Excellent questions! I'll do the best I can in explaining it, but I'm not great at political things, so I may get a couple things wrong. Steemit community, please chime in and correct me if I do.
To address the first point - no, the president cannot be voted out during a mid-term election. You are correct in that he is locked in for 4 years (barring impeachment or resignation).
The mid-term election happens midway through the presidential term and is a chance for citizens to vote for other representatives at the state and local level. For example, in Ohio we voted on a few Ohio Supreme Court Justices (judges), County Auditor (if you are in Cuyahoga County), and representatives to our House of Congress and Senate.
By having mid-term elections, we eliminate having ALL of our representatives change at the same time. It just staggers the process. It's also important for political power reasons. The 'party' (historically Republican or Democratic) with more people in it in the House or Senate respectively has more power in that institution.
So yesterday, the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate (I think.... I'm not well-versed in politics). After the mid-term election, it is predicted that the Republicans will still control Senate but that the Democrats will control the House. This would make our politics a little more balanced (in theory), but it also makes it much hard to get any new legislation passed.
Our government doesn't work very well with itself. For some reason they are always bickering over party lines.
Was that helpful at all?
Yes, it does. From what I understand from the reporting here in Australia, the Democrats took control of the house, but the Republicans gained a few more 'seats' in the Senate, or vice versa!! Either way, Trump seems happy about the outcome.
Your's isn't the only country that has political problems - hell, look at Aussie politics in the last ten years! We vote in one Prime Minister, and then they're ousted by their own party, and we get another that we didn't even vote in!! At least in the US, they'd be hung for treason for something like that!!
Oh boy, that sounds like a mess and a half over there. What did your PM do that he or she was ousted for?
In other news, US voters in Nevada elected a man who has been deceased for several weeks rather than vote for his Democratic rival. So now the Republican party in that state will pick someone to serve in his place.
It's no wonder so may people feel like their vote doesn't matter.
That's funny - as far as I'm aware, we've never voted in a dead person. although, some of our former leaders may as well have been dead for all they've done!!
Twice now, a PM has been ousted, and I think it's due to a loss of confidence by the other party members. I tend to believe that it's more because someone more ambitious has wanted the top job and has stabbed someone in the back. Although, the current PM got into power through one of these processes, and I actually quite respect his beliefs and leadership.
I know a few people who simply 'donkey vote' - not sure if that's a term in the US - basically, just throwing their vote be doing something stupid, or purposely voting wrong (for Jedi's or something similar!!), because they really think the process is a fraud.
The Jedi religion was an option people wrote down on our census in 2001. I have no idea why, but I did find it hilarious.
Are you talking the Australian census? I remember it being on there at one point too, but I'm pretty sure it's since been removed. Quite a few people did put it as their religion.
Yes, I remember at the time that enough people choose it as their religion for it to meet the legal requirements to become a registered religion, but our Prime minister at the time said fun's over and it never happened.
Yep. You're right. Was that the Howard government? Or the one directly after... can't remember which!