OT: New Brazilian President

[capnq]

This is because people realize their vote doesn't make any difference.

Sometimes, it does. Especially if you look beyond the national level elections.

A few years ago, we had a referendum to radically change our county's home rule charter (basically the county constitution). It passed by a razor-thin margin; I forget the exact percentages, but it came out to an average difference of less than one vote per ward.

[Shyrka]

Originally posted by Kamog:
Our form of democracy may not be perfect, but I'm grateful that it is not like some other parts of the world. A few months ago, there was an election in Iraq. Saddam Hussein won 100% of the votes and was re-elected president. The ballots only had "yes" or "no" as the choices. If you voted "no", you faced possible execution!

Kamog, the U.S. is the #1 country of the world in many aspects (Economy, Industry, Technology, Military power, Organization...) You should not compare with Iraq, nor with any other 3rd world country, nor with any other tyranny. U.S. should compare with the most advanced nations.
Compared with Iraq, almost any government (Even the Spanish ) will look excellent.