Get out and VOTE

It's finally here.  November 4.  Election day.

After 2 years of incessant campaigning, Barack Obama and John McCain have finally reached the finish line.  And if you want to be able to talk about the next four years at all, you'd better get out and vote tomorrow.

Early voting numbers have smashed records.  My friend spent 3 hours and 45 minutes in line on Saturday just so she could get her vote in.  I think that's awesome (well, not the part about having to wait 4 hours.  But the part where so many people are turning out to vote is).  Let's hope it stays that way tomorrow and everyone exercises their right to choose — the right to choose our next president.

All the polls are tightening up, which is to be expected on the final day of campaign season.  But that just means that whoever you're pulling for — Obama or McCain — needs your support even more.  Don't make excuses as to why your vote won't matter or why you've got something better to do.  This election is hugely important, and I can't think of a single thing that matters more than having your voice heard.

I've already cast my vote (thanks to absentee voting in Georgia), and I hope my guy wins.  I support more of Obama's policies than I do McCain's, and he's also run a much better campaign.  McCain's strategy went from focusing on inexperience, to change is bad, to saying he's the real candidate of change (seriously?), to "celebrity," to "palling around with terrorists," to inexperience, to blaming the media, to saying he can't complain about his treatment from the media, to Joe the Plumber, to inexperience, to socialism, to terrorists, and back to inexperience.  Whaaaa?  I've been following this from the beginning, and even I'm confused here.

But no matter how poorly McCain's campaign was run, I still think he's a decent guy and has some good ideas.  I just think Obama's are better.

I think access to healthcare matters.  I think our economy matters.  I think poverty alleviation matters.  I think diplomacy matters.  I think the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq matter.  I think our country's reputation matters.  I think the First Amendment matters.  I think civil liberties matter.  I think international development matters.  I think education matters.  And I think inspiration and unity matter.

To sum up, I'll just list some of FDR's most applicable quotes.  These came from the guy who got us out of the last great economic crisis and led America when it really mattered.  And these quotes pretty much sum up everything I thought about when making my voice heard.

• For those of you who think supporting Obama and supporting Christianity are mutually exclusive:  "I am a Christian and a Democrat, that's all."

• For those of you who think taxing the rich to help the poor is socialism:  "Here is my principle:  taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay.  That is the only American principle."

• And again:  "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much.  It is whether we provide enough to those who have little."

• For those of you who think a vote for Obama is a vote for radical liberalism:  "I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments."

• For those of you who think Obama is dangerous and will not vote for him because you're afraid of change:  "The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger.  The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity — or it will move apart."

• And again:  "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

• And finally, for those of you who don't think your right to vote is important:  "Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves.  And the only way they could do this is by not voting."
  

So there you have it.  No matter who you support or what you believe in, get out and vote tomorrow.  Our future depends on it.