It’s that shitty season when people of supposedly democratic leanings get on the “IF YOU DON’T VOTE FOR LESS EVIL YOU CAN’T COMPLAIN ABOUT EVIL” kick, and don’t even see the cognitive dissonance in their commandments.

4 years ago I got it from both sides, Democrats who were all “VOTE FOR OBAMA OR WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! PALIN IS SLUTTY STUPID HEAD! VOTE FOR OBAMA OR ELSE!” And of course there were the PUMAS “VOTE FOR MCCAIN-PALIN! YOU MUST VOTE FOR ANY WOMAN BECAUSE VAGINA!”

Neither party had earned my vote. I voted, instead, for the only candidate that had my own interests at heart. Cynthia McKinney. I don’t regret it, not for second.

And now, Obama still hasn’t earned my vote. Lilly Ledbetter is not enough to earn my vote. The Insurance lobby give away that is the Affordable (ha) Care Act is CERTAINLY not enough. The fact that Obama grew a set of ovaries regarding “legitimate rape” is not enough from the man who let the abortion conversation get pushed so far to the right that someone fighting for rape and incest exceptions looks positively Rooseveltian in comparison to the shitmonsters on the far right.

Not even the dude and I having the same “if I had a superpower” wish is enough.

I cannot overlook drones. I cannot overlook a president, who in the midst of the biggest financial catastrophe since The Great Depression, can’t  bring himself to utter the words “poor” or “poverty” in his State of the Union speeches. I can’t overlook a president who let the austerity alligators decide the terms of our becoming their dinner.

The Dems haven’t regained my trust since the last election. In fact, they’ve reinforced the knowledge that I do not matter to them. My kid doesn’t matter to them. My friends, neighbors and community don’t matter to them. Except at election time, and then it’s all “OMG IF YOU DON’T VOTE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO JUST IGNORE YOUR EXISTENCE THEN YOU’LL BE RULED BY MEN WHO ACTUALLY HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!”

Maybe that’s true. I can live with it, because I do not vote against my own self-interest. I do not give my stamp of legitimacy to those who don’t care if I live or die. Obama hasn’t earned my vote. The Democratic party hasn’t earned my vote. In other words, they just haven’t earned it yet, baby.

Now you might notice something about all those paragraphs above. Not one sentence is a “YOU MUST” sentence. I use my words. I use my “I” statements. Those are my feelings about my little vote. I got a lot of sheepish “I know he’s a douche but I think I have to vote for Obama” statements from friends last election. And not one single one of them got a “FUCK YOU! YOU HAVE CAUSED THE DOWNFALL OF SOCIETY WITH YOUR VOTE” from me. Because it’s your mother-fucking vote. Vote your interests. Maybe you are ok with Obama. Maybe you are just afeared of a Romney presidency. I don’t know why you vote the way you do. I don’t care. It’s your vote. You do you.

But if you go around telling people that they must “VOTE FOR LESS EVIL BECAUSE IT’S STILL LESS EVIL” I am going to call you a bullying shitmonster to your face. Because you are. You can list in bullet points why you are voting Team Less Evil! But you don’t get to tell someone else what their own best interests are and how they MUST VOTE OR OMFG WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE IN A FIERY REPUBLICAN RAPTURE!!!!!!!