I’ve always been registered independent, despite voting for the Democratic party most of the time. I don’t like that people identify as Democrat vs. Republican, or Liberal vs. Conservative, or whatever. I prefer looking at the policies of candidates, what issues they find important, and what character they show. Given that, I don’t care what label they choose for themselves.

Generally, I vote for the people and proposals that I think will bring a better future, for me, and more importantly, for my kids. So yes, I’m for the Affordable Care Act, because flawed as it is, it’s a stepping stone to universal healthcare. I’m generally happy about increased regulation, because unchecked capitalism does horrible things. Of course we should work towards making higher education available to everyone. Any restrictions on voting are bad. We should be studying the causes and effects of gun violence. We should be making sure no one goes hungry or sleeps on the street, even if that means some freeloaders will take advantage of it. People are fleeing war and violence that America is in some part responsible? No, of course we shouldn’t turn them away.

I’ve never seen why any of that is controversial.

All of that though? It pales in comparison to climate change. People: we are fucked. And by we, I mean the generation that’s going to inherit the Earth after I’m gone. Our kids. We (and by we in this case, I mean all of us) are destroying the ecosystem that gave birth to humanity. In the very, very short term, we’re going to start seeing drastic effects. We’ve had 8 once-in-500-year rainstorms already this year, and hurricane season hasn’t even really hit yet.

August 2016 statistically tied with July 2016 for the hottest month this year, which is a big deal because July is normally the hottest month of the year, period. Every month for the last 10 months we’ve broken the record for hottest average temperature for that month. The Great Barrier Reef is dying.

Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. ISIS? Fuck ‘em, they’re a blip compared to this.

So back to the election, and to labels. Climate change is flat out the thing I worry about most. It keeps me up at night thinking about the world my kids are going to live in.

The Republican party thinks it’s a joke, a political tool.

The Navy wants to figure out what they can do about it, and a GOP Congressman introduces a measure to forbid them from preparing for it.

The Republican party’s presidential candidate thinks the Chinese made it up:

Donald Trump’s positions page doesn’t even mention the climate.

There’s no choice here for me. I’m going to vote for the people that recognize the problem and want to do something about it. (pdf, page 27, sorry. Democrats, PDF sucks for people who want to share your platform. Hillary has a more linkable page on it.)

I’ll be voting for Hillary in November, and against any climate change denier in general, because I want my kids to inherit a habitable planet.