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 I feel like I know who will get elected, but I don’t know who will become president.

I wonder if this is the first time americans have experienced this. 
 Americans have never chosen their President. It's always put in place voting is just an illusion. 
 While I completely agree that it's a horrible system & that it is horribly corrupt & I don't believe voting is actually a solution to anything...

I don't think it's really as simple as saying that votes don't matter at all. I think the fact that the "intelligence" agencies have been involved in killing, trying to kill, & in overthrowing multiple US presidents (Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Trump), & the fact that politicians & corporations spend billions on election campaigns, is some proof that what people want does play some role in what happens. If they had total control there would have been no need to kill or overthrow anyone, because the puppts they wanted would have already been put in place. There have certainly been elections that were just puppet vs puppet. Obama vs McCain was one of those. But even in those cases there are still different factions vying for power. 
 Is there at least one time in American history that a commoner, an unknown, was elected to the presidency? Or is it leaders are chosen and sold to the public as Americas choice? 
 first of all, fuck everything politics.

the answer is no because you need someone experienced.

no would would appoint a noob the ceo of apple. 
 Harry Truman. 
 Richard Nixon ... he grew up poor. Deep State HATED him. 
 Jimmy Carter ... nuke sub commander and peanut farmer / governor. .... he def. was not in the clique. 
 well said