Vote like your life depended on it.
I found out the other day that only a quarter of Americans vote. They didn't specify "voting age" or not, but no matter how you slice it, that number is abysmal. If you are of voting age and you don't vote, you should be ashamed of yourself. Voting is a sacred thing, and you should partake of it. It has been said that, "Those who enjoy the blessings of Liberty should undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
Now that I hopefully have convinced you to go down and register to vote and actually take the time to engage in this right, let's talk about who to vote for.
In todays political climate, I realize that you must increasingly hold your nose to make your pick, and pick the lesser of two evils, but please consider this: Who is doing at least something, and who is obstructing.
Which party is mischaracterizing the NSA wiretap program? Which party is for giving terrorists rights under the Geneva Conventions and US law? Which party is threatening to cut funding of the war to force us out of Iraq? Democrats, Democrats, and Democrats. Now, let's look at those specific questions.
Which party is mischaracterizing the NSA wiretap program? The NSA wiretap program is an international project, not a domestic one. Sure, it looks at calls that terminate in the US, but originate from known international terrorist phone numbers. The tangle of paperwork required to get a warrant is long and difficult. Sometimes it takes too long to get a warrant, and so the NSA listens first and then gets the warrant. All but one of the present and former FISA judges says this is within the scope of the law. So who do you believe? Democrats, or a majority of the people who made it their job to issue warrants for this program?
Which party is for giving terrorists rights under the Geneva Conventions and US law? The Geneva conventions stipulates that combatants, "... have a well-defined chain of command, are clearly distinguishable from the civilian population, carry their arms openly, and obey the laws of war." The people we are fighting do not meet this standard in any way. They do not have status under this Convention, so why should we give them such status? AND, our illustrious Democrat members of Congress actually want to extend US citizenship status to these animals. This is not how you treat prisoners of war. This is not how you treat enemy combatants that do not follow the precepts of war. And if you want to talk torture, look at what Saddam did with his own people. Rape the women, cut off fingers with wirecutters, acid baths, electrical torture. That's torture. What we do is at most make them uncomfortable.
Which party is threatening to cut funding of the war to force us out of Iraq? This is the back way of "Cut and Run." If Democrats win the house, they control the spending and can refuse to fund the war. This would effectively force us out of Iraq and damage our international status and leave Iraq to another dictatorship, or worse an Islamic Sharia state. That would deeply and permanently damage our credibility world-wide, and show our enemies that if they hold out long enough, the peaceniks will win and force us to lose.
Now, I don't like a lot of Republicans any more than you do. They haven't addressed a lot of the issues that need addressing, like border security, but they are a damn sight better than the alternative.
So, vote like your future depended on it. It does.