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.