It's Not About Me
I fell into a fit of rage the other day when a friend of mine told me they had recently met a number of new friends in their building, who have all said they would not be voting in the election in November. At a base level I understand their reasoning – they are deeply frustrated that their choices in the presidential race are between two elderly, white men both arguably (I’d say in one case inarguably) unfit for the job. They want better options and don’t like either choice, so they’re choosing not to choose.
I get it. Biden’s performance at the debate was excruciating to watch, and his subsequent interview with George Stephanopoulos didn’t help matters in my opinion. But I will march to that ballot box (ok, technically I will march to my post office and vote absentee like I have ever year of my adult life) and vote for Joe Biden with absolutely no qualms on November 5th (again, probably more like October 1st). Why?
BECAUSE IT’S NOT ABOUT ME.
Voting is not about me. It is not about me and my liberal wealthy educated bubble, and it’s not about my heavily left-leaning, deeply progressive values. It’s not about my excitement level for a candidate, or even whether or not I agree with them all the time. Voting is about everyone whose lives will be impacted by an elected official’s policies, and that includes everyone who exists now and everyone who will exist in the future. Furthermore, it is about how those policies will impact those who cannot currently vote, whether that is asylum seekers, future citizens, children, folks with criminal records preventing them to vote, and, I think most importantly, anyone who breathes air, drinks water, experiences weather events, and requires shelter and food anywhere on this planet.
The 2 party system sucks, I know. This is the reality of the situation we are in: there are only 2 people who will ultimately stand a chance at winning, and we can either sit back because we dislike those choices and let our country slide into a dictatorship (recently prepped for takeoff by the Supreme Court), roll back every EPA regulation Biden has managed to establish in his four years, and collapse into bigoted, xenophobic, misogynist mania, OR we can plug our damn noses and vote against those things occurring to the best of our ability, and not throw away the privilege we have to engage in Democracy. I choose to do the latter.1
What infuriated me more than anything was that these people my friend met have children. Tr**p is an ardent climate change denier, decimating vital regulations during his 4 years in office. He has made this country unsafe for people of color, for those seeking asylum, for the LGBTQ2SIA+ community, and crumbled our international relations. To not vote is as good as voting for that to continue, and to set your children up to live in a world where all of that is the norm. If there is a habitable world for them to grow up in.
Listen, I hope the Democrats convince Biden to step down. I hope someone else steps in – Beto O’Rourke? Pete Buttigieg? Kamala Harris? Stacey Abrams? Hakeem Jeffries? I don’t know, and honestly I won’t be watching. The dog and pony show is broadcast on a 24 hour news cycle to keep your amygdala firing and your heart rate high so that you are more likely to make purchases and consume goods. I will write my letters to voters, I will march my sizeable butt to the post office, and I will vote for Not-Tr**p because it’s not about me.
All that said… here’s a turkey and a squirrel.
One thing that complicates my entire argument here is Biden’s relationship to Netanyahu. I understand there are friends of mine who cannot in good conscience cast a vote for someone who provided weaponry that actively contributed to the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. I wrestle with that, too; for me the Not-Tr**p vote feels enormously important for Democracy, and the safety and existence of generations to come, but I recognize I am glazing over that acute issue.