We can't afford to be disillusioned and stay home now. We probably can't afford it at any time, but now is especially important for all the reasons Ms. Gay lists.
If we stay home, Trump's crassness, bigotry and racism win. We would be giving tacit approval to his authoritarian, bullying form of government. We can't do that.
Candidates are seldom perfect. Nonetheless, choose the best one you can find, hopefully a Democrat, at least for the US House, so that we can rein in Trump and Republicans, or at least try to.
Vote!
4
That you, or anyone, needs to say this, and that anyone needs to hear it in order to vote, is really depressing. But, regardless of how down I am about the state of things, and what anyone might say to influence my poor, weak mind, I voted. Duh.
1
Bravo! This deserves a standing ovation. Opting out is not a vote against the status quo, it is a vote for it.
Put this quote on your fridge every day up to and beyond Election Day.
“If you remain disillusioned or apathetic in this climate, you are complicit. You think your disillusionment is more important than the very real dangers marginalized people in this country live with.”
2
Well stated Roxane. We need young people to vote this time. Hear the words of our great President Barack Obama:
"So if you don't like what's going on right now - and you shouldn't - do not complain. Don't hashtag. Don't get anxious. Don't retreat. Don't go bingeing on whatever you're bingeing on. Don't lose yourself in ironic detachment. Don't put your head in the sand. Don't boo. Vote."
Listen to the man! (fyi-trump has no idea what ironic detachment is....kinda funny in an extremely depressing way).
3
I really need to stop reading these types of perennial election-time screeds, for my health if nothing else—they're always the same, and always serve to make those who vote feel superior to those who choose not to.
What galls me is the blatant bad faith in which these arguments are put forth. Though they're usually couched as being value-neutral calls to "participate" and "vote your conscience" (admittedly less so here), all they really say is "Vote how I want you to vote."
The simple fact is that some 50% of your fellow-citizens oppose your politics; the things you decry are the things they applaud. Do you really want to scold that half of the population into voting? Wouldn't you rather have them stay home, so you can have your way at the polls? You're not really calling for greater participation in the democratic process, you're asking people to join your fight against your enemies, and insulting and alienating those who might not see the world in precisely your terms. ("But their ideas are so self-evidently wrong!" you cry. Well, clearly not: look at how tight these elections are. I'm not ready to dismiss my fellows like that.)
This idea that not participating (again, in the way you'd like me to) means I'm part of the problem strikes me as simply false. Those who cause the problem are responsible; those who choose not to get involved are, by definition, not. Convince people that your ideas are preferable, don't browbeat them into siding with you out of misplaced guilt.
3
Vote likemyour life depended on it. It does.
2
Wouldn't the easy way to get people to the poll, particularly the unaffiliated/independent voter, to get them invested in the candidate? That would mean and end to the ordained lesser of two evils through the duopoly of the two party system entrenched by our first past the post closed primaries. Ranked voting, open primaries, end to gerrymandering and neutering party donors would invigorate voters and candidates.
1
I don't know why this fundamental truth eludes so many people, but thank you for putting it into words. I've voted in every election since I turned eighteen, more than a decade ago. I don't do it because it's fun, or exciting, or fulfilling; I do it because my survival hangs in the balance.
The candidates might look interchangeable, but the outcome is not. You're deciding what does and does not get funding in the federal budget for the next two to six years. Are we going to dump the poor, disabled, and elderly off the programs that ensure they have food and shelter? Do you think old people should lose the Social Security benefits that stand between them and poverty? Because the Republicans have been very explicit about the fact they literally what those outcomes, and if you don't get out and help push, that's what's going to happen.
None of this is theoretical. There are real consequences, and self-righteous inaction is the least principled, least virtuous course of action anyone could take.
6
"If and how one votes is a personal choice, but that choice has consequences."
Unfortunately, too many understand the first half of this statement, but completely fail to understand the second.
