I try to think back on high school "Civics" class and Social Studies/History classes throughout public education.

And I think I remember democracy, regarding the US political system, as being nothing more than being allowed to vote for a person to represent you. This definition/description was usually given without criticism or a discussion of the implications or how that actually plays out in the US political economy. Sometimes it would be spoken of like this was a good, great and/or wonderful thing even.

But I get older and realize that being able to vote for a person to represent you isn't the same as voting for policies that would benefit you. At the city level, its pretty much "do you want to pay more in taxes? VOTE: Yes or No", usually in relation to paying for sewage/water/road repair. At the county/parish or State level you might get to vote on some change, but most of them are some archaic bureaucratic change that probably has some practical affect on my life but its all so incomprehensible that even when I try I can't understand the consequences of voting Yes or No.

But at the Federal level? It's never about "Do we go to war?", "Do we continue to stay at war?", "Do we defund the CIA, NSA and fund public healthcare?"

Nope... Its just which asshole gets a desk job and what seems like a pretty easy income with platinum level healthcare for a minimum of 2~4 years and then a pension plus a pile of business cards to call when they want to go work in the private sector.