My response from a recent exchange of comments with a writer who isn’t going to vote
“Where to begin. I am a student of history, not just U.S. history. World history shows a long struggle between fascism and socialism. Socialism, in its pure form, provides for and wants what’s best for all the people. Fascism wants what’s best for the authoritarians and oligarchs.
I am not arguing with you that the U.S. system is broken. It is. I am saying this midterm election is an opportunity in our lifetime to elect actual socialists who can influence the so-called moderates who have often sold us out. Obama was handcuffed by Congress. Trump is propped up by Congress.
Only a Congress who truly wants the best for people can stop the current slide into fascism. For that, huge numbers of people have to vote. It is the Right who started the propaganda that Democrats are as bad as Republicans, in order to keep people from the polls. Please don’t aid and abet them.”
I’ve written before about my chagrin with younger people who say they aren’t going to vote. Their excuse is always that there isn’t enough difference in the parties for their vote to have an impact. The response above was to a writer who made this argument. He even accused me of being aligned with the ruling class, instead of being a leftist.
What is interesting to me about his accusation, is my friends active in the Socialist Democratic Party, while agreeing that neo-liberals are a problem, ARE GOING TO VOTE.
By self-report, they will, of course, vote for Socialist Democrats on the ballot, of which there are more than ever before. They will also, when a Democrat is running against a Republican, vote for the Democrat.
Why? Because they know that numbers count. And if they want moderate Democrats to vote for Socialist Democrats, and they do, they need to join forces.
The author made arguments that no longer apply in our current struggle against a man who wants to be dictator, is in bed with Putin, and who is being propped up by Congress. His arguments boil down to the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The only adequate argument he makes is the one about money, and how the people who have ridiculous amounts of money to pay off politicians, influence elections and the ones they help elect, will always be around. I agree, the love of money is the root of all evil.
We see that more in today’s America than ever before, even more than during the time of the Robber Barons. We have the Supreme Court and Citizens United to thank for this inequity. The Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission “reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.”
And who nominates and confirms members of the Supreme Court? Presidents and Congress members we elect by voting.
What happens when people don’t vote?
We have arrived at this juncture in U.S. history because historic numbers of voters stayed home and didn’t vote in impactful elections. The midterms in 2010, and the presidential election in 2016.
Now here’s where I agree with the author with whom I traded comments. The system is broken. The Electoral College has outlived its usefulness, if it ever was useful.
Hillary Clinton won by nearly 3 million votes in 2016. If more eligible voters had turned out and her popular vote was even higher, the Electoral College couldn’t have “stolen” that election. Would Trump have slithered off into oblivion? Probably not, but our current situation could have at lease been postponed. Hillary Clinton announced that there was a huge right-wing conspiracy. She knew and would have fought it.
Does Hillary represent the Establishment? Yes. Did she benefit financially from her husband’s time in office? Most likely. Did she benefit on any level approaching that of the billions Trump has made as a result of him being President? Not by a long shot. So yes, she would have been status quo, but she wouldn’t have dragged us into dictatorship.
Midterms are our most important elections, or can be
That being said, midterms are even more important than presidential elections, as seen in the 2010 midterms. Fewer than half of eligible voters voted in 2010. Less than 30% in states such as Texas. Those were the midterms that limited what President Obama could accomplish.We can change the course of the country when we elect people outside the status quo. In this election, those are all the progressive candidates.
30 progressive candidates in 12 States are running for 27 House seats and 3 Senate seats. To defeat the Republican majority — the ones handing Trump Supreme Court appointees and therefore unlimited powers — Democrats need a net gain of 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and a net gain of 4 seats in the U.S. Senate to win majorities. If we elect all the progressives, moderate Democrats, or neo-liberals only need to gain one seat in the Senate.
We need majorities to stop the worst of Trump’s oversteps, illegal wars, partnering with Putin, abandoning allies, and treating both immigrants and citizens in ways only seen before in fascist and communist totalitarian countries.
Many countries don’t hold elections. Some hold rigged elections, which Trump and Musk are trying to do here. Other countries have mandatory voting by eligible voters, which I think we need, although I don’t know how it could be enforced. Since we hold elections, and aren’t required to vote, it’s even more important that we enact such a valuable and rare option.
I don’t know about you, or the author I responded to, but I never again want to be “ruled.” I certainly don’t want to be ruled by another President who lost the popular vote the first time, and won by fewer than a fourth of eligible voters who voted the second time.
Until our system is fixed or changed, voting is one right we have. One many have suffered and died for. Women and Black people in particular waged heroic battles to secure the right to vote. I suppose if one white man who doesn’t consider Bernie Sanders “socialist enough” nor me “left enough” because I object to a word, doesn’t vote I should be grateful. I’m not.
Whoever you are, don’t let right-wing propaganda that “both parties are the same so don’t vote” get into your head. That’s what they want.
VOTE
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Previously Published on Medium
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
