For every well educated, informed, conscientious voter who puts the needs of the nation above their own petty concerns (and really, let me know if you find this person), there is one ignorant uniformed moron, one party hack, one perpetually angry asshole whose only goal is to gum up the works, one guy who votes at random, one guy who forgot to vote, one guy who didn’t vote in protest, one guy who didn’t vote because he was stoned, one guy who didn’t vote because he figures it doesn’t matter, one guy who didn’t vote because he was in prison, and one guy who didn’t vote because the space alien Jesus in his head told him voting booths are really experiments by government scientists to steal our precious bodily fluids.
Source: Stonekettle Station: The Election: What Does It All Mean?
From comments:
not only do monarchies work, they are probably among the most successful and stable forms of government known to humanity: they are compatible with multiple other forms of government through constitutions (democracy and democratic socialism), and they provide a core of civic tradition and sense of shared history which, if harnessed appropriately, is massively conducive to productive democratic participation.
— anonymous