You live in ground zero. The Dems have done to California what they want to do to the rest of the country. Get your family out. The job market has never been better to seek a better existence.
You will be hard pressed to find the semi-arid climate you enjoy but you will likely put your family in a safer environment.

I'd say that, while the system certainly seemed rigged, there's also the ability to beat the game using the same rules. Hence, Trump. I might even compare it to free markets - lots of guys out there selling bad goods, and big guys are tough to overcome, but not impossible. (not a perfect metaphor, but work with me)

I'm voting, and expect it to count. I'm not a cynic, but a believer in our electoral system, flawed as it may be.

What will be interesting to watch is how far off base the pollsters were. Newt Gingrich said one polling firm had to call over 31,000 people to get about 300 that would answer their questions. A 1% sample sounds like a shaky premise on which to base outcomes. I suspect there are many like me who don't answer phone numbers that I either don't know, or which have no caller ID.

Voting at the ballot box is important, but even more important (IMO) is voting with your wallet!

It still comes back to the lyric from the Rush song "Freewill"....
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose free will"

I vote whenever there's at least one Libertarian on the ballot. Most of the rest of the ballot I leave blank.

Please don't give up on voting, Abaco. I believe its the only voluntary action that we as citizens of a democratic republic have a duty to do. Taxes, jury duty, et al are all mandatory. I know the frustration when your on the losing side of an issue, but its not like losing a ball game where there's always next year, I am proud to say that I have never missed an opportunity to vote in 60+ years. As an independent voter, I study the candidates and ballot propositions and try to ignore the usual raucus political BS. Then I vote my conscience. Sometimes I win-sometimes I lose, but I tried.

Recently we voted out a couple of city council members and a spend-thrift city manager. I stood up and harranged the council a every chance I got --even wrote letters to the editors of local papers. It worked!

You seem like Dominique Francon; believing that good values had no chance in the world, she did not want to "soil" herself even by fighting the evil. But as it was, she was mistaken. And what makes you think your vote won't count at all? Because there are so few of us? Numbers start with Number One, then there is Number Two, etc. If you are living in a near-Socialist state, there are other states in the country. Do not give way to despair. And you are not alone in the world, with no one to have the same values you do.

I vote so I can bitch about the outcome. Period.

Let's not forget that by voting you are giving consent/approval, for someone to pass laws that can be detrimental to you. Until the collectionist class is removed they will continue to impose laws and taxes that strangle us.

I am going to postulate that we citizens are being manipulated into "voting". The argument for voting is that our freedoms are subject to who wins some number of elections. Our freedoms should never even be up for grabs in an election in the USA. The choice is often between freedoms being eroded today or tomorrow (democrat or republican). False choices.

I do think also that WAY too much of our attention is paid to government in general. Government is NOT the end-all in our country on a day to day basis. The decisions we all make every day are what decides our personal fate, and should be more important and take our attention.

I am tired of watching all these ads fro politicians. The only thing I really want of the less than 50% of the current politicians we actually need is for them to manage the money we give them most efficiently to run the government.

I live in NY and I already know these knuckleheads will reelect the same useless liberals who are and have been destroying this great state for a very long time. I vote with just one thought in my mind. My vote cancels out the vote of some idiot and it makes me feel much better.