My son was born in November of 2007, and that was certainly the most monumental event to ever happen in any November for me. And as my son approaches his first birthday this year, our Nation’s count down to a new commander-in-chief will be drawing to a close. This got me thinking…

I think "lift off" is an appropriate metaphor for what many have come to agree has been the basement of American-style democracy over the past seven years. Or maybe I should say 15, or should I say since Reagan? Even though my man, Bill Clinton's years made us feel better (as over printing currency will often do!), our political machine was still chiseling away at our diminishing foreign policy morals, we had a terrible record on solving domestic ills, and his wife was working on getting us Universal Healthcare then too, wasn't she?

The oval office is more than just a man or a woman...it's also really good furniture, and a place for our most popular (or unpopular) elected official to go feel important while the country is being run “according to plan.” Plans, decided by people who are NOT democratically elected to make decisions, with interests that respect only the power of the market. Futures, standards, stocks and industrial averages become the engine to our political machine. While corporate responsibility, workers rights, and human rights are talked about on the campaign trail, most end up living and dying there. Never making the move to Capitol Hill. Only resurrected during debates every four years.

Am I disenchanted with the American electoral process? Yes, but made more nauseous by the American electorate, who find dynasties more appealing than dynamic rulers.
I think we as Americans are more concerned with our standard of living—our lifestyle not life itself. Because if it were the other way around, then we'd have to make decisions in the best interest of the world, rather than what makes our country most coveted, most comfortable and most consuming.

We like the idea of a choice, but that is often less important than actually having one. Real choices DO require a differentiation in the outcomes dependent upon which path is taken...and THAT my friends, opens up the possibility for change.

My experience is that people, routine loving creatures that we are, have an aversion to change. So we accept our dynasty. No, not the phenomenon that becomes a reality with a Clinton win in the presidential election (which would give Americans 20 years of monarchal rule by two families).

I am speaking of our very personal dynasty that Americans enjoy, by being at the “top of the food chain,” with our ability to harbor nuclear weapons while telling everyone else not to, and our ability to use up more of the world's resources and destroy more of mother earth's defenses than anyone else. That has become our dynasty, our legacy, regardless of who addresses us through a TV screen a few times each year.

So when asked, “who would I support,” I would say that I’m behind the candidate that is most talking about us, as a country, attacking our biggest fear head on: Change. The candidate that seems to tell it as straight as any elected official could, until they get in office and take the private money out of federal elections altogether. And though, right now, only Biden is really talking about that, I think Obama could be persuaded.

And while I’m not too thrilled with some of Hillary's policy moves, I do like the idea of a female president. Let's face it, whether you are a creationist, an evolutionist or an intelligent designer the woman always came second in the chronology, which makes her a more evolved life form. The second generation is always gonna be better… (Haven’t we learned anything from the iPhone?) That being said, we need a woman of Shirley Chisolm character on the ballot. But if it comes down to it, and Hillary does beat out Barack for the Democratic Nomination, I would vote for her just for the novelty, just to say "I was alive when...", just to make history (...quite possibly at the risk of repeating it).

But seriously, whoever gets the nod, we aught to be really concerned who the vice president will be as well.

As I stated earlier, I am a father, and I want my son to know that his vote and his voice matters. Even when my generation “gets old and grouchy,” and if we ever call his generation, "disengaged" he'll laugh. He'll laugh because his generation will have more courage than ours to remove criminals from office and replace them with people of integrity. So in my very tepid revolution, I am casting my ballot for the person that I have faith will move us in that direction (even if it is only by baby steps), because we've been backsliding long enough.

If I've learned anything as a father, other than how to moderate my newfound concern for universal healthcare, the living wage and tax breaks, is that I have to be the example, because he'll learn more from what I do than he'll ever learn from what I say. In the same regard, the mother or father of a nation must act accordingly.

I think that I, like many other Generation Y’ers are excited about this election. And I have a feeling that we will turn out to prove that our apathy was not due to laziness, but due to the lack of differentiation between the two major parties. Unity over opposition, right? That is what the "U" is for in USA, right?

To me, Obama's the best example...he just happens to be able to talk well too...and as a performance poet...I guess I can appreciate that.