Why I Vote

...despite there being no party that truly represents my values.

I voted “uncommitted” in the Michigan Democratic primary when Biden was still on the ticket and I didn’t want to endorse someone ideologically committed to unconditional support for Israel in the middle of a genocide.

I was 40 years old the first time I voted, and my primary motivation was to support the election of the first black president of the United States. I didn’t follow politics closely but I knew my values were more aligned with the Democrats than the Republicans, and Obama seemed smart, well-educated, honest, and committed to a better world.

My reason for being not just apolitical, but anti-political, for the first decades of my life was that I believed it was a rigged system full of dishonest people, and that only suckers would play a fixed game and hope to win. To be honest I still believe all that, I’ve just developed a different perspective that modifies how I approach it.

I grew up poor so I understood the value of social welfare and I have always been disgusted by the depravity and destruction of unbridled capitalism, to people, society, and the environment. I just couldn’t believe a better world was possible.

The second time I voted was to re-elect Barack Obama. Not because I thought he had done a particularly good job as president, I still wasn’t politically engaged so I didn’t really have much of a sense of how his first term had gone. I just knew I preferred the Democrats to the Republicans and he was the candidate, so it was an easy choice.

I still wasn’t politically engaged in 2016 but if I thought it would have mattered I would have voted for Hilary. Not only was she the Democrat and the first woman candidate, which were compelling reasons for me, but I had a visceral hatred of Donald Trump going back to the 90’s. However I was living in Texas at the time so I knew my vote wouldn’t have a significant impact, and because I had recently moved I hadn’t even gotten around to registering. So I didn’t vote that year.

Like most people I was completely shocked when Donald Trump won. I went to bed the night of the election fully expecting to wake up to a Hilary Clinton presidency. It’s safe to say I started paying more attention to politics during Trump’s administration, but only because it was such a dramatic clown show that it was impossible to ignore. I nevertheless still didn’t get really engaged politically until early 2020.

For me, what changed in 2020 was that I learned of the nascent movement for Socialism in this country and started to believe it was a realistic possibility. More precisely I learned that there are intelligent, educated, thoughtful, normal people (as opposed to crackpots or conspiracy theorists) who are committed to the ideology.

I have written before that this turn came about when I learned, via a tweet from Cornel West, that Michael Brooks had passed away. I was only marginally aware of who Cornel West was at the time and had him filed under ‘crackpot’ who said a lot of things I agreed with. I had never heard of Michael Brooks, but my exploration of his life and works led me deep into the social media “left-o-sphere”.

It’s fair to say that nearly everything I have learned in the past four years about politics, cultural theory, sociology, economics, history, and a host of other things—from the origins of ‘whiteness’, to the importance of the Chevron doctrine, to what a UN Special Rapporteur does—can be directly traced back to Michael Brooks, whose existence was unknown to me until he passed away.

One of the first videos of Michael Brooks I saw was the lecture and Q&A that spawned this viral clip

Another thing that happened between 2020 and today is I started to take Cornel West a lot more seriously. Although I do not support his run for president, I am politically very closely aligned with him and I think he’s a brilliant and deeply sincere person. I understand why West is running on a moral and emotional level, but on on a practical level I think it can only have a net negative impact. He can’t win but he can take votes away from Kamala Harris. I’d vote for him in Texas, but in Michigan I just can’t do it.

I used to believe that the reason third parties can’t win in the US is because too many people fail to believe in them and thus they don’t get enough votes to matter. This is partly true, but the rest of the story is that deeply systemic issues make it practically impossible to overcome this, and the only chance we have of ever moving those levers is through democratic processes that one party is aggressively trying to dismantle.

It is easy for those of us who spend a lot of time advocating for improvements in US foreign policy (especially regarding Palestine/Israel) to forget the reality outside our bubble, which is that we are a tiny minority in this country. Whatever we might think about the changing tide of public opinion (and I personally believe the change in just ten months has been positive and substantial) the sad truth is that we do not have any chance of gaining access to the levers of power in this country in the short term. But we can influence those who do.

I know this sounds weak and ineffective, but some folks really need to learn the meaning of "necessary but insufficient". The best we can do at this time is try to minimize the harm this upcoming election does to our ability to organize and act, while continuing to push for the change we want to see. There is simply no realistic alternative, largely because there is no substantial, organized "left" in the US that agrees with us. So even if a miracle were to occur and tens of millions of Americans rose up to overthrow the government in protest (ala Bangladesh), there is literally no chance of an outcome that favors the left.

The structure of the US electoral system is such that only one of two parties has a chance of taking power in the fall, and one of them has a detailed roadmap (aka Project 2025) for how to dramatically increase politicization of the civil service, reduce regulatory oversight, and concentrate power in the executive branch -- in other words solidify the Christian Nationalist revolution that has already fully captured the Supreme Court and the Republican party. I think we can all agree the other one isn't great either, but it is objectively better.

The problem with US foreign policy--especially with regard to our "special relationship" with Israel--is a problem with the United States as a whole, irrespective of which party is in power. There is no scenario where not voting (or voting third party in a swing state, which is effectively the same thing) results in a more humane foreign policy. It might accelerate the complete collapse of the US, but by many measures that collapse is already in process. I can't think of any way that accelerating that process improves anyone's quality of life.

This post is not about "vote shaming". I think humanitarian activists should vote for the Democrats, but if you think doing so is immoral then don't do it. As I said I voted uncommitted when Biden was the primary candidate in Michigan and although I favor Harris/Walz there is no guarantee that I will vote for them in November. Despite everything I said above I can absolutely imagine the candidates acting in ways that make it impossible for me to rationalize pulling a lever for them. But the simple fact is that knowing what I know now, if the election was today I would pull that lever without shame. If that makes me "pro-genocide" in the eyes of some people that's unfortunate but I stand by it.