I currently do not vote, because I have yet to see a politician worth my vote. Most politicians here have resorted to "mud-slinging" which is basically just hate speeches about why the other candidates are bad and why you shouldn't vote for them versus actually stating why they should be voted for and what good that they will do if in office. They also have a bad tendency to shoot down their opponent's ideas and stances instead of proposing their own solutions to the problems at hand.

So from an average citizens stand point, all I see is campaign ad after campaign ad of person A saying why person B is bad, and person B saying why person A is worse than them, and so on in a vicious cycle so that both parties eventually look like total dochebags and I know nothing really about either person's political stances, ideas, or opinions.

When I see a person run that presents good strong morals and ideas that I agree with and not just whine like a little kid about rumors about their opponent, THEN I'll vote.

I see, good point.
my vision on the matter is quite distant (and also probably biased) so it's interesting to have a more local point of view.

still, even if politics are useless, they still are the people who more or less decide where the country is going, so, between two bad choices, why not choose the less worse of the two ? are they really all that awful most of the time?

Your right, it is important and the whole cliche saying about it being "your civil duty" is true even if its between the lesser of two evils.

There are some good ones in there, this time there was two candidates that I saw that I would have gladly voted for and really wanted to, but they were running for senate seats for different states than the one I am in (one for New Jersey and the other in New York and I live in North Carolina.) But if either of them ran for presidency I would definatly go vote for them.

thank you for sharing your vision of the event and of the current situation in the US

You make a good point. I live in NY and I don't know which politician you would vote for. I do hope the ones you wanted did win. But in any case back to you being right. The whole thing about politics in the US now has been less about "This is what I can do/will try to do for you" and more about "Hey! My opponent ass rapes babies and kittens with the bible!" or something close to that. Add the interest groups and the system grinds to a halt before it even starts. I sometimes finding myself quote comedians when it comes to politics but Lewis Black said it best:

"WHen you go into the voting booth, you're choosing between two different bowls of shit. THe only difference is the smell and the consistency."

thank for commenting
you seem to confirm the idea that the choices at disposal are as bad as each other.
that would explain the (maybe subjective) feeling of political disinterest in US citizen I have felt here.

I had the flu and am partially crippled and went. Most people do not vote anymore since Bush stole elections back in 2000 and in 2004 . the voting machines we all have to use could be hacked by a embryo anymore. and corporations buy elections. so it become a very hopeless thing to do so many even fail to go out anymore. and this election was one of the worst on record. i did not see ONE not ONE positive "this is what i am going to do when i get in" type ad. everything was mudslinging and outright lies as far as the eyes could see. this time it was simply who was the less crazy. Personally i should have just written in Cthulhu

thank you for taking the time to comment.
it seems you are being quite disillusioned in the actual political system in the US, though I would probably be the same if the political situation was similar here.
I know this will probably sound ridiculous and futile but couldnt people write to local politicians to tell them how unhappy they are, not about their political siding, but about the basic way they do politic, as in mud-wrestling? im sure if enough people express their discontentment even the most self centered and lobbies brainwashed politician may notice something is wrong?

at least Cthulhu would be quite fair: absolute craziness and damnation for everyone, simple and clear.

We as a people do express such concerns to our politicians and it matters not. Most of america is woefully uneducated. our current form of Fundamentalist Christianity and many Places with heavy urban environs tend to make it so. There are actually large sections of the US that are PROUD of being stupid. In the inner cities they say it is keeping it real. in the rural areas they say book learnin is for fags. there are many reasons for this attitude. but that is neither here not there at the moment. what is does contribute to is masses of people that are easily swayed by such hate and fear. fear motivates people fear leads to hate and yeah anger and then the dark side. The Tea Party actually made it a Selling Point to the american people that they lacked such higher education and therefore were of the people. and they proved that lack of intelligence and knowledge with Amazing clarity. There head cannot even site more than roe v wade for a supreme court case. O'Donnel did not even know that separation of church and state was in the constitution. they remake history to serve there own purposes and as studies have shown if you repeat even a bold faced lie enough people will believe it.

and the republicans and Neo Cons and Tea Partiers focus on these teeming masses of uneducated people and stir up paranoia and hate and fear as much as possible til it becomes as an infection. soon the people in their thrall do not even question the lies and obvious spins they report. And unfortunately these uneducated masses make up huge populations. huge populations of sheeple that can be driven to the voting booths where as a lot of the educated masses only look at the train wreck and want nothing to do with it anymore because it feels hopeless. and it is worse than trying to herd cats to get a bunch of educated independent people to get off their asses and vote. especially when the people they would want to vote for also have to try to pander to the lowest common denominator for the numbers they need.

Throw in a very slowly recovering economy and a few failed promises from the president and all the elementary school antics of congress and yeah a lot of people have become utterly disillusioned. I myself almost did not vote this year due to this area also using those voting machines. in 2004 I watched my machine i was voting on CHANGE MY VOTE as i was about to press the final button. it actually switched up all my votes to Bush and Bush supporters.

so yeah it is corrupt and filled with fear mongering and stupidity and honestly there is very little difference between the parties anymore and with the new House of Reps the Government is going to be effectively shut down. they have already stated there goal is not new ideas or reform but simply to halt everything they can to make Obama look worse by 2012

eww, thats an even grimmer description of the situation what I would have thought :/
the usage of fear to make people move the way you want is quite universal, I would say it's pretty much the same in my country too, putting the responsibility of all the problems on the other political camp, and when thats not possible, they just find other scapegoat groups of people and done, quite saddening and unnerving :(

hearing that there is effectively little hope to see much improvement any time soon, I can only praise your strong will to still trying even knowing it will have little to no effect. Im also an adept of the thinking that every bit count, even the little ones. that may be hopeless but I believe it's still better than doing nothing and follow the direction of the actual herdsmen.