text: why do most americans choose not to vote and then turn around and complain about how dump the president is? the moral of the story: if you don't vote, the us will have another dumb president !!! you think that your vote means something..  the elections are very subtly fixed by popularity votes and dumping money into programs that affect the popularity of one candidate over another.  it is a fantasy to think that you have very much control over who governs you.  the political system knows its limits and is very controlled.  they want the people half way peaceful and working.  you either vote democrat or republican, anything else is throwing away your vote.  what if you don't like either??  there are no options. many said because people are lazy, but i believe that folks in general have completely lost faith that they have any say in the govt.  their votes don't matter any more.