Assuming all Americans want the best for America, here are 10 reasons, and one urgency, to vote for the Democrat on your ballot in 2018:

• Social Security. Paul Ryan, Republican speaker of the House, has lamented his frustration at not reforming (reducing) Social Security benefits, after he provided American big business its largest tax cut in decades. 65 percent of Americans polled think business share of taxes is too low. 73 percent think the cost of Social Security is worth the benefits.

• Medicare. Every developed nation on the planet, but for the U.S., has health care for all. We have millions of citizens with no preventative healthcare and our maternal death rate is among the highest on the planet. The richest nation in history, the U.S., tells its citizens that being healthy is a privilege, not a right. This is Republican policy. Democrats seek Medicare for all.

• Renewable energy. 2018 Gallup polling is 59 to 34 percent that protecting the environment is more important than producing fossil fuels. Our president wants to save coal. Democrats embrace the EPA’s value, the Climate Accord, and new energy renewable sources.

• Tax policy. A June 2018 CNBC poll reports that 49 percent of Americans have less take-home pay, after the tax law, than last year, while 34 percent say they have more take home pay. We need tax policy that taxes businesses more (65 percent agree) and the richest Americans equally to the rest of the taxpayers. Democrats fight for this, Republicans pay their rich donors back with tax breaks.

• Voting. We need to make it easier for Americans to vote with longer voting periods, more ways to vote and more people voting. Republicans seek to disenfranchise voters who may vote against them.

• Immigration expansion. We are a nation of immigrants whose future growth is tied to more, not less, immigration, and not just the white people this president clearly favors. Our economy is tied to this growth. Republicans want a wall, Americans want immigration expansion by 56 percent, over 31 percent who favor reduced immigration.

• Justice equality. From a legal system that allows prosecutors to withhold exculpatory evidence with little or no penalty, to unequal sentencing for minorities, to the protection of women’s reproductive rights, we need justice for all, not blind punishment for the weakest among us.

• Consumer advocacy. You cannot protect yourself from Wells Fargo opening false accounts in your name. Only the federal government is powerful enough to fight the global corporations on your behalf. Yet Republicans are disarming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

• Transportation renewal. Our cities can no longer handle the automobile traffic. We need modern rails and new technologies that are environmentally friendly, cars that get far better mileage, and trains that go faster and more safely. Republicans have done nothing to solve the crisis.

• Schools for tomorrow. It is time to abandon the idea of school terms catered to farming schedules. It is time to train for future jobs and careers, not past jobs. It is time to insist on equal funding for every school in America, and time to end charter schools that have demonstrated they exist to enrich their owners.

All of these are reasons why your vote is deserved by Democrats in 2018, not Republicans. But one crisis rises about all these reasons. We have a dangerous demagogue in the White House and a Republican Party afraid to protect the Constitution from Donald Trump. We desperately need a balance in congress to this president.

There are times to vote Republican and times to vote Democratic. This time, it is not even close.

Jim Crawford is a retired educator, political enthusiast and award-winning columnist living here in the Tri-State.