http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:politics&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
Definitions of politics on the Web:
- social relations involving intrigue to gain authority or power; "office politics is often counterproductive"
- the study of government of states and other political units
- the profession devoted to governing and to political affairs
- the opinion you hold with respect to political questions
- the activities and affairs involved in managing a state or a government; "unemployment dominated the politics of the inter-war years"; "government agencies multiplied beyond the control of representative politics"
I'll go for Door #4: "the opinion you hold with respect to political questions":
I don't think voting does a bit of good. I think it's something of a placebo; it allows people to think they have a voice, an effect, when, in fact, they have nothing of the kind.
Remember the old story about the householder refusing the magazines because he just knew the publisher was getting rich peddling them door to door? I heard it back when the magazines were going for $.05. Even after a thorough explanation of the expenses incurred by the publisher in bringing the magazines to the public, the householder's logic was that all those nickels add up, so the publisher must be getting rich!
Carry that "logic" over to the matter of voting: Do all those votes really add up to a force that sways governmental affairs?
I think not, therefore I have no interest in participating in that aspect of the political system.