Two Political Scientists have proven that the middle or lower class voter doesn't matter, and the rich Elite always get everything they want: http://goldenageofgaia.com/2014/09/21/how-the-rich-rule/
It is hardly news that the rich have more political power than the poor, even in democratic countries where everyone gets a single vote in elections.
But two political scientists, Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, have recently produced some stark findings for the United States that have dramatic implications for the functioning of democracy – in the US and elsewhere.
The authors’ research builds on prior work by Gilens, who painstakingly collected public-opinion polls on nearly 2,000 policy questions from 1981 to 2002. The pair then examined whether America’s federal government adopted the policy in question within four years of the survey, and tracked how closely the outcome matched the preferences of voters at different points of the income distribution.
When viewed in isolation, the preferences of the “average” voter – that is, a voter in the middle of the income distribution – seem to have a strongly positive influence on the government’s ultimate response. A policy that the average voter would like is significantly more likely to be enacted.
But, as Gilens and Page note, this gives a misleadingly upbeat impression of the representativeness of government decisions. The preferences of the average voter and of economic elites are not very different on most policy matters. For example, both groups of voters would like to see a strong national defense and a healthy economy. A better test would be to examine what the government does when the two groups have divergent views.
To carry out that test, Gilens and Page ran a horse race between the preferences of average voters and those of economic elites – defined as individuals at the top tenth percentile of the income distribution – to see which voters exert greater influence. They found that the effect of the average voter drops to insignificant levels, while that of economic elites remains substantial.
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It doesn't matter if you vote, it's all about the rules governing the U.S. election process of the two-party system, and if whether or not a candidate "bucks the system" relative to these rules governing the U.S. party system. Ron Paul is an example of someone who got screwed by this system since he was actually serious with his proposals that would have closed down 1/2 of useless Washington D.C. functions (AND CUT THE NATIONAL DEBT BY A THIRD). I supported and contributed to Ron Paul, (LIKE EDWARD SNOWDEN DID), as Ron Paul made 10x more sense than any of the other members of the two (s)electable parties of voter's "choices" in the United States political system. Note that these two parties (AND ONLY THESE TWO PARTIES) will receive the most in financial contributions AND the most in U.S. mainstream media attention since the U.S. mainstream media will not focus on any other parties that a U.S. citizen can vote for outside of these choices.
I refuse to vote Democrat or Republican, unless the candidate is the "real deal." And the current system will not allow the "real deal" anywhere near mainstream media attention, unless such a candidate sells their soul to the establishment, instead actually delivering on their promises to clean up the establishment before they win the election they are involved in (as every president has failed to do who followed JFK).