Another election approaches, and I am full of dread, hope, and runaway nerves. If I rest my shaking hands lightly on the keyboard, I can hear my fingernails faintly chattering against the plastic keys.

I am living well right now. I make a decent wage, I'm comfortable, I live in relative freedom. Most of the people I know are living well too, even if a good many of them are denied equal protection under the law. Why am I squawking? What do I have to complain about? Why do I have such a hard time sleeping? Why does this election and all the elections to come matter so much to me? This might explain:




If the tide doesn't turn and I up and leave the country, anyone who wonders why can find some damn good reasons in this video (first brought to my attention by my friend WriteyB). I'm no fool. I know that there is no such thing as a spotless administration. I know that dreadful things have happened under other leaders even when the political climate was more to my liking. But honestly now--can you think of any other administration in living memory that has transgressed so often and so grievously against its own citizens, against other countries, against the very principles it cynically claims to promote? Can you really? Has there ever been a bunch of more unrepentant bullies controlling Congress and the White House? Can you remember so much incompetence, intolerance, and uncomprehending hypocrisy displayed with such breathtaking regularity? Could a video as heartbreaking as the one above be made about any other administration you can recall?

I know people who don't vote. They think it doesn't matter whether they vote or not. They're wrong. In your local elections important offices are at stake, and every vote will count, oh, most definitely. We have to start somewhere.

To put it another way, get out there and VOTE, you magnificent bastards!