I would say -he put that man in office ..you made this mess -now you need to make the effort to fix it
I wish your OpEd piece would be printed at the top of the first page of every newsprint NYT edition till the election in 60 pt. font, and likewise as the first story of the Top Stories in the digital edition.
If you can't find the best of all possible candidates to vote for, surely you can find a "least bad" one to vote for. Or, as a last resort, a candidate to vote AGAINST.
2
No one in the USA if required to cast a ballot.
@Bar tennant Very true. But if you do not vote, I give your opinion on politics, politicians, and the general state of the country just as much value as the vote you did not cast had.
4
My friend calls voting a "Harm Reduction Strategy." To paraphrase her, the right local sheriff can end collaboration and enforcement with ICE, the right DA won't persecute low-level drug offenses, and governors can expand Medicaid and healthcare access.
Do we need more progress? - of course, AND electing an imperfect candidate who will take action can help reduce harm done by repressive policies.
3
A thought for those too depressed to vote. Think of those who cannot vote this year because a political fanatic recently murdered them. Consider how you think they would vote if they were alive. If you weren't planning to vote for yourself, vote for *them*. They can't any more.
57
And vote for that person who cannot vote because their right to do so has been taken away.
12
Thank you for your article. I grew up in a “poor” household. I borrowed my way through college and took a military scholarship. Many of my peers had cars, stereos and trips to Europe. I had loan repayments and when I eventually had my trip to Europe it involved camping in the snows of Germany with the US Army. However, what I did have, what society at large gave me at that time in my life, was hope that with effort, hard work and perseverance I would succeed in creating a good life for myself and eventually for my family. This is what it seems to me is missing from the psychology of young people today. We need to restore this sense of possibility. This is not the first generation to have big problems - our country has faced the legacy of slavery, Civil War, Great Depressions, World Wars, Cold Wars and wars in countries we knew nothing about. No one knew how it would all turn out but they did what needed to be done for their country, for their families and for themselves. Voting is a responsibility of citizenship and even more importantly it is a way that each of us can shape our collective futures. Voting gives us the strength of purpose in unity and a collective endeavor, not voting, the weakness of isolation and hopelessness. We need to take control over our collective futures. Yes we have problems and yes they are big problems, but we also have the power to solve them but only together.
6
As a Democratic New Jersey voter, I’m pretty darn disillusioned. I can either vote for Bob Hugin and reinforce the despicable Republican Trump wall in the Senate, or I can vote for the poster child for American political corruption and healthcare malaise, Bob Menendez. It’s not a matter of understanding that I can’t possibly agree with every one of a candidate’s platform positions. I’m disillusioned because I can’t find any reason to vote for either.
2
I really believe a lot of the disillusionment and cynicism is deliberately encouraged by people who WANT fewer to vote.
13
Vote. Democracy dies in discouragement.
5
My fellow resident of Indiana, Ms. Gay, must hear these voices of disillusionment as a professor at Purdue. I've heard the disillusionment from my students, too, for years. Having moved to Indiana from Chicago a few years ago to care for my mother--a long time Dem activist and teacher--I went to vote in the last midterms and found many GOP state offices running unopposed (except for Libertarians). The disillusion is real especially in these states like Indiana, with the worst voter participation in the US. (GOP run Indiana wants it that way, too.) Disillusionment is real, as is alienation in general from all sorts of institutions. We live in a culture and a time when activism is hip but its people like my mother who worked all year, and every year, for these things she believed in. It takes work to counter disillusionment. It's quiet work, it doesn't pay, few will notice, no one will ask you to write a column, or give a lecture. However, some will watch, your children, spouse, neighbors, friends. And they will remember that democracy isn't about politicians or pundits. It's about getting involved in your world as it is where you live.
And yes, I voted for Ralph Nader every time he ran.
3
Look, if you want a perfect shining saint to run, run for office yourself. Otherwise, understand that identical twins don't run against each other, and the candidates ARE different. (If you want somebody wonderful on the ballot, achieve that in the primaries, otherwise vote for what's on offer in the general) Even if you don't vote, or vote 3rd party, one of the top 2 WILL win and will do things that affect you. So vote.
