Edit: I should amend a my statement.
There are a few other problems.
1. Politics has become less serious. It's more of a game now. We even call them "races," where people huddle down into "teams" against one another, voting for candidates because he's part of the tribe, not really because of what he proposes. We have so much politics, it's all been trivalized into another sport.
2. "political saturation." The United States seems to be in a permanent election cycle. There is practically no down time to think and reflect. One race ends, another begins. It's gotten to absurd, that right after the last Presidential Election, people were planning and talking about the next election.
Peope are therefore bombarded non-stop with political messages, media advertisements, and opportunities to participate on so many levels (local, state, federal etc). Combined with the dead-lock system we have, where nothing ever seems to get accomplished, I think it produces feelings of apathy and sensory overstimulation. Who really has the time to analyze all the issues in all this mass politics? And who actually has the skills or wants to do it? Debates are almost useless, television focuses on sound bites, because people have 5 second attenton spans, and politicians can say almost anything, because 90% of the electorate has no expertise in any of the topics they're talking about. It's sad and pointless.
I hate voting. I hate politics. I only rarely go out, and even then, I am only choosing between a **** sandwich and a crap bagel.
And thanks