Believe it or not, in a two-party system, you only have two choices.

“Genocide Joe” is apropos. Kamala Harris has blood on her hands. Funding and supplying war criminals cemented the Democrats’ position as simply the lesser of the two evils.

I came of age in a party of “Hope”. Now, they’re a party of McCains and Cheneys. Nevertheless, refusing to vote Democrat was foolish.

I agonized over voting for Kamala, but I had to. 
There was no other choice.

The system is fucked. I wish we had a functioning democracy with proportional representation and ranked-choice voting. But we have what we have, and as adults in this system, you have to exist within it or change it. Refusing to vote for Kamala did nothing to change it. 

If anything, it’s shifted the Democratic party further to the right. Look at Fetterman. Since the Republicans swept into control of all branches of government thanks to lower Dem turnout, Fetterman has scurried down to Mar-a-Lago, called for Trump’s felony convictions to be overturned, rolled over for Trump’s extremist cabinet picks, and doubled-down on his support for the slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinians. Your choice to stay home on election day really taught him a lesson…

When similar arguments to mine are made, they are met with derision about the lack of moral purity in compromise. There is no shortage of spicy memes claiming the Democrats are just as bad as Trump’s goons.

They fail to comprehend that one can recognize and loudly condemn the reprehensible actions of the Biden-Harris administration (as I’ve done in the streets, online, and on calls to their offices) while simultaneously recognizing that suppressing Dem voter turnout won’t fix a damn thing. 

In all my conversations with conservatives, I have never once heard them say that they wouldn’t vote because Trump wasn’t conservative enough. Granted, he’s about as conservative as you can get. But the point is that they are eyes wide open about the situation. They recognize that it’s either Trump or a Dem. That’s it. That’s the choice. 

Now why are we, the educated elites, not capable of such clear-headed rational thinking? Why are we, the party of diversity and inclusion, so keen on infighting and ostracizing those who fail to perfectly match our standards? 

Let’s assume Trump and Harris would’ve actually implemented identical policies regarding Palestine. We’ll ignore how desperate Netanyahu was for Trump to win, and we’ll ignore the acceleration of Israeli war crimes in the West Bank since Trump’s inauguration, we’ll even ignore Trump’s batshit plans to colonize Gaza to develop luxury real estate. If they actually would’ve been equally evil, how do you live with the reimposition of the global gag rule. Do your memes comfort you as children who used to get USAID-funded care die from tuberculosis and malaria? Will the keffiyeh you bought last year fit more snuggly now that Gazans no longer have cash assistance to buy food? These are the real human costs of low Dem voter turnout. 

Kamala ran a terrible, dull, inspiration-less campaign. But she still only lost by 1.5% of the popular vote. Harris got just over 75 million votes while Trump got 77.3 – a difference of 2.3 million. Now here’s the fun part: Harris got 7 million fewer votes than Biden did 4 years earlier. Yes, many among that margin flipped from Biden to Trump over the price of eggs or whatever (Trump did get 3 million more than in 2020). But most of them simply stayed home. Clearly, apathy and obstinance made the difference.

Biden and Harris deserve endless criticism for cultivating that apathy and obstinance. It is a repugnant thing to vote for the funders of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. I personally found it even more repugnant to vote for someone who would fund Israel’s genocide in Gaza while also encouraging a genocide in the West Bank, deporting my neighbors, firing my friends and family, exacerbating famines, robbing children of lifesaving care, stripping women of bodily autonomy , and wrecking the planet for future generations. If you were guided to abstain by a system of morality that you strive to apply with conviction to all aspects of your life, my beef isn’t with you. If you abstained for political reasons, I need you to wake up.

I voted uncommitted in the PA primary. It didn’t cost us anything, but it attempted to send a message. However, I recognized how harmful that futile virtue signaling would be in a swing state with razor-thin polling margins. If you made a performative ‘uncommitted’ vote or abstained in the general election in NY or CA or some other state guaranteed not to go for Trump, good for you. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy the view from the high horse. But, if you did so in a swing state, are you full of regret? At least Arab Americans for Trump had the self-awareness to change their name to Arab Americans for Peace.

“But it wasn’t a binary choice! You could’ve voted third party!” We simply have not come close to the critical mass of leftists needed to field a viable leftist candidate. Nonviolent movements that engage a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change. When I think of the grassroots organizing we need to be doing right now to prevent a Trump’s fascist allies from cementing power, 3.5% seems like an attainable number.

But in the short period of time between when the Dems finally realized Biden had to step down and the general election, 3.5% might as well have been 100%. All the third party candidates combined did not reach 3.5% of the vote. Jill Stein barely got more than half a percent. Claudia de la Cruz convinced a measly 165,000 people to vote for her. Maybe if we could’ve united behind one of the leftist candidates, we could’ve made a headline-worthy dent, but we love to infight too much. Consider how the Philly chapters of the DSA and SRA can’t even seem to get along let alone unite behind a viable candidate.

The last time a third party overcame one of the two major parties (and then became one of the two major parties themselves, as will always happen if we keep this two-party system) was when the Whigs splintered between pro- and anti-slavery wings, ceding ground to Lincoln’s new Republican party (oh how the mighty have fallen). Some say it needs to get worse before it can get better. Some say we need something as momentous as the Civil War to light a fire under the asses of apathetic Americans to get them to back a decent candidate as the Civil War’s lead up birthed Lincoln’s candidacy. They gleefully see the early indicators of economic turmoil prevalent throughout the first month of Trump 2.0 as signs that it’s about to get dark before the leftist dawn.

Good luck telling that to the millions of starving families who just lost their USAID food assistance. Good luck telling that to the mothers who have to take on second jobs to keep up with tariff-inflated groceries. Good luck telling that to the parents who will lose daughters to ectopic pregnancies that are no longer treatable thanks to abortion bans. 

I’m not trying to go back in time to November. I recognize that we are now in the appropriate window when we can push our country further to the left. We should be rallying around progressive leaders NOW encouraging and funding them to take on Harris-like Dems in the primaries. I’ve already begun calling on Nikil Saval, the Democratic-socialist representing Philly in the PA State Senate to challenge Fetterman to make sure his hoodie-wearing, genocide-funding days in DC are numbered. I will be in the streets protesting, organizing, lobbying, writing and doing everything within my power to make sure our next candidates are candidates for the people. Even more so, I’ll be advocating for Electoral reform so we can break free of this binary. (If that intrigues you, consider subscribing so you can be the first to read my upcoming blog on our options there). But let’s be frank, the chances are slim that it happens in 3 years. 

I chose my words carefully when I said I’ll do everything “within my power.” Abstaining in an election as close as 2024’s is not an exercise of power. It is an exercise of futility. This administration is a 5 alarm fascist fire. We do not have the privilege of tossing aside any of the few methods of self-defense we have left, one of which is voting. We should not be roasting each other online while they laugh at our infighting as they pilfer our nation. We can not let perfection be the enemy of good enough. We should be welcoming anyone and everyone who’s opposed to fascism and getting to work. If we get stuck with another lame-ass Dem candidate, and if and when the 2028 Republican is a fascist monster, please don’t repeat 2024’s mistakes.

If we ever want to be able to vote for someone instead of against someone, we need to fight back right now – together.

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