Social Movements and Elections: Stop giving away your vote without demanding something in return

Elections are often the graveyard of social movements.

People who know me, know that I am deeply committed to the power of social movements. Social Movements are the primary mechanism for which to make change, both because we can pressure those in power to bend to our will, and we can create new ways of organizing that doesn’t rely on governments or other institutions that continue to betray us.

Let’s face it, electoral politics is deeply corrupt and elitist. Here is just a short list of why the US political system is corrupt:

• Those with the largest war chests often are the winners in elections.
• Candidates are often vetted by political party elites to make sure they are not too radical
• Political Parties do not want to dismantle the Electoral College, even if their members do.
• Political Parties do not support Ranked Choice Voting, even if their members do.
• The duopoly of Republicans and Democrats both despise 3rd Party candidates or the creation of Independent Political Parties.
• The GOP/DEM duopoly are equally committed to Capitalism, Militarism, Colonialism and US Global domination.
• Elected officials, while in office or while they are running for office, deceive and lie to us on a regular basis in order to win votes.

On this last point, think about how much the Biden Campaign pledged around issues like Climate Justice, but then started giving out oil and gas licenses left and right; how they claimed to fight for working people, but couldn’t even raise the federal minimum wage; that they were about racial justice and racial reconciliation, but supported increased funding for policing; how they campaign on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, but have continued many of the same border/immigration policies as Trump and have deported thousands on immigrants; how they were going to put more money into housing and other basic community needs, but have passed the largest US military budgets in US history; and how the Biden Administration is deeply complicity in Israeli war crimes and the Israeli genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.

Now for those who want to say stupid things like “we have to vote for the lesser of evils” or “choosing to not vote, is the same as voting for the GOP.” The more we continue to embrace lesser of evilism, the more we allow politicians to continue to drift to the right. 

Why is it that people feel like they have no real choices, so they vote for the lesser of evils? I think a large part of the problem is that we think of voting as a process where we support the candidate we find the least offensive. 

Well, what if we engaged in the voting process in a totally different way. What if we, because this is a collective strategy, what if we think about candidates as not just vying for our votes, but for our vision and our collective platform.

What if groups in Grand Rapids such as Movimiento Cosecha, Defund the GRPD, the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union, the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network, the Latino Community Coalition, the Comrades Collective, the Institute for Global Education, Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, Linc Up, the Urban Core Collective, neighborhood associations, labor unions, those working on Climate Justice, Housing Justice, Food Justice, Reproductive Justice, etc., would come together with their wish list of changes.

Our collective vision/platform/demands could be something like the following:

• Reduce the US military budget (currently $886 Billion) and redirect those funds for real community needs.
• Make housing a human right, invest in social housing and prevent the market from dictating the cost of housing.
• Make sure everyone made a livable wage.
• Adopt a Green New Deal
• Pass Driver’s Licenses for All policies.
• Provide Permanent Protection for all immigrants!
• Dismantle anti-trans and and anti-LGTBQ policies and practices
• Make sure that every individual and family would be able to eat healthy and nutritious food
• A Single Payer Health Care System or a Health Care System that didn’t operate within the market
• Stop the oppressive system of policing and develop real community safety policies/practices.
• Dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex.
• Make sure that the accessibility was woven into every aspect of society.
• Develop a truly sustainable mass transit system 
• End Settler Colonialism and return land back to Indigenous People.
• Get rid of shitty jobs and create work that is shared, valued and benefits people and eco0systems.
• More time for leisure, play, dancing, potlucks, learning new languages, making art and making love!

Once we put together a collective platform, we present it to any and all candidates and say, “If you want us to vote for you, then you have to adopt our collective platform. We will no longer be held hostage by a corrupt and shitty electoral system that does not support a radically imaginative future that is necessary of we want to survive and thrive.”

Now, as someone who embraces the anarchism as a political practice, I don’t want to really perpetuate an electoral system that is unjust. We need to seriously rethink about how we want to govern ourselves, since the current representative democracy we have in the US doesn’t work to create collective liberation. However, it you chose to participate in the current electoral system, then stop giving away your vote without demanding something in return.