Here’s an assignment before you vote tomorrow. You are voting, aren’t you? Because sitting out these mid-term elections would be next-level apathy.

First, be sure to fill your tank with gas on the way to the polls. Then, remind yourself that in January 2020 the average price of a gallon of regular was $2.10.

How we doing so far?

Next, stop at the supermarket. Try to remember when eggs were just $1.51 a dozen. Hint: That was January 2020. Before the Democrats were given control of Congress and the White House.

According to the USDA, food prices have surged 11 to 12% since 2020. That’s hitting working families and retirees hard.

Finally, go to your desk and open that statement from your retirement account. You know, the one sitting there sealed, daring you to peek inside.

Then ask yourself how much more of America’s feckless leadership - from Washington to your local school board - you and your family can take.

Two weeks ago I stopped in at the I.G.A. grocery in rural Craigsville, Va. in Augusta, County. A woman ahead of me in the check-out line, buying just a quart of milk, asked the cashier if they were hiring,

The clerk said they were.

“I’ll do anything, work any hours,” the woman said, lowering her voice. “We can’t pay our bills. The struggle is real.”

The struggle IS real.

Shoot, The Guardian newspaper found a woman in Colorado working two jobs and selling her blood to make ends meet.

Cashe Lewis, 31, of Denver, Colorado works two jobs and is currently trying to find a third job to cover the recent $200 monthly rent increase to her apartment. She works days as a barista at Starbucks, but claims it’s been difficult to get enough hours even with taking extra shifts whenever she can due to scheduling cuts as part of the crackdown on union organizing by management.

At night she works at a convenience store because the hours are reliable, and works six days a week, often 16 hours a day.

“I’m exhausted all the time,” said Lewis. “On the one day I have off a week, I donate plasma for extra money. I’m literally selling my blood to eat because I have no choice.”

Before voting ask yourself which candidate on your ballot cares about the cost of food and fuel and wants to curb out-of-control government spending and which one only yaps about Donald Trump, January 6th and abortion. 

Vote accordingly.