How do Americans vote out their president?

In a big country with many different races and ethnic groups like the U.S, electing a president is regularly complicated, and the result is not always predictable. Before the election, each candidate, supported by his party, always makes his best effort to convince voters that he is better than other competitors and so more deserved their votes. To catch the public attention, his party usually carries out a mass electoral campaign which calls people: “vote for him because he is the most capable”. Of course such an effort will affect millions of voters and have certain positive effects because it tries to hide away the weak points of the candidate and show his strong points as much as possible. However, it will not necessarily guarantee that he will win the election then, for many voters don’t just simply vote for the most convincing candidate. In fact, they often make their decision to vote for whom based on many different factors. Depending on those factors, voters, in general, can be divided to 5 major groups.
The first group of voters consists of citizens who have nothing to do with or don’t care about politics; for those people, which candidate becomes the president will not make any difference. These people will not bother to consider any factor before they vote. Some of them may think politics is nothing more than just a dirty game and a president election is nothing more than just a competition of skillful liars trying to take power, for power is naturally associated with benefit, and the winner is just a better liar who will rarely keep his words later, so they refuse to vote or just simply put down any name in the list of candidates on their votes without thinking. Others may vote under the influence of someone else: “My boyfriend votes for A, so I am going to vote for A too”.
The second group consists of voters who at least know well whom they will vote for and why. Yet the reason why they make their choices may not relate to politics at all, for they are heavily influenced by a certain prejudice. Popular factors those they often base on to make their decision are race, skin color, sex, age, health condition, hometown, social class, and political affiliation of the candidates. For example, a white voter would prefer a white candidate, or a black citizen, likewise, would likely to vote for a black candidate; a voter who is a member or supporter of Republican Party always vote for the candidate from the same Party; a resident from New York wants to vote for the candidate from New York too. In this case, the capability or qualification of the candidates is not a point to be counted on. Some voters from this group may even vote for a candidate just because that character is so good-looking!
Voters from the third group are citizens who worship individualism. These citizens usually place their personal benefits above national benefits and in general, above everything. Therefore, they will certainly vote for the candidate who will possibly bring them, by some ways, some benefits in the future. For example, a business owner wants to vote for a candidate who promises to cut down taxes for businesses, or a Mexican American voter will naturally vote for the candidate who promises a favorable policy for illegal immigrants from Mexico because his relative is an illegal immigrant, or a gay-citizen who will certainly vote for the candidate who has a friendly policy to same-sex marriage. Like people of the second group, these voters have nothing to do with the capability or achievement of the candidates. If Satan promises to give them what they want, they would not hesitate to vote for him!
What about the forth group? This group consists of voters who are really serious about the election. In their view, electing a leader for the country is a sacred duty of any citizen with a good sense of responsibility. They understand that the future of the country is placed in their votes, and there’s no room for mistakes. That’s why these voters are very careful and difficult, yet they are usually impartial and have no prejudice to any candidate. Ignoring factors like race, appearance, political affiliation of the candidates, these voters will focus on the candidates’ ability and achievement. They will spend time to study and compare the candidates, their policies, as well as their parties with one another to find out who is the best. They will also discuss the matter with other people before making their decision.
Like the forth group, the fifth, and may be the last group consists of voters who really vote with a perspicacious head and a serious attitude. The little difference between these two groups is that the fifth group is even more careful and difficult than the forth. Beside factors like the candidates’ capacity, policies, and their parties’ tendencies, and so on, these voters find some other relevant factors to think about such as, what is the major goal that the country needs to achieve in this period of time? And who among the candidates will most likely be able to help the country obtain that goal? For example, at a certain historical moment, the country would need a brilliant military commander like Napoleon or George Washington to be its leader; at another moment it would need another type of leader, a talented economist or diplomatist, for example, depending on what its major goal is. It will not make sense to vote for a military hero-candidate who is excellent at fighting but has limited capacity in economics and diplomacy at the moment when the country’s major goal is trying to restore an unhealthy economy or repair many sick international relationships. Likewise, it would not make sense either to vote for a super economist-candidate who knows well how to create wealth for the country yet doesn’t know much about fighting at the moment when the nation’s main goal is to defeat its enemy. In another word, the key question for these voters is not “who is the most convincing candidate?” but “who is the most suitable leader at this moment?”
President election is obviously a vital political event for the country. Nevertheless, deep into its nature, it is nothing else but just a game. Like any other game, big or small, it will finally point out the winner as well as losers. Like any other game, it’s not easy to predict who is going to open a bottle of champagne before the game actually ends. That is the key point which makes the game so dramatic and full of excitement, isn’t it? And finally, to win any game, beside wisdom and capability, people always need a bit of good luck as well. After every 4 years, millions of people around the world anxiously share the common question: Who will be the next president of the U.S? Only time can give us the final answer.