Why Your Vote Matters

By now, it should be obvious that I am not an unbiased observer when it comes to my wife. Not only do I love her, but I respect her to no end.

If you've read her blog, you've seen how daring, open, and honest she can be with her thoughts and ideas. I hope I can someday be as articulate as she's been.

This post is a strong case in point.

In 1986, I had one of the most seminal movie experiences of my life. After watching Platoon, I filed out of the theatre with the rest of the audience. While doing so, I noticed that there was complete silence. No one talked. No one joked. It was clear people were digesting what they'd seen. Commentary would come later, but in those initial moments, it seemed as if we shared the bond of combat. As I said earlier, it was a seminal experience, one I've (clearly) never forgotten.

I was reminded of this feeling when I read my wife's recent post.

In a few hours, polls will open in this country and the people will have an opportunity to express their opinion about their representatives.

In my political posts, I've tried to maintain at least a veneer of objectivity. Oh, you may sense my political bent, but I don't think I've actually come out and advocated a specific course of action.

Yes, I ask you to vote. Before you vote, however, I ask you to review the history of the current administration. Look at the erosion of personal rights. Look at the attacks on individual privacy, the use of questionably legal tactics to engage in a war whose legal status has never fully been settled. Warrentless wiretaps? Incarceration without legal representation or review? More and more documents excluded from the Freedom of Information Act? Government contracts awarded, without review, to companies previously run by senior administration officials? A secret energy policy created by oil companies in secret meetings held at the highest levels of power?

In 1984, Ronald Reagan won re-election by asking if you were better off than you were four years earlier. Tell me, do you feel safer today? Do you feel as if your Constitutional rights are more protected today than they were two or six years ago?

Do you really feel that the current administration has wisely used its political captital? Has the current President (and the rubber-stamp Congress) united the country or divided it?

I believe we are more polarized than we have been since the height of the Vietnam war.

I will not ask you to vote the way I do, but I will tell you that I intend to vote for candidates that represent, in my view, a return to sanity, truth, and ethical behavior.

So why does your vote matter? Because I'm voting the bastards out.