A Plea to Throw One’s Vote Away

As our country gears up for the election cycle again, we will be subjected to the tired campaigns of status quo politicians explaining to us that this year’s election is “the most important in our history” as we’re told every election cycle to make sure true democracy is stifled by inhibiting actual choice – increasing their wealth while decreasing ours. Those that continue to vote-in incumbents or seek to primary candidates within the main parties are part of the problem. How are we to ever institute social justice if we can never move beyond those who would sacrifice their sisters and brothers in the name of capital? I propose that if you don’t already, please vote third party!

Employing such an act can further multiple strategies of realizing America’s democracy but they all rely on one’s loss of the short-sighted strategies that liberals and Democratic-apologists use to justify their votes. The fight to win a more just society is not a fight that can be won in the short-term but rather, has to be part of an organized effort. Those who would say that voting third party only empowers the Republicans (And you don’t want to see a President Palin do you?) are missing the point! While yes, the Democrats are less conservative than the Republicans – both parties are on a slow crawl to the right. In that crawl, eventually candidates like Palin will become the norm, and later still will be considered progressive when compared to candidates of the future. I already outlined how Obama has been doing everything he can to empower conservative talking points as if McCain had been the one that was actually elected in 2008. The point is to upset and destroy this rightward crawl, not empower it by choosing what you perceive to be the lesser of two evils!

But let’s humor this argument. Let’s say a mass movement to vote third party only splinters the traditionally Democratic vote and allows Republicans an easy victory. This would mean that the Democrats would suffer overwhelming losses, and Democrats are in the business of winning elections just as the Republicans are too, so a loss like this would not be something they would enjoy, correct? As often as they like to make us think otherwise, the Democrats didn’t become one of the strongest parties in our country by being stupid so it seems reasonable that they would study the election results and find the reasons for such a splintering of their electorate. When faced with demands for a party that doesn’t support wars, enable theft by the rich, allow discrimination, etc, the Democrats could choose to continue to lose elections, shift to the right even faster hoping to take away Republican voters (which worked disastrously for them in the first half of the last decade), or shift back to the left to earn their electorate back and gain new voters. Even if it didn’t work immediately, those who want to resuscitate a reformist Democratic party would have to agree that continued loss would motivate such a reaction.

My goal however is not to resuscitate a reformist Democratic party, though I will admit it would be a welcome side effect. As a leftist, my aim is for a bottom-up revolution of society in which true democracy is brought about. Engaging in reform efforts, such as my efforts in regards to healthcare reform or envisioning a reformed United Nations, may seem antithetical to revolutionary goals but as Karl Marx said, workers who do not struggle for reforms leave themselves “apathetic, thoughtless, more or less well-fed instruments of production.” Michael Lebowitz describes it in his book Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century,

Marx’s consistent theme was that of the importance of revolutionary practice, the simultaneous changing of circumstances and self-change. By struggling against capital to satisfy their needs, workers produce themselves in ways that prepare them for a new society; they come to recognize the need to understand the nature of the system and to realize that they cannot limit themselves to guerrilla wars against the effects of the existing system.

Not only does participating in reform efforts prepare oneself for a new society, it raises the consciousness of people around you who may not have realized that another world is possible. Think of it as opening the heavy curtains to reveal sunlight to someone after they have been so used to the dark for a time. Sure, they cover their eyes and shrink away but once used to it, it is recognized as the preferable choice. This effort needs to be carried into electoral politics as well. We need to embrace parties that actually represent our interests and by doing so, show others that these parties exist. The importance of doing so was described by Marx in an address to The Communist League,

…Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled. The progress which the proletarian party will make by operating independently in this way is infinitely more important than the disadvantages resulting from the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body.

So even while these efforts will fail in the immediate future, it is for the awakening of the electorate that we do this. Even our failure, which could result in Republican wins, will help in the campaign for raising consciousness. Indeed it was President George W. Bush whose terribly presidency made me come to grips with our society’s realities. For those that still wish to work within the Democratic party, I suggest T‘s posts on the futility of such an endeavor here and here. This continual return to those that will always disappoint you in an attempt to forestall Republican wins isn’t yielding results. Does a train-wreck become less deadly if watched in slow-motion?