(WMassP&I)

About five years ago this blog urged residents of our city, Springfield, to vote with their whole hearts, their whole minds, and their whole souls on the casino subject. Our preferred outcome lost, but the point was to call our fellow residents to speak at this particular moment and to make a choice with reason, purpose and conviction.

This Election Day, I ask the same again, but this time I ask all Americans to do and help begin to rid us of this national turmoil.

While this blog has made its recommendations for governor, US senator, attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state, auditor and State House of Representatives, we also see bigger stakes. In many ways the biggest decisions are being made well beyond the confines of our commonwealth.

It’s an overused trope, but it’s true. These midterm elections could be the most important of our lifetimes.  The safeguards of our system have mostly held for the last two years. But the GOP’s abdication of oversight has drawn poison into the infected wounds left from 2016 election.

I know and appreciate the arguments that Americans need to spend more time listening and not just yelling past each other. We do need to do that. But the whittling away of norms is not only harmful. It is dangerous. Democracy, flawed and sometimes disappointing, is our most cherished gift. But it means nothing without accountability. It means nothing if we always succumb to our rawest and worst demons of our nature. It means nothing if we take it upon ourselves to wipe away our fellow citizens’ own rights, not least of which is their right to vote.

So again, I exhort readers to vote and to vote with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole soul. Take the time and restore some measure of sanity and compassion to our country and put people into office who will do the same. I guarantee, whether next month, next year, next decade, it will be worth it.

In Massachusetts, polls are open Tuesday from 7:00am to 8:00pm almost everywhere. If you are not in Massachusetts check out vote.org to learn  if you’re registered and where and how to vote.

Matt Szafranski is the editor-in-chief of Western Mass Politics & Insight.