Vote. Because it does matter. I don’t care if you’re in New York, Pennsylvania, or Alabama; the electoral college may be what decides who the winner is, but the popular vote will still shape what happens next.

The next president of the United States–who, I believe, is pictured above–is going to face unimaginable challenges in the first 100 days. He’s going to need to deal with a global climate crisis, two wars, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a country whose most basic democratic institutions are eroded beyond recognition. If this is going to get done, then a potentially obstructionist Congress needs to see a massive show of support for his policies. Red state or blue state, every vote matters.

Vote.

Don’t say it doesn’t matter. You know better than that bullshit. That may have flown back in 2000, but if the past eight years have taught us anything, it’s that this stuff does matter. The founding fathers granted us a jaw-dropping amount of responsibility, and recently we’ve been fucking it up big time.

Vote.

Think of 2000. 2004. 9/11, the War on Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan. Think about staggering poverty, a diminishing middle class, Hurricane Katrina, and a horrific financial crisis. Remember Abu Ghraib, Blackwater, Guantanamo, FISA, and our crumbling civil liberties. Think about voter suppression, swift boat vets, fired attorneys and Karl Rove politics.

Think about where we started off with this election, and how improbable all of this is. By all rights, this election should have been Clinton versus Romney, or something like that; a teeth-grinding, endless mediocrity parade. Instead, we have two unlikely candidates: a relatively inexperienced biracial man who rose up from obscurity and a grizzled old vet whose campaign was practically bankrupt before he snagged the New Hampshire primary.

Think about the Iowa caucus, in which historic turnout, unprecedented voter enthusiasm and a meticulously planned, unconventional guerrilla campaign won Obama the first real contest of the election in a state that’s whiter than an episode of Seventh Heaven. Think about what could be if that happened again on a nationwide scale.

But, more than anything else, think about tomorrow. Think about the kind of America you’d like to wake up to Wednesday morning, and remember that after the voting ends, the real work begins.

And then go vote.

Vote, you bastards!

Vote.

Please.