Don’t sit on the sidelines for the most consequential election of your life

For any eligible voter who may be planning to sit out the November election, today we offer former President Barack Obama’s words from last week in Cleveland about the importance of voting this year. At the least, we hope Obama’s statement makes you reconsider. At best, we hope it prompts you to change your mind.

With that, here are excerpts from Obama’s speech, edited for brevity:

This November’s election is more important than any I can remember in my lifetime. And I know politicians say that all the time, but this time it really is different. This time the stakes are higher.

The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are far more dangerous.

We have had big elections before, we’ve had big choices before, we’ve had big arguments before. Democracy has never been easy.

Our Founding Fathers argued about everything. We fought a civil war. We overcame (the Great) Depression. We had a civil rights movement, and a women’s movement, and union workers had to fight to organize and get decent wages.

We have lurched from eras of conservative retrenchment to moments of great progressive change. The broader story of America has been a story of progress. Not because of one person, not because of one leader, not because of a speech or even a particular piece of legislation. It has been progress because of countless acts of dedication by ordinary citizens.

It’s (happened) because rather than being a bystander to history, ordinary people did extraordinary things. You marched and you organized and you stepped up and did what folks said couldn’t be done.

And you voted to make history.

Look, even when you won, in this country you take two steps forward, oftentimes there’s been a step back. You win the right to organize, then strategies arise to try to bust unions. You win the minimum wage, and somehow it doesn’t go up for 30 years.

You win the right to vote, people then try to make it hard for you to vote. Each time we pull ourselves closer to our founding ideals — that all of us are created equal, that all of us are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights; each we move in the direction of greater freedom and greater prosperity for all people, the status quo pushes back. The powerful and the privileged oftentimes work to keep us divided, work to make us angry and cynical, because that helps them hold on to their power and privilege.

We are living through one of those moments, and it didn’t just start with one person. We didn’t just get here overnight.

We live at a time when there’s a lot of change going on. Demographic shifts and technological changes, and there’s rising inequality and people’s lives have been disrupted.

Politicians have tried to exploit people’s fears, to divide. So what we see is a politics that feels broken right now.

Even the folks who won seem unhappy. Have you noticed that?

And so we’re going through this moment where the forces of retrenchment and anger and backlash are constantly being fanned.

People are stressed and they’re anxious. Politicians try to keep us angry, keep us cynical, and they appeal to our tribal instincts and appeal to fear. They try to pit one group against another. And they tell us order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those people who don’t look like us or sound like us or pray like we do.

That’s an old playbook. It’s as old as time. And the closer you get to Election Day, you can count on more and more politicians trying to pull out that playbook.

Here’s the thing: In a healthy democracy, that playbook doesn’t work. In a healthy democracy, where everybody’s participating and paying attention, and listening and voting, people of good will in both parties call out the bigots and the fearmongers, and they work to compromise and get things done.

But when there’s a vacuum in democracy, when we don’t vote, when we take our basic rights for granted, other voices fill the void, and demagogues get out there and promise simple fixes to complicated problems.

I know sometimes when I was a president or a candidate, people would say, “Barack, you’re talking too long. You’re too professorial and you’re explaining too much.” But sometimes things are complicated. And I was confident that the American people wanted to know the truth; wanted to know what was what.

This is not normal what we’re seeing. It is radical. It’s a vision that says that it’s more important for those who are currently in power to protect that power, even if it hurts the country.

This is serious. You know it is . ...

On Nov. 6, we have a chance to restore some sanity to our politics. We can tip the balance of power back to the American people. Because you are the only check on bad policy, you’re the only real check on abuses of power. It’s you and your vote.

The November election is still two calendar pages away, but the deadline for registration is in a little more than four weeks.

To register, or to check to see if you are registered, you can:

Visit the Clark County Election Department at clarkcountynv.gov/election/pages/default.aspx

Call the department at 702-455VOTE (8683)

Visit one of the department’s two offices: 965 Trade Drive, Suite A, North Las Vegas; or Clark County Government Center, First Floor, Suite 1113, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway, Las Vegas. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In addition, the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Weekly have partnered with Life is Beautiful and Nextgen America to hold a major, nonpartisan voter registration drive Sept. 21-23 at Life is Beautiful. The registration location will be at the Container Park in downtown Las Vegas and will be available during all hours of the festival.

Eligible voters also can register at Nextgen Nevada’s office, 2330 Paseo Del Prado, Suite C203, Las Vegas, NV 89102. Registration services are available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

In addition, Nextgen Nevada is registering voters on the following five college campuses between now and the cut-off for registrations:

UNLV: 4505 S Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89154

CSN Charleston: 6375 Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89146

CSN Cheyenne: 3200 E Cheyenne Ave, North Las Vegas, NV 89030

CSN Henderson: 700 College Dr, Henderson, NV 89002

Nevada State College: 1300 Nevada State Drive, Henderson, NV 89002

Nextgen registration staff members are available at the college campuses weekdays. Typically, registration tables are set up in the college free speech area, although registrars also roam in public areas to sign up voters on campus.