After risking our lives to vote in Wisconsin’s bullshit primary election last week, I felt deflated. The system failed its people and only 5 of the 180 usual polling places in Milwaukee were able to open; that translated to roughly 19,000 people successfully voting, compared to almost 200,000 in the 2016 primaries. Our Democratic governor tried to extend the window for absentee ballots and was struck down by conservative judges. He then tried to push the entire election to this summer, and was again struck down. So, we stood in line to return mail-in ballots that came too late to mail back, trying to maintain 6ft distance while wearing masks and gloves while most others around us inched closer, donning one or the other, or in some cases neither.
And the next day, after an unsurprising loss (rural communities of course voted with ease, while our diverse city centers could not), Bernie delayed his candidacy and our hearts were collectively crushed.
Days later, after what should be declared an invalid victory, Biden whined about how the election should have been delayed; something he refused to do before it happened. Almost a week later, Obama echoed the same sentiment; as if it would help anyone. And like what happened in 2016, the Democratic Party let the bullshit Republicans put in place work in their favor to push Bernie out, without yet realizing it will work against them in November. Biden will probably win the popular vote but lose the election, like Hillary Clinton before him, and when they ask why it happened through centrist tears, we will point to invalid primaries during a pandemic and promises of cabinet positions that unfairly tilted the primary season in Biden’s favor.
So I’m done.
They are spineless, incompetent, and way too far right to be the left-most party in the US. Instead, I’m eyeing the Green Party US and sending my apologies to Jill Stein for all the jokes lobbed her way in 2016.
Coincidentally, Wisconsin has the second-highest number of elected Green Party officials, with Madison having the highest number of city officials in the nation. Their ideals are also closer to my own, they’re actually further left (although maybe not far enough), and are probably the best shot at being a true third party in the states if others like me would stop settling for “the lesser of two evils” and vote based on their ideals/beliefs.
Having said all that, if Bernie refuses to run as an Independent in 2020, I encourage you to look into Howie Hawkins. He’s running as the presidential candidate for several smaller leftist parties (Socialist Party USA, Solidarity) and is the likely pick for the Green Party as well. As far as I can tell through a day of light research: he’s never been accused of rape, organized against the Vietnam War (even after being drafted into the Marines), and was an anti-apartheid leader in the states. So he’s already more palatable than Trump or Biden.
But we need to address something: the idea of “throwing your vote away” is how our broken two-party system stays in power in the states. It’s a false narrative perpetuated by a capitalist, meritocracy-based belief system. We’re trained to be scared of feeling silly or stupid, and want all our efforts to add up to something resembling success. Sure, we might not win the presidency, but we can look at other Democrats winning local and state elections and feel validated in our choices.
We need to fight back against that conditioning if we’re ever to make progress. Yes, people are lazy and it’s definitely more difficult to research third-parties and their candidates than blindly voting down-ballot after we step into a booth unprepared. But change won’t happen overnight, or even in a single election. So if you’re also frustrated with the way things are going in this country, do some reading and general research while we’re all locked up in isolation. We have other options, but it takes a little time and effort to get there.
Join me in the push for a more diverse, representative leadership. Maybe voting for them in the top-job first isn’t the best strategy, but starting to vote according to your principles in local and state elections! It could make a huge change in your day to day life, and if we can make that change locally, things will only build momentum from there.