6
Voting for independent candidates is a calculated decision. If you're in a state where the race is decided, Red or Blue, voting third-party is means to vocalize your frustration with either party's platform. They aren't representing important issues or values you want to see addressed. Send a message.
Voting third-party in important swing districts or states however is another matter. The voter needs to way that decision extremely carefully. Are you seeking to punish your party and thereby yourself? That's a decision not made lightly. Or are you simply ignorant of how much your vote might actually decide? Brett Kavanaugh comes to mind.
Not voting is the absolute worst choice. I try to explain this idea to young voters when canvassing. The political wheels are turning even when you're not paying attention. If you don't engage, someone else is going to decide what's best for you. You probably won't like their decision either.
4
When HRC announces that she will wait until after the Midterms before deciding to run again that to me is far more than disillusionment.
I don't vote because voting is immoral. Government accomplishes all of its objectives by means of force and violence. I would not hire a hit man to do my dirty work, and I wouldn't use government agents for that immoral purpose
By not voting, my conscience is clear. I did not put Obama in office, nor did I put Trump in office--thank God. I did not vote for Hillary, thank God, for doing so would have made me complicit in her's or Trump's election by putting my stamp of approval on the process. I am not responsible for the lies and crimes of either one. When an IRS agent mulcts someone of their hard-earned money, I'm not guilty.
Good luck to those of you wo do vote. I hope you can live with the outcome however it may go, and with yourselves.
1
Everyone who doesn't vote makes it that much easier for the worst candidates to win.
5
So please tell me, what have polling professionals done to fix their science which was obviously not working properly during the 2016 presidential election?
@Solar Farmer Whether they have done so or not, it should make no difference. Voting should be done on the basis of what a candidate will do, not on the basis of how many other people like of dislike him.
The only polling that matters is the polling done on the first Tuesday in November. The rest are meaningless.
2
Voting, in my opinion, should not be a choice a citizen gets to make - it should be mandatory. If you are a citizen of the United States of America and are eligible to vote, by law you must vote in all elections. This is the only way all voices can be heard. For those of you who don't feel like voting, SHAME ON YOU.
6
Ballots should be mailed to every address so that those citizens at the address should have to vote & return it. If you are ordered to fill out census form or face penalty of arrest then voting ballot should also be mandatory with same consequences.
2
There’s no penalty for not participating in the census.
1
Veto
Entertainment
Trickery
Obfuscation.
Vote for
Open
Trustworthy
Efficacy.
Veto Republicans. Vote for Democrats.
4
@Robert Anyone who votes based on a candidate's position on the ballot as opposed to their position on the issues is intellectually lazy at best. Vote for the best candidate for each office, no matter what party he or she is from.
@mikecody
Thanks for your reply. Ordinarily I would agree with you. But this year is different. The Congressional Republicans have failed to exercise their Constitutional oversight duties. They have all with only one or two exceptions slavishly genuflected to Mr. Trump, who is, on a bipartisan basis, a manifestly unfit president and a miserable human being.
mikecody wrote:
"@Robert Anyone who votes based on a candidate's position on the ballot as opposed to their position on the issues is intellectually lazy at best. Vote for the best candidate for each office, no matter what party he or she is from."
Amen! Don't boo, VOTE!
3
Totally agree with this piece. I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that upsets me more than those Americans who will unwaveringly support this immoral, lying, abusive sociopath of a president, are those young Americans, who will have to live longer than me with the consequences, who could have simply voted and prevented this debacle. I am tired of hearing that not voting was somehow a principled stance. It was either extreme laziness, or a pointless and counterproductive tantrum. In either case, grow up (and this goes for many older non-voters, too) and show some respect for those in our society who are not as fortunate as you There are people (and a vulnerable planet) who will suffer real harm as a consequence of your decision to not vote. You bear responsibility for what we are living through.
