Up at 5 this morning, before the dawn, to rendezvous with a group of the hard-core for a honk n’ wave in Richmond at 7:30. Not too cold, but dark, and each volunteer that pulled into the parking lot could have used another hour of sleep. But here’s the thing: with 13 days left in this election, you don’t need to leverage yourself out of bed in order to stand with us physically, in 3D. God love you if you do, but you can do us just as much good right now, from your desktop. We call it Netting Out The Vote, and it works like this.

Every digital citizen of the 21st century has multiple lists to which they belong, and with which they communicate. You’ve got email, at the very least, but probably three or four other sets of friends and e-contacts. Instead of joining us at the roadside in the early morning, or phone-banking with us late in the evening, give us 20 minutes, today.

Twenty minutes where you consciously work your lists on our behalf.

It takes about 5 minutes to write a short email, saying something to the effect of, “Just a quick note to let you know that I’m backing Philip Baruth for State Senate because he’s a house on fire when it comes to renewable energy,” or “Philip’s my candidate because he would sooner die than let Entergy stick Vermonters with the clean-up costs for Vermont Yankee,” or whatever your reason might be.

It takes another five minutes to email it to your address book, and Front Porch Forum.

Another five minutes to cross-post to Facebook, with a photo of you in Nepal, searching for enlightenment.

And a final five minutes to tweet it, or text it, or shout it to folks down the hall.

Twenty minutes where you consciously and deliberately get out the electronic vote, to the extent that you are able, sitting at your desktop sipping your coffee, never breaking a sweat.

And if you want, drop me an email and let me know that you did these things. Not that you have to, by any means. But when people show up in the cold dawn for a honk and wave, part of the reason that they do so is that they want others to know they did their part. Same should be true of this sort of digital honk n’ wave.

I’d like to know it, so I can properly thank you.

But either way, it’s time to ride to the sound of the guns.

If this particular netroots candidacy is going to succeed, it’ll do so because you actually move your fingers after reading this, actually make ones and zeroes flow from computer to computer, in the admittedly strange but sweet new music of democracy.