An Answer to “Does it actually really MATTER if we vote or not?”
A reader asked earlier today, “does it actually really MATTER if we vote or not? I’m being serious. Because right now, at least it feels like a futile effort.”
As I noted in a recent article that also answered a great question from a reader, sometimes the reply to a Medium article is more important than the original piece of writing. That’s true again today! So I am once again going to stand on the shoulders of a thoughtful question on a serious topic.
Ethereal Girl in a Material World posted her question in response to an article (“Democrats and Biden in 2022 — Rudderless, Aimless, and Hopeless”) from a couple days ago:
Excellent analysis of the current very sad state of affairs in the U.S. Here’s a question for you: does it actually really MATTER if we vote or not? I’m being serious. Because right now, at least it feels like a futile effort.
Intro, Nuance, and Context
Great question, Ethereal Girl — this is one that I’ve thought about a lot over the past year or so; I’ve got a clear answer; and I appreciate the opportunity to share it.
First, a few pieces of background, nuance, and context.
- Politics should be a mechanism for getting policy done that benefits society. (“Politics” and “policy” — unsurprisingly — come from the same greek root, “polis.”) As far as I’m concerned, this is what politics is for, not the 7th grade popularity contest that it has turned into here for much of the U.S. over the past couple decades.
7th grade popularity contests stopped being an entertaining way to spend time somewhere around…..the 8th grade. - I’ve got a list of issues that I care about, and in general order of priority, they are:
- Dealing with climate change. Massively important and — at this point — massively urgent.
- Financial and political corruption here in the U.S. Massively important but (seemingly) not as urgent. Until and unless this is solved, everything else on this list is either impossible to solve or 10–20 times harder than it would otherwise be. (Excellent, well-structured bullet-point overview of the political and financial corruption that has taken deep root in American politics and government here.)
- Our broken, corrupt, life-sucking, money-sucking, and family-bankrupting hellscape of a healthcare system. Including — but not limited to — hospitals, Big Pharma, health insurance, and pharmacy benefit managers. Urgent and important.
- The recent attack on women’s reproductive-related rights and healthcare. Important and super-urgent….but at this point, I don’t see any quick fixes now that Roe v. Wade has been decisively overturned.
- Living wages for workers.
- Making it harder for corporations to keep sucking trillions of dollars in money/wages out of their companies and employees (via mechanisms like stock buybacks) in order to funnel that cash up to their management teams and to investors.
(Most people don’t realize the scope of this, but this might be the one issue that — more than anything else — made it possible and inevitable that there would be a population of people desperate enough to welcome a Trump or DeSantis by making it so much more difficult for regular people to earn enough money to make ends meet.) - Racial justice
- Affordable education and student loan debt (these 2 could be broken apart, but they do also significantly overlap with each other.)
- Affordable childcare
So when I look at what I expect politicians to get to work on and deal with, that’s what my list starts with.
Political Corruption in the U.S.
The status quo stakeholders — corporate monopolies, non-monopoly corporations, the Top 1%, politicians, government officeholders, regulatory agencies, political consultants, lobbyists, etc. — have large and focused financial self-interests in maintaining the status quo and not allowing things to change.
They are extremely skilled at managing political, governmental, and regulatory parties to get what they want. They also have a slew of tactics for slowing down their opposition, including the technique of “blackballing” to delay and deflect change and wear down the folks trying in good faith to fix big problems in America.
If you are going to go the political route — i.e., vote harder to elect people who will supposedly make change happen — you are playing THEIR game.
And they are very good at it.
If you play their game, you’re either going to lose, or it’s going to take so long to make anything happen that you will have effectively lost.
We’re on a clock
With climate change in particular, we are on a clock.
And that clock is only about 7 years long at this point. If we don’t substantially — very substantially — decrease the amount of carbon going up into the atmosphere by around July 2029, we will have missed a window to prevent much of the damage of climate change that is otherwise coming at us like a freight train.
Right now, the world and the U.S. are on track to blow right past this Summer 2029 deadline. And we have known about this “deadline” for at least 10 years.
You may not think this way, Ethereal Girl, but a substantial percentage of Centrist Democrats believe their civic responsibilities START AND STOP with voting. Just voting.
