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Government

What a glorious mess!

We vote. And by exercising our very messy, glorious right to vote, we determine our future. It's a mess, yes. But it's a glorious mess. And it's what makes us all, together, Americans.
Written by David Gewirtz, Senior Contributing Editor

It's over. The debates. The speeches. The robocalls. The never-ending email solicitations for cash. The campaigning is over, the votes have been approximated, and we have our answer.

Same ol' same ol'.

The House remains in the control of the GOP. The Senate remains in control of the Democrats. And President Obama remains President Obama.

Today, I'm not writing about the winners and losers. There will be much time for us pundits to pontificate on partisan politics and prognosticate about the pompous popinjays who will provide personality and perspicacity to the parties politic.

Today, I'm writing about the glorious mess that is American politics. For it is messy and ugly and chaotic and crass and often crude. It's almost always disappointing. The lies and fibs are demoralizing and disingenuous and deceiving. The divisiveness that reaches deep into our demographics is disturbing and daunting.

And yet. And yet we get together and we do something amazing.

We vote. I know, some of you feel that voting is a waste of your time, that it doesn't matter, that there's no difference between the candidates, that you have better ways to spend a Tuesday.

But other people know better. These are the people who worked their hearts out all last week and last weekend in storm-damaged New York and New Jersey to make sure polling places were available for everyone.

These are the people who -- despite the cold and the disorganization -- were willing to stand in line for four hours or more, just so their vote would be counted.

These are the people who are America's heroes. For they understand. If you ever meet one of the people -- annoyed and cranky, yes, but dedicated to their core -- who stand in line for hours upon hours for the ultimate privilege of voting, you'll begin to understand.

We vote. We have more than 300 million people (which means we have more than 300 hundred million strongly-held opinions about just about everything).

We bicker. We argue. We cajole. We mock. We scheme. We spam. We advertise. We complain.

We vote. And by exercising our very messy, glorious right to vote, we determine our future.

It's a mess, yes. But it's a glorious mess. And it's what makes us all, together, Americans.

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