The Plain Fact of Voting

As plainly as it can be put:

I Know, I Know. Vote Anyway!

I get it. Believe me, I get it. Every day I talk to people - especially progressives - who are deeply disappointed with the leaders they worked so hard to elect. The litany of letdowns seems endless: Guantanamo. The public option. Don't ask, don't tell. Too big to fail. And, looming over all of it, the battered economy and a sense that the case for more government action wasn't made when it should have been.

Many of the hard-working activists I've met, people who can usually be counted on to encourage others to vote, aren't even sure they'll go to the polls themselves this year. They're saying that we've learned in the last two years just how corrupt the system has become. They're asking, what's the use? Even I, Mr. Glass Half-Empty, have been a little surprised at the level of pain and disillusionment.

The disaffection among core voters is there, and it's real.

Now, this is just you and me talkin' here, understand? I'm not a spokesman for anyone or anything when I say this, but here's what I think: If you're disaffected and disappointed, then as they say nowadays, I feel you. I get the anger, the frustration, the sense that the Corporate Party candidates will win no matter what we do. I understand the "plague on both your houses" reaction. So it's with that in mind that I say this:

Vote anyway. Please. And vote with enthusiasm, if such a thing is possible. I think it is possible.

So do I, dang it!

That's why I'm going to be at the booth shortly after 7 AM on November 2...

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