Are my politics Democrat or Republican? I think both are horrific. And it doesn't matter anyway. Money runs Am... — Shane Smith

Are my politics Democrat or Republican? I think both are horrific. And it doesn't matter anyway. Money runs America; money runs everywhere.

Author: Shane Smith

Insight: There's a particular kind of disillusionment baked into this statement that feels more honest than most political talk we hear. It's the exhaustion of someone watching two teams play theater while the actual machinery—the lobbying, the corporate interests, the revolving door between government and industry—keeps humming along regardless of who wins the election. Whether you agree with the diagnosis or not, the underlying frustration is real: many people feel like voting is choosing between two flavors of the same fundamentally broken system. The tricky part is what happens after you accept this view. If money truly drives everything and politics is just window dressing, what then? Do you check out entirely, or does the observation actually clarify something useful? Sometimes naming the game as rigged can feel like permission to stop paying attention altogether. But there's another angle: understanding that structural money-power matters doesn't mean individual choices disappear. Local elections, ballot measures, and pressure on specific representatives can still shift things. The fatalism itself becomes the real obstacle. What Smith's quote captures is the modern skeptic's bind—you see too much to pretend the system is fair, but not enough to know what actually moves it.