Voting “No” on something isn’t the same as not understanding how the system works. Politics is a giant game of chess that you have to be able to play. For example, Rep. Paul Tonko voted Nay on the debt ceiling bill and will tell you that it’s a disaster and it’s the fault of congressional Republicans. What he doesn’t mention is that his colleague, Sen. Schumer voted in favor of it and President Obama signed it. Now take the flip side: Every Republican presidential candidate has said they would not have signed that bill and claim it is a failure of the President for doing so. What they don’t mention is that it was agreed upon by congressional Republicans and a sizable number of Senate Republicans.
So you see, neither side can really claim to be correct because they both had a hand in it. What I’m saying is that the average voter doesn’t understand that and they tend to fall in line behind whichever side they normally lean towards. The same goes for people complaining that Congress doesn’t do it’s job when they wait until the last minute to act on something. They wait because there is no reason to negotiate until you’ve reached your deadline. There’s no incentive for compromise.
Sometimes when I talk to voters it boggles my mind and I’m happy only 40% make it out to the polls. Unfortunately half of them shouldn’t be voting either.