Quote Originally Posted by IDCrewDawg View Post
Tom your modernization point is part of it. However, letting the politician get away with saying they will try and do something while in office, and then vote in the opposite direction when the time comes is part of the apathy I refer to. Americans don't for the most part pay attention to those details. We re-vote incumbents into office for no other reason than our perception they have done a good job, which in many cases is not even close to the truth (Bush as a perfect example).
For the last two Swedish elections there's been a few web applications where you could fill in your political opinions and it would generate a list of all the politicians and their parties on what they where planning to do within these issues, and their track record of making good on earlier promises. They where sorted after their dependability. These were created by the biggest newspaper sites.

This was just one example. The Internet is changing the world. No politician can dig themselves out of a hole with pretty speeches any more. Also voters are learning that their high demands on image is having effects on politicians. In Sweden, most politicians don't want any higher positions because it effectively stops them from having a life like ordinary people. And this is Sweden. We don't mind politicians getting drunk and fucking lovers.... They still find the pressure to high. So we as voters have to ask ourselves. What is it we're voting for. Ability to lead and dependability, or a spotless and boring private life.

The latest example is Obama's Muslim outfit. If people care about stuff like that, we're still back in the pre-Internet political climate.

But it'll change. The old coots who care about still like this will die out. I'm sure of it.