I'm standing in front of a poster in the New Orleans Convention Center. Joe Biden is speaking after this session, which they just shortened by another 30 minutes. VP totally stealing my thunder.
Absolutely. I might be disillusioned, but not dumb. At the very least, I think that voting gives me the right to complain about the outcome. If I were to design a political system from the ground up, it would almost certainly include the function of a voting populous. Not participating is material support for a non-voting system, at least for all those that share your interests.
Yes, never too bad to be honest. We all like to complain, but choose most any place at any time in the history of human civilization, and your political influence and access to justice would be worse. We don't reflect often enough on just how good we have it, and how we have the tools to make our situation even better. Voting must succeed as a robust civic exercise in order to pull quality candidates.
George Packer does a few chapters on Joe Biden in The Great Unwinding. He comes across as a total chucklefuck. Worthy of note: Packer also does a chapter each on Jay-Z, Oprah and Newt Gingrich, none of which come across as chucklefucks. Read into that what you will.