You don't get to vote on any of the most consequential things your government does.

You don't get to vote on whether wars, militarism and imperialism should continue.

You don't get to vote on whether your government should engage in nuclear brinkmanship with Russia and China.

You don't get to vote on whether your government should keep systems in place which ensure the destruction of our biosphere.

You don't get to vote on whether you government should be continuously working to subvert and destroy any nation anywhere on earth who dares to disobey its dictates.

You don't get to vote on whether your government should continue imposing sanctions on one-third of the world, disproportionately targeting the economies of low-income countries.

You don't get to vote on whether your government should keep systems in place which allow the wealthy to exert control over labor to extract surplus value from workers at home and abroad.

You don't get to vote on whether your government should keep systems in place which allow people to go homeless or die of treatable illnesses because they don't have enough money.

You don't get to vote on whether billionaires should remain billionaires while so many ordinary people struggle to survive.

You don't get to vote on whether you and your compatriots should be subjected every single day to mass media propaganda which serves the information interests of your government and the status quo politics it relies on. 

You don't get to vote on whether your government should keep pushing more and more authoritarian measures to ensure the suppression of dissent like Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, online censorship, surveillance, government secrecy, and the war on journalism.

You don't get to vote on whether or not any of this murder, tyranny, oppression and exploitation should take place. All you get to vote on is what face should represent these things for the next four years, and whether that symbolic face will have a (D) or an (R) next to their name.

The functioning of a globe-spanning empire is seen as too important to be left in the hands of the voting public — so it isn't. Nothing that is critical to the empire's operation is ever on the ballot. They only let voters control a few superficial details about their society which make no difference to the powerful, while placing tremendous significance on elections and their outcomes so that voters really feel like they are making a difference.

Chomsky was correct when he said "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." Until you really understand that quote and how far it goes, you can't understand anything about mainstream western politics and political discourse.