vote! now!

and don't stop there

the old and lumbering beast we call our democracy is beginning to wake up, lift its glutted belly off of the dirt, and start moving. Both campiagns boast something near a million volunteers over the course of the election. As we speak, tens and tens of thousands are knocking on doors, representing and supporting at the polls, making calls.
I, like many around me, feel the weight of this election, and the urgency of bringing John Kerry into office. I am afraid for the America and the world that George Bush could shape in four years, and eager to realize the immense potential that John Kerry brings with him into office. Given how much hangs in the balance today, it is hard to think of anything else. Especially because no one, no matter how powerful or intelligent, knows what the next day will bring for us all.

Tomorrow is even more important than this day. Tomorrow will be the real test of how we've grown in the past year. Tomorrow is the day to affirm that our democracy does not exist to function one day every two or four years. Tomorrow we will see what this election has built, who this election has empowered. Tomorrow will see who has a voice now. Tomorrow will see whether this election was the brief waking of our democracy before groggily returning to its hibernation, or whether this election was the shofar blast, the sounding call that has woken us up, place our governence deeply into the palms of our hands, and said, this is yours, take it! Take it now.

The tools at our disposal for widespread and intimate grassroots democratic action are unprecedented. They are powerful. This election has proved it. MoveOn can organize nationwide bakesales, raise millions of dollars on $20 donations over the internet, bring together major musicians for concert tours, and bring thousands of volunteers into swing states to knock on every door of every town like Nashua New Hapshire. The ways we can now connect to each other, become politically involved, bring our voices into the representative process, have an awesome power. We must create and use those new tools refashion the shape of our democracy.

Tomorrow will be the test. Was all this buggyjiving really about two men? Tomorrow will we say, oh, we've done our part, now it's your turn?
We did this. The tools are in our hands. Still more tools are waiting in aching potential to be fashioned. Tomorrow, we cannot cede and forget the powerful forces we have created together. Tomorrow, this country, and its political system, will belong not to John Kerry, nor to George Bush, nor to our Senators, Representatives, and local officials. Today, we must win this election. Tomorrow, this country can belong to us.
Ze hayom, asa hashem. This is the day that G!d created.