This morning at 6:15am, I cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren.

If you’re asking why, I’ll tell you: I think she’s the best candidate for the job, and I’m with her until such time as she’s not a candidate. You can read my post from last week if you want to see my not-as-articulate-as-some endorsement. It’s the primary; the idea here is to vote for the candidate you think is best; the time for compromise and “blue no matter who” is in November. If your preferred candidate isn’t one of the top two the media is pushing right now, go ahead and vote for her! Even if you candidate doesn’t win the day, your show of support will put weight behind the message, and force the eventual nominee to consider adopting it.

I don’t dislike Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden; I actually like them both, but I honestly think Liz Warren, with all her nerdy policy enthusiasm and plans and drive and energy and charisma, is the best person for the job. You can tell she’s really thought about the issues we’re facing in America today, and has developed strategies, with the help of very smart people in politics, industry, academia, and all the other applicable areas, to address those issues. In the end, yes, she’ll have to work with the rest of the government to get those plans enacted, and she’ll have to make compromises along the way, but she knows that, but dammit, she’s done her homework in ways the other guys haven’t, and she’s likely got her second, third, fourth, and fifth order compromises planned as well – I trust her to make the case on stuff like health care, finance, foreign policy, education, and all those other issues, and get something done to improve our situation.

This is a woman, who, as a private citizen, through sheer force of will and dogged persistence, brought a new federal agency to protect consumers from predatory lending practices, into being. That’s bad ass.

So, that’s the case. I want someone who has big ideas based on meticulously researched evidence, the will to fight to get those ideas enacted, and has the experience working with others (see: Senator) to accomplish her goals through compromise, persusasion, and evidence.

Also, I kind of want to see her tear Donald Trump a new one the way she’s done to Bloomberg, but that’s mostly out of selfish pleasure.

So yes – vote today if it’s your turn, or whenever your primary comes up; it’s the least you can do to participate in democracy (however flawed). And in the primary; vote your favorite; vote the least bad when it comes time in November; here in March (or whenever), do yourself a favor and really feel good about the vote you cast.

I know I do. And it’s a very good feeling.