To echo @Psudo when it feels like it’s meaningless. Paying attention to local and state politics and politicians is an avenue to support the kinds of representatives you’d like to see setting more national policy. It’s also a way to improve your state and local politics. Maine had some great turnout and engagement around getting ranked choice voting instituted as our way of electing most of our politicians, and now the debate is on improving it and how hard we’re allowed to mock the folks supporting the 937^th attempt to overturn it. RCV, STAR, and other alternatives to FPTP elections help to keep political extremes from setting policy, which can in turn improve how effective local votes are. It’ll never happen from disengagement though. And gerrymandered systems can be brittle, sometimes requiring only a small increase in turnout to be overcome.