Election

I get that a lot of you are disappointed that your guy lost, but can we cut out the "America is going to hell" and "I'm moving to Canada" bullshit?

(Unless you're moving to Canada because you got sick, don't work for a government or big corporation, and need to move somewhere where the insurance companies can't just drop you in order to maximize profits. Then, go ahead and move. Looking forward to having you back in 2014.)

The day we arrived in Russia last December was the day that they had national legislative elections. There was no anxiety, no staying up past midnight to watch election results. The people believed that the elections weren't fair, and that the ascension of Vladimir Putin's party to power was a forgone conclusion.

This was confirmed by an online video of a party official stuffing ballot after paper ballot into a box.

It's easy to forget what an amazing thing it is to vote, to have people count our votes, and for those counts (more or less) to determine who runs our government.

Yeah, it's really shitty that we keep choosing people who can't work together; people on both sides of the aisle who would rather stand on an ideological principal rather than do what's best for their constituents. But we the people have the power to replace them.

Don't overlook what an amazing thing that is.