I Vote My Conscience

To all my friends and associates:

I know this upcoming election has you all in a tizzy. I’ve seen so many negative things lately about President Bush, that it is easy to wonder why he hasn’t been lynched by now.

Unfortunately, the reports of Bush’s stupidity are not the only things I’ve been getting by email lately. I’m also getting a lot of mail telling me what to do.

Four years ago, at the last election, I chose to vote as my conscience directed; I voted Green. I was not interested in either of the major parties, largely due to the vast quantities of hatred that they spewed across the news, the internet, and the airwaves. At the time, it seemed to me that they were opposite sides of the same coin, and that voting for either of them would have been a mistake.

After the election I was ostracized by my friends. They accused me of being a traitor to “my own kind”; by not voting for “the right candidate”, I had guaranteed that a monster would take office, and that all our civil rights would be abolished.

Oh, please.

Frankly, Bush is no different from any other Republican of today. They don’t care about the people; their goal is power, pure and simple. They want to have enough power to push forward their agendas. Oddly enough, that’s the goal of the Democrats too.

Funny how it works out that way, but that’s politics for you.

Now, I’ve been getting emails, letters, etc., demanding that I vote Democrat. “Save the world, get rid of Bush.” “VOTE DEMOCRAT, get rid of Bush.” “Do you really love your country? If so, you will vote democrat; anything else, and you’re a traitor.” “Who cares about third parties? Just get Bush out of the White House.”

I’m not going to name names. I’m not even going to respond to them individually; you know who you are.

All I’ve been hearing lately is about protecting our civil rights, especially our right to equality. The subject of gay marriage has been at the forefront. Our focus has been on the idea that we can’t have a free and equal country if a portion of the population is openly discriminated against. This is true.

Consider, however, that bullying someone into voting your way is denying that person his civil rights, his freedom and equality. That’s how discrimination wins. Don’t ever tell people how they are supposed to vote; rather, encourage them to make an educated choice, and vote their conscience.

I plan to vote my conscience again this year. That means I probably won’t make my final decision on who I’m voting for until the night before the election. I prefer to make an educated vote, so I’ll be finding out all I can until then.
I hope you’ll do the same.