Ok letās break this down a little bit.
First of all I think itās worth referencing the really excellent article Organize or Die, which I think lays out a lot of the reasons to be skeptical of the efficacy of voting. For example:
Time and Location: Votes are only counted at specific places, which has led to voter manipulation and suppression as long as the institution has existed: for instance the recent Turkish elections, where the AKP moved voting stations in Kurdish areas during election times. But even in the United States, bastion of liberal democracy it is, elections are held on workdays and often in difficult to reach places. Subsequently, low participation and lopsided representation become unavoidable. The most privileged can vote most easily while the least privileged are least able.
Choosing Candidates: While voters have a choice between candidates, they have little to no influence over the organizational forces which bring these politicians to the point of candidacy. Yes, we can vote in primaries, but we have no say in the machinations of party machines (think super-delegates), little to no control over the funding of candidates, etc.
Disenfranchisement. The vote is a right. And like all rights conferred by state power, they can be and often are taken away or restricted. Voting, therefore, is useful for generating change only insofar as the marginalized can consistently and reliably participate in it and depend on the state to carry out their electoral will. Rarely though, if ever, does the will of oppressed people and dominant political classes coalesce. Instead, they are almost always embroiled in conflictā-āthe dominant class undercutting the needs of the oppressed, using the state as a primary mechanism to do so, in part, through disallowing or restricting voting rights (the Black Codes, Jim Crow, felon restrictions, etc).
These are brief examples but they point towards some of the problems that weāre facing here if we want to claim that the dispossessed in the context of elections have equal power to the ruling oligarchs.
So letās look at some questions about Tumblr bloggers specifically and whether or not they can be held responsible for not pushing Bernie Sanders to victory:
First letās talk actual demographics. How many young bloggers actually are democrats in the first place?
Of that group, how many are Sanders supporters?
Letās break that last question of supporters down further. How many are really aware of Sandersās campaign?
How good is their access to information given the effective media blackout on Sanders leading up to the election?
How good is their access given all that the DNC has done to hamper the campaign?
How many people simply are not convinced of the worth of EITHER Democrat candidate, meaning their lack of a vote represents a definitive vote for BETTER LEADERSHIP IN TOTAL?
Back to Sanders voters who have navigated the media blacklist, DNC fuckery, and so onā¦ How many are registered under different parties and thus unable to vote in the Democrat primary?
Of those who can vote, how many lack the proper ID in states with voter ID laws?
Since you mentioned trans folks, how many of us wil run into trouble voting because of our transitions?
How many people have easy access to polling places?
How many people can get off work?
Satistically speaking, are the people who canāt get off work, canāt get transportation, canāt afford a required ID, or face other restrictions like this more likely to vote for Hillary or Sanders?
Youāll notice that a lot of these questions actually implicitly favor some people over others. For example, the media blackout is the product of a corporate media controlled by privileged capitalists. If you restrictĀ āvotingā to JUST the act of casting your ballot, then yes, in theory, your INDIVIDUAL vote is worth as much as the INDIVIDUAL vote of the white cishet capitalist man who controls your cityās (only?) newspaper. (In theoryāgerrymandering, miscounts, judicial junking of the votes of entire states, &c. can all have a major effect on one an individualās vote is actually worth in practice!) But if you expandĀ āvotingā to the entire assemblage of processes leading up to the election, I think it becomes really clear that, in fact, much of the election ends up being determined well in advanceā¦ and not by bloggers on cool teen website tumbler dot com.
The reason you are losing is because depending on bloggers to fix this problem isnāt just negative, itās delusion.
If you want to try to organize people and encourage them to vote thatās fine, but positioning this simplistically as a matter of choice just plain doesnāt make sense, and itās not a winning strategy.
Now there might be some symbolic value in voting. Iāve seen people gain strength from the defiant act that is voting while queer, disabled, poor, &c. I can get with that. Thatās cool. But turning that act of strength, that personal decision to use voting as a form of symbolic protest, into a cudgel to attack those who see voting from a different perspectiveāfor example, those like me who see voting as symbolically signing off on the atrocities that even someone like Sanders supports (selling arms to various countries, military interventions, the extradition of Assata Shakurā¦) that are committed by the US.
What Iām looking for in all of this is to be treated as a being with political agency and a being that deserves respect. Being told that myĀ āone jobā is toĀ āhit that vote button for Sandersā, being told that Sanders would win if IĀ āgot off my ass,ā being told that thereās a special place in hell for me if I donāt vote for Clinton just because sheās a womanā¦ these things dehumanize me. They take my already reduced agency within the context of American politics and make me categorically undeserving of greater agency.Ā
Thatās what I have an issue with, and I refuse to participate in a political process that turns me into an unperson, and totally misunderstands the reality of politics while doing so.
gummygunk
titsay
2087
ellievsbear
