Tom Krattenmaker

Opinion columnist

I usually roll my eyes when political candidates bluster that a given election is the most important in our lifetime. I generally scoff at hyperbolic claims that an upcoming vote will permanently change our country and that it’s a matter of existential importance for me to cast a ballot for Candidate X.

Now that you know I’m not just another Peter crying “wolf” for the thousandth time, maybe you’ll listen when I say:

The midterm elections next week matter. A lot. Vote in this election or forever hold your peace. (Well, if not forever, at least for a very long time.)

The reasons are many, but one stands above all, as it seems to do on nearly every political question. That reason, of course, is Donald Trump. If you don’t want the man in the White House and those who adore him to continue their assault on democratic values, on human beings who don’t fit their idea of real Americans, on the very notion of truth and facts, there is something you can do — something that is more powerful than watching "Saturday Night Live" send-ups and sharing anti-Trump posts on social media.

You can put a brake on this runaway train by voting.

Your vote matters to Washington, local elections

I know it can be a pain. Byzantine registration rules, highly suspect voter-roll purges, long lines at poorly resourced polling places, the peculiar tradition of elections on Tuesdays when most of us have to work — these and other factors seem designed to discourage many from exercising the right and responsibility to vote.

The deterrents have the predictable effect, especially among younger adults. A survey released this month finds that only a third of 18- to 29-year-olds are certain they will vote in the upcoming elections, compared with the 81 percent of those 65 and older. This, even though the younger demographic has so much at stake for the future — from crumbling infrastructure, to unaddressed climate change, to a culture poisoned by hate-based rhetoric and its violent consequences (such as the evil visited upon Pittsburgh last weekend).

If politicians knew that mortgaging the future would cost them elections, they wouldn’t mortgage it. Your vote matters so much that even the prospect of it influences affairs in Washington, your state capitol and your municipal government. When office-holders can be confident that voters won’t hold them accountable, they do what comes naturally: the things that the most powerful and moneyd interests want them to do.

More:Let's vote, party and celebrate American democracy on a new holiday called Citizen Day

10 reasons you should vote for Democrats and against Trump in midterm elections.

Dear concerned Semi-Trumpers, please resist a little and vote for Dems in midterms

To paraphrase the famous Joni Mitchell song, we often don’t know the value of something we have until it's gone. That could happen with our right to vote if we don’t head off some ominous developments before they gain unstoppable momentum.

Legislatures in some Republican-controlled states are erecting new obstacles to voting, all affecting younger and nonwhite people the most — those most likely to vote for Democrats, in other words. Aggressive gerrymandering is blunting the impact of their votes if these unwanted democracy participants do persist and cast ballots.

Add to these concerns the worrisome and unsupported claims of the president and his supporters about massive voter fraud and the preposterous notion that Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of millions of “illegals” casting ballots. Is it paranoid to think the groundwork is being laid to invalidate future elections whose outcomes the White House doesn’t like?

Vote to get the government you deserve

If you’re in the affected demographics, this ought to be tremendously motivating. Vote because they don’t want you to.

If you forfeit the right? Cable news host Joe Scarborough summed up the situation accurately in a recent rant about Trump and his enablers: “If after two years of this Democrats still decide to stay home, if after two years of this, women decide to stay home, if after two years of this … black voters decide to stay home, if after two years of being called breeders and rapists … Hispanic Americans decide to stay home, well, then they and we get the government we deserve.”

If you’re in one of these groups or you’re a younger prospective voter, the power-holders are counting on you to listen to the discouraging voice in your head. The voice telling you it will be a boring hassle to vote on Tuesday, that you don’t really know enough to vote, and that it would not make much difference if you did. The voice telling you that politics suck and that all candidates are equally lame and corrupt.

That’s the voice to ignore. The one to heed is the voice telling you that the future direction of your society and your prospects of a dignified life are at stake. The one telling you that in this election more than most, voting is caring — caring about LGBT Americans, people of color, immigrants from “s---hole” countries, sexual assault survivors and others — all targets of the Trumpians and all under threat of losing their rights and their rightful place in society. It’s the voice telling you that voting is an act of noncompliance — noncompliance with political forces that do not have your interests in mind and want you to lie down and be quiet.

Stand up to defy those who are counting on your apathy. Vote. While you still can.

A member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, Tom Krattenmaker is a writer specializing in religion in public life and author of, among other books, "Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower." Follow him on Twitter: @TKrattenmaker