Do your duty and vote on Nov. 4

Less than a week before the elections.  Less than a week until all the ridiculous commercials stop.  Less than a week until all the sniping stops.  Well, all right, some of the sniping.  Point is, this will all be over in a week.  And I mean that in more ways than one.  This post is directed only at the people reading this post, the people whom the people reading this post know, and the people whom the people reading this post do not know.  (That would be everyone, Sunshine.)

Get out and vote.  People will say, “my vote doesn’t count”.  ALL votes count.  Regardless of the rumors about crooked Chicago voting (that’s actually true), or seriously confused Florida voters, all votes are actually counted and all votes actually matter.  I don’t think I have to spell out the different scenarios, unlikely that they are, in which one vote would make all the difference.  Then you hear people say “I don’t vote because they’re all crooked/rotten/unqualified etc.”.

Truer words are virtually never spoken, but there again, that’s why your vote is so important.

Folks, voting is one of the few true powers the public has left.  We decide who becomes President of the United States.  We decide who becomes governor of Illinois.  Okay, so we didn’t exactly make the best choices in either race, but you get the idea.  That is a huge responsibility, and one that should not be taken for granted.

Don’t like Obama?  Vote for McCain.  Don’t like McCain?  Vote for Obama.  Don’t like either of them?  Me either- vote for someone else.

If I were to have to be politically classified- I despise being thrown into any random arbitrary demographic or being “labeled”- I would have to call myself Republican, or at least conservative.  However, I am not- repeat, NOT- a Bible-thumping ultra-rightwing nut job.  (Extremists in any direction in any arena are nut jobs, folks.  I’m not being nasty, it’s a fact of life.)  I definitely lean more right of center than left, but I am not exclusively “right-wing”, as I believe many people are not 100% one way or the other.  Some issues are most certainly “one side or the other”- you either condone murdering unborn babies or you don’t, for example- but most issues are not {always} cut and dry, black or white, yes or no.

For example, obviously, I don’t believe in hacking apart fetuses for no apparent reason, yet I do 100% support the death penalty.  I can hear the libbies now: “killing is killing, blah blah blah”.  True, but at least in the case of the death penalty, it is justified.  Let’s see, do we kill a convicted murder/rapist/child sex offender, or do we kill an unborn child who did absolutely nothing to anyone other than be the product of careless, selfish, irresponsible people?  Sounds like a pretty easy call to me.

Now I’m not here to argue the rightness or wrongness of abortion.  I’ll let you give me your argument in favor of slaughtering fetuses at another place at another time.  The point is that people actually can be somewhat “contradictory” in their beliefs.  And the big point here is that just because someone’s beliefs don’t match yours DOESN’T MAKE THEIRS WRONG.  (Except in the case of people who support abortion.)  Again, I don’t see how people can justify abortion yet not the death penalty.  THAT’S messed up.

I’m straying again.  The point is that Barack Obama is not the answer to our problems.  Obama is a show pony.  A novelty act, if you will.  They’re parading him around the country like the second coming of Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther King, and in some cases, Jesus, all rolled into one.  That’s a major insult to anyone with ANY intelligence whatsoever, but that’s their game.  He will do nothing but socialize America and give everything to the “poor and underprivileged”, which is fine and dandy and so {disingenuously} noble, but guess who pays for the free healthcare and free this and free that?  You and me.  The people that bust their asses day in and day out, and then get screwed over for it.  You think the country is screwed up now, wait until Obama is elected.  I truly believe he will be elected- not because he deserves it or because he is the “right man” (he is not), but because he’s new and different.  And just so you know, voting for Obama simply because he is black IS JUST AS RACIST as not voting for Obama simply because he is black.  As I have lamented countless times here in the past, nobody seems to get that.

Then you have John McCain.  He is no more the right man for the job than Obama.  All McCain will do is add on to Bush’s groundwork- something McCain has more or less stated he will do, and something which obviously hasn’t worked in eight years.  (And don’t go exhonerating Clinton of contributing to our fucked up situation, Bush-haters.  Funny how the left-side seems to look the other way from Democrats’ indiscretions, faux-pas and FUBARS.)  McCain’s other big red check mark in MY eyes is that he wants to give tax breaks to (and supports this whole gubment bailout for) all the slimy rich bastards that caused a good portion of our economic sodomy in the first place.  Again, who pays for that?  You and me.  Politicians seem to either want to give people something for nothing- making them unwilling to actually try to work for anything- or else keep the rich rich, either way giving the tab to us working class people.

By the way, please explain to me what is so wrong with Sarah Palin?  What, because she shot a moose or a polar bear or something?  Big deal.  At least she didn’t kill an unborn child.  Again, if the choice is a fetus or an animal, sorry Bullwinkle.  You lose.  It’s called “proper perspective”.

Anyway, as I return from my tangent again, here’s the thing.  If you must vote for McCain, fine.  Dumb ass.  If you must vote for Obama, fine, you bandwagon hopping mindless sheep.  Just vote.  Vote McCain, vote Obama, or vote someone else.  Yes, you actually CAN do that.  Vote for Pat Paulsen, vote for Pedro (whoever the hell “Pedro” is), vote for Brangelina, vote for me, hell, vote for yourself.  There is nothing saying you MUST vote for one guy or the other.  If that were the case, they wouldn’t give you the write-in option.  Honestly, NOT voting for someone could make an even bigger noise than actually voting for or even against someone.

But just go vote.  The only people who don’t vote are the lazy and apathetic.  There is no cost to register to vote, and the only “requirement” is that you are 18 years of age.  Anyone over 18 who is not registered to vote is an idiot.  If you don’t vote, then you truly have no grounds to bitch about the country.  It’s like the ballplayer that rides the bench but doesn’t want to shoulder any blame for losing the game.  Win as a team, lose as a team.  If you don’t contribute, then you don’t get to complain, OR to take any credit for anything.  Don’t like the way things “are”?  Change them.  That’s what voting is for.

JUST VOTE, people.