“I support the left, tho’ I’m leanin’ to the right… but I’m just not there when, when it’s coming to a fight. I’m a political man and I practice what I preach, but I’m just not there when you’re in my reach.” From Politician, written by Oscar Chavez Fernandez and Jose De La Vega Leija.

Every even-numbered year since at least 1970, I have taken to whatever media were paying my rent to encourage people to vote. Broadcast, print, internet… I even got my message into Superman comics.

This final pre-election plea to vote has been bi-partisan. In order to make democracy work, you’ve got to choose between two people (sad but true) and neither one is going to support all of your views. One-issue voters are completely missing the point; it’s nothing more than the electoral version of pouting. Each and every one of us has our own agendas and, hopefully, we are openminded enough to follow the facts and change our minds when necessary… or at least tweak them a bit.

Well, I hate being in a rut so this year I’m going to tweak my biannual polemic a bit. This year, in order to keep democracy working we’ve actually got to vote to keep our democracy. One candidate is in favor of that, the other is strongly and openly opposed to democracy. He wants to be a full-blown dictator — and he’s said so many, many times.

That alone should offer voters a clear choice. Either you are in favor of the rule of the people and the rule of law, or you are not. Yet, as of this writing nearly half the electorate still appear to be supporting the avowed dictator.

No matter what happens next week — and trust me, it will not be “over” next week — the fact that so many people seem to need a fascist autocrat telling them what they can and cannot do is completely appealing. This is not politics, it is our future. And our kids’ futures. And their kids’ futures.

I’ve been following our elections since I was a small child. Yeah, I was a weird kid, and that seems to have stuck. I lived through more wars than I care to count, and more dramatic regime changes than one could tolerate within a strong democracy. And yet I have never, ever seen this nation more divided, more angry, and more dangerous. I am not only concerned about the results of next week’s election, I am concerned about the violence that quite possibly will follow the election all the way to the inauguration of our next president on January 20 2025. And, quite possibly, beyond.

I can think of only one cure for all of this: a functioning democracy. A perfect democracy is impossible to achieve as there always will be those who will figure out how to game the system to their personal advantage. But think about this point:

The only way a democracy can be ended is by the will of the people expressed in a democratic fashion — for the last time. That, my friends, is the very essence of irony.

Please, I beg of you. In the election that is happening at this very moment, the one that terminates on November 5 2024, do not vote to end our democracy.

Think for yourself.