---"Maybe it's not about you? Maybe there is a much larger picture here?"---
If it were about me, I wouldn't pound the pavement every election for free. I wouldn't give hundreds of hour of my own time to causes I believe are essential to this country.
If it were about me, I'd just side with whoever would make me look the most popular to the most people. And I'd take no sides in the controversial issues that make enemies out of friends.
I just wondered - because I've read other posts (not just you) from people who have put *their* values over everything else. In other words - they are making the 2008 race about them and their values and if the country does not accept them, their beliefs and their values - then they say, essentially, "to hell with the country".