Here comes a competitive election amid domestic and international strife. The country is sailing into the uncharted territory of restricting civil rights, dramatically increased privatization of services (even the military) and extending the power of the president.

The next elected president will enjoy more privilege and power than any other elected before them. They will have to face an unprecedented level of challenges during their time in office: Ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan totaling over a trillion dollars, a collapsing retirement system, a decrepit private health care system with one in five people uninsured and a teetering economy, which may or may not be in a recession when they assume office.

Our fleeting humanity has never been so publicly accepted, our country is holding people without Geneva Convention protections or habeas corpus, no lawyer, no trial, no witnesses and no basic human rights. For the first time, the United States of America practices the torture of innocent people. Innocent in the sense that the Constitution declares them (and the rest of us) as such.

I’m embarrassed to think that I have to further my argument in any other way because for many people that just isn’t really a big deal to them. Don’t you understand that if they can get past that then everything is at stake?