I got my ballot in the mail on thursday. I've been staring at it for the past 36 hours off and on, not yet sure what I'm going to be marking in the presidential box. I started to fill it out, filling in the two votes I'm absolutely sure about (one of which being Oregon's congressional race and the other being a decisive "[FUCK] NO" on a proposed amendment to the state constitution establishing marriage as a union between a man and a woman only), and I'll handle the rest of the state measures later today.
Truth be told, I'm glum. Part of me wants to use voting for Kerry as a symbol for giving up, a sign that I truly no longer care about what truly is right and decent in the world and instead burying my beliefs and, in essence, the core of myself under the steady stream of American bullshit. I envy those for whom the Kerry/Edwards campaign genuinely speaks to, I really do, but for all their bluster, the only thing I see when I look at the men is another flagellation in the death spasm of what this country was supposed to stand for.
Not the jackass or the elephant, as Chuck D once said, but what are my options? A write-in vote for Ralph Nader, whose platform this time around speaks to me as little as anyone else's?
I'm not going to lie: I think any vote is wasted in the electoral college, but I honestly have no idea how to express myself anymore. Futility can fuel me for only so long.
Meanwhile, more rumblings in the ongoing pissing contest between the U.S. Junta and North Korea leave me more concerned about prolonged war. Regardless of who's president next january, there's going to be a motherfucker of a mess to clean up in the next couple years.
Truth be told, I'm glum. Part of me wants to use voting for Kerry as a symbol for giving up, a sign that I truly no longer care about what truly is right and decent in the world and instead burying my beliefs and, in essence, the core of myself under the steady stream of American bullshit. I envy those for whom the Kerry/Edwards campaign genuinely speaks to, I really do, but for all their bluster, the only thing I see when I look at the men is another flagellation in the death spasm of what this country was supposed to stand for.
Not the jackass or the elephant, as Chuck D once said, but what are my options? A write-in vote for Ralph Nader, whose platform this time around speaks to me as little as anyone else's?
I'm not going to lie: I think any vote is wasted in the electoral college, but I honestly have no idea how to express myself anymore. Futility can fuel me for only so long.
Meanwhile, more rumblings in the ongoing pissing contest between the U.S. Junta and North Korea leave me more concerned about prolonged war. Regardless of who's president next january, there's going to be a motherfucker of a mess to clean up in the next couple years.