Image by Theresa Thompson (License CC BY-SA 2.0)
If there’s anyone who understands complete pessimism and the strange seduction of reactionarily giving the fuck up, it’s me. I understand that in the face of all of the terrifying possible futures for America, it’s really easy to collapse inward and totally withdraw. Our political climate is tumultuous and unsure, and shit is fucking terrifying.
I’m not looking to undermine the realness of this threat, or to shame anyone who has to disengage for their own mental or emotional well being. I don’t know you personally, and if you’re realizing what you need to do to stay afloat and are doing it, good for you, my dog.
However, working on your mixtape while Rome burns is a shitty option, regardless of how on fire it is. In fact, because of the way our political system operates, you (YES, YOU) actually have a lot of power to effect change. Even more than you realize. And it doesn’t actually take you chaining yourself to a tree, throwing blood on people in fur coats, or marching anywhere; other than to a polling place for a few hours occasionally.
“The powers that be are actually actively trying to stop people from voting, because within our system of government, votes fucking count. Knowledge fucking counts.”
You are probably thinking “But Trump won. This is proof that the lizard people run everything. We tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter.”
Again, it’s mad easy to think like a Linkin Park song when World War III seems imminent, but we are not 14 anymore. We can think more critically. We can do better than this.
While the 2016 election was highly controversial, and everyone blames everyone else for the disaster we’re currently dealing with, numbers are not controversial. They are not subjective. Whether you want to blame this shit on Russia, on people in coal country who won’t admit that there hasn’t been coal in decades, on sexism, on the DNC, on middle class white people who want to buy hummus at Trader Joe’s but not sit next to a vaguely Middle-Eastern-looking person on a plane, on clickbait, people like this guy (who my roommate used to sell cigarettes and batteries to at the gas station because he was banned from their hometown WalMart), or fucking aliens, it’s actually really easy to know exactly what the fuck happened.
Y’ALL MOTHERFUCKERS DIDN’T VOTE.
Voter turnout was at a 20 year low in the 2016 election. About half of the country didn’t even show up. A lot of people went, “I hate Trump and I hate Hillary, so I’m not even gonna fucking bother. That will fucking show them!”
Y’all showed your damn selves.
I say this with the understanding that to an extent, being able to vote in America is a privilege. Over two thirds of the people in this country have less than a thousand dollars in savings to their name, and are a flu away from complete destitution. On a single night in January 2015, over 500,000 people were outside sleeping on the fucking street. America is in the fucking shit. When you can barely afford food or housing and are on the brink of, or in the middle of, total fucking ruin, voting for shit is the last of your concerns. And unlike in other countries where the president can play piano, has solid fucking taste in Romantic era composers, and can speak in full sentences, Americans don’t get the day off on voting day.
You ever think about how fucked up it is that we vote during the workweek? You ever think about why?
It is America’s most vulnerable people who desperately need to get rid of the bloated, corrupt, and apparently actively sociopathic politicians that are literally trying to kill them, but they have to work instead. It also needs to be noted that politicians have been doing their best to undermine the influence of minority communities across the country for generations through gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and all kinds of fun shit.
On top of all that, our education system is fucking garbage. So many Americans who desperately need their voices heard, so they can have the opportunities they should already fucking have as citizens of an alleged first world country, have been thrown the fuck under the bus. According to a 2013 study by the soon to be destroyed Department of Education, 14% of US adults can’t fucking read, about a fifth of our population reads below a 5th grade level, and another fifth of high school graduates can’t fucking read. You need to be able to read to vote. And when voting on ballot issues you need far above a fifth grade comprehension.
While I was one of the privileged fucks that graduated high school and graduated able to read at a high level, I, like many Americans, left high school knowing absolutely fuck all about our shitty government. The vast majority of Americans don’t know basic shit about how our government works. They just know they don’t like it.
Bottom line: The powers that be are actually actively trying to stop people from voting, because within our system of government, votes fucking count. Knowledge fucking counts. I’m not asking you to believe in the great American experiment, trust in our leaders, or even agree with America’s national or global agendas. Whether you think America is the land of the free and a force for good on earth or a despicable imperialist war machine, I’m not asking you to change your mind.
I’m saying that if you are one of the Americans who is lucky enough to even be able to read this, and be able to comprehend it to the extent that you can decide whether you think I’m a fucking idiot or not, and you fucking give a shit, and you are in a position where voting won’t destroy you financially and you can physically get to your polling place, you need to vote. Vote nationally. Vote locally. Get your fucking shit together.
In fact, people ignoring local voting and only showing up sometimes for presidential elections is a big reason why we are dealing with so many complacent, shitty, out of touch, and even evil politicians that are actively harming the world. Unusual for me, I would like to end this article with a motivational story. Some feel good, good times shit I usually pretend isn’t real.
This is hella real, though.
I live in Philadelphia, PA. I have many jawns. I spend half of my life waiting for Septa busses and know where to actually get good cheesesteaks. If you’re not from here you don’t know, and I’m not gonna tell you.
I recently voted in the the Philly primaries. Here is proof that I voted, they even gave me the fun little sticker, so you know that unlike many of our elected officials, I try my best to do the things I talk about and advocate for. It doesn’t always work out, but this time I could totally handle it. If you live in a city, there’s a good chance your polling place is within blocks of your house. Here’s one of the many places where you can check.
Philly is a blue ass city. It’s so blue that the primaries for local democratic officials are basically the election itself. It’s been Democrat as fuck forever, which has not really worked to this city’s benefit in a lot of ways. Essentially, our democratic elected officials feel like they have carte blanche to do whatever fucked up shit they want because there is no republican threat to keep them in check, and oh boy have they. Our last DA, Seth Williams, was indicted recently on bribery and extortion charges and nursing home fraud.
This motherfucker stole thousands of dollars from his mother who is dying of Parkinson’s. He spent $20K of the money that was supposed to go to her nursing home care getting extra guac at Chipotle.
We as a society need to come together to stop giving millennials shit for loving avocados too much and instead call out Seth Williams.
Boo, Seth Williams.
Boooo.
What Philly has done that is fucking remarkable, is come together in a concerted response against our increasingly malevolent and shitty politicians. The local election had the highest turnout in years. The number of voters went up by 50%, and you know what fucking happened?
We are gonna replace a guy that stole money from his dying mother as DA with a civil rights lawyer who has defended Black Lives Matter and Occupy protesters. We are going to have an anti-drug-war and anti-death-penalty progressive as our Defense Attorney.
Fucking Larry Krasner, my dog.
What is this, a politician who cares about human beings? Do we live in fucking Norway or something?
No, we fucking don’t. It turns out most people give a shit about other people and actively want to improve the world around them. While we are not on that Scandanavian level where we put out joke-erotic stadium rock ballads about our favorite peace-loving humanitarian politicians, we really don’t have to be. We just have to realize our own influence, how we can exercise it, and do our best.
In our tumultuous political climate, where sanctuary cities may play a huge role in fighting against the complete moral and functional collapse of our country at the hands of a bunch of crazy people, who think that school children across the country need guns to protect themselves from bears, and you can spy on someone using a microwave, people who know and care and are in a position to stand up for those who have been systematically barred from participating in our governmental processes really need to get their fucking shit together.
Be politically aware, locally and nationally. You can march and scream and wear all the fucking pink hats you want, but if you are in a position where you can vote, and you choose not to, you are fuckin up, my dog.
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Isadora Teich is a freelance writer and traveler. They’ve written social media copy, tabloids, news, erotica, opinion pieces, quizzes, have worked on film scripts, and do some ghostwriting from time to time. Isadora lives for artistic experimentation and is working on a novel.
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