Welcome to America, where we split the cost of the party equally between those who can least afford it and those who can benefit the most from buying their way in. Where DC preschool teachers and Halliburton stockholders stand in the same line to hand over their cash to the bar mitzvah boy. Give what you can, or he might decide to liberate you.

Maybe our lame duck president said something about healing and unity in his speech today. I wouldn’t know, because he said those things four years ago and then did the opposite. Salt instead of salve is what our wounded country got from its first appointed president. I doubt he found it necessary to be conciliatory four years later, after actually winning more votes than his opponent, at least officially.

The difference for me is that I didn’t feel obliged to listen to the lies again. When you know the mud slide is coming, it’s best to move to higher ground. I didn’t exactly fall for his lines last time, but I allowed myself to feel a bit hopeful after his first inauguration. He said some things I wanted to hear. That should have been my first clue.

Whatever he’s selling this time, I’ve had enough of it already. I’m not going to let myself be led through another stinky, smelly swamp. In the past, I’ve always felt it my duty as a citizen to listen when my leaders spoke, but there are only so many times you can fall for the same trick. Even Charlie Brown has to wise up sooner or later.

I don’t like being an obstructionist. Pro-active, not re-active, that’s my motto. (One of them, anyway, and the most recent, considering I just thought of it.) But when momentum swings so far in one direction, it takes a lot of force and friction to bring it back the other way. I’m proud to provide as much friction as one lonely voter can muster, for as long as it takes.