Dropped a tweet that got some people charged up. It went like this…
“here’s the thing: a party that antagonizes blk ppl and one that ignores them is NOT what “the ancestors” died for.”
Twas a response to all these people telling folks they need to go vote because “people died for that right.” Sorta. Not to get into concepts of positive and negative liberty, but the ancestors died for me to be able to do whatever the hell I want to do. You know, just like all the white people that aren’t going to vote today. I don’t do guilt trips from live women, and I sure don’t do ’em from people in the ground.
This stuff is why I hate Election Day. I actually enjoy the process of going to vote. Not because it makes me feel all big and bold about doing my part for the society or anything like that. I just enjoy going to any place where people can’t self-segregate. At my polling place, there’s just enough Durham money that’s gotta come and vote at the same place as DERM. I like a couple of stoplights from Research Triangle Part AND MacDougal Terrace. Oh yeah, there are some sights to be seen, man.
Other than that, blah. And I’ll be frank with you: people make me hate Election Day. They really, really do.
The problem with voting is that it’s relatively easy to do and, in the narrative of the United States, very important. As a result, a whole lot of good-for-nothing, no-reading clowns get to go around and tell people they have no right to complain about society if they don’t vote. This after they went down, straight-ticket, voting for people they’ve never heard of and haven’t taken much care to research.
So, you get to complain just because you exploited that excuse to take a long lunch? Step out my face with that, man. I’m not taking a lecture from somebody I don’t trust to vote on toppings for the pizza we’re ordering at halftime.
This certainly isn’t to judge anyone who votes. The right to do so — or, not to do so — is a basic tenet of an effective democracy. The most amazing thing about the ’08 election was the inspiration it gave many to get involved and informed on politics in a way they never had before. The society that is invested in its political process is a better one.
But you don’t show that investment just by dropping a ballot. It does not give you any authority. Showing up to vote without any particular education on whom you’re voting for is the opposite of wielding power. It’s being used by power.
My personal dissatisfaction with politics? It’s right there: I feel used by and large. I’m a black person in a country whose politics are dictated by a party that uses an antagonism of black people as a selling point and one who, in response, has done so much to ignore their interests for decades. Sorry, dropping a vote for either would not make me feel powerful. Not in the friggin’ least.
On the other hand, the real power you can wield as a voter is in local politics, where it is much easier to demand accountability for your votes. But of all the people in your face on some “vote or die” nonsense, how many know who’s running for judge in their locality?
So vote, if that’s what you do. If you don’t, then you don’t. But if you’re just dropping a ballot for which you can’t provide enforcement, what are you really doing?
And if you’re not really doing anything, then why are you in my face?
Feel me?