A fresh perspective on American politics

I recently asked a 34-year-old East German woman (I emphasize East German because she was forced to learn Russian from age 5 and was 16 when the wall fell) if the Germans were happy with the outcome of their most recent election, considering there was such an uproar regarding the final count, much like the Bush-Gore election in 2000. Her response, which is not the focus of my point but is nonetheless interesting, is that the German people are so fed up with the government at this point that they just don't even care. That's sad. Though I identify with the sentiment.

Here is my driving point: in the course of this discussion she remarked how few Germans vote, somewhere around 65%. And I said, "Wow, that's way more than Americans. I'm pretty sure that somewhere around 40% of all eligible voters in America actually vote."

And the kicker, her response: "And that counts?"