The two parties both represent the same class interests with slight differences in a thin veneer of identity politics.

There's never been an alternative to vote for, and every attempt gets smeared in the media owned by the two-party system representing the oligarchs.

Candidates like Bernie who's still in line with most of above policies are showcased as alternatives but the distribution of power is never challenged outside of the arena of identity political circus boosted by conglomerate media.

Obama was also good example of this, PR outsider on the surface but in reality funded by the same bankers and continued global US adventurism.

Politics is downstream from elite interests when they own the media, the parties, the candidates and intermingle with the security state to take care of the rest.

This becomes especially apparent when looking back at the media landscape pre mergers, where a plurality of opinion and research existed from well respected classical journalists challenging local and state power, in what would today be smeared as conspiracy theorising or anti-patriotism while the overton window has become microscopic unless towing the line for the unfathomably rich.