Of course I went and voted in the general election today. I try to always vote, even in the special referendums but definitely in the primary and general elections and runoffs. It's rather painful to do so at times, though. I am so disgusted with the self-serving, double-talking scumbags that run for most political offices today that I always feel like I'm choosing the least of the evils. Bear in mind, the least of the evils is still an evil.
On the other hand, what sane and reasonable person wants to run for political office today? Between the intense media scrutiny that blows every insignificant peccadillo out of proportion to the campaign ads of your opponent(s) making you out to be Satan incarnate by distorting out-of-context statements, I can't blame anyone for avoiding that kind of torture.
The one thing I was able to do today in protest was vote for some of the Libertarian candidates. I see so little difference between the major political parties that I see no clear reason to vote for one or the other. Specific candidates, sure, but if there's no clear choice I'd rather remind the Republicans AND the Democrats that neither of them actually represents my personal beliefs because their party lines are too extreme, one to the far left and one to the far right. Not that the Libertarians necessarily do either, but I'd like to see the two-party stranglehold on our system broken. I'd like to see some sort of rational, centrist political organization, controlled by neither the religious nut-jobs/corporate machines nor the socialists/entitlement wanna-be crowd.
Feh, and feh again. I'm thankful for the opportunity and privilege of voting, but I know I'm going to wake up tomorrow and it's going to still be the same old same old.