Today is the day: Nov. 2, the rare instance when your voice matters. OK, enough fluff. Everyone should vote.

Now, I’ve always considered myself a moderate. I recently had a conversation with some of the folks in the office, and one employee asked if I was a democrat. I replied that, no, I don’t consider myself a democrat, but I can recognize a bad argument. And, with every election cycle, there is no shortage of bad arguments.

Currently, for some reason, the conservative (note the root word “conserve”) movement in this country has a sour taste for green energy. The argument has been that green energy takes too long. We don’t have the infrastructure to support it, and mining, drilling, and fossil fuel energy sources are easier, cost less, and can be done quicker. There are no real fallacious statements within that argument. It’s all true.

Throughout the campaigns, the mud-slinging and real debates, there has been one key issue that both sides have rallied around: sacrifice. Should we sacrifice tax dollars to a big government? Can we sacrifice a few tax dollars for a cause? And amidst the lunacy on both sides, there’s a real conversation there.

Our own energy dependence shouldn’t be a part of that debate.

Sure, fossil fuels are easier to obtain tomorrow, but there’s no real future in the existing infrastructure. It’s time we made room for where we are going to extract energy, and that’s in the renewables market.

But in celebration of today, here’s an aside to the green-energy debate. And it has to do with how we vote.

Vote for the better candidate, no matter which party. Voting Democrat or Republican as a rule is basically walking through the world with blinders on. It’s the opposite of autonomy, individualism, liberty and freedom. Make a choice for yourself. When all is said and done, candidates in either party have your individual ideals in mind all the time. They have a job to do, and they know citizens are the gatekeepers that decide if they can or cannot do that job. So any given candidate will say almost anything to get the most gatekeepers to agree on him or her.

Are people pissed off about Iraq? Then the strategy is to repudiate the war. Are people pissed about the economy? Blame the incumbent, and talk about tax dollars.

And just a bit of history—non-partisan history—taxes didn’t cause the recession. Deregulation and our own habit of buying things we cannot afford did. The government didn’t create our own immature spending; they just widened the hallways so we could all get through with our loan paperwork.

And as for jobs, companies move overseas because it’s cheaper. And we still buy the products. So where’s the incentive for them to stay? It’s a win/win situation. It’s capitalism.

So just a recap: spending habits (our greed) and outsourcing (their greed) have played instrumental roles in our own undoing. I'm guessing most candidates haven't pledged to end either of these. How could they?

But I digress, and not a minute too soon.

Today is about making a statement. What you want that statement to be is entirely up to you. Vote Democrat, vote Republican, but vote for the future. It’s up to you to decide what that will look like.