i'm not 23 years old; i remember 2004, and i remember 2006, and i remember interacting with people that were voting for the ndp.

not a single one of them could articulate why.

they were mostly aware that the policy platforms were largely interchangeable, with minor differences that put them both at about the same place in the spectrum. the only substantive difference is that the ndp wanted higher tax rates on corporations, and the liberals thought that was bad economics.

even layton argued - and, in hindsight, it's hard not to call him a liar - that you should vote ndp because the conservatives promised not to undo the proposed liberal programs, anyways (and, of course, they undid every one of them, and then some).

the actual reasons that people came up with were stupid, vacuous things like "we need a change of government" (for the sake of it.), or "i'm tired of the liberals". these weren't even fully formed thoughts, they were just kneejerk, mindless behaviours.

and, i yelled at a lot of people for it, at the time; i could handle it if there was some kind of reason, but they were all just following their gut.

yeah, they followed their gut - and they vomited in everybody's face.

i voted for paul dewar a few times in 2008 and 2011, when i was in a downtown riding. dewar was a promising mp, and his opponents were not the best the liberals had to offer. but, the conservatives were not competitive in these ridings.

it was the people in the south and west of ottawa that i found myself yelling and screaming at...

and, you know what?

they admitted it.

they apologized...

maybe, biden and his army of zombie idiots should follow.