Why I'm over Electoral Politics

But I'm also gonna keep voting. For now...

Please, dude! Just one more election and we’ll finally save democracy! I swear! Just vote blue no matter who! (Photo by Janelle Hiroshige on Unsplash)

I’m lucky. In Illinois, we can get mail-in ballots. So, every election season, my ballot comes in the mail and I find a time to curl up with a blanket and a cup of tea while I luxuriate over researching the candidates I know nothing about (Injustice Watch is indispensable for all those pesky judges). 

I just mailed in my ballot over the weekend. For the first time ever, instead of voting for a presidential candidate, I wrote in “Gaza” as instructed by local progressives and Palestinian rights groups. I was genuinely psyched to vote for Kina Collins (Danny Davis has got to GO, you guys). But otherwise, I was pretty deeply uninspired to vote. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t research anyone. I just grabbed a progressive voter guide (shout out to Stephanie Skora’s “Girl, I Guess” voter guide, which strikes a relatable “meh” tone) and filled in the suggested bubbles. 

I want to explain something, which I suppose can work as a bit of an addendum to my “Be Prepared” article. As I have conversations with and see the commentary from, mostly, elders in my life, I get the sense that some folks aren’t quite recognizing the realities of our political landscape. They’re angry that so many of us are abandoning Biden in this, the most important election of our lives! So here’s my take, which I think is similar to many young folks (not that I’m young, but let’s say Elder Millennials and younger) who are invested in social change, but utterly disillusioned with electoral politics. 

First, let’s talk about Trump. Yes, he’s a horrifying monster. He’s also sort of a figurehead. Trump is important in that he symbolizes ideas, namely, Christian White supremacy, xenophobia, fascism, and yes, violence, specifically in the name of “protecting the country” from perceived threats, like immigrants and trans kids. But I’m not sure that people realize that this ideology isn’t just Trump’s. This is the mainstream Republican platform now. The best evidence for this is Project 2025, the terrifying transition plan for the next Republican president, whoever it is. The threat of this ideology doesn’t go away if Trump goes away. This transition plan was created by hundreds of conservative think tanks and experts, with the support of the Heritage Foundation and ALEC, among others. That is, the most powerful conservative groups in the country. 

So even if we had a so-called “reasonable” Republican elected to power, Project 2025 is still the plan. The pressure to enact draconian, oppressive, and unconstitutional laws and policies would be absolutely immense. Plus, it’s already happening all over the country, even with a Democratic administration. The GOP is here to play ball, folks; they’ll play dirty, and they’ve got a plan to win.

Which means, as long as White supremacist fascism remains the GOP platform, then even if Biden gets reelected, we’ll be faced, yet again, with the most important election of our lives the next time around. 

Doesn’t it feel like, somehow, the Democrats have gotten us into this position of having to constantly vote like our lives depend on it? 2016, 2020, and now 2024. When does it end? 

Well, perhaps it could end if the Democrats weren’t so goddamn feckless, spineless, and just generally morally corrupt. We’ve got Nancy Pelosi out here asking the FBI to investigate pro-Palestine protestors for ties to Russia, and Biden asking Trump, fucking Trump!, to help him get his immigration bill passed. Now they’re united with Repubs over the absolute bullshit that is the TikTok ban. Young people aren’t stupid. We see a party utterly ignoring (and in fact vilifying) the 80% of the constituents it claims to represent who want a ceasefire in Gaza. What do they do to respond to that? Well, Harris calls for a ceasefire… for… wait for it… weirdly long pause… six weeks. Just in time for super Tuesday. Oh, and there’s gonna be a “humanitarian aid port” in Gaza, built over the next couple months (just don’t ask about the folks who will starve to death while the port is being built…), when the U.S. could literally just order Israel or Egypt to open their borders to allow trucks in. You know, since trucks are getting in to BUILD THE PORT. Maybe put some food on those??? In the meantime, we’ll airdrop aid that, in about the darkest fucking satire you could think of, kills people when it falls and the parachute fails to open.

