I can't sleep, so here are some of the thoughts racing through my mind. A thread, so read on. (1/?)

My audience is largely much younger than me, and I think some of those younger folks find themselves at odds with me because I was raised at the end of the age of sentiment.

Millennials, a generation I have one foot in, are not a sentimental generation on the whole. To give an example that may seem prudish: I wouldn't participate in "hook up" culture or whatever. I don't judge those who do, but for me sex and sentiment go hand in hand.

I think if I extrapolate this importance of sentiment out to politics, some of the issues people take with my positions become a bit clearer for me. It matters to me that who I am asked to vote for isn't who I believe in.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have no "perfect candidate" illusions. I'm willing to subvert my expectations for a candidate if I think they are a strong enough push against the things I perceive to be killing the world.

Despite what I may have said to the contrary publicly, given the scope of 2020 thus far, I'd have likely voted Bernie if given the opportunity. I knew I wouldn't be given that opportunity, but on the off chance I was, I'd have done it.

I can't vote for Joe Biden. The reasons, while many and varied all boil down to sentiment in one way or another. I cannot endorse a person I know to be against the common human at this point in time. ESPECIALLY at this point.

It matters to me that my vote, powerless as it may be alone, would be tallied under the column reading "Biden / Harris." My name, my confidence and my voucher of trust would forever be tied to those people.

The fact that I struggle with those things you might argue are meaningless illustrates a difference in sentiment. I cannot at once stand opposed to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and then help usher them to power. The thought of doing so is hateful to me and everything I hold true.

It's emotional. Not entirely, mind you, but I won't deny the role emotion plays in sentiment. My vote - my participation in the process - MEANS something to me beyond a pull of the harm reduction lever. It means the perpetuation of everything that I believe to be broken.

It represents a perpetuation - one that I have watched for my entire life - of a miserably failed system that has done little but funnel money from the hands of workers and the needy and into the hands of billionaires.

It represents the perpetuation of a system in which the largest civil rights protest in a generation has NO supporter on the ballot. I cannot support those average people taking to the streets, then cast my vote for the very system that pushed them to desperation.

It represents yet another head-wagging, weak leftist politician - further eroding the already tiny chance that true leftism will ever be represented in our government.

Ultimately, most of you who disagree and have read this far won't agree with me now. I'm fine with that. This wasn't an attempt to convince you that I'm correct - just an attempt to explain my position and why I think it may differ from yours.

/end