VOTE

I don't want to go all P. Diddy on everyone, but please understand that the stakes are too high to abstain.

I hear a lot of dreamers who seem to believe that Bush will tone his monstrousness down in a second term. Don't you believe it. A win for Bush will be seen as an endorsement of every opportunistic power grab, every saber-rattling act of macho stupidity, every careless use of our resources.

I also hear a lot of confused people nitpicking John Kerry. My high school gym teacher would be a better president than Bush, and he was no great shakes. I persist in hearing people, for example, ask how Kerry expects to pay for his health care plan. Is this a double standard or what? We go from our history's largest surpluses to our largest deficits, with non-military discretionary spending rising much higher than under Clinton and military spending simply exploding, and some of you folks sincerely worry how Kerry is going to pay for his health care plan?

Seriously. Imagine you're in a house that's on fire. The arsonist keeps explaining how he's going to fix everything. Meanwhile outside a fireman calls up and says he can save you and put out thee fire. The arsonist keeps saying the fireman will only make it worse. And you believe him, for even a second?!?!

You know what, things might be better if George Washington were the Democratic candidate, but he's not. John Kerry's only a war hero, one of the more courageous veterans to stand up against Nixon (and John O'Neill, his hired goon), a crusader against corruption and official dishonesty, a sober and thoughful man who sees the world through the lens of reality rather than neoconservative lunacy.

I'm tired of fashionably edgy morons like those South Park douches telling me that the choice is between a douche bag and a shit sandwich. It's not. It's between a weak, mediocre man and a good man. It's between a man who surrounds himself with yes-men and lunatics and one who thrives off of debate. It's between a man who can't communicate a complex idea without a script in front of him and an articulate statesman. It's between a cheerleader and a warrior.

As a nation, we need to tell the world that we don't accept the lies of Bush. That we don't accept his subordination of policy to politics. That we don't accept his studied callousness even when it masquerades as compassion. That we think torture is wrong. That we think bombing countries that don't threaten us is wrong. That treating the poor of this country as if they deserve their plight is wrong. That writing discrimination into the constitution is wrong.

In short, we have to vote Bush out, and vote Kerry in.