Voting: Like Crack, but Good for You! (Psst! Try it, kid. You'll like it!)

In the past, I've been content to vote in the general elections, happy with my recreational use of voting. I participated in my first caucus on Super Tuesday, and it has left me jonesing for my next opportunity to vote! It's addictive, like crack or gambling.

Take, for example, the nineteen-year-old thug-looking kid who came to my precinct to vote for the first time. He had an over-sized white hat with a flat brim, a track suit, bling, and a mustache that stubbornly reused to fill in properly. He was the perfect target for those caucus-pushers. Voting for the presidential nominee was his entry-level drug. Then he saw chairs filled with other caucusers, high on making a difference, and he got curious. Those hope-mongerers at the registration table filled him in and egged him in, "Come on. Stay. Try it. You'll like it! Makes you feel good!"

An hour later, the kid was in deep, actively sub-caucusing for his senatorial candidate of choice and cheering for standard resolutions. By the end of the night, he was a delegate to the regional caucus! Simple curiosity and experimentation has set that poor kid up for a lifetime strung out on activism and informed decision-making.

I feel for the kid. When I think about gambling with my optimism (read: voting), my heart races, my face flushes, I shake and sweat. Hope is a dangerous and powerful addiction, harder to quit than heroin.