For instance, there are the “back to brunch” Centrist Democrats who just wanted Trump gone so that they could please pleaseplease get back to enjoying their Sunday brunches.
Folks like this aren’t really motivated by issues like our need to decisively deal with climate change or reform the healthcare system or student loan debt relief or an estimated 500,000+ families filing for bankruptcy each year due to medical debt.
They weren’t getting morally outraged by the looting of American workers over the past 40+ years — especially over the past decade! — by corporations and the Top 1%.
They were just amped up by MSNBC and CNN and cable personalities like Rachel Maddow to be morally outraged about Trump the same way that conservatives have been getting amped up for years by Fox News and people like Tucker Carlson.
If you’re on one side or the other of this and you’re offended at the prospect of being lumped in with your ideological opposition, please consider these striking courtroom admissions by Fox and MSNBC about Carlson and Maddow as discussed here:
So…back to your original question, Ethereal Girl. “Does it actually matter if we vote or not?”
There are 4 parts to my answer:
Part 1. Issues where we are on a clock…and we are running out of time.
If we’re talking about issues where our politicians are bought by corporate donors, wealthy donors, lobbyists, etc. to oppose the change we want, then NO, it does NOT matter if we vote or not.
Especially when it comes to something like climate change where we are on a clock that only has 7 years left on it, VOTING DOES NOT MATTER.
There is no path through our political system that has even a snowball’s chance in hell of getting any real results in carbon emission reduction in the next 7 years.
Part 2. Issues where the things we are voting for will be blocked by bought politicians.
I probably can’t say it better — heck, nobody can say it better — than Dylan Ratigan did 11 years ago as an anchor on MSNBC when he went ballistic about our Congress being a corrupt, bought Congress.
But if we’re voting for change and expecting bought government officials and politicians to act against their own self-interests…well, that just seems moronic. So NO, voting doesn’t matter in this case, either.
Part 3. Are people going to stay engaged past election day?
If voting makes you think that you have “sufficiently done your part” as a member of civic society and lets you relax — and go back to brunch or just disengage in general because you think you have enough money to take care of yourself and your family no matter how bad things get in the coming years and decades — then you casting a vote is a “net negative” for society.
There’s 0 (zero) upside to you and for society by casting your vote, even if it’s for “the lesser of two evils.”
And there’s a real downside if it encourages you to relax and stop pushing for material change while there’s still a chance we can fix things like climate change….because if we need you there to help continue pushing but you have instead checked out…well, no way that that is a good thing.
So given that so many Centrist Dem voters not only aren’t going to do the hard work to fix these problems, they’re not going to stay engaged long enough to realize that there really is work to do. And again, in this case, voting doesn’t seem to matter much.
(Btw, it doesn’t need to be “everybody” checking out. 20–30% of Centrist Dem voters checking out is probably more than enough to make a difference…and it makes it that much less likely that anyone is going to hold elected officials accountable.)
Part 4. For the people who are still going to say that voting for Biden (or Harris or Buttigieg or Klobuchar or Obama or whatever other Centrist/Corporate Democrat we’re talking about) is better than allowing Trump or DeSantis to win in 2024, I’m asking you this:
“What’s the point of having voted for Obama and given him control of Congress with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate when he (1) breaks his campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade into law (that particular broken promise by Obama seems a LOT more relevant in the summer of 2022 now, doesn’t it?)
But then less than 12 months later after he had been elected President and had Democratic majorities in Congress that should have allowed him to pass any legislation he was willing to put real muscle behind, the headlines looked like this:
- Obama says abortion rights law not a top priority
- Barack Obama Blasted for Not Codifying Roe v. Wade: ‘Dem Failure’
If reproductive rights and healthcare for women are important to you, yes, you should be deeply angry at Republicans.
But at least the Republicans have been honest for decades now about their intentions.
If you care about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, you should be at least as angry at Centrist Democratic politicians who have lied to you about their intentions to do something….and then either did nothing or actually went and did the work of pro-life Republicans!
For instance:
- Obama who had the power to codify Roe v. Wade into law and didn’t — see the links above;
- Biden who was silent about this during the 7 weeks after the Supreme Court draft leak and is only now doing anything about it because of the public outcry.
