I tell you, American politics never ceases to amaze me and it certainly never gets boring. Living my whole life in the south I've had to listen to plenty of groups holler (that means rant and rave down here) about succeeding from the Union. In fact, lots of folks in the fine state I call home (South Carolina) swear we never even rejoined the Union after the Civil War. Being the *gasp* liberal that I am, I've quite frankly never understood this mindset and I find it ridiculous. But...

Apparently crazy exists on both sides of the fence. Now left wingers (those liberals) in Vermont want to succeed to. And the shared cause has brought the two groups together in what must be the strangest marriage of cooperation I've ever seen in my life. Mr. White Supremest... meet Mr. Hippie. I'm sure those meetings aren't uncomfortable or anything. *yikes*

This whole subject seems to be taking the nation by storm too. Some 25 states now have official secession groups. Even my beloved Hawaii and Alaska have several groups fighting for independence, though of all the states they might both have the best argument (Hawaii's kingdom actually was illegal overthrown by the US military, and many Alaska groups never have wanted to be in the US). But money and strategery (Bushism) talks and I doubt the US government's going to let those two go anytime soon.

I think the ultimately point is... we may not always like our government. We may not like our leaders, and we might not like their decisions. But that's why we vote. Granted I'm completely in the crowd of folks who point and shout and say "Only millionaires become president and that's a problem." I, like a lot of you, want to b*tch slap the American public to wake up and elect the BEST leader for this nation (not themselves, not their state, the nation). We are stronger together than alone. This whole concept of live together die alone isn't going to work in America. We're either together as a country, or we aren't. So many people in this country are hung up on the tragedy of 9/11 that they still live there, in fear. Now they want to start WWIII and bomb Iran. Others can only see the Iraq war and have forgotten about the real fight in Afghanistan; they forget pulling out completely won't work, not even in Iraq at this point. We should never forget 9/11, but we must move on to a 9/12 world... where life goes on, and we need to get back what made American great - working together. We've become the United States of Fighting Terrorism, but unfortunately the word terrorism has been warped into a hideous monster. You're either a hawk or a dove and you get labeled a pissed off redneck or a traitor. How'd we come to this? How'd we come to secession groups?

People, listen up. In 13 months you get a choice to change the direction of this country. You can vote anyway you want, for anyone you want - hell, you don't even have to vote for the guy on the ballot. But whatever you do, vote. Stop fighting with your neighbors, stop arguing with your coworkers, and stop emailing and calling your senators (who I think we all agree do little or nothing). Put your efforts into getting every single last person you know to vote - for the country, for what we want for. No far left wing president is going to work any better than a far right one. No liberal senator is going to represent this nation better than a bible-thumper from the right. No, we must find the common ground, the common leader, and join together as one. You want to send someone who represents your individual values, then vote them into the House. But the Senate and the White House need to be bipartisan. This do nothing government train has to stop. We have to make change happen next year.

And then... in another 4 or 8 years, we do it again. But we've ceased to be United. And it doesn't have to be that way!