This Is What We Need To Do Right Now.

These next seven days are about to become the ugliest, most reprehensible, dirty-tricked, lie-filled week in our history. The past few weeks are a good barometer. Prepare for the onslaught now. But recognize that these misdeeds do not give you, or me, the right to create our own. You own this democracy (all fears of the impending voting machine catastrophe not withstanding.) Here’s what you can, and must, do.

1. Make sure you vote on Tuesday, November 7. Put a note on your door, on your calendar, on your steering wheel. Wherever. But vote. I don’t really care for whom you vote, but you must vote. (And bring I.D. There are some new practices in some states in effect.) If you do not know how to vote, where to vote, what time to vote, you can find all the answers to those questions, and more, at The League of Women Voter’s VOTE411.org. For 86 years, The League of Women Voters has helped both women and men of all party affiliations make informed choices, and vote.

2. Make sure your family, friends, neighbors vote on Tuesday, November 7. You know at least one of them either won’t, won’t want to, won’t know how, won’t remember. It is everyone’s duty to vote. Don’t know how to vote? Don’t know for whom to vote? Again, The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan organization, has offices in all 50 states. They can help you with any questions you have. Here are some great resources for you:

Find a Local League of Women Voters.

Vote-USA.org: Side-by-side comparisons of 13,000 candidates’ biographies, ideas, and positions on current issues.

Project Vote Smart - American Government, Elections, Candidates and Voting

3. Recognize that there is too much at stake now to not vote. I don’t care for whom you vote, but the “I don’t like any of the candidates, so I’m not going to vote” thought-process doesn’t cut it. It’s a cop-out. Plain and simple. You don’t like the system? You don’t like the candidates? Then vote for your own. Write in someone’s name. Politically, internationally, we are so hated by so many countries - and by most of the citizens in so many countries - that, one of the worst things we can do right now is to become apathetic and lazy. There is a wide-spread belief that our current law-makers are incompetent, stupid, out of control, and out of touch. If we don’t work hard to get as many people to vote as possible, the world will hate us even more. And they would have every right to. I imagine this as the conversation at some Middle Eastern, South American, or Asian family dinner table next week:

“Well, I knew that American president was bad, but I thought at least the Americans would put other people in place to clean up their act.”

“What do you mean, honey?”

“Well, obviously, so many Americans didn’t vote. I guess they think everything is OK over there. I guess they think that all the fighting is good, and, gosh, I hope they don’t think of invading our country next.”

4. Vote. Your vote does make a difference. If you are a Democrat, or are planning to vote Democratic, don’t think the Democrats’ current and inappropriate cockiness means that they will win hands-down. Remember the Friday before election day 2004? By Friday night, even the news outlets were strongly convinced that Kerry was going to win. I think we know how that ended. And remember how incredibly close elections are becoming. If there were ever a time when every vote truly counts, it’s now. You vote does make a difference.You make a difference.