Shimrod, the right to vote, of which you are so proud, is there to make you think you're calling the shots. It allows you to express a preference btween the available candidates. If your chosen candidate is outside the national parties (eg the "vote for yourself party" which appropriately enough polled one vote in Cardiff last time) your vote will almost certainly be wasted. If (in the UK and US) you vote for a national-party candidate who wins or loses by a big margin, your vote has been wasted. If in the UK you vote for a candidate with a party that has no prospect of gaining a parliamentary majority or balance-of-power minority, your vote counts for nothing in terms of national governance. And it is perfectly feasible (and it happens) that the party that does achieve a parliamentary majority does so with a minority of the votes cast.

To quote the title of a book by Ken Livingstone: "If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it."