Folks, let’s be real. These are the most out of touch fucking hucksters I’ve ever seen. These are the folks who brought us this epic embarrassment: 

Photo by Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty.

As long as these are the Democrats we keep electing, then every four years we’ll be in a fight for the very future of the “democracy” (read: oligarchy) of this country. 

These elite, old-guard Democrats feel so familiar to me, perhaps because I’ve spent a lot of time around people just like them. I’ve been pretty clear over the years about my disdain for my two time alma mater and former employer, Northwestern University. It’s full of this very particular type of wealthy, centrist, corporate liberal that so dominates the Democratic party these days. They’re folks who, sure, are pro-choice, and would never bother to ban books or the teaching of Black history, who ostensibly support racial and gender equality - but in a purely representational way (i.e. pic above and below). 

Yes, this a meme making fun of the U.S. military during Pride month (the helmet on the left is a real social media post from the Marines). But this also sums up the Dems pretty well.

But what are they primarily motivated by? Their wealth, power, reputations, egos, luxuries. Class solidarity and an allegiance to politeness within the upper echelons of society seem to outweigh moral principles. Thus, generations of politicians from all ends of the political spectrum fawning over Henry Kissinger, one of the world’s most notorious war criminals, as an example. These wealthy people aren’t just colleagues, this is their social circle. They’re interested in business, technology, the stock market. They play golf together, attend outrageous rich-people birthday parties and fundraisers together. These types of social norms and economic/political self-interests move fluidly between D.C. political elite, Hollywood/media elite, and elite institutions like the Ivy Leagues. I suppose this is probably just how it is in societies where wealth and power concentrates at the top of hierarchies, ones that are recreated and reinforced in our corporations and universities.

I’ve seen this kind of stuff up close and personal. I know, literally know, the exact kind of person who would never vote for Trump, who would never force a woman to give birth, but would also be totally unbothered by a headline like “7 Defense Stocks to Buy as Tensions Rise in the Middle East.” I see this kind of person so painfully clearly in the folks that hold the highest offices in our country. So wildly out of touch, they don’t even realize how out of touch they are. The kind of people who truly believe that us protestors are naive, and they are the pragmatists who get things done, who live in the real world, with their multiple homes, gated communities, and first-class plane tickets or private jets.

I perhaps sound very cynical. But I would argue it’s the leaders we’re electing who are cynical, not those of us who are calling out the corruption we see. I’m also very aware that railing against “the elites” is a favorite pastime of both the left and the right. With good reason.

Y’all know I love Naomi Klein’s book Doppelganger. She writes so brilliantly about what’s going on in our current political landscape. She says the left exists: 

“...to provide a structural analysis of wealth and power that brings order and rigor to the prevailing (and correct) sense that society is rigged against the majority, and that important truths are being hidden behind pat political rhetoric. Because we cannot change what we do not understand.”

She also says later, quoting writer Mark Fisher, that “...much of what is packaged as conspiracies today is ‘the ruling class showing class solidarity’ - by which he meant that it’s mostly just ultrarich people, in business and government, having one another’s back.”

So, here’s yet another plug imploring you to read Doppelganger. 

All of this is to say - while I’m not at the point where I’ll stop voting (and I think local elections remain very important) - the “lesser of two evils” fear-mongering is no longer working on me, and a lot of other people, too. The two evils are starting to look like fraternal twins. A disastrous Republican administration feels nearly inevitable, if not this time around, then maybe the next. And as long as we keep focusing on voting our way to liberation via the slightly more palatable Democratic candidate, we’re screwed, because we’re playing a rigged game. Our entire system of government, and the processes and priorities according to which it functions, need to be so dramatically overhauled that it ought to look like something else entirely when we’re done fixing it. I just don’t know how we get to such structural change by working within the structures themselves.

So for now, I put my hope elsewhere. In community and mutual aid, in art and imagination, in revolutionary love - as in this extraordinary article by Michelle Alexander - and care, and the unyielding beauty and resilience of nature.