I’m one of those people who never misses an election. I couldn’t wait to turn 18 so I could vote.

Really. Even though, in those days, attaining that age also enabled me to drink legally. That perk placed a distant second to the vision I had held in my head for years: me, behind the curtain in a voting booth in the auditorium of my old elementary school.

The next presidential election wasn’t until two years after my 18th birthday, but I still was as excited as I could be about exercising my voting rights. I hopped into my 1964 Ford Falcon station wagon and drove the 15 miles from college to home, grinding the clutch on every third-gear shift. Jimmy Carter was my man, and I was proud to vote for him.

In my youthful naiveté, I couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t want to celebrate Election Day as a Mardi Gras-style holiday. This feeling lasted for many years. Until now.

I’m trying to get my old voting mojo back, but it’s just not happening. My malaise is so bad, I am even considering not voting.

The irony of my dilemma is that I was primed for action four years ago. I attended the Democratic caucus. I worked the phones for candidate Barack Obama. It was my mother’s last election (she passed away four months later), and I was glad that she was able to vote for our first black president.

It’s not easy for me to say that Obama has disappointed me. But no matter how open-minded and generous I try to be, the result is the same. I don’t want to vote for him again.

My answer to that infamous election-year question, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” is no.

My wages are stagnant, my savings are earning a pittance in interest and prices for everything seem to jump from week to week. I don’t blame all of this on Obama. There’s only so much a president can do, and we’re also saddled with a do-nothing Congress.

I would happily vote for Obama if I could just point to one of his achievements that has made a difference for me, and for the rest of the fast-disappearing middle class.

Last time round, I bought the idea of “hope” as expressed in the candidate’s iconic poster. I anticipated we would have a president who would end our spurious wars, speak frankly about climate change and disappearing resources, and stand up for people, rather than corporations.

The Republican claims that Obama was a “socialist” didn’t scare me. A little socialism might be good for this country.

What we got, instead, was a cipher. President Obama has not brought joy to liberals and progressives, but he hasn’t exactly brought misery to the other side either, no matter how much they like to complain. They just dislike him on principle — oh, right, and “Obamacare.”

I’m still not sure how to explain my dismay. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps I read more into candidate Obama than what was really there.

Still, it took a long time for us to pull out of Iraq and we’re still mired in Afghanistan. We survived the recession, but the bailout benefited, rather than punished, the financial sector that caused it. The biggest change I’ve seen in four years is that Americans are angrier than ever — at the state of the world and their own wallets. Mother Nature isn’t too happy, either.

I feel cheated — I acknowledge that. I thought Barack Obama was the last great hope, and he’s failed to be any hope at all. The issues we face demand radical action; a bold approach at the very least. A president who wants to be all things to all people (that’s the best explanation I can come up with) just doesn’t fit the bill.

Yet there’s no possibility I will vote for Mitt Romney. I’ve never voted for a Republican for president, and I probably never will. The reason is simple. I agree with Republicans that a healthy economic climate is essential for a healthy nation. But the nation, not business interests, comes first.

We need to stop outsourcing jobs, to rein in the financial idiots who are running amok on Wall Street, and to support small, local businesses. We need to start building things again.

Americans need jobs. We need to be rewarded for good financial habits like saving and investing. Most of all, we need to restore our communities as places to live, work and shop among friends and neighbors.

That’s my dream. Too bad I have no hope whatsoever that it’s going to come true anytime soon — whether I vote or not.

Liz Soares welcomes email at [email protected].