DWTS, and Voting

My husband and I are avid ballroom dancers.  We don't compete, we're not professionals, but we've been dancing for a lot of years, and we enjoy it.  So of course we watch Dancing with the Stars.  For the majority of the viewing public (who are non-dancers), it's exciting to see athletes, and performers, and singers, and other 'celebrities' out of their element, but ultimately learning to dance.
As ballroom dancers -  to be honest, we're generally more interested in watching the professionals than the celebrities.

(For those not familiar with the format, professional ballroom dancers are paired with celebrities, and they compete against each other.  Each week, one or two celebrities are voted off.)

This year, all celebrities have been on the show in a previous season, so everyone has some basic foundation in ballroom dancing, and they are starting out at a higher level.... which has made this a bit more interesting.  Last night's show, was absolutely outstanding.  Everyone stepped up their game, and I do think it may have been some of the most entertaining dancing I have ever seen.

Moving on to voting --  No, I'm not talking about voting on dancing with the stars.  Notwithstanding the pretense that people are voting for the best dancer -- well, I guess that's not even the pretense anymore...  the viewing audience is instructed to 'vote for their favorite dancer'...

Instead, I'm talking about voting in the upcoming elections.

Except, as I sit here drinking my tea  (back to my favorite, Typhoo), I'm thinking that maybe there's not that much difference.   We've only had one presidential debate so far, but after the debate, I heard supporters of BOTH sides say the SAME things..  both sides cried foul because the other side didn't comply with time limits, both sides said the other candidate lied, both sides said the other side needed a fact checker to keep them in line.  And it's not as if we're even choosing who we want for president based on one issue ---  who is best at representing my personal views on taxation,  or who is best at representing the US when meeting with other world leaders, or who is best at supporting my views on social policy.  Instead, the president has to do all of these things, and more, all at the same time.  So we can't even choose THE BEST.. we can only choose the one that comes the closest to what we're looking for.  And of course we can only choose from a very limited list of candidates.
Do we really think that speeches, and ads, and debates change much of anything? I'm thinking that they probably make about as much difference to who we vote for in the presidential election, as the celebrities' dancing makes, to who we vote for on dancing with the stars.

On DWTS, it largely comes down to a popularity contest.  On the presidential election ....  hmmm, I hear my kettle whistling.  Time for another cuppa, and I've said enough.