8
what if you live in a blue state, and you are not happy with the incumbent senator who is up for re-election - and you know she's a shoe-in? If you don't think she's doing a good job? Even if you don't think she's good for the #metoo movement? What if I think she's harmed it? What if you think she's totally shortsighted? Takes her post for granted - hasn't been around at all, canceled debate? ---- but won't vote GOP either?! what then?
Write-in someone you like for senator and vote on the other races on the ballot.
2
Don’t just vote, volunteer.
1
Thank you so much for this amazing op-ed. I want to share it with everyone I know. I hope that the democrats win at least the House, they will be somewhat a check on Trump. If the democrats do not win well I expect things to get much worse. Get out and vote everyone!
3
Thank you, Roxane... I struggle to find words and ways to cope. You’ve found the words for me. Sure, I am disillusioned and yes, the Democratic Party is flawed... but I will be voting BLUE. I am an informed voter who refuses to be held hostage any longer. Activism takes many forms. I am no more worthy of the privileges, rights, liberties and benefits than the next guy. So I have chosen to share my goodies. It will be with generous spirit, civic action and personal effort. Trump’s seedy, foul call for “nationalism” will not be tolerated.
2
I imagine there are many people around my age (mid 40s) who lived through the Bush/Gore election in 2000, and remember the arguments over "hanging chads" and all that. When people began to see the consequences of that election - the invasion of Iraq, in particular - I thought the age of apathy would come to a screeching halt: "Well, that'll be the last time anyone ever says 'my vote won't count'," I thought.
How wrong I was.
What Ms. Gay describes in her opening paragraph is a type of identity politics--a literal identity politics--gone awry, where electors choose to stay home because they don't believe candidates aren't cut from the same ethnic, cultural or socioeconomic cloth as they are. While it's very true that more diversity amongst our elected officials may lead to a more responsive government, the one hard lesson from 2000 is that not every "40,000 year old white man" is the same.
I agree with Ms. Gay: get over your disillusionment, young voters. America and the world needs you.
4
Trump's election should be a wake up call for Democrats. Stop nominating self serving candidates like Hillary Clinton and maybe we will make progress. Maybe the party has now changed but it is long past time we consider eliminating political parties altogether. Forget the the third party nonsense, as well.
1
I was born in Mississippi in 1949.
I can still see the signs of 'colored only' in my mind.
I still remember when Dr. King walked thru my city on the way to the state capitol, as my friends and I joined them for the journey along the way.
I remember when Medgar Evers was shot and killed and why.
I remember the white 'acquaintance' of my grandfather encouraging him not to get involved in that 'stuff', and I remember the three field worker who was killed in Philidelphia.
I became of age during that period.
If there is one thing that propels me to vote, even if I don't like (n) either candidate running for office, it's because I still remember the angst, terror, and trouble that folks went thru SO I COULD VOTE.
My problem with many in the younger set today and with many blacks, in particular, is the idea of 'what's in it for me attitude, nobody is putting anything in my pockets'.
Among young people who have mounting debt, it's that 'are they going to help me pay off my debt'.
I get it,
In more ways than one can think of, I get it.
But voting for one's self is not what voting is all about.
Voting is, to me, about solidifying a stable ground in hopes that my offsprings, my grandchildren won't have to deal with the problems I, we now have.
It is the hope that many will realize that the reason your 'rewards' haven't come to you is that POLS like it when you don't vote and they won't have to work hard for you.
If EVERYONE voted, watch how soon and how often POLS would do their jobs.
8
I'll put this another way. Instead of lining up behind the party of fascism (the Republicans), Ms. Gay would have us line up behind the party that enforced sanctions against Iraq that directly killed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of children. The party behind which it's leader, Barack Obama, accrued to himself the legal right to assassinate whomever he and his henchmen declared an enemy. The party that gave us the Vietnam war. The invasion of the Dominican Republic; the genocidal coup of Indonesia; and on and on.
