I'm also disappointed in the political choices of the East - and that's because it's mostly old fucks and ignorant people who vote for those who are voted in. Seriously - it's all dick-bananas politically right now. I still DO vote because it's a proof of caring - and one day it will matter.
This is personal experience - but mostly, people who vote care. And it's proof of caring in the sense that - not voting for the person you'd like to see in office is, in a way, voting against them. And since everyone whines that the current leaders suck, the only way to get someone who sucks less in office is to vote for them.
Would you say then, that not voting = not caring? My gripe with what you said before is that i could not care and vote, and i could care and not vote. There doesn't seem to be any causation. There might be a correlation but I don't know of any evidence for or against, and I think setting up a study like this would be difficult.