It’s clear I’m a dedicated Democrat who loathes Trump and his pissant cohorts. But my concern come November’s election day goes far beyond partisan politics. I’m frightened for the future of our country. The election is not only about who we are voting for, but what we are voting for.

It’s our job, as Elders, to pass down to succeeding generations the values and tenets of governance upon which our country was founded, succinctly summed up by this excerpt from President Obama’s 2009 inaugural address:

Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

In pursuit of this endeavor, this November we’ll be voting for the country’s president responsible for uniting the country.

Which demands that the oath taken omit party or faction. And asks the electorate to conclude that while the presidential platforms are no less important, the overriding factor is the man who stands atop them. What kind of person will lead our country?

And what kind of person is the voter as he/she casts his/her ballet?

That’s where we come in. Exercising our inherited moral leadership to ensure that 2020 is a free and fair election, where voters pick their leaders, not where politicians pick their voters.

I know that the readers of my weekly posts share my liberal views and my solo voice is the song of our chorus. But all of us must do more than nod our heads in agreement. We must do everything and anything we can do to turn out the vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, extending to state and local contests and expanding to states where there is the possibility of turning red to blue.

Donate if you can, to campaigns with a chance to gain seats in the Senate and the House.

Volunteer in support of candidates you believe in (ringing doorbells, writing postcards, etc.)

Do the best you can to persuade friends with ‘single issue’ loyalties (pro-Israel, Choice, Estate tax (your really wealthy pals), the USMCA trade agreement, gun rights, etc.) to vote for the country’s “greater good” this one time, for this one, crossroads election. The argument is not complex: if Trump prevails there may never again be a free election.

Reach out to your young grandkids, nieces and nephews who are eligible to vote for the first time. Explain what this election means to their future living in a democratic republic. Emphasize as John F. Kennedy did in his inauguration speech, defeating Trump means more than “a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change… a message to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed.”