Liberals killin democracy
You might not have heard about it, but there is an election coming up this November 5th. Two people with nearly indistinguishable policies on policing, the border, and foreign affairs are fighting over some ground on domestic policy, mostly human rights, though to be sure also in public education and some natural resources as well. Donald Trump wants to Make America Great Again, and Kamala Harris wants to Make America Great Again (but nicer!) This is the presidential election.
There is also an election this year for some smaller races. I joked earlier about you not having heard of the presidential race, but I am equally sure that you have heard of these as well - look at you and what you are reading. You didn’t come to this site and not know that there are state level elections happening. After all, this is “The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes!” Again!
There was a great piece of reporting by Slate in 2020 about that phrase deliciously titled The Most Important Political Platitude of Our Lifetime. In this piece the author explores that the phrase has existed and been utilized in elections for over 200 years, which I suppose to be generous, does encompass a multitude of different lifetimes. I’d question though that there may be a cost to those sustained dire straits. Recent pivoter-to-the-center/border hardass Tammy Baldwin has sought to reframe this platitude, “We should view every election as the most important election of our lifetime” she said at an MATC campaign stop.
We will get back to this in a minute, but I want to state here to be clear, that you probably should vote. It’s important enough. I guess I would take the gay-friendly cop over the nazi. Voting does have consequences, and as we are constantly reminded our democracy is fragile and under attack. This election could be the breaking point. We vote as a piece of our greater advocacy. We are unable to vote for a politician who will then go on to do right by our communities, we have to vote for the politicians that we want to sustain pressure on, so that they follow our lead in organizing.
It takes two to tango (tango=destroy democracy.) Admittedly, one party is doing more to purge voter rolls, to make it more difficult to vote by creating voter ID laws, and to pass inhumane policies like making it illegal to pass out water to those waiting in line to vote. The right wing in this country does not want more people to vote, that is clear. Yet, it is the nation’s liberal party that created the environment for the vote to be destroyed and they have done so by fetishizing the electoral process.
You don’t have to look too far to see democratic operations pushing this narrative - my voice = my vote etc. Democrats have framed voting as THE way to make change in our system, implicitly labeling any other action as ineffective. By over-emphasizing the importance of voting, and downplaying the importance of direct action, Democrats paternalistically pander to voters: “Don’t organize. Vote for us when you can, and then we will fix things. Also give us a lot of money.”
Later when things are inevitably not fixed, they have excuses prepared: “the filibuster in the Senate has kept progressive legislation from passing.” “The parliamentarian - who you have never heard of - ruled that we can’t increase the minimum wage through a spending package.” “We just have to replace Kirstin Synema! (or a decade ago, Joe Lieberman.)” “The Supreme Court is now the problem!” No matter what roadblock is keeping us from progress, the answer is always to vote harder. “If we can just win this election we can have a government that works for the people.”
Occasionally this contains truth, a broken clock and so forth. The 2022 election of Janet Protocewicz to the Wisconsin supreme court has led to a redrawing of electoral maps in Wisconsin, though it remains to be seen how much this will ultimately affect what can be accomplished by progressives in our state (Dems probably could have gone harder in drawing the maps in their favor, but I guess that is another article.) To pin this change exclusively on the election result, however, diminishes the power of a decade of sustained pressure from Fair Maps Organizers, without whom I do not think that we would have had this electoral win.
This is the reality of the situation that liberals are uncomfortable with. If the electorate is too vocal and active, then they may have to pass laws that decrease their comfort and wealth, they may have to enact policies that could even cost them their donors, cushy do-nothing jobs, and friendships with republicans.
I attended a youth-led march against the climate apocalypse in September 2019, hundreds of people marched in the streets (sidewalks) of downtown Milwaukee. They declared through their action that they were not content to die in a climate catastrophe. They were also demanding something from the government? It wasn’t as clear as it could be. Nothing against those kids for planning that event, they rule for that, but I will never forget seeing then-mayor Tom Barrett clapping for these youths from the side-lines “you kids go!” As if he wasn’t in the position to do something about the problem!
Protest action will be tolerated, if it doesn’t directly inconvenience those in positions of power. No politician was clapping for the students who sat in then speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office on November 13, 2018. No politician wanted those kids there.They should have been at home, working minimum wage jobs, and donating to a politician who had an upcoming election after all!
I don’t mean to say that liberals don’t support community organizing. They spend billions of dollars a year on funding 501C3’s and C4 organizations to get people to vote. This is a distraction however. These positions are the best paying gig in town for many people, and it vacuums the energy available to get organized around more tangible and direct issues. This serves a double purpose, as the propaganda arm of these organizations teaches those involved to not question their candidate. They use their funding to frame acceptable debate for their organizers. I say, if we are going to hit the streets for our candidate, we should have some say in the campaign beyond voting yes or no in November.
Democracy in America is dying because it is a system that relies on the participation of the electorate. The ever-evolving threat of right-wing freaks has allowed liberals to repeatedly trot out the old “this is the most important election of our lifetimes” once again for this election. It may very well work. Kamala may win, but as has been demonstrated over and over again, this will not be the end, there will be someone to replace Trump in 2028, and this cycle will repeat. If the Harris/Walz administration refuses or fails to produce any significant change for the people, then the electorate will continue their disenchantment with the system. So long as we act like voting is the only way to make change, and we vote, and change doesn’t come… then I guess nothing can ever change.
For this system to work we need to continuously call politicians on their bullshit. We have to literally call them, and tell them to shut the fuck up about the border, and do something about greedflation, inhumane prison conditions, or the war in Palestine, to name a few issues. I don’t even always care about Democracy, but I find it absolutely preferable to the unchecked power that those elected officials are trying to enshrine for themselves. We can only save it if we all get involved. Voting may be important but it is not the limit of the power we have to make change.
