A few weeks ago there was a collective ache in the hearts of half of the country. The Prez's post-convention bounce was big. Much bigger than Kerry's pretty much non-existent post-convention bounce. And I started hearing all of the nay saying. Maybe some of it was even coming from my mouth, but I'm not always sure. That thing has a life of its own at times.

It was as if everyone was giving up the fight then and there.

I'd like to think everyone was tired and needed a break. Labor Day. Everyone have a little fried chicken and beer, we'll get back to the important things when we go back to our laboring.

What distressed me the most was the "should we have picked someone else" talk. As if there was ever much doubt after the first few primaries who the Democrat would be in this contest. Back at the beginning of the year, a majority wanted the presidential look of Kerry. They thought Dean was too scary. Edwards was too young (although, he's not really as young as he looks). And the rest were, well, they were the rest. A turtle, a rat, an entire minority community in one woman and Al Sharpton. There were others, but it doesn't matter.

It came down to Kerry. And, in turn, Kerry/Edwards.

These are our weapons people. This is what was chosen. Put your shoes on, warm up your toes, because it ain't the time for cold feet.

I have a theory about the people who are now running for the hills. The people who now doubt if Kerry is what they really wanted. The people who are now thinking of doing exactly what the Prez and his fops are hoping for. The people who think, "If I don't vote, then it's not my fault."

But it is. If you don't vote, you're voting for the winner. You still have to deal with the consequences of the election, even if you decide to be invisible. We all live in this country, people. It's pretty much the easiest thing a citizen can do. It takes about fifteen minutes. And you only have to do it on one day. Hell, jury duty is a pain in the ass; voting is easy. You get arrested for skipping jury duty, but they don't care if you don't vote. Many might even hope you don't vote.

Most of the recent polls show the race going back to pre-convention levels. We're all tied up--at the national level at least. Which means everyone does count. Everyone has to get off their ass and punch the buttons on the electronic voting machine.

The problem with a lot of liberals is that they think way too much about everything. When you do this (and, yes, I'm guilty of this--obviously), then you can find holes in everything. You start to doubt yourself. You start to think of all the other things you could do instead of what you actually should do. The smallest of issues (say school vouchers or environmental concerns) become a reason for non-action.

Let me tell you a secret: there can only be one of two winners in this election. I don't mean to put down all the third party candidates, but there is no way in hell any of them will muster much of a vote tally. So, no matter how much you might drift down the list of presidential contenders, there are only two who are really running for this job. To vote for anyone else is like not voting. Which is to say, you're voting for whoever wins.

I know, this is a free country. You're thinking, I really believe in the logging issue, and I don't think Kerry's going to do anything about the continual clear-cutting of our forests. Hell, maybe he won't. But y'know what? I don't think Kerry's going to get us into another war--in addition to the two we're fighting at the moment.

That's what this is all about. It's about abusing presidential power. It's about a President representing the slight minority of voters who got him in office. In actuality, it's about a President representing the few thousand people who paid to make sure he got into office. And it's about not listening to anyone (10 million people worldwide protesting the war) and going it alone. It's about spending hundreds of billions of dollars blowing up countries halfway around the world, when we could have used those hundreds of billions of dollars fixing our own. It's about killing thousands of people for spurious goals. It's about over a thousand U.S. military men and women dying for an unnecessary war. According to the leader of the U.N., it's about doing all of this in an illegal war.

So buck up, kids. There's a month and a half left. And all you really have to do is show up on November 2nd and make your choice.

You don't have to protest. You don't have to put a sign in your yard. You don't have to put a bumper sticker on your car. You don't have to give anyone any money. You only have to do one thing.

You just have to vote.

Matt Worley still thinks Kerry is a pussy, but he's voting for him anyway.