Flint, Michigan is still without clean water. Continuous accounts of state violence are being (badly) mitigated by Democratic promises of reform that will give more funding to police. Joe Biden himself has explicitly stated that he does not – and will never – support Medicare for All. The last post included deportation statistics under Obama vs. Trump; there is a reason Obama was labeled “deporter in chief” despite being a Democratic president. These problems don’t start or end with blue vs. red, and they won’t end just by flipping the White House. Even when Obama ran under a campaign that promised “change,” the most vulnerable populations still suffered and were placated by empty promises. Now, Joe Biden himself has assured Americans that “nothing [will] fundamentally change.”
For younger, self-identifying “leftists,” Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign was an initial exposure to “leftism.” If his 2016 – and his most recent – defeat should have taught his supporters anything, it’s that the two-party system is designed to maintain the status quo, and that even the threat of capitalism-lite (Sanders’ Democratic Socialism) is still threatening enough for Democrats to end it themselves. The 2016 email leak revealed correspondence between DNC officials stating that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) “tried to aid [Hillary] Clinton and hamper [Bernie] Sanders,” as well as discussed ways they could sabotage Sanders’ campaign and smudge his public appearance. Not only did this demonstrate the monopoly that the two-party voting system has over the United States, it also explicitly revealed that even the “progressive party” will refuse to move further left if it threatens the hierarchy.
That all being said, it’s safe to say that most of us are not represented or protected by electoral politics and politicians, even locally. When you trust the government and its legislation instead of yourself and your community, you unintentionally reinforce the need to appeal to the moral judgement of those in power. Voting cannot be our survival strategy when so many colonized and oppressed people won’t survive, even after they vote. We don’t need to ask permission to exist safely and live dignified lives. We deserve more than the crumbs of politicians and reformist legislature.