Abstinence-only voter education

Today I’m here to tell you that there’s a third option that’s not often discussed in terms of elections in the United States, abstinence. I’m a liberal guy, and I vote for liberal candidates. I know lots of conservatives who vote for conservative candidates. Unfortunately for them, this year voting for conservatives means voting to continue the policies of the Bush administration, which have been a disaster for liberals and conservatives alike.

We’re mired in a never ending occupation in Iraq, which, due to the strategy pursued by the Bush administration has become a sectarian bloodbath. We have tax cuts on the book that were passed with expiration dates so that they wouldn’t look like the debt-increasing monsters that they are. The Republicans are now trying to make them permanent in spite of the fact that they’re going to break the bank. We’ve had two years where the biggest piece of domestic legislation that passed was a bankruptcy bill that screws individual consumers on behalf of banks. The biggest piece of legislation passed this year is a bill that trashes the Magna Carta.

I’m not going to be a hypocrite here. There’s almost no way I could ever vote for a Republican in anything other than a local race. But I can abstain from voting in a race. In fact, that’s what I plan to do in the Congressional race in my district this year. We have a conservative Democratic incumbent who voted for the detainee bill. I’ll be sitting that one out. If you’re unhappy with how things are going, I urge you to do the same. Don’t vote for someone you don’t like, just don’t vote at all. You’ll feel better about yourself in the morning. (Do show up and vote in the other races, though. Leaving a few spots blank on your ballot is perfectly fine.)