This is not "disillusionment." We need an entirely different dynamic, or paradigm, or system. Call it what you will, but getting sucked down into the vortex of "lesser of two evils" is what got us to today.
So no, Ms. Gay and those who are slobbering over this column, you have no right to have no patience with those who don't believe the hype. Frankly, were the Trump-Pence cabal not so repugnant, this column would be good for little more than bird cage liner.
3
Good luck Roxane. Of course the train left the station in 2016, and a flipped House will just give the president a new target to use for a victory in 2020. But the adolescents you are appealing to will have their tribal pride intact.
1
Yes, absolutely, make the (small) effort . . . VOTE!
But then do more. Help COUNT the votes and OBSERVE that count. Right now, our concealed, computerized vote-counting process won't LET you do that, won't let any of us do that.
So, after voting, the next step is that we have to come together and DEMAND that vote-counting become PUBLIC and OBSERVABLE again, in time for our next election.
We like the RIGHTS bestowed by our democracy, but those rights come with DUTIES, if our democracy is to survive and thrive. One of those duties is public, human vote-counting . . . even if it's slow, even if it's inconvenient, even if it takes a little effort.
Of we could continue to let computers do the job in the partisan, pitch-dark of cyberspace; vote, go home, put our feet up, watch the results on TV; and have no basis whatsoever for knowing and trusting that the computers are accurately and honestly translating votes cast into votes counted.
Our elections MATTER. They are the highest stakes game going - now more than ever. That's why Roxane is telling us how crazy it is not to vote. But isn't it just as crazy to take on blind faith a counting process so insanely vulnerable to manipulation? Especially when the evidence keeps indicating that that vulnerability is being exploited and the manipulation occurring. And especially when it would take so little from us to bring vote counting back into the light and protect our elections from systemic fraud.
We should pass a law that young people don't get to look at their cell phones until they vote.
The voting rate for 18-29 year olds would be at exactly 100%.
4
The people to whom you are addressing your plea need even shorter and more direct messages, I'm afraid.
2
I applaud the needed message to vote, despite disillusionment. A higher turnout last time might well have spared us Trump. But the underlying racialist assumptions quoted with approval are part of what gave us Trump. Complaining a candidate “doesn’t look like me” rather than that s/he has bad ideas is the essence of tribal identity politics, something common in Ms. Gay’s writing. It is wrong factually (many women voted for Trump, as did a sizable Latino minority) and terrible morally. Defining oneself, or others, as essentially, if not exclusively, by race, sex, religion, etc. is the definition of discrimination and bigotry. If you think “looks” make Trump and Bloomberg the same, or Obama and Al Sharpton the same...you are acting racist, no matter how good your intentions. It won’t end well and must be condemned.
2
Great advice.
Regarding deserving politicians from all walks of life, l'd add "not just the same old wealthy white heterosexual CHRISTIAN people."
1
Ah, the politics of fear, race and hysteria. Those bad, bad, old heterosexual white guys! Ms. Gay is surely President Trump’s equal in promoting racial divisiveness among Americans. “Representative democracy” in Gay’s mind is “flawed” apparently when her candidate of choice doesn’t win. It was perfectly fine under the double-dealing President Obama. I have never read such a piece of claptrap.
3
@Phillip Ruland Trump embodies hatred of non-whites, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia. His policies, rhetoric and "rallies" bear this out. Are you not paying attention?
4
Is Jill Stein on the ballot somewhere? I wanna vote for Jill Stein again. Obviously America just didn't get the message the first time; we must continue not voting for Democrats until the Republicans shape up.
/s
2
Bravo, Roxane Gay! I have not seen a more perfect expression of my own frustration and barely repressed fury with the happy apathy of those seemingly planning to give up, shrug their shoulders, make a big bowl of popcorn with Tapitío and sit their fine backsides on the couch to watch the world end. No amount of Edmund Burke quotes about evil punch through their smuggery.
You hit it out of the park today. Brilliant piece. You got splinters. And I am not ordinarily given to sports metaphors.
