Americans love to vote—for pop singers, soft drinks, or World Series predictions: “It’s a commonly held misperception that Americans don’t vote. Americans love to vote. The problem is that we vote for inane things. We vote on competing but really conspiring blends of Coca-Cola. We vote on who we believe will win the World Series or whether a given coach bungled a crucial third down. We vote people to the zenith of prefab pop stardom, often over the objections of bona fide talent scouts. We vote on issues of other people’s matrimony and during the commercial breaks, Internet providers and cable music video channels mainline election-year imagery and jockey for our ‘votes.’ We are quizzed in the streets, on the Web, and on television for our views. The language of ‘voting’ is everywhere when, in reality, it usually amounts to nothing more than a bar graph and the threat of future spam. Democracy? The free expression of ideas? Civil society? Sometimes it seems like Americans can’t get enough of it.” — Hua Hsu (Village Voice)