American democracy may just be dead. If not, then it certainly isn't representative. Why is that? Well we can look to the current presidential election as a fine example.
The election has come down to Donald Trump as the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. While our elections are notorious for low voter turnout, no two candidates in recent memory have been both so universally disliked as these two. While the media makes it seem like both have lots of support, in reality most Americans really do not like either candidate and staying home on election day seems like it will be a very popular choice.
According to a report by the New York Times, only 9% of the U.S. actually voted for Clinton or Trump. This report was a bombshell that shows the ridiculous flaws in our electoral system. Less than a tenth of the country ever cast a vote for either candidate, yet they are our choices for president.
They are our choices whether you like it or not. Sure, there are technically other candidates in the race, but they receive no media attention apart from occasionally making their campaigns seem pointless and ridiculing anyone who would "waste" their vote on a third party candidate.
There's also the social stigma of a third candidate causing the feared "Nadler effect", forcing people with differing opinions to cave in for the moderate, establishment candidate, lest they hand the election to the other, presumably worse candidate.
This is the new norm for our elections, two candidates who actually represent very little of what the public wants and frankly, the people are fed up. This "lesser of two evils" mentality is not what this country or our democratic system was founded on. Big money interests have drowned out the little guy and so killed our democracy.
How long will we have to deal with politicians that don't represent us? How long will our elections be a choice between who we dislike less? Imagine elections where people were actually excited about the candidates, instead of indifferent.