democracy?

okay,
every two years, we hold elections, and are offered the chance to change the membership of the entire house of representatives and 1/3 of the senate (they make the laws). The incumbent has a huge advantage, mainly because people around here don't like change.

every four years, in addition to changing the house and senate, we get to elect a new president. the president isn't elected by simple majority, he needs to capture the majority in a given state, who then contributes a certain amount of "electoral votes" to a pool, whoever captures the most votes from this "electoral college" becomes president. Because they need to capture multiple states, they gotta scatter their political ads across many, many states, this costs tons of money. While we do have limits on how much presidents can raise from outside sources, they can spend from their own pockets pretty much endlessly...as such, our presidents are usually fairly wealthy.

the president is essentially in charge of making the laws passed by congress legal, and has the ability to veto any law passed by congress. He's also in charge of the army and has the power to pick supreme court members, who determine whether a currently existing law is illegal or not. the office of the president is the most powerful political office in the world, and it's a shame more people don't get out and vote