In a week it will be over. With the exception of voting, ballot counting and nail polish, the 2024 campaign season will be history. Attendance at the polls will determine the outcome. It is all in a deadlocked presidential election with enormous stakes resting on a few thousand votes in half a dozen battleground states.

While reliably red Ohio is no longer considered an important state in presidential races, it is one of the most closely watched states in the nation for some extremely important campaigns in play. The tight US Senate race between Ohio Democrat incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican millionaire Bernie Moreno could turn the narrow Democratic majority in the US Senate into a minority.

Ohio has the only state Supreme Court battle in the country with three contested seats that could swing the panel from a majority Republican to a majority Democrat, with huge ramifications for everything from abortion rights to fair voting districts.

Last but not least, a citizen-led revolt against Ohio’s blatantly drawn political kingpins to block partisan advantage is on the statewide ballot in the form of an anti-gerrymandering amendment. It would lock politicians out of the redistricting process and give citizens the power to redraw districts.

That’s a lot. But the fateful decisions that Ohioans will weigh in the United States are necessarily overshadowed by the top race for president. The outcome of that effectively tied contest between US Vice President Kamala Harris and twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is existential for America as a democratic republic. The contrast between the candidates on fidelity to the Constitution, self-government, and the liberties of the people set forth in the Bill of Rights could not be starker. Hold that thought.

After Tuesday, November 5, there will be plenty of time for post-election analysis and commentary. But in the final stretch before an election day for the ages, take a moment to regroup and reflect before it’s time to prepare for the results with a stiff drink. Recognize, regardless of your political leanings, how grueling and disheartening this election has been for so many citizens sick and tired of fear and loathing.

A few months ago, I came across a computer graphic of a roped American eagle pulling its head, neck, tail, talons and wings fiercely in all sorts of directions. The noble bird was caught in the trap and was twitching. A perfect encapsulation of America, circa 2024. We they are divided and pitted against each other by hapless operators without the slightest interest in our collective well-being, or constructive problem-solving, or advancing the greater good.

We have normalized demagogues who pursue power for power’s sake with not discerning platform or policy. Politicians seduced by the trappings of power do not create meaningful solutions that produce tangible benefits for real people. This is not the goal for them to win the election. Control it is.

Consider Ohio. Under one-party rule, Republicans control every lever of power in state government and are determined to keep it. Governing Ohio is all about them and their ability to rule as they please, as long as they want, with impunity. State Republicans are moving quickly to limit the risk of proxy voters. In 2023, they tried to rob citizens of their majority voting rights, silence them about access to constitutionally protected abortion, and unfairly fix illegal congressional and legislative districts drawn to bolster extreme minority rule—all in the interest of the support of absolute power.

It was a rude awakening for Ohioans to realize how far some of their elected officials were willing to go for themselves and their political ambitions over the sovereign rights of representatives. Frank LaRose, the state’s chief electoral officer, slapped outrageously loaded language on the anti-gerrymandering amendment in the general election to intentionally confuse voters on Issue 1 and try to derail a threat to gerrymandered Republican dominance in the state . The Republican majority on the state Supreme Court gave it the go-ahead.

Despite Ohioans overwhelmingly approving constitutionally protected abortion access last year, Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has refused to fully recognize that mandate and has fought for the better part of a year to retain elements of Ohio’s six-week abortion ban, which he considered acceptable withheld to the draconian extent. It took a Hamilton County judge (last week) to block the 2019 abortion law for good and clearly criticize Yost for trying to circumvent the will of Ohioans who voted to enshrine abortion protections in state constitution.

Our eyes should be wide open to self-absorbed poles consumed with power and acquiring more of it. Public service has taken a backseat to discontent. Either we demand better from the privileged to serve us, or we hand over control to despots who dictate what we can do. We either fight defiantly to govern, by and for the people of our state and our nation, or we submit to authoritarian decree without dissent.

For the first time in our nearly 250-year history, America’s presidential election is not between two candidates of two major political parties competing for different visions of a common democratic goal to make the union stronger. Either that matters to a free people flirting dangerously with what prominent members of the previous administration called fascism, or nothing does.

In a week, we’ll know.