SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE LAZY AND TRIFLING: Get up off your Lazy Ass and VOTE!

I hope you didn't think that I was going to be anything but "polite" about this year's election season. Your votes make a difference between who wins and loses and in this case, whether or not we progress or remain stagnate.

I am not naive enough to believe that Barack Obama's election will act as a magic wand to right every wrong in the world, but I do think that he is the best candidate to lead our country at this time. If you can still vote early, PLEASE GO DO SO NOW! If you cannot or if you choose to vote on tomorrow, please be prepared to wait more than the 2 hours allowed by Federal Law. It's very likely that you'll be waiting in excess of 3 hours. Many jurisdictions have elected to not extend polling place hours, but if you're in lined by the time the poll close, you must be allowed to vote.

If you are black, spare me the faux soul searching and subliminal self-hatred that compels you to stay at home because you don't believe that Obama is "black enough" or that he hasn't laid out an agenda for black people. No other politician, black or white, has done so either. I never read about Clinton's agenda for blacks, nor have I seen ANYTHING that the Congressional Black Caucus has done to move black folks forward collectively.

If you are white and lacking self-awareness about your racism that compels you not to vote for Obama, would you vote for him if he were white?

The bottom line is that if you are a Democrat, Progressive, Liberal, or just plain tired of the last 8 years, vote for Obama. To do the opposite means that you have been paying attention and that you shouldn't be voting at all.

If you don't know where your polling place is, please visit your County Board of Elections website or go to the Vote For Change website here.

If you have already voted, sign up to volunteer, make phone calls, or drive people to and from the polls. We need everyone out in full force. The lead in the polls ISN'T accurate. We must do all that we can to ensure that Obama and the Democrats are victorious on November 5th.

To inspire you just a bit, I am reposting a piece that I wrote for another blog that I used to run before blogspot became so popular.

Today is November 7, 2006; the day of decision... the day when we as a country can take back the broken system of American politics and replace it with the same idealism that compelled our ancestors to die. Sound romantic, doesn't it? If only our democratic republic were so pure. The fact of the matter is that Americans have no real choice. Each major political party is greatly influenced by wealthy special interest groups and an elite ruling class. The myth of one vote, one voice is outdated and probably never existed anyway, but it sounds so good, huh? How else would one explain the founding of a democracy by men who thought it was their right to deprive other men of those same rights? I'm not a cynic; contrary to what I used to believe about myself, I'm quite the idealist. However, my vote this election cycle is based on practicality more than idealism. Like me, countless Americans who consider themselves independent are typically forced to choose the less worse of each party as a candidate.

My grandmother's saying rings true today as it did when I voted for the first time in 1993. She said that, "What it really boils down to is what white sons-of-bitches get to fuck us better. As long as this [political] system stays the way it is, we are always gonna have to choose the less evil of two lessers." Of course, she would talk to me about these things after taking a shot of Glen Fiddich and dipping some snuff. One thing I gleaned from that bit of drunken southern wisdom was this, she ALWAYS voted... even if she felt like both candidates were awful. Like her, I sometimes feel the same way, but unlike her, I have hope.

The following excerpt came from an essay written to inspire the electorally apathetic (can I even use that term?). Although its factual basis is bogus, it romanticizes our democratic republic and the wonderful right and privilege we have. Even if you feel like your vote would be wasted, I challenge you to put your apathy aside and head to the polls to choose the less evil of two lessers.

• In 1645, ONE VOTE gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.
• In 1649, ONE VOTE caused Charles I of England to be executed.
• In 1839, ONE VOTE elected Marcus Morton governor of Massachusetts.
• In 1845, ONE VOTE brought Texas into the Union.
• In 1868, ONE VOTE saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment.
• In 1876, ONE VOTE changed France from a monarchy to a republic.
• In 1960, ONE VOTE change in each precinct in Illinois would have defeated John F. Kennedy.

Okay, I'll leave the soapbox now.