@ferkixlll "vote like your life depends on it" - you said it!  I live in a county of 16,000 people... more than once a local office has been decided by less than 20 votes with substantial consequences (Formula 1 used to race here and doesn't due to a single counselman in the 70s...)  ... and so on up the line... yes both parties are crap, but unless and until the Left gets its too-too individual and elitist head out of its gooey ass the Hard Right's ability to anticipate, plan and deploy effective power grabs will persist... the Left cannot admit to itself that it too wants power, but it had better start doing do - we need to take several steps back towards checks and balances before we try anything fancy like a multi-party system or, who knows, a democracy!

We are a Representative Democracy. We elect people to be representatives. Unfortunately too much of their time is spent dunning money for their reelection, so The Peoples work takes a back seat. *We have gotten so far from "We are one", that failing any of a groups litmus test rules one out of the group. If not inclusive how to form coalitions? The Rebel Groups in "Life of Brian" come to mind. The bigger the fractures the easier to wedge apart. ** So kind of screwed is the diagnosis.