Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg write:

We are watching the slow-motion collapse of American citizenship.

I'm not sure I buy it, but if it's true, it has more to do with the news media than anything else. Journalists seem to take great delight in denigrating everything about government, then complain that people are losing their faith in it. The Education establishment seem to think that patriotism is a bad thing, and pump our kids full of all the failures and shame of the U.S.A., and these guys, both PolySci professors, seem shocked that people don't vote. Then there are the black "leaders" who've grown rich and famous by denouncing this country and demanding ever more from the government, and urging their followers to vote as instructed so that they can keep that gravy train running.

I vote because I see it as a duty of citizenship, not because I expect it to do any good.