>>Don't vote. It only encourages them.
>
>If you don't vote, you can't bitch about the results. You don't get to make a decision by not making a decision and then not liking the decision that was made because it isn't the decision you would have made, but you chose not to make a decision.

I've heard this many times, and I still don't vote. Didn't complain about not being eligible while I was in the US, and now that I'm back in my country (brand new one, not the one I left) and have the right, I don't see the point. Voting only encourages them, showing them how many people have bought into the illusion that they can change anything by voting.

The system of political parties is a self-serving machinery, and its purpose is making money from you, no matter how. It can be contributions, it can be a career in the corporate world after the term, it could be business held before and/or after the term, it could be inside info passed to family and friends, it could be money from the lobbyists, publishing rights, making speeches... but the biggest money is the taxes funneled into big businesses (bailouts, free use of science which was funded from taxes, tax exemptions, gov't contracts, you name it), of which some always ends in the politicians' pockets.

There's never enough money to keep your roads unholy, to prop up the businesses which provide employment locally, to hire more teachers, to keep a rural post office open, to build that bridge, ... but in the case you got deurinated by all that, there's always money for more police/security riot gear. There'll be more and more scanners (now on buses and railway too, as I heard - is that true?), security cameras, various checkpoints. There's always money for that.

I don't see even a remote possibility of existence of a political party that would even have any of that on its agenda. Or of one having tax breaks for businesses based on employment - and tax hike on those who took their production lines abroad. Or of one which would stand up to Monsanto, Goldman Sachs (and other banksters) and take people's side instead.

So... by going to vote, you only express your trust in the system, in its ability to be fixed by voting. Which seems to be working famously.

(I could have made a different list of issues that no political party would ever mention publicly, yet in which there's popular interest, a list that would apply to the situation here - but then I'd have to explain each one, and the conclusion would be the same)