For the record, I understand your and others feelings about the hard reality we face as it pertains to our choices come November.

I know that many votes for Obama will not be because people truly support his positions, but rather because a McCain presidency is looking more and more like something that could even be worse than what we suffered through the last 8 years.

I have struggled for a long time with whether my personal approach to this problem is elitest or selfish or detrimental to the poor and to women and to gays and to social services. It would not be the first time I have been accused of not really understanding the consequences of refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils.

But I do not have a wish for anarchy or violent revolution, nor do I cheer for the fall of civilization or the fall of the United States as I have also been accused of.

What I do know is this.

This two wings of our one party system mirror each other on the things that matter most. Individuals that rise within those parties either tow the line, or they are excommunicated, demeaned and dimished, ridiculed, and then finally shamed and removed from power.

Furthermore, I think Reverend Wright hit the nail on the head when he was questioned about why Obama had "turned on him" when he said that is what politicians have to do.

But what most Americans don't really get is that the president of the United States has very little power to push against the man behind the curtain. If he does this too hard, there are forces that will make sure he stops.

Ask JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, or a host of others who dared actually threaten the system and who quickly learned that if you go to far, they will end you.

There is a part of me that has the same hope and the same rationalizations about just how bad a McCain presidency would be and how I just can not afford to vote my conscience this time.

But you know what.
There will always be a "this time".
I have heard it every 4 years since I was a young man and I am a pretty old dude today.

There will never be a good time to vote your conscience in this perverted broken system.

If you agree with that, then you will understand why I can't rationalize it "one more time".

Peace!~