In the second election I ever voted in, when I was about 20, I didn't even know how bad my choices were, which led to the biggest voting disaster of my life.

The Republican incumbent in my ward was just a step above Jesse Helms, which put him about two steps away from being the Antichrist.  The insiders on Capitol Hill used to call him "the honorable Representative from Phillip Morris."

Well, I certainly wanted that guy out of there.  Naive soul that I was, I assumed that the other candidate on the ballot was a Democrat.  So I voted for him.  Only to find out later that he wasn't a Democrat.  The Democratic Party, in its infinite wisdom, had ceeded my district to the GOP and wasn't even bothering to field a candidate there.

The guy I voted for was a LaRouche candidate.

Imagine my horror.

That was when I decided I needed to start paying more attention to local & regional politics.  The problem then, I discovered, is that when you're paying attention and there still are only gawdawful choices, it gets terribly, terribly depressing.