpatriotic.” Neither side takes the time to ask: “Why are so many people refusing to engage with us?” Instead, they simply blame the public for not falling in line with their political dogma.

This disregard for a massive portion of the population is a testament to how broken our system is. Both parties are content to engage in political theater, using unregistered voters as pawns to fuel their ideological wars. Meanwhile, the issues that matter most to the unregistered go completely ignored – a dynamic that further perpetuates the idea that voters don’t really know best, and they never will as long as they’re forced to participate in a rigged system.

Neither Party Is Any Fun, But They Won’t Let Us Leave Them

In the end, the simple truth is this: Both parties fail. They have failed us, and they will continue to fail us because neither has explained what makes them fundamentally different from the other. There is no real debate about the issues that matter; there’s only a struggle for the power each side will gain if they’re allowed to continue their reigns. These political machines have grown into self-perpetuating behemoths, indifferent to their constituents’ needs and focused solely on maintaining their stranglehold on power.

This is where the system truly breaks down. Voters, increasingly aware of both parties’ corruption and ineffectiveness, question whether their vote really matters. They vote because they feel compelled to, not because they believe in the system or the candidates they’re supporting. They get told to choose a side, but they don’t understand why. That’s the tragic irony of our modern political system – people vote not because they believe it will lead to better outcomes, but because the system convinced them it’s the only option.

So here’s the uncomfortable truth: If voters knew better, they wouldn’t vote.

At least not in the current system, where both parties offer little more than political theater and empty promises. Democrats, for example, are seeking an answer to why they lost the 2024 election. They will not find it by pretending to listen to voters. But they aren’t going to get the answer by actually asking voters either.

How the hell should the voters know?