I'll speak to the commonly flung spurious assertion that "your vote doesn't matter" because of the Electoral College, as it is a catchy talking point the Progressives like to use and the more ignorant or uneducated in history seem to grab on to.
I'll show you how your vote can matter a lot.
It is a lying propaganda sound bite tailored these days specifically to the Snowflake generation who think they should be pampered and worshiped.
If you really want the bare truth, "Your" specific vote probably never matters in a National election Electoral College or direct mob vote. What matters is the combined votes of you and your fellow local citizens. In rare cases, a few hundred votes can decide who a state pledges their electors to. (Which is why in close races you sometimes hear of Democrats trying their best to "loose" or "delay" military mail in ballots).
If you voted or didn't vote, the outcome would be the same, what matters is how many got out and voted for each side, it's a game of numbers.
In every election a large portion of those that are eligible to vote never bother to vote.
Some places make voting more mandatory (Australia has vote or pay a small fine).
I say no to that as well, if you can't be bothered to go vote on your own initiative, then please don't vote as you obviously don't care enough about how the country goes to deserve a say.
Even if your vote won't make a dent in the outcome, at least if you go vote, you can have the moral stand of saying at least I went and voted for what I felt right even though most others in my state went the other way.
Some states go back and forth and in those states your "vote" may seem to count more, I don't exactly appreciate all the time and effort spent from my campaign contributions on campaigning in Iowa or Ohio and sometimes feel those guys are milking it for their few minutes of fame.
We can however fix that by making all the primaries happen on the same day if we want to.
If you live in a state like California, then you are surrounded by people who will generally vote Democrat candidates in with rare exceptions, so unless a big part of the state changes it's mind that is the way your electors will go, but truth be told, even in direct mob rule vote, the lemmings are still going the same way, the electoral college just keeps the lemmings in one area from destroying the whole country.
Now if you want to have your votes be more effective, there are a few things:
Get involved in the Primaries, in the primaries a very small subset of voters who actually turn up, get to decide who the candidates that everyone else gets to pick from will be & in some states where the party line control is assured, that actually picks the winner before the election.
So say you are in California, you know they are going to vote for a democrat candidate, but you get to help control which of the candidates is the one they will all vote for, what you and the smaller group in the primaries choose is who they will vote in. So you then have choices, in
California state elections, you vote in open primaries not by party (since the democrats rigged it that way so that only democrats ever are in the running), so pick the least worse of the choices.
For the National party primary, you could either:
Vote for the candidate you prefer in the party you prefer and at help propel them to become the national candidate there
(Your vote here matters a lot because people with like minded cause are voting who will be the national candidate for their cause)
Vote on the opposite side for the candidate you feel is the weakest and most likely to be easily defeated in a nationwide election
(The News media do this every election, during the primaries they build up whatever candidate they feel is the easiest to defeat on the republican side and try to get the republicans to vote them in so they can tear them down for an easy democrat win. It worked with McCain & Romney, they tried with Trump as he seemed perfect, but he surprised them all and went on to win)
Then when the final Statewide or National elections come up, go out and vote, at this point your individual specific vote is not what is going to change the course, it is how many of your like minded citizens show up and also vote. Even if it doesn't go your way, it is still a numbers game and the closer you make it to your side, the more resources your side will put into trying to win next time & the more people can be encouraged to get out and vote.
Why this lie is so popular is because the Snowflake generation has been brought up from childhood to think they are some special magical unique gift to the world that deserves all kinds of "respect" when in reality for the larger part of the population, them being alive or accidentally dead in a car accident tomorrow, only affects a small group of people for a short time (usually emotionally / financially) and then life goes on as is. Even leaders are the same, The President of the USA is technically one of the most powerful people on the planet, if he was to have a heart attack tomorrow, the Vice President would step in as president, appoint a new vice president, there would be a big state funeral, lots of speeches and mourning... Then life would go back to as it has before... just as it has many times in the past.
What matters in voting is getting the majority of people who show up to vote, to go your way.
The Constitution and Electoral College & Senate make sure that you have to get the majority in a large number of states to go along with you, to make sure the country as a whole wants to go a certain way rather than just a couple big population centers that generally tend to gather around similar ideas controlling everything.
I guarantee that if one day due to their own ideas bankrupting them, CA, NY, NJ, MA were much smaller population than more prosperous conservative states, the progressive media would be telling all the snowflakes how important the electoral college is and how it keeps the conservatives from running roughshod over the rights of the democrats.
You'll notice every time a conservative wins the electoral college votes but not supposedly the popular mob vote, the democrats & media trot out this line. But then anytime a democrat wins the electoral college votes but not the popular mob vote, they are all happy to say "Well that's the rules, we won fair and it's a great system".
