I can give you a long-winded speech about politics, people, and insults of your character, but they’re not necessary. I have but a short appeal.

Please vote your congressman or senator out in the next election.

Even if they’re in incumbent, even if you like them, even if they oppose Obamacare or whatever. They all need to leave, every one of them.

Look, I am not affiliated with any organization or any underground secret lobbyist group. I’m just a guy who lives in a state and works a job. I’m not rich, I’m not poor, I like cats. None of that even matters. It doesn’t matter who you are. Race, gender, orientation, none of that matters. If you’re an American citizen, you have the right and the privilege to walk into that voting booth and make a difference. If every single person in this country voted for someone else, if every single American rejected their incumbent, it would shake our government’s very foundation.

These people make over a hundred thousand dollars a year in pure profit and benefits to represent you. It’s their job to represent you, and yet they craft and pass laws to keep themselves in power, to keep their friends in power, to manipulate people into believing that they represent your interests when they’re only looking out for themselves. Every day you hear about corrupt politicians, Republican and Democrat. You don’t hear about many others. They’re buried under lies and manipulation. The ones you see are people being thrown out the airlock to placate the masses or stir up the opposition. Only the President has term limits. Everyone else can be elected for life. Career politicians. Not many other countries do this. Many have functions to dump every elected official and hold new elections during a stalemate. Our government shut down and these people were still paid.

This isn’t about social status, class status. race, or anything else. You’re being artificially held down by politicians exploiting you and your family for every dollar you make and every breath you take. They will attempt to control anything and everything they can to take your money and govern your life. Healthcare is the latest. This isn’t universal care, this is a tax, to re-distribute to the poor. But again, your political opinion.

We could stage a revolution. We could take the country back by force. If this were hundreds of years ago, that probably might’ve happened. But our founding fathers established a system where if we’re truly unhappy with our government, we can elect new people. They might be just as corrupted as the old people, but if we turn over government enough times, politicians will begin to to realize that this isn’t a career job. They’re not going to be able to exploit us forever.

Government needs to change. Checks and balances need to be restored. All positions of government should have term limits. Campaign cash should be limited. Organizations and corporations should be barred from contributing towards a candidate. The electoral collage should be dissolved. Your vote as an American citizen should be restored. The list goes on and on.

Nothing will change until we change it. Everyone will do what they do for self-preservation. There are no higher powers, no master plans, we live in a world where one person’s existence can disappear instantly. We must always fight for the present and for the future. We cannot live in the past. We must always honor what previous generations did for us, but their time has passed, and it’s important to look forward.

So all I ask is that you do your part as a citizen of this country. Vote. Write to your elected officials. Lobby for change. Don’t accept their statements at face-value. This isn’t about political party, this isn’t about supporting or opposing a viewpoint. This is about being a part of a system our forefathers created to give us liberty and freedom, that no other country has ever done for its people. You should be proud to be an American, not shamed, not guilty. Do what is right for everyone. Hope and change isn’t going to come from one man, it will come from all of us.

Take responsibility. Because no one else will.