I spent most of my life unconcerned with voting or politics. I've pretty much voted in all major elections, skipped the local ones (until the last 4 or 5 years) and never found much that power was doing that affected me personally. I decided about 5 or 6 years ago to look closely at politics and try to understand how decisions were made, how power in office works, and how I might participate as an idealistic democracy-mongerer.