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I’m a Black Progressive, and I’m Not Voting Until There’s a Real Greater Good
Converting voting skeptics isn’t about guilt-tripping us, it’s about not shying away from actual reforms
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
The fact that former Vice President Joe Biden appears to be the presumptuous Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election doesn’t mean the discussion has ended. Just yesterday, after a month of infighting between old-guard progressives and their millennial counterparts, the New York Times ran an op-ed column excoriating these young shit-stirrers for not falling in line to support Amtrak Joe. “Taking a principled stand is courageous only when those taking it put themselves at risk,” wrote Mitchell Abidor, the author of numerous books about leftist movements. “Placing others at risk requires no courage at all.”
Here we are again, arguing about whether to hold our nose and vote for a candidate who represents little more than more of the same.
The moment Sen. Bernie Sanders — the last candidate standing who seemed to stand for anything — endorsed Biden, this year’s reenactment of the 2016 Democratic primary was complete. The party had effectively pulled the rug out from under anyone who would actually push the party line, leaving voters with a choice that wasn’t a choice at all. But rather than have a conversation about why that is, the “vote blue no matter who” chorus has swung into action to ensure that one alleged rapist can get enough votes to defeat the incumbent alleged rapist. This isn’t a lockstep march of bots and boomers. I’ve seen some very smart people parroting the completely disingenuous argument that both Biden and President Donald Trump might be terrible, but only one will kill Americans as a result of his policies.
So, as a nonvoter — in other words, one of the people the Democrats desperately need to win over — lemme just say it plainly. Please stop playing yourselves.
Don’t get it twisted: Voting matters. But a decades-long siege of corporate political corruption, gerrymandering, faulty voting booths, long waits, and other forms of voter suppression has reduced…
