Oddly enough I don't see the opposite of despair being hope. lol gave up hope long ago, too old, and know how this story ends. All there is to do before the end is fight; for who I love, and when I sometimes overcome my considerable chicken shitness for the true, the good, the beautiful.

Yeah, not an answer re: politics. You should vote, just because it's a civilized way to fight. It's good to fight, to shake my tiny fist at the sky and laugh and do what I should do. I may fuck it up, do it wrong, lose. But god damn it I want to go down swinging.