This piece hits so many nails all the way in.
Thank you. Run for office.
3
Anyone who has raised children knows that one of the very first, genetic-driven response of a child is to say "no." There is no better way the child know to assert control of her or his life.
Eat your peas.
No.
Go to bed.
No.
Now, register and vote.
No.
We have raised these 18-34 year old infants. Now we must live with them, and pay the consequences in terms of unfailing control of everything by republicans.
1
Amen!
The fb message boards of my alma mater have been rife with concern for ‘college children’, for the last 3 years!
College children?
These are adults 18-22, who can vote, get married and join the military- how on earth, except in the demented minds of their boomer parents who waited til their late 30’s to breed, how can these able-bodied adult humans, engaging in higher learning, be considered ‘children’?
Don’t be surprised that they call for the authorities and new administrative rules to shore up their cultural whims, when they were raised being consulted about dinner choices, and their childhood friendships (play dates), were chosen for them, by over-involved, geriatric, first-time parents.
These special youngfolk won’t vote unless it is for a meme or an anime character.
Yes, yes, and yes, but please tell me how the young "had no hand in creating...incredible amounts of student loan debt." Your statement precludes the possibility that students can—and should—be more judicious in the burden they assume and be at least part of the solution in addressing that problem. Telling the young that they bear zero responsibility for financial agency does them no favors; it is one of the responsibilities of adulthood, along with, yes, voting.
2
It's difficult for anyone to get enthused about voting when the candidates you must vote for have been selected through a system of lying, cheating, and stealing. And passing election laws won't help; there must be a paradigm shift in human thought. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof of how we have tricked the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about just what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
Like other NYT columnists, Roxane Gay doesn't talk to the elephant in the room, that the chance of your one vote affecting the outcome is so unlikely, that casting your one vote approaches ineffective decision making.
If you want to change the outcome of a congressional or presidential election, here is an interesting article by Prof. Andrew Gelman and others, "Estimating the Probability of Events That Have Never Occurred: When Is Your Vote Decisive?" https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4266309/estimatprob.pdf?sequence%3D2
When approaching this theoretically, then empirically, they write, "This suggests a frequency probability of about .5/20,597 that a single vote will be decisive in a randomly chosen U.S. House election. This number is of course much less than our upper bound of 1/10,000, because most of the elections were not close."
Facing this issue squarely could enhance the credibility of a columnist. It could encourage them to study why people vote, suggesting better arguments for voting, and better arguments for voting one way or another. If they want each vote to be influential, the columnist might investigate whether other voting methods could meet that criteria.
I would suggest to Roxane Gay, and all other NYT writers, when they try to influence the reader to vote, that they might want to talk with the elephant in the room.
3
@Fatima K: This may apply to congressional elections, but over my lifetime I have seen some squeakers in quite a few elections. Some local elections have come down to literally ten or fewer votes. Anecdotal, yes, but sometimes statistics do not reflect reality, especially when it comes to unpredictable human behavior - as we saw in the 2016 election, when statisticians gave Clinton huge odds of winning, thus giving voters a false sense of security and persuading many to stay at home, thinking their votes weren't needed to achieve what statistics assured us would be a landslide. I have lost all faith in polling and no longer trust any poll. Hard data collected after the fact is more interesting.
4
There's a fallacy in this argument. My one vote and your one vote may have almost no chance of affecting the outcome, but 100,000 votes can. If every me and you in that 100,000 thought only about their one vote then there would be no 100,000. So this a wrong way of thinking. You have to see your vote as one light among many lights.
3
Thank you for reminding me that I don't get to indulge in the luxury of disillusion. I will vote
2
Trump is a result, not the cause. Not voting is in fact a vote for Trump, and an America that has turned it’s back on Allies, world wide issues and moral standing.
The world is watching.
