Why I participate in the political discussion

Some of my friends, mostly those from abroad, wonder why I bother to enter the US political debate amongst citizens. I am a legal resident of the United States and although I share every other right, I lack a very important one: I can't vote. So why bother? I am sure many of my friends and contacts here wonder about that as well, except that they are probably too polite to mention it to me, lest I feel being called an outsider. 

Well, I have a few reasons. First, I happen to be married to an enthusiastic politically active American, who takes elections, politics and policy-making very seriously. That enthusiasm is infectious. Second, living here subjects me to the laws of this land. I pay the same taxes and abide by the same rules and regulations as does everybody else. So why shouldn't I be interested in the process that determines those rules and those taxes? It would be just a different form of "taxation without representation". I can't vote, but I can certainly persuade a citizen to vote. Especially since the law permits me to both make campaign contributions and volunteer at a campaign, it only makes sense for me to get involved.  After all, who the citizens elect, I will "inherit".

But apart from those two reasons, yet based on them, the third and most compelling reason for me to be engaged in this process is the fact that I have the the unique experience of living in Arizona, home of John McCain, during an extremely negative and divisive campaign run by him. 

I have a Obama08 bumper sticker on my car. On multiple occasions McCain supporters, with their own derogatory, negative and hateful bumper stickers of course, have recklessly cut in front of me on the highway, putting both me and them in danger. On multiple occasions these supporters have showed me the finger. On multiple occasions these supporters have swerved their cars in an attempt to make me lose control of mine. And on one occasion, while I was waiting at a drive-through window, one McCain supporter behind me rolled down his window to throw racial and other derogatory epithets aimed at Barack Obama and several random insults aimed towards me. And only yesterday a friend of mine had his Obama yard sign stolen just a few hours after he put it up! So what happened to Free Speech?

Some of my friends that are on or that are leaning towards the Republican side are concerned that a Democratic administration will reinstate the Fairness Doctrine that will "muzzle the right". To them I have to say that the "right" looks very wrong at the moment, and if a dog becomes rabid, muzzling it may not be a bad idea. It's also easier to put lipstick on a dog once it has been muzzled.

This is why I have decided to participate in the political discussion here in the United States.