Okay. I'm not sure about your solutions -- I'm not sure about any solution. Sometimes, maybe, there's not a solution at all... Anyway, I question two things you said -- a) why shouldn't voting be compulsory? That's not an idea to be dismissive about; there are good arguments on both sides. And b) why should I feel a duty to fix that which I am abandoning? Just curious. I couldn't name offhand anything that America as an entity has done for me. I'm glad to live here, because the standard of living is high, but that doesn't have much to do with the current system. (If the answer is, as you mention third, rational interest, then never mind.) -- Not voting isn't fixing the problem. But voting implies buying into the system -- yes, even writing in Bob Dole -- and that is the opposite. And hell, who are we kidding? My vote's been gerrymandered out of existence. I'll happily vote in the next City Council election, I vote at the neighborhood and county level -- but that's where I draw the line.