Alec Baldwin

Opinion contributor

For those of us who have functioned for nearly three years in sustained shock at the spectacle of the Trump presidency, the arrival — finally — of impeachment proceedings is satisfying news. Satisfying, because it has been terrifying to think about this president never being held accountable for the damage he’s doing to our country with his contempt for the Constitution, let alone another four years of this destruction and demoralization.

If you’re worried about whether Senate Republicans will ever stand up to him, let me suggest one way to regain their attention: Use this year’s legislative elections in Virginia on Tuesday to send an unmistakable message that Americans are eager to put an end to the dishonest and dishonorable Trump era.

A sign of the coming Blue Wave

Right now, Republican control of this formerly deep red state is hanging by a thread . Republicans hold bare majorities in both the upper and lower houses of the General Assembly.

Two years ago, Democrats came one vote short of flipping the House of Delegates from red to blue, a sign of the coming Blue Wave that hit the U.S. House the following year. This year, the urge to finish the job is palpable among Virginia Democrats, whose field of diverse, youthful, progressive candidates is at least as strong as 2017’s and possibly even stronger.

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It’s hard to overstate just how much is riding on Virginia’s elections and how they could influence the ultimate fortunes of Trump and Republicans. Virginia was always going to be the warmup act for the 2020 elections: an early gauge of Americans’ appetite to repudiate Trump and Trumpism.

But with impeachment underway, the stakes are phenomenally higher. There’s just no way a big win for Democrats in Virginia won’t be read as a referendum on impeachment, and no way the opposite outcome won’t be read the opposite way. These things have a way of shaping the long-term electoral narrative. And it might do more than that. It could make a substantive difference in the 2020 political landscape, not to mention in the lives of Virginians.

National balance of power at stake

If Democrats take the General Assembly, they will control the legislature and the governor’s mansion when congressional redistricting arrives in the state in 2021, preventing more abuses of power by the notoriously gerrymandering Republicans. That will contribute to altering the balance of power in Washington for years. Not only that, Virginia will finally have the votes to become the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment — putting it on a path to finally becoming the law of the land.

Meanwhile, Virginians would very likely see a higher minimum wage. And the state would have a real opportunity to pass the gun safety legislation that the majority of its residents want and that state Republicans have resorted to disgusting tricks to prevent.

For all these reasons, Virginia deserves the attention of all of us who are fed up with the bottomless corruption of the current occupant of the White House and his enablers at every level. It deserves the attention of all who are sick of contempt for working people, for women, and for the right of kids to attend school or play on a playground without being menaced by weapons of war.

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I’ve had the opportunity to needle this president with blunt satire, a time-honored political tool. Of course, that’s not enough. We have to do more. I have been in Virginia, knocking on doors and doing whatever I can because this is where we will all make a difference. Right now. We can shape our future. We can all take part by making phone calls, even if we can’t actually pound the pavement. If the future of our democracy lies for now in the Old Dominion, let’s pay attention and get it right.

Alec Baldwin is a member of the board of People For the American Way.