Note that Biden was also working behind the scenes with Mitch McConnell to appoint a Pro-Life judge to a lifetime federal court judicial seat in Kentucky in the days before the final Dobbs decision was released. - Pelosi campaigning aggressively in a Texas Democratic primary just 2 months ago on behalf of Henry Cuellar, a Pro-Life Democratic incumbent (who is also currently under investigation by the FBI) against Jessica Cisneros, a female Democratic Pro-Choice challenger who likely would have beaten Cuellarin the absence of Pelosi’s and Jim Clyburn’s direct aid to Cuellar.
See: Pelosi BLASTED for Backing Abortion Foe Under FBI Scrutiny)
And don’t forget Pelosi limiting her post-Dobbs response to reading a poem on camera and exhorting Centrist Dem voters to send in their $15 donation.
Seriously, are. you. kidding. us?
Who could have even imagined that this level of tone-deaf, two-faced behavior from three of the highest profile Centrist Democrats would exist?
Don’t Centrist Democrat voters ever arrive at any kind of a J-Lo “Enough!” moment?
Apparently this moment has not yet happened for Centrist Dem voters, since the Centrist Democratic leadership hasn’t felt forced to ever change their behavior.
So if voting is just getting more Centrist Dem corrupt failures — like Obama, Pelosi, Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Cuellar, et. al — then I don’t see how it matters whether you vote or not. The problems that need fixing are not going to get solved by corrupt, incompetent people like.
So…Etherial Girl, I grew up believing that it was my civic duty to vote as a way of participating in our democratic society.
But…
- Voting doesn’t matter when more than enough of the politicians are corrupt.
- Voting doesn’t matter when our political processes are fatally encumbered by (1) cable news-fed culture wars and (2) a public on both the left and right who has become so ill-informed that they can’t see the forest for the trees on critically important issues.
- Voting doesn’t matter when our politicians are effectively controlled by corporate donors, wealthy donors, and lobbyists.
We have 2 corporate parties in the U.S., and they are both owned by the same corporate donors and Top 1% donors. Slight differences in cultural issues, but on the things that really matter, they are very similar to each other. - Voting doesn’t matter when no potential political or governmental intervention is going to move quickly enough to get the job done on existential threats like climate change in time to matter.
Summary
I do not believe there are political solutions for most of the big problems we are facing. This seems crystal clear.
I think there are real solutions to these problems, but they won’t go directly through the halls of Congress or the White House.
Solutions will include things like going after the corporate donors, because hey, that’s who most of our politicians work for anyway, right? (I discussed this in the last section of this article: “The Samuel L. Jackson Approach to Dealing with Centrist Democrats Post-Roe and Pre-2022 Midterms”)
I do plan to expand on this with more depth and breadth in the coming weeks. Please subscribe to get email alerts when new articles on this and other topics are posted.
Last note to Ethereal Girl in a Material World
EG, I hope this was helpful.
I wish this column were more optimistic, but we have real problems to deal with, and much of our opposition is entrenched, has more resources, and has been seriously at work on their agenda for decades longer than we have.
It’s possible to win, but there won’t be as many quick fixes as we’d like.
Victories will require a level of relentlessness, a willingness to be hated, a sense of “the fierce urgency of now,” and a degree of persistance and endurance that Centrist Democrats really don’t have any history of showing.
“…We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The “tide in the affairs of men” does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on….”
- “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” by Rev. Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967.
All that said, whether we win or lose, I’d rather be in fights that matters and be on the right side of them.
“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910. Excerpt from the speech entitled “Citizenship in a Republic” at the Sorbonne in Paris.
My recent articles include:
The Samuel L. Jackson Approach to Dealing with Centrist Democrats Post-Roe and Pre-2022 Midterms
When Is a Stock Market Crash Not Really a Stock Market Crash?
Life Expectancy vs. Healthcare Costs in the U.S.
Pressing Where It Hurts: How to Win the Fights That Matter
Six Behavioral Barriers That Prevent You from Changing the Status Quo
1. Barnacles • 2–4. Caring Enough • 5. Smart Man’s Disease •
6. Blackballing
Want me to cover a topic? Please post suggestions in the comments, and I’ll use your input to help prioritize my writing and research.
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