For months now, I’ve had an ongoing internal dialogue over whether or not I should vote on November 2. One side of me, the side that says that this country is ruled by the financial oligarchy who pull the strings for the corrupt politicians in Washington, including Obama, says that no vote cast will change anything and thus, “nah – don’t bother”. The other side, which fondly looks back to the days when there was a thriving middle-class in this country, strong unions to ensure that there was a more reasonable distribution of the wealth created by the working class, the wealthy behaved themselves and weren’t preening obnoxiously, and the political class actually seemed to care about the future of this country, says, “yes, vote – it will make a difference.” Frankly, as anyone who has been following this blog for any length of time knows, I’m not a fan of either the Republicans or the Democrats. I think both parties have sold this country down the river and that we need a whole new approach to running our affairs. For years and years, I’ve voted for the lesser of two evils, as have many others. I voted for change in 2006 and didn’t get it. I voted for change in 2008 and didn’t get it. Like many others, I’m not at all happy with the “changes” that President Obama has brought us. But I’m very disturbed by the rise of the right wing populists, led by Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Savage and others.

So. On November 2, I am going to cast my vote for whomever is the most opposite of the candidates endorsed by the Tea Party, the right-wing populists, and the fundamentalist Christian right. I’m voting to cancel the votes of those who are voting for Angle, Rand Paul, Paladino, Rubio, Webster, Scott, Griffith and others of their ilk whose policies appeal to those filled with hatred, bigotry, and mean-spiritedness. I’m not voting in the hopes that my vote will bring a happier future; I’m voting to prevent a return to the days prior to the Civil War. Perhaps if enough of us, of sane mind, turn out to decisively defeat the politics of hatred, there will be room to consider real remedies to the problems this country faces, not the solutions offered by those who would take us back to the eighteenth century.