At least I tried to make change

I was talking with a friend recently about how I would be voting in this year’s Midterm elections. I know, voting isn’t exactly a fun topic but we both share a lot of ideas politically.

To my surprise, he seemed to almost scoff at the idea of voting. As though I am naive and simply supporting capitalists regardless. I’ll admit our two-party system is stupid and that I don’t really support politicians on either side, but it was this almost political puritanism (is that what it’s called?) that he was espousing.

To be clear, this is not an attack on him. He can’t even vote yet, nor can he realistically do much civic engagement at this point in his life. What I am critcizing here is an attitude against small efforts toward making change. Hell, maybe I just majorly misinterpreted what he thought about voting because I rather quickly moved on to other topics when it was clear he was not interested in entertaining the topic of voting that night.

But let’s talk about making change anyway, I’m naive and stupid and have things to say about it.^[1]

Yes, I know voting is not the radical, quick change we desire

I get it, and sometimes I want all of this bullshit to end too. There’s a lot of policy going around (even in my own state) that attacks groups I am part of. I just wish I could rid of it entirely. Voting… does not do that. Sometimes it doesn’t even really change the outcome at all. My state is ruby red and likely will not flip any time soon.

Does that mean voting doesn’t matter? NO! Keep voting! At least try to do something! I’m not really civically engaged or politically active in ways that make big differences, but voting is at least something. Maybe it lowers the margins at which the other side wins enough to give more ambitious people a reason to fight harder—I don’t know!

But at least it’s something.

Radical change is predicated on people having the resources to organize it

I cannot always be out there organizing or putting in the hard work civil engagement demands of me. It’s a privilege to have the resources to organize mass movements at all. And thinking that everyone should be doing it ignores the swathes of people who don’t have the time or money or willingness to do it. Voting, while not perfect, is at least something more accessible to the average citizen.

I think it’s a large part of why billionaires are so prominent in politics. They simply have the resources. Organizing and grassroots movements help but it still relies on having people with the time and ambition to actually organize like that. It’s not easy or accessible, and expecting everyone to put in that effort is idealistic.

Lesser than two evils sucks. A lot.

I hate this game of tug-of-war I have to play with politics. I don’t vote for Democrats as an endorsement of them, really most of them have ok policies at best. Lesser of two evils is unfortunately just what you have to do to try making change if you’re only voting.

Much larger change obviously comes from organizing, but as I’ve said, that’s difficult for many. For the average voter, I think it’s more than acceptable to have them vote for the better of two candidates, even when both suck. It is certainly better than sitting on our asses and letting the worse one win.

Letting things get worse because you can’t quickly or immediately make them better is just not a good mindset to have, in my opinion.

Addendum

A Bluesky user brought up a great point that helped me realize that I, in fact, completely overlooked independent parties. Some of the language in this section makes this piece come off as very “vote blue no matter who” but I want to be very clear that if there is an independent politician who you believe in, vote for them! Do not vote for the major parties just because of some broader strategic goal that ultimately only benefits the major parties.

I myself plan to vote for an independent this year, so it’s actually really unfortunate that I had completely forgotten to address that. Please vote for who you believe in when possible. If there isn’t any politician who you fully support in or believe either, that’s fine if you don’t want to vote for them. Maybe go raise hell by calling your representatives or other elected officials to say that they’re doing a bad job. Find something to do if you don’t plan to vote!

I have more to think about on this topic now, so again, all credits to siberionhusky.bsky.social for her comments!

So what?

This piece has been rather opinionated, so I will emphasize that if you don’t want to vote, don’t vote. Maybe you want to write things to influence public opinion instead, go for it. Maybe you want to try educating others around you about policies and other ideas, go for it. If you’re unsure, fair enough! I just ask that if you want change to happen, you can’t scoff at others for at least trying (especially if you do nothing yourself).

I’m sure I’ll find a better way to articulate this all at some point, but I really do believe that future generations can live in a better world only if we at least try. I may never see the day when queer people are a part of everyday life without question or discrimination, but I’d at least vote for a party that isn’t actively trying to make my life harder—because maybe someday it could lead to that vision.