Show Up

Vote. Do it tomorrow.

That's the point of this post.

Get out and vote. If you've still not opened your absentee ballot, open it today, now, and complete the ballot. Take it physically in to your appropriate entity.

Get out and vote.

Drive to your polling place and take the fifteen minutes, or half hour, or hour, or whatever time necessary, to register your intentions.

Your failure to do so is your failure to become involved in the Democratic process and, as such, clearly, you lose your right to bitch about what "those bastards" did. You don't vote? Not interested? Pissed at Bush? Pissed that your vote "doesn't count?"

Then take a big cup of Shut The Fuck Up when your country takes a direction you don't like.

Get out and vote.

And I voted for the GOP.

Yes, my teeth were gnashing, trust me. Flecks of enamel were flying about as I filled in the little black bubbles on my ballot. My personal dentist made over $1,000 as a result.

I responded to Texas Fred in his comments section of one of his posts and went over my standard litany of objections to President Bush, the GOP, yadda yadda yadda. I vented. I might still vent again. Depends.

But I had to back up and consider the bottom line for me. And RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman says it this way:

Even more dangerous is that Democrats truly seem to believe that Iraq is completely separate from the greater war on terror. Al-Qaeda's leaders are not confused about the importance of Iraq to their goal of global jihad. Osama bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said his goal is to use Iraq as a base to launch further attacks, with the goal of creating a new caliphate in the Middle East. On Tuesday, we must ask ourselves: Would surrendering Iraq to the enemy so they can use it as a base from which to launch attacks make us more or less safe?

Voters face another choice Tuesday: Republicans have cut taxes every year since George W. Bush was elected president. Democrats, on the other hand, have said outright that they plan to raise your taxes. If you're a typical American family with two kids earning $30,000 a year, the Democrats would raise your taxes by more than $2,000. They'd raise your gas taxes just as gas prices are finally coming down. Where would it end? Well, the man who would be in charge of tax policy in a Democrat-controlled House came right out and said it: No tax increase will be out of bounds.

Republicans want to eliminate the death tax once and for all. Democrats want to bring it back. Republicans want to explore new sources of energy to bring gas and heating prices down. Democrats want to block domestic exploration. Republicans want small businesses to be able to band together to provide health care to their employees at a reasonable cost. Democrats don't believe entrepreneurs and their employees should have that freedom. Republicans want all parents to be able to choose where they send their kids to school. Democrats would limit that choice to the rich and powerful. The list goes on and on.

There is one more choice voters face Tuesday: The Senate has approved two superb new Supreme Court justices, John Roberts and Sam Alito. Republicans supported Justices Roberts and Alito because they understand that judges need to interpret the law, not invent it. Many Democrats, on the other hand, vocally fought — and then voted against — Justices Roberts and Alito. Why? Because they depend on activist judges to hand them the victories they can't win at the ballot box.

I suppose that pretty much sums it up. I went the "I want a viable Third Party" route. I went the "I just won't vote to display my displeasure" route. I went the "screw all the damnable politicians" route.

Then I came to my senses and marked my ballot.

You there; I'm writing to you.

Get out and vote.

BZ