This is a slightly modified response to a poster over on Americablog, who was responding to a post about a report from Gallup on how Americans are disillusioned with the candidates running for president.
This is my opinion. It's not particularly original, but I also do not think is is unwarrantedly alarmist.
If you are planning to sit out the 2012 elections:
Congratulations for becoming a registered republican.
It would be lovely to live in a place where the candidate with the most votes wins, but we don't. For the most part, we live in a world where the candidate who doesn't LOSE the most votes wins. It's stupid, but it's mostly true. Because we have winner take all system that does NOT require a majority of voters to even vote, much less vote for the winner (and let's not mention the utterly corrupt electoral college, a wholly-owned right-wing press dedicated to lying to elect republicans, and the republican-owned and programmed voting machines designed to steal elections), most of the time all a winner has to do is hope his opponent's voters stay home. That's how republicans won in 2010.
By not holding your nose and voting Obama (as I will), you are effectively voting FOR whatever incompetent lunatic fascist the republicans vomit up onto America's living room carpet.
The psychos and totalitarians will be out in force this time around. If they win, America and the world lose big time. They did so much damage during the reign of *bush the drooling idiot that America can't take even four more years of their failed, destructive "policies."
Stop being a baby and get out and vote for the lesser of two evils, Obama. Sure, it's a lousy campaign slogan and it sucks to be an American faced with these crappy choices, but the republicans WILL do more damage to you than getting up and voting Democratic will. A vote for anyone but Obama is a vote FOR the republican. The system is lousy and it's rigged, but that's how it works. Deal with it.
The only goal of the republican party (and too many in the democratic party) is to see you and everyone you love dying, naked, bleeding, starving and homeless in the streets after they steal every last penny you have and kick you and everyone you love in the teeth. They have to lose if America -- and that includes YOU -- is to have even a chance of surviving.
As awful as Obama has been, he is still better than ANY republican. Not voting is a death wish.
Democratic politicians are inherently cowards, they go with the way the wind blows and hope only to keep the easy money flowing. If the wind blows republican, they go republican.
The more republicans lose, the more we can force the democrats to the left. The more republicans win, the less we can do that. It's that simple.
Vote Obama or die.