7
In 2016 I, like a lot of fellow voters faced the unappetizing choice between Trump and Hillary, a new set of ideas and dubious character and the old guard who has not addressed a mounting set of problems which faced the electorate. Neither of the choices was even good. The election was defeated by the Republican governors through the antiquated Electoral College even though Hillary had the outstanding popular vote. Now Hillary has announced for election again. It is beginning to look like 2018 will be a repeat of the Electoral College snafu. If so why vote except to displace the Republican governors.
I’m a 71 year old white female in the red state of Georgia. I happily voted today for Stacey Abrams. The idea of Kemp winning any office, even dog catcher, makes my skin crawl. Some decades ago I actually voted for for a Republican occasionally, when I thought them the better qualified. No more!
So I will vote for the old white man: Joe Biden is certainly qualified to be president and I’d be happy to vote for him. Or, I could be most satisfied voting for Cory Booker. Or Elizabeth Warren.
Find someone who represents the majority of what you believe in. And then GO VOTE!!!! Disillusionment be damned.
4
She said that in a representative democracy it was hard to want to vote for, in her words, “yet another 40,000-year-old white man”
Hey, I think we've found a good use for blackface. Also anti-aging cream.
3
Amen, Roxane. Amen.
2
The subtext to all these "Get out And Vote You Immoral Slobs" diatribes is "Get out and vote as long as you vote for MY candidate!" Brazil has compulsory voting.
@tundra Brazil elected the Trump of The Tropics. Yeah mandatory voting.
2
I really resent this from your op/ed: "the incompetence and cowardice of the Democrats."
Democrats have not been incompetent or cowardly against Trump or in Congress or in this season's election. Were you sleeping through the Kavanaugh debacle?
We have strong candidates and have donated massive amounts of money. You are simply parroting the media or Bernie. Either way you're wrong, and that statement does much to negate your op/ed. Why would you expect young people to vote for incompetent and cowardly people? You owe all Democrats an apology for writing that.
6
I just don't know who's the lesser of two evils anymore... they're both so horrible.
Solution: vote blue
Help stop the madness, we can do this together
2
All ballots, from President to dog catcher, should have an additional choice: “None of the above”.
If NOTA wins then a new ballot to be scheduled within 30 days but the incumbents on the previous ballot forbidden to participate.
Throw out the bums.
3
Don't vote. Let me decide. ;-)
Spot on!!! Thank you!
2
Vote AND take a would-be non voter with you.
2
As a forty thousand year old white guy I agree but would like to make two points; one, if you don't vote you don't get to bellyache and whine like all you thirty and twenty thousand year olds do incisively. Two, many of us forty thousand year old white guys really, really don't want people to vote; so if you choose not to vote Tiny and his dwarfs thank you. Nothing is free in the Land of the Free; voting is cheap though.
4
"Bad politicians are elected by good people who don't vote."
Billy Graham
3
Telling it like it is.Thank you Ms. Gay!
2
The only way to slow down the Trump disaster is to vote Democratic.If you do not vote you are giving Trump silent approval of his style of government and personal behavior. The very future of America is at stake.VOTE HIM OUT!!!
4
Well said Ms.Gay!
Please talk to everyone you know and urge them to vote.
Anyone remaining on the planet who thinks it doesn't matter needs to listen and act - VOTE!
2
We don’t deserve anything. We either make our future or somebody else will make it for us. The future promised by the president and his GOP is ugly, mean, racist, misogynist ... the list goes on and on. And young voters will live in it a lot longer than I will.
We have two young daughters who have voted in every election since they came of age. One worked for Obama in 2016 in a state far from home. The other founded a rape crisis support group. So, young people, show some spine. Whatever you think you’re entitled to, our daughters don’t deserve a future imposed on them by your apathy. You live in a democracy for now. Act like it or you won’t have it in the future.
3
I vote in a State that is overwhelmingly Liberal. Does my vote really count? Not really, it's only symbolic and fulfills my sense of righteousness.
During a mid-term not so long ago, I voted for Charlie Baker. The ballot had 17 races, where 14 races were unopposed Democrats, none I had ever heard of.
I left them blank. So it goes in my State.
I'm the most liberal person I know. I was raised in a liberal household in a liberal neighborhood. I believe, a Black man living in an inner city has a natural right and Constitutional right to own a gun for the purpose of self protection and the protection of his family and community. I believe we should be judged by our actions not by our race or historic ethnicity. I believe that the individual should be allowed to make decisions for himself; how to spend his money and to whom and under what circumstances to give charity. I believe governments are inherently corrupt but are necessary to provide some services. Therefore we should restrict their growth so as to be able to monitor them. I believe that American citizenship is the most valuable thing I own and that illegal immigration is a crime against every American. Those who help illegal immigrants are betraying their neighbors. The Democratic Party seems to oppose me on everyone of these issues.
9
@Mike your opening statement probably says more about your choice of friends then it says about you. You indeed can be the most liberal person you know, but it doesn't make you a liberal. After a long list of mostly RW talking points you conclude that the Democratic Party seems opposed to all of your issues.
So maybe you need to be actually listening and following the Democrats instead of listening to your far less liberal friends.
No one on the Democratic side wants to "take the gun out of a Black man's hands for self protection". If that be the case cite a few examples.
As a liberal I believe that the government is here to help promote and protect the common interests of all citizens, not the wealthy or the white.
And not one prominent Democrat I know has ever advocated for protecting illegal immigrants over American citizens. We realize that the time has long gone for a comprehensive change to our policies especially in these times.
45
Interesting you didn’t mention the most fundamental of human rights- the right to control one’s own body.
Yes, I mean abortion.
38
Put down the John Birch pamphlet. If you believe race is not a factor in the GOP messaging to Americans you have not been paying attention to actions OR rhetoric.
Government is as good as the people we put in there when you have a government “by the people” unless you want a guy like Trump to relieve you of every right you have- he’s certainly willing. Putting some better people in there is the job of citizens.
30
The single best thing this country can do when the election is over to begin our recovery from the dreadful era of Trump and insure the safety and prosperity of our future is to institute a mandatory one-two year military and volunteer service draft that no one except people with genuinely disqualifying medical conditions would be exempt from.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/opinion/lets-draft-our-kids.html?_r=1
2
... that no one except young people ....
1
"Nothing will change by sitting at home for the midterms or any other election. We cannot afford disillusionment. We cannot afford to do nothing. Lives are at stake and if you don’t recognize that, you are no better than those with whom you are disillusioned."
Perfectly stated Roxanne. The vote we cast on 11-6 is a vote against the reign of djt and his posse of hear, see and speak no evil followers.
Vote
2
Good for you, you're one of very very very few writers who can compose a piece without a single mention of the T name. Another op-ed writer today advertised it 16 times and he was being critical! So far, It's the only other piece I've read today, but I'm sure many others will outdo that effort.
Guess who gets a nickel and a grin for each mention.
When is the responsible media going to get the point!!
3
Great post, samm. The over use of the word trump in 2016 is one reason he squeaked out the EC win. As to Roxanne' s main point: candidates are sometimes people you feel great enthusiasm for, often they seem go hum, but somewhat aligned with your views. So you vote for ho hum. So simple really. I am 62 and have unfailingly voted every election since age 21. Did I love everyone I voted for? Heck no, but contrary to pop talk, I wasn't choosing a person I "wanted to have a beer with."
1
Well said, well said, well said!!! Thank you Roxanne. No more "let's all just get along by not talking about politics." If we don't speak up, don't name the threat, don't take action, we are complicit. That's all there is to it.
3
I can’t be alone in thinking you started this piece on an agist and racist premise by denigrating elderly white males... for the life of me I do not understand why they let you write like this... first, we live in representative democracy , look at the demographics of this country and then look at who actually goes out and votes ... there’s your answer about why our leaders are who they are. The idea that identity politics and voting for whoever the minority Democratic candidate running is going to solve the big problems this country faces, including violent extremism, is frankly delusional