Voting shouldn’t be an act of submission. Here’s how to #votelikearadical.
For independent thinkers in the U.S., it’s tempting to wish we could sleep through election year. All around us, people scurry past, rushing to cheer for one side or the other. If we dare mention to a coworker or friend that we don’t feel like voting for either one, watch out. Suddenly we’re taking blame for every flaw in the system: It’ll be our fault if the other guy wins! Don’t we feel guilty? How can we sleep at night!
No. The blame doesn’t lie with us independent thinkers. To the contrary; the future lies with us. But to get to that future, we’re going to need to think a little bit more clearly than everyone else about voting.
The answer isn’t to shut our eyes. It’s to think — and vote — like a radical.
So what’s a radical, what’s a vote, and what do radicals know about voting that other people don’t?
What is a radical, and what is a vote?
Growing up in America, most of us got fed the same basic story in school. We were told our system was the best one. That a vote meant something special. Expressed who we were. Told the world what we stood for.
Some of us could see the cracks in this system from an early age. We saw how injustice hit our families and our neighborhoods. For others, it took longer to become aware. But as kids, we wanted to believe the story was true — that the system could work. That somewhere, there was somebody who could take charge, and make it right.
We grow up, and the country seems less and less like a “democracy.” Rule by the people? Yeah, if you mean some people rule over others. Or maybe it’s oligarchy; rule by the few, where people with money make all the rules, and don’t follow any themselves. Most of us don’t rule our own lives much at all, as we’re reminded daily, being overworked by bosses, denied healthcare by insurers, or profiled by cops.
Instead of power, we get a consolation prize: chances to express ourselves, through our clothes, things we buy, or clever posts that dull the pain of bad days. And, every four years, we get one more little chance to express ourselves: the choice between two possible presidents.
Of course if the system worked, and all that was wrong was a few places where it’s rough around the edges, we could have our say, vote in the right person, and they could fix it. But what happens when you realize this system’s problems go deeper than any vote can fix?
The day you come to understand that our system doesn’t work because it can’t work, that is the day that your life begins to be a radical life.
The word radical comes from Latin, for “root.” Radicals notice root problems. It’s not about being loud, or extreme. It’s about looking at this world with clear eyes. No matter how calm and composed you are, you became a radical the moment you saw the system was unequal at its core; when you first suspected that to fix this would require going to the foundation and changing things from the bottom up.
If you haven’t used this word before to describe yourself: welcome. You stand inside a proud history of independent thinkers.
Radicals don’t settle for superficial chances to express ourselves. We’re after real power to change our lives. But every four years, we radicals can get so annoyed at being pushed to vote, that we fall into the same trap as our friends and coworkers. We stake out our own little patch of independence by not voting, or voting third party, not realizing we’re buying into the very same illusion. Like everyone else, we’re giving outsized importance to the vote, as if it’s our precious last bastion of individual freedom, instead of a tool with one specific use.
Radicals have a very different use for voting. Let’s shake ourselves free from this election year fog and remind ourselves of what we know.
1. All candidates, once elected, become our opponents
Let’s start with what we know about presidents.
Radicals understand that all candidates, once they make it past a presidential election, become our opponents. It’s nothing personal; they could be the nicest candidate ever. It’s just that a president’s job description requires them to keep this country’s unworkable system running smoothly. And our job, as radicals, is to undo that system.
No president — not the most socialist, not the greenest, not the most independent of independents — can challenge the system at its core while also propping up its success. No matter how good a person they might be, the president of an oligarchy doesn’t have the power to fundamentally improve things. They don’t stroll into office and do as they please. They have to fend off a political establishment and answer to the 1%. In the unlikely event someone good gets into office, it’s our job to build so much popular resistance, they’re forced to defy their bosses. Whether we’re fighting a president we despise, or a president we’d like to like, our role is still to fight.
That’s why there’s only one factor that matters in who gets our vote. It’s not which candidate we want in power. It’s which election day result leaves ourselves with the most power.
As radicals, we have no illusions that either one deserves our vote. But you don’t vote for who’s deserving. You vote for the enemy you’re best suited to fight.
In other words: Your vote is not a code for “Please represent me,” or, “I support you.” Your vote is the physical act of selecting your opponent and committing to battle.
2. We vote for the enemy we’re best suited to fight
From a radical point of view, the value of an election is that it’s one of the few times we in social justice movements get to choose our opponent. It’s a rich opportunity.
Now, liberals — people who think reforms are enough — may give in and “hold their noses” to vote. But radicals don’t vote as an act of submission. When we pull the lever, we are saying: Pleased to meet you, candidate X. I’m looking forward to doing battle with you.
So which battle gives us better odds?
There’s Biden: the predictable politician who weighs consequences and keeps up appearances. He fears bad PR, which means we can pressure him and win our demands. Some might even worry we’ll lose steam if Biden wins — like we’re some radical industrial complex, kept running by worry, instead of a movement with the power to hold out a vision that inspires.
Or there’s Trump. The teaser his first term gave us shows us hints of how much farther he’s willing to go. Trump’s values and behaviors aren’t just hateful; they’re the trademarks of fascist regimes. Regimes where public silence becomes necessary for survival. Where people’s movements can no longer survive above ground.
A radical vote is always about choosing our opponent. In 2020, it just happens to be very clear which opponent our movements can survive.
3. We protect our real source of power
When we get too wrapped up in a vote — whether by using it or by refusing it — we’re mistaking our vote for our power. Voting is just a tool, though it’s an essential tool in some years to protect our movements.
Because it’s in our movements that our real power lies. It’s there that our personal opinion carries far more weight than a vote (or a non-vote). Every person can alter a movement’s course; even critical feedback from the outside can help alternatives be born.
At their best, people’s movements are incubators for new ideas about how we can make a fair world. They don’t just change laws, public consciousness and global culture; they are decision-making laboratories where we get real-life practice in democracy. But our movements can only survive when we protect them, and few can survive fascism.
Not voting, or voting third party, is an option, for sure. It’s the kind of option that puts our dissatisfaction on record, like worn letters carved on a park bench, to read “I was here.” A radical life gives us more obligation, but also more hope. As radicals we don’t care about leaving that kind of passive, powerless mark. We care about what comes next. The world will know — you were here — because of the role you took in rebuilding it.
It is heartbreaking and frightening and exhilarating and empowering to realize: there is no one responsible driving this system. There’s no candidate who could make a system this unequal work; only worse opponents and better opponents, as we begin to take it apart. It’s us who have the vision; us who hold the task of remaking this world in our hands.
Being a radical means planning for what lies ahead. Building a terrain, as Alicia Garza has said, to keep our movements alive and let our visions grow.
Not everyone wants to be a radical. But everyone can vote like one. All it takes is not mistaking your vote for your power. A vote is not our power; it’s our chance to choose an opponent. And sometimes, it’s the tool we need to throw a fascist out of office so our movements can thrive.
Let’s get that done, so we can move on and use our real power. So we can direct our energy not into running from fascism, but repairing the damage of the last four (plus) centuries. So we can begin to build the roots of a real democracy, starting from the ground up.
#votelikearadical
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