Maybe you don’t know this because you spend all day on the internet reading about pro fighting and watching old Pride highlight videos, but today is election day in America. It’s kind of a big deal. So much so that it even reaches over into the insular world of mixed martial arts, at least for a few hours.

Today Sherdog has an article that asks some notable fighters and trainers who they’re voting for. The answers are as varied as you’d expect from a group of MMA types. Chuck Liddell is voting for McCain because he’s rich and doesn’t want his taxes raised. His trainer, John Hackleman, is undecided, but he’s definitely voting against California’s Proposition 8 (a ban on gay marriage), because he’s got two fighters who are “half-gay.” Eddie Bravo isn’t voting at all because voting is an illusion and both candidates are working for the Illuminati. Thanks, Eddie. Things were getting a little too sane around here.

Just to prove how big time he is, yesterday Steve Cofield interviewed Barack Obama and asked him about, among other things, Matt Hughes‘ criticisms of him. Obama responded that Hughes obviously hasn’t actually read his tax plan (no, Matt, watching Fox News doesn’t count as reading).

Fortunately, Matt Hughes has posted another screed, this time an editorial for a local newspaper written by friends of his. The newspaper did not publish it in their print edition, but Hughes is kind of enough to re-post it on his website, a portion of which appears after the jump.

“A people that expects to be ignorant and free, expects what never was and never will be.” -T. Jefferson

We are engaged in a great struggle, not simply for an election but for a people. A people who are in the midst of a battle for freedom, which many thought won only to realize that freedom is paid for in installments, and every generation decides what part of that installment they are willing to pay. There are so many issues (1) Life/care of the disabled and elderly v. slaughter of the unborn/inconvenience of those unable to care for themselves; (2) Property rights/personal sovereignty v. oppressive taxation/redistribution; (3) 2nd amendment rights v. disarmed police state; (4) Holy marriage v. careless attitudes concerning marriage/alternative lifestyles; (5) faith of our founders v. secularization of government; and the question begs, can both sides be right?

The answer, according to Hughes’ buddies, is no. Both sides can’t be right. Guess which side they seem to think is right (hint: it’s not those in favor of “careless attitudes concerning marriage/alternative lifestyles”).

If I wanted to be a real jerk I’d point out the Thomas Jefferson quote at the beginning and then point out the “faith of our founders vs. secularization of the government” line at the end and follow it up with a Jefferson quote of my own:

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make half the world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world.”

But that’s unnecessary, right? I’m sure Hughes knows that we have Jefferson to thank for separation of church and state, just like I’m sure he and his buddies know they would not have gotten along with a French-loving, Enlightenment pansy like Jefferson, who they would have accused of being elitist.

My point is this, I love Matt Hughes the fighter. He’s one of my all-time favorites. The way I got my dad to finally watch MMA was by showing him Hughes-Trigg II. But I could not disagree with Hughes’ political and social views more. They make no sense to me. They seem rife with hypocrisy and arrogance, and strike me as antithetical to the goals of a free society.

And that’s why I vote. Because it cancels out the vote of someone like Hughes. That’s why this democracy stuff works. That’s also why you should go vote, because somewhere in America today your exact political opposite is taking to the polls. If you don’t drown out his voice, who will?