As I have been traveling through the country on my musical tour, I have been thinking about the upcoming election, which is less than a month away. So far, I have been in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and currently I am in Washington DC, the epicenter of political activity in our country. It has been a while since I communicated through a statement on my website, since I have been busy preparing for the tour. But I have been following the various congressional and senate races by reading the local newspapers in these states, and once again it is so clear to me how vital this upcoming election is to the future of our country.

Since the Republicans control the White House, the Congress and the courts, this president is not going to be impeached because the republicans in control of these branches of government would never allow it to even be considered. During the past 6 years, we have not been able to accomplish anything important and beneficial. This country has experienced one debacle after another: a failed Iraq policy, runaway debt, stagnant wages, the list goes on. The only way to hold this unaccountable president accountable is to take back control of the House or Senate or both. In less than 30 days if the people of this country vote and put Democrats back in control of Congress, we would have committee chairman that could launch investigations and examine policies with the full authority of Congress. Minority members do not have this power now. They can not control what bills are considered, how long committees debate them, whether bills get reported out onto the floor, or whether a vote gets scheduled. All these decisions are made by the Republican leadership of both the House and the Senate.

This is why we must really energize the Democratic base to take this election seriously and have high voter turn out at the polls on Election Day. They’ll try to manipulate this election, suppress our vote and play the fear card again, but this time we can’t let them succeed. The only way to counter-act their strategy is for everyone to turn out and be counted. The future of our country is at stake. The way the world perceives our countryis at stake. And the future of our children and our grandchildren is at stake unless we take back control and change the direction this administration has taken our country. We have that power. Let’s use it.