Americans have started to see the electoral system for what it really is – a laughable charade. This belief has become so widespread that even sycophants of the rotten system have been forced to acknowledge it. However they don’t do this to change the system, but to neuter it.
Blindly encouraging people to vote can only be described as an absurd attempt to discredit a principled political stand. According to The Nation, in 2024 half a million registered Democrats cast “uncommitted” ballots as a protest against the policies of President Joe Biden.
According to AP News, in cities like Dearborn, MI where half of the population is Arab or Muslim, 56% of the votes cast were uncommitted. The message from these Americans was clear; if the Biden administration did not change their policies regarding Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, they would not vote for him.
There’s also an assumption that Vice President Kamala Harris as the new President would be able to protect the rights of women, despite the fact that Roe V. Wade was overturned under the Biden Administration. Nor will Harris be able to effectively protect the rights of trans people. Dozens of anti-trans bills have been passed within the past four years, and Biden and Harris have done nothing to actually address them.
Either the office of the Presidency is incapable of addressing these important issues due to the structure of the system, or they just don’t care. If the first is true, why bother with Presidential elections at all? If the second is true, why continue to vote for a party that doesn’t care?
Thought experiments like the “Trolley Problem” are often used to polarize ethical discussions. It builds a harsh binary by saying that inaction is more immoral than action. It assumes that action must operate on the tracks (or within the system).
This is not analogous to the electoral system. The situation is much more like this; there are two tracks, one red and one blue. Five people are tied to each track. There is an individual on each side of the lever and they are both lying to you, saying that if you pick the other person’s track people will die. Neither are telling the truth and an equal amount of people die either way.
To forsake voting is to forsake progress and social justice is an absurd claim. Do people need a reminder of how chattel slavery was abolished in this country? Or how the British occupiers were driven from our shores? Or how Black Americans won legal equality?
Malcolm X, a Black Muslim leader of the Civil Rights movement, was one of this country’s greatest left wing activists. Ironically, he understood the electoral system better than most of its advocates.
He said, “don’t be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don’t throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.”
In other words, don’t vote if there is no candidate that actually represents your interests. Take stock of a candidate’s actions, not their words. If they don’t align then believe what they do, not what they say.
People often ask me for an alternative to voting. If we don’t vote, how do we make change? By doing literally anything else. Organizing into a union with your coworkers, participating in community run projects, starting political book clubs or showing up at city council meetings to harass your local government officials with inconvenient questions that they’d rather not answer.
Circumventing the two-party system is the first step. This system is supported by the interests of a small minority of capitalists and their underlings. They have no reason to work for the interests of anyone other than themselves. They have organized mainstream politics so that it intentionally sows division and oppresses collective action.
A working-class political party must be established that truly represents the majority. The only group really working towards that goal in the US is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA is active on nearly every front of the social and class struggle, from labor organizing and tenants rights to anti-racist activism and community building.
This work can broadly be described as power-building, though I prefer the term “dual power.” By building organizational structures, social networks and political processes that are independent of the currently existing systems, the ground is laid for the emergence of a new social order. Once the time is right, all it will take is a push for everything to come toppling down. Then the real work can begin.
