It is not enough to just vote, we need to work to be sure that others do.  Unless you are walking or phoning, you are not taking advantage of the best way we can win this election.  It has been shown that personal contact makes the most difference in getting people out to vote.  Giving money is essential - but the TV ad is increasingly weak as a tool to get thinking Americans out to vote.  By spending the next 10 days working to assure that everyone who is disgusted with the way things are going expresses her or his disgust through the ballot, you can make history!  Please think about making it your top priority for this next week.
Too many people are sick of government.  Their way of voting "no confidence" is to not vote at all.  Republicans will be barraged with GOTV (get out the vote) at the last minute.  Dems are less good at this in many parts of the country, especially where the Democratic party has been weak in the past because the state is usually red.  This is where we need to make the most difference.

Howard Dean has been disparaged for his 50 state initiative.  It is now, as the election becomes tight in a lot of red states, that it begins to pay off.  But it may be too little too late for this election.  I hope that the very depth and breadth of disgust that most of us feel with the way our nation has been hijacked will cause people to turn out.  But for many people they just stop thinking about national politics to avoid being upset.  They will think about voting, but will find it too cold, too dark, too much a bother to show up at the polls, because they really don't want to think about it.

If each of those people receives a call in the last days before the election, reminding them of the excitement of Democracy and their role in it, they are more likely to vote.  This is where we can make a difference.  Go to your Democratic headquarters, or the headquarters for someone running in a tight race.  Ask if you can call or walk the streets for the next 10 days.  Make the difference.  Your vote is important, but you can multiply it by a factor of 100 if you choose to work hard these next few days!

Lots of people are hesitant to get involved in telephoning or knocking on doors.  It is hard to do at first, people are not always nice or responsive.  But when you do this, you are practicing Democracy at its best.  Over 1,800,000 US soldiers have given their lives so that you can knock on a door or call someone and ask them to vote.  The best way we can support the troops - today's and those in history - is to practice the Democracy they fought for.

In my state, the Republican office is quiet - but there are stacks of brochures with doorknob rubber bands on them - ready for the last onslaught.  There  are phones to use, and most Repubs also have cell phones with lots of time available.  They are ready to go.

The Democratic office is quiet, a big room with few people there most of the time.  The one coordinator was put there by Howard Dean, and he was laughed at for that.  There will be last minute GOTV, but we don't have the lists that the Repubs have.  Carl Rove coordinates the campaign from DC, the state doesn't need to have a lot of organization.  The Dems reinvent the campaign in every state and city, we often don't know what we are doing.

So GO, WORK, GET OUT THE VOTE.  

Thank you