With election day fast approaching, there is one important point to remember: Only 30 percent of the country voted for hope and change in 2008. Just 30 percent.

Candidate Barack Obama received 69 million votes. There are 213 million registered voters. Definitely not a majority. Hardly a mandate. For numerous reasons, about 80 million voters sat out the election. While each party caters to its base and courts the independents, the more important group of voters is that 80 million who need to be persuaded that this upcoming election will be the most important of their lifetime.

Voters are war weary, debt weary and tired of campaign promises that are nothing more than rhetoric. With a media that props up the incumbent, my only hope is for a Republican Senate and House that could stop these destructive policies. But Obama recently stated that if he has to work with a Republican Congress after January, and they don't give him everything he wants, he will just use executive orders. We will no longer be a republic. We will be a dictatorship.

It isn't too late for those 80 million to get informed. Don't listen to the polls, avoid major media outlets who receive their headlines from the White House. Lately, I find myself fact-checking the fact-checkers. Everyone needs to make an effort to vote in November. Never again should we let 30 percent of the voters determine the future of our country.

Sandra Tooley

Bluffton