I cannot wait for the election to end. May Heaven keep it from the horrible un-death we saw four years ago. I can't endure any more politics.

I'm tired of strangers assuming that they know my politics because I'm young and pleasant. I'm tired of disillusioning them. I'm tired of standing on cold street corners talking about subjects that don't interest me because I don't want my opponent to think I don't have an answer to their half-assed argument. I'm tired of people extrapolating from one opinion I hold to another held by some other people who also hold the first opinion--as though I picked up my beliefs at a "Buy One, Get Two Free!" sale. I'm tired of explaining why I think the way I do, and I'm tired of trying to figure out why other people think the repulsive way they do.

I'm tired of the constant assumption that my opinions--since I'm clearly such a nice young man, as one partisan put it--are the result of ignorance. I do not lack data. I'm tired of attempts to persuade me that consist of bringing up current events as though I had surely never heard of them. I am familiar with Abu Ghraib, Halliburton, Vietnam, Skull and Bones, Swift Boat Veterans, William Jefferson Clinton, and Teresa Heinz Kerry. I'm tired of the baffled, almost angry look on a partisan's face when their favorite sound bite fails to convert me instantly.

I'm tired of voter intimidation, and I'm tired of both sides ignoring their own underhanded tactics while piously proclaiming the other's. I'm tired of keeping track of Republican headquarters raided, Democrat voter registrations discarded, and Green Party candidates kept off the ballot. Thank Heaven I'm voting absentee.

I'm tired of Florida, and I'm pissed about international observers.

I'm tired of earnest young folks urging me to vote, as though that act were in itself virtuous. I'm tired of campaigns aimed at earnest young folks, which seem to believe that even the utterly uninformed should have a say. I'm tired of Guardian readers demanding a say in the election, and I'm tired of Guardian readers being shocked, shocked, when they're turned down. Actually, I'm just tired of Guardian readers.

I'm tired of hearing that Bush is dumb, Kerry hypocritical, and both are evil. I'm tired of the apocalyptic predictions should the wrong man be elected. I'm tired of absurdly over-reaching promises, and repeated incantation of "family". I'm tired of hearing about what God thinks, and I'm really tired of hearing that caring what God thinks is a form of mental illness.

I'm tired of hearing what nice hair John Edwards has.

I'm tired of both sides complaining that the media are biased. I'm sick and tired of biased media. I'm tired of CBS, and I'm tired of Fox, and I'm tired of reading political blogs, even the one I agree with. I'm tired of feeling a moral duty to know something before I vote.

I'm tired of the grim certainty that my vote will not count; if counted, will not matter; if matter, will not elect anyone who can or will change anything important. I'm tired of democracy, and I'm starting to think that a nice break from it would be just fine by me. I'm tired of both sides immediately shouting that that's just what I'll get, should the other candidate have his way. I'm tired of idiots, lunatics, mis-information venders, and sophistry. I'm tired of choosing the lesser of two evils.

So I'm calling it. I'm not going to care anymore. I'm not going to listen to political news, or read editorials, or do more than skim blogs until this all goes away. I have reached system overload. If George Bush blends up a puppy and drinks it, if John Kerry kills a baby with his briefcase, if Ralph Nader starts making arguments a rational being could agree with, I'm not going to know or care. I'm done for the next four years. I don't even want to hear who gets elected until all the ballots are counted, and all the lawyers (not you, Proclus) are dead.