The 2020 election; two evils, one vote. Photo by Brenda Fernanda Verano
By Brenda Fernanda Verano, News Editor
As we are days away from Election Day, there is this feeling of sadness mixed with impotence, that makes me lose sleep as I think about what the next four years will look like for this country.
Everywhere I turn there is someone enthusiastically encouraging me to “Go Vote!”, from celebrities to friends.
Casual conversations divert into an interrogation of whether or not I have registered to vote, and for who of the two candidates will I vote for.
With so many championing voting as the one solution to our societal and structural problems, it’s been difficult to not feel like the rotten apple when I voice out how tired I am of having to settle for the lesser of two evils in regards to the presidential candidates.
When my cousin, a first-time voter told me he wasn’t voting for Biden, I looked at him in disbelief. How can a first-generation college student, from a working-class family, vote for Trump?
He then explained what he really meant.
“Well, I’m not voting necessarily FOR Biden, I’m just voting AGAINST Trump.”
Part of me was relieved but a greater part of me was disappointed. When will American citizens upon opening the ballot, aren’t faced with the inadequacy of two presidential choices.
We have two candidates: white, male, rich politicians, one of them literally got impeached and another one who is only slightly better but who also go accused of sexual assault and conduct.
Why should we have to continue to “vote blue no matter who?” Is this strategy a truly democratic practice? Is voting really the most impactful and important civic engagement?
As I think about these questions, I realize there’s no concrete answer. There is one thing I’m sure of: as a society, we need to effectuate systemic change that comes from doing more than simply dropping off a ballot every four years.
Dialogue should not be just about voting but about real structural change that encompasses taking greater initiatives, because the face of the system might modify every four years, but the system remains the same.
We all hoped that the democracy, which has always been pushed down our throats, would actually work. But time after time, with each presidential election we are left with an open wound that’s harder to close.
The few times that I have questioned the divine democracy of this country, the inadequate way the entire electoral college is designed, or if I make the slightest note that voting is not enough, I get accused of being privileged, dishonorable, and even part of the alt-right.
As voting urgency has grown, so has voter shaming. When a well-meaning, white, and/or middle to upper-class progressive person tells marginalized people that “if you don’t vote, then you can’t complain,” they are supporting a narrative that says these groups are responsible for their own structural and environmental oppression. It is victim-blaming and fails to acknowledge the threat of systems in places like imperialism and capitalism are there, even after Nov. 3.
Former President Obama once said “Don’t boo, Vote!” to a crowd booing Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention. The people listened and, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 with 65 million votes, to Trump’s 162 million, but she still lost the election.
In the country where “your vote is our voice,” when did you last feel that your voice was considered?
The American people have been promised a say in how the country is run and a say in the policies and legislation that affect us all. But in reality, the volume of our voice is only as loud as the ruling class wants.
Voting for the less evil is not a choice, and if it was, what type of mediocre choice is that? My voice was not heard when the current president signed executive orders like preventing violence against federal, and state officers, or when he reversed the Affordable Care Act, or when his Border Security and Immigration Enforcement put kids in cages and facilitated the Muslim ban or when he signed an order for an oil pipeline to go through native land.
Enough voter shaming, and instead focus on voter suppression.Even with the strikes for voting rights, there is still suppression through poverty, felony disenfranchisement, racial wage gaps, citizenship, and the lack of public transits that are still systematic barriers that people encounter every time they vote.
Biden has urged us to “get out the vote,” but refuses to legislative challenge corporations to enable workers to make it to the polls without losing money out of their paycheck.
In addition, our broken immigration system has shut down it’s democratic doors to the 23 million undocumented people who would be eligible to vote and who pay over 9 billion dollars in income tax.
If you have made it this far, it’s because you probably found even the slightest truth in everything that I’ve said. You are not alone in wanting to live in a better world, where we don’t have to make a pact with the lesser evil in order to live in peace.
My hope after reading this is not to get you to stop voting but instead, that voting is not the only road you take on your civic duty.
In the past months, we have witnessed the effectiveness of things like direct action, that have changed policy and the damaging infrastructures of this country. Do not let voting be the only thing you rely on. After this election, focus your energy on advocating for the needs of your local community, participate in direct action and in mutual aid groups. Or set up a fridge for your community, or hire more people of color. We must begin to associate our day to day responsibilities and actions as part of a civic and more so, communal duty.
