I have a confession. I think I may be a wee bit somewhat moderately head-over-heels madly in love with Jill Stein.

What started out as a mild crush when I was recovering from my first love Bernie Sanders (sigh) has now become a full-fledged political love affair. One minute I was on her website mumbling “Hmm, so it’s like FDR’s New Deal, but with renewables,” and the next minute I’m jumping up and down squealing with delight at the sight of her vandalizing a Dakota Access bulldozer with a spraycan. I’m 41, for gosh sake. What’s happening to me?

Wait, I think I know the answer to that one. I think I’m finally getting the courage to stand firmly and unapologetically in my own sanity.

Having luminous beacons of sanity like Jill Stein in my political sphere of awareness has given me the courage to loudly say no to all the stupid, crazy things humans do that have bothered me ever since I was a small child. It’s stupid and crazy that America can find the money and resources for endless war, corporate welfare and tax breaks for billionaires who use the money to literally buy the legislative branch of the federal government, but we somehow can’t afford to take care of our sick, our poor, and our ecosystem. It’s not okay that that’s happening, and Jill is relentless in standing up and calling it out with fearless intensity and rapier wit.

She’s such an assassin with her words, man. If you haven’t checked out any of her interviews yet you definitely should, especially if you’ve got a love for poetry. Her razor-sharp remarks and acerbic Twitter posts have been the highlights of this election season for me; she’s so deeply compassionate, but so freaking ferocious when it comes to attacking the enemies of the greater good too, like a cross between Buddha and Wolverine from the X-Men oh my god I want to have her babies.

Ahem.

She’s really brilliant, too. Her breakdowns of American foreign policy and its relationship with terrorist networks is the most intelligent and articulate I’ve ever seen from any politician. She doesn’t insult our intelligence with macho posturing or pretending that America is this pure innocent waif who gets attacked by terrorists who hate us for our freedom; she clearly describes what’s happening and what we need to do about it. She’s a medical doctor who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, and she’s got the wisdom and heart to back up that powerful intellect.

“But blah blah vaccinations!” you may be saying. “Blah blah GMOs and WiFi!”

And to you I say, shut up. Go sip your chai latte and listen to NPR while you try to find a way to compartmentalize drone bombings and wars over crude oil into somehow being more okay than a medical doctor asking for non-corporate research on GMO cucumbers. This article isn’t for you.

Check out my in-depth interview with @voxdotcom on immigration, student debt, gun control, foreign policy & more: https://t.co/xPNrHwIKa9 — Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 15, 2016

This article is for Jill, and for all the lovely people who’ve had the courage of their convictions to openly support her in the face of all the frenzied attack editorials, who’ve calmly debated all the self-righteous Democrats who storm in brimming with confidence in their candidate only to scurry away defeated under the crushing weight of facts and evidence (how great is that feeling, right?), and who, like me, sometimes listen to a Jill Stein interview a few times more than necessary just because it feels nice to hear her radiant voice in this bizarre circus of a world.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Jill Stein stands as a progressive alternative to the other candidates, but that isn’t why I adore her. I don’t love her for who she isn’t, I love her for who she is; a brilliant, brave and beautiful soul, compassionately pointing the way toward human sanity with the patience of a saint and the dignity of a president.

I’m so grateful to have a presidential candidate who I can feel excited about this election cycle. Someone I can depend on to look at the whole picture of any situation and address it with clarity and insight, rather than oversimplifying and delivering cutesy sound bytes. Someone who’ll keep shining a bright, beaming light on all the world’s demons both foreign and domestic in cool defiance of the status quo’s dependence upon keeping them in the dark. Someone who doesn’t just pay lip service to Black Lives Matter but actually marches with them, someone who doesn’t just talk about preserving the planet but who’ll vandalize your instruments of destruction right in front of the news media if you don’t.

Someone who cares.

Thank you, Jill.

[Featured Image by AP Photo/Tae-Gyun Kim]