This one matters

Unless you are living in the mountains sans any telecommunication devices or even the U.S. mail (an occasional dream of mine), you know Tuesday is Election Day. The "Brushfire" has been burning low lately, due to my ridiculous work and school schedule, and though I always feel fantastically ambivalent on Election Day, I felt some obligation to offer a grunt to two about the occasion, since I think this one actually matters.

You all--my friends and family who love me enough to actually spend time reading these idle ramblings--know that the most important issue to me these days is civil liberty and the exploding, uncontrolled, ghastly growth of unchecked, unrestrained, and unconstitutional executive government power. This election is important because it's a genuine opportunity for the American people collectively to protest this unacceptable and un-American situation. With all three branches of the federal government controlled by one party, there is no effective way to promote the checks and balances that preserve the core principles of our republic.

Realistically, I harbor no illusions that a change in the leadership of Congress will suddenly bring a new wave of small-government, pro-liberty energy to Washington. The quality of candidates from either of the major parties is pitiful. Extremely few opposition candidates are actually running on a platform of checking restrained government power. But my sincere hope is that a divided government will at least promote more thoughtful debate and dialogue, and possibly even stop some of the more egregious examples of anti-liberty activities, whether they are core constitutional issues like free speech, torture, and privacy, or broader issues such as lying about American foreign policy objectives and actions, or restricting free speech and commerce on the internet.

At any rate, it matters little whether the next Congress does anything specific to address the war in Iraq, health care, the environment, education, or any of the typical election-year issues that are a concern to voters, if we continue to lose the central freedoms that made America great in the first place. If we lose the Constitution, we lose everything. And that's why I'll bother to go to the polls on Tuesday, and why I'll be hoping for a regime change in Washington.