Ah, election time … that celebrated return of polls, politicking and false promises.

As if you can't tell from my first sentence, I'm a little cynical about the whole thing. But I wasn't always that way.

My family tree includes a grandmother who was heavily involved in politics in her town of Anderson, Ind. and I was brought up to respect the right of Americans to vote. And I still do, by the way.

But what troubles me about politics in American today -- especially the upcoming presidential election -- is the extreme division that exists between the two major parties.

It seems fewer and fewer politicians are willing to stand in the middle. And the ones that do never seem to get the support they need to actually get elected.

Worse yet, the ones who promise to work on both sides of the aisle quickly turn back after they get elected.

I was watching video of one of the candidates who was addressing a crowd of supporters in Iowa yesterday. As he belted out the rhetoric, cheers and chanting erupted from the standing-room-only crowd. I wondered how many of those same people would still be cheering in another four years.

We hear promises to cut taxes, to end the war in Iraq, to solve the Social Security problems, to reform immigration laws, to protect the border, to improve relations with the world, to end government waste, to improve people's rights … on and on it goes. Bla bla bla bla bla!

Folks, those promises don't mean anything once the election is over. They can talk about having unity in Washington all they want, but once they get into office, they'll go back to doing everything down party lines.

I'm also troubled by how the candidates make promises and say things to draw support from special interest groups. I won't mention any by name for fear of getting myself in trouble, but we all can think of some of the major groups. Some of them favor the Democrats and some, the Republicans.

I personally feel used when I hear candidates talk about some of these "hot button" issues, just because they know it will garner votes from a special interest group.

I was telling someone the other day that I think the older generation of politicians is to blame for a lot of the apathy that is so widespread among the younger population of our country today.

Seriously, what is there to learn from a Congress full of white-haired men and women who fill the hours on C-SPAN pounding the podium and turning red-faced as they yell at members of the opposite party?

And what are they fighting about? Oft times, it's the same, tired old issues that they've been fighting about for decades. It's time to move on and stop hiding behind the big "R" or "D" that follows the person's name.

I hope there will be a change, and that it will come during this presidential election. But honestly, I have little hope that it will.

From a person who values his right to vote: It's going to take more than promises to get me to the polls this year.