Despite research having shown that our vote has virtually no effect on outcomes, many still want to believe.

Too many dumb people that vote based on feelings, ideology, parents, peers, ... instead of their own interests.

And yet their vote means nothing.

It is a flawed Democracy. Lobbying money corrupts the government.

Which party represents your interests and not doing a genocide in the middle east?

People of course have no interest in their feelings, ideology, parents, or peers

There's a saying in Brazil that "people vote with their belly", usually as a derogatory for foor people voting for govt spending in social programs.

Another saying come to mind, "no democracy exists with empty bellies", because anyone that is hungry or at risk will vote for whoever is more likely to ensure their survival. Another important thing to think about, everyone votes with their belly, with the well-fed wanting to stay that way

Not.

Democracy: Greek, dēmos krátos, 'people' 'rule' or rule of the people.

The people do not rule in the US so it's not a democracy.

It's hard to define what the US is. It has some democratic elements. The people are allowed to elect representatives, both at the state and Federal level, and many people are allowed to vote directly for or against certain measures through ballot initiatives at the state level, although this varies from state to state. However, our Federal representatives in the House each represent well over 700,000 people. That is a very large number of people, especially compared to most other democracies. And because we have a winner-take-all system, people who did not vote for the winning candidate may feel underrepresented or not represented at all.

I think the classification that best fits the US is Plutocracy: ploûtos krátos, 'wealth' 'rule' or rule of the wealthy. Not only do the wealthiest have a significant amount of money to invest in political causes, lobbying representatives and directly influencing elections, but they also often have significant private corporate ownership interests and control, giving them a great deal of power over the economy and access to critical resources. Even democratically elected representatives tend to be quite wealthy, or at least much wealthier than the average American voter. And even if they don't start out much wealthier, they often end up much wealthier after their time in office.

Be that as it may, that’s not why bourgeois democracies serve the interests of the bourgeoisie—the Epstein class—over us. The game was already rigged long before you got to the ballot box.

they want to have their cake and eat it too

POV: "Vote blue no matter who" crowd when their "Blue" candidate votes for war.

Yeah, that's the problem with America, people aren't selfish enough...

More like they want to have their cake and sell it too

It's SUPPOSED to be a democratic republic where the elected leaders vote the way their constituents would want.

But you're right it's more like a plutocracy in reality at this point

not at this point, it is the same as it always was

It's quite literally not a democracy.

Is not even really a republic, but that is what is supposed to be. The problem is that elected representatives don't represent the people. The system is horridly corrupted at this point.

As much as I hate Dilbert's creator, he got something right with the joke where you always have to give your boss 2 choices - one that you already chose beforehand, and another that's only there for the boss to reject so they think they contributed.

Yeah, the majority of voters are.

Perversely that might be true.

Plenty of people vote based on their tribe be it red, blue, green, whatever.

If they voted for policy that actually benefitted them...

Binary system is not democracy.

In a world where rich and powerful steer the governance, it's a slide down to the worst outcome.

One side is bad, the other is less bad. But people aren't doing anything to remove the bad because they think they'll choose less bad next time. But the next time, bad side has become worse, the less bad is less worse because why would they try, when they can guilt trip you?

Rinse and repeat.

And in a country where corruption lobbying is legal, you never had any say in the first place.

Also known as the Queen's Duck!

https://bwiggs.com/notebook/queens-duck/