Are our elections meaningful or is it smoke and mirrors?

The answer is they are still valid and functional.  And everyone should be voting.

Is their cheating?  Yes.  But it’s not centralized because voting is based on rules of states and conducted locally.  That is a power the states should NEVER relinquish because if they do cheating becomes centralized and elementary.   We should continue working to stamp out any cheating regardless of whom is doing it.  NO ONE should have their thumb on the scales.

But if you want to understand why elections are still valid you have only to look at the Trump situation.  If the establishment knew they could easily cheat to beat Trump there would be no need to demonize and attack him and show their hand in doing so.  They would simply let him run and watch him lose.

However that is not the case.  Clearly the establishment is concerned they cannot win even in the event they are cheating. So they are doing everything possible to try to stop him or hamstring him to the point of harming themselves in doing so.

If elections were currently entirely meaningless there would not be any concern or action against someone not part of the establishment hive.