J,  Sorry to be "repetitiously redundant", but don't lose hope because all hope is not lost!  Why am I such a cockeyed optimistic?  Because we may live long enough to see the end of the currently dominant political economy--locally, nationally, and internationally--which perpetuates the fiction that "we, the people" choose our so-called "representatives", but who in reality represent the wealthy special interests who pay "our" reps to pretend to "run for office."   

And no matter who the "winners" are, they will be bought and paid to represent the special interests of their true owners, who are no longer "we, the people" because "we the taxpayers" only pay their chump-change base salaries--and everyone knows there is no real money in just being a voter-owned "chump."  The only way to make some big bank as a fake "man/woman of the people" is to use your office to peddle influence, like our dear leading from behind mayor, who "earns" $200K from his one-day a month bank side-job alone.