I voted

Mostly out of spite, I think, because I’ve pretty much lost all faith in the American political system. I do still firmly believe that it is our responsibility to vote, and try to make things better in this country. I just don’t think it’s actually going to happen. Oh, and I really, really didn’t want Ehrlich to get re-elected or Steele to get elected to the Senate (that’s the spite part).

Someone who reads this site recently brought up the fact that I don’t talk about politics much anymore, and I realized that is true. Somewhere along the line I lost all confidence in politics and politicians. Of course, that “line” includes:

▪ the stolen 2000 election
▪ the way that Bush decided to govern as if he’d been elected by a landslide instead of not actually getting elected at all
▪ 9/11
▪ the crass exploitation of 9/11 to put all sorts of loathsome laws in to effect
▪ the lies leading up to the Iraq war
▪ my fury at the way the Democratic Party laid down and played dead
▪ the disaster that is the Iraq war
▪ the thousands of dead American soldiers and the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis
▪ the disintegration of the US efforts in Afghanistan
▪ the bizarre election of 2004, which I still can’t believe George Bush actually won
▪ the widening gap between rich and poor
▪ the way the Republicans seems to actively hate the environment
▪ the focus on bullshit “problems” like gay marriage, illegal immigration (yes, the people who care for our children, tend our gardens, clean our houses and offices, harvest the crops that we eat, and construct the buildings we live, work and shop in, boy are they a threat), and getting the Ten Commandments posted in court rooms to distract us from what a mess this country is.

Even worse? That’s only a partial list. I think it all culminated for me with the lack of response to Hurricane Katrina. However legion my government’s faults were, I thought we could count on it in times of crisis. Obviously, I was wrong.

And this election season has done nothing to restore my faith. It’s been negative and nasty and while I voted the straight Democrat ticket, I’m pretty sure that even a complete Democratic majority will only make a marginal difference. They certainly haven’t said anything that leads me to believe that they have a real plan, that they are willing to stand up for what is right, really challenge the Republicans on policy and change the direction of this country. Are you going to fix the economy? Guarantee access to healthcare for all Americans? Get us out of Iraq? Do something about global warming? Prove me wrong, Democrats. Please.

P.S. Totally unrelated, but five miles, baby! Yep, today, I did it. It took me the full hour plus two minutes of the cool down period, but I got there.