J.D. Cunegan

We’re in the home stretch of what could be the most consequential election of our lives. I say this two days after early voting has started in my home state of Virginia, as well as Minnesota and South Dakota.

We’re less than two months from Election Day, Nov. 5; this is the home stretch.

(Side note: Can we cool it with the “most consequential election of our lives?” The last, like, four of them have felt like this, and I’m getting tired of it. Just once, I’d love to have a… kind of important election. Not one where a certain outcome might spell doom for millions of us.)

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be patriotic. Is it a defiant belief in the inherent goodness of a nation, irrespective of any flaws or egregious acts? Is it faith in the country’s ideals, even if reality has seldom lived up to them? Is it somewhere in the middle, an acknowledgment that there are a lot of good things, but there is also more work to be done?

For me, the most patriotic thing you can do is vote. Not just in presidential races or Congressional seats, either. I’m talking about state- and local-level races, too. Governor. School board. Mayor. City council. Some states even let you vote for judges.

Voting is the most sacred tenet of our system of government. It’s one generations of Americans have fought and bled and died for. It’s the most surefire tool we have, as citizens, to shape the trajectory and the future of our country. It’s the one time we get to tell those in charge that we either want them to pursue as planned, or we’d like to go in a different direction.

Whatever matters most to you–healthcare, education, housing, civil rights–find candidates and parties who most closely align with your views, and vote accordingly. Staying home and griping at your news channel or social media feed of choice doesn’t accomplish anything.

Except maybe raise your blood pressure.

I don’t think people realize the power they have in voting. We have seen that power, on display, time and time again. We saw it in 2008, when voting propelled a little-known senator from Illinois with a strange name to become the first Black president in our nation’s history.

We saw it four years ago, when two states that had traditionally voted one way–Arizona and Georgia–went the other way on the backs of voting blocs who had historically been disenfranchised.

We saw it two years ago, when the death of Roe v. Wade precipitated a sustained rebuke at the ballot box that might last through this year’s election, if not beyond.

Think of it this way: if voting didn’t matter (as the cynics suggest), then why do we see politicians, in state after state, trying to either take away that right or make the practice of it more difficult?

Because if the millions of us who don’t (or can’t) vote did, in fact, cast a ballot, we would look far different as a country than we do today. Where we are is as much a function of electoral inaction as it is some people voting for the “wrong” candidate.

I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. If you’ve read even half of the things I post on this site, you already know where I stand. But I can’t argue in favor of sitting out elections. I’ve been eligible to vote since 2000, and I haven’t missed an election since. That includes the local races with no party affiliation, where you really have to do your own research. That includes no-drama party primaries, even after the winner’s already been determined.

Because my right to cast a ballot has never been in question. Far too many people before me bled and died for the right to vote, for me to sit back and not participate. I can’t take for granted something others had to claw and fight for.

This isn’t about finding the one politician who is 100 percent aligned with whatever you believe. No such unicorn exists, no matter where you sit on the ideological spectrum. This is about finding the one who most closely reflects your views and doing your civic duty to ensure your voice is heard.

Your vote matters. Your participation in this most sacred process matters.

Yes, there is a responsibility to this. If you’re going to vote, you have an obligation to research the candidates and the parties and the issues. Sometimes, there are nefarious actors to be accounted for–”third party” candidates who are solely there to play spoiler (looking at you, Ralph Nader and Jill Stein), or candidates who run with one party, then govern in the other–and it’s up to you to figure all that out.

Because while voting is a right, it is also a responsibility. Think back to when you were in school; chances are, you received something every year called a Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. Even then, those two concepts went together. There is no completely unfettered right in America (no matter what certain people tell you); every right brings with it responsibility.

There are those who would just as soon see you not participate. The proliferation of the “both parties are the same” rhetoric over the last 30 years is one manifestation of that. So are all the laws that have been passed over the last 15 or so years, placing barriers on the electoral process.

Ask yourself why. Why would they not want you to vote? What bothers them so much about you performing your civic duty?

Because your voice has power. Your vote has power.

Never let anyone–left, right or center–tell you otherwise.

Go to IWillVote.com or Vote.gov to register, check your status or find out what you need to vote in your state. If you can, look into casting your ballot before Election Day. Nov. 5 will be here before we know it, and no matter the outcome, make sure you’re not sitting back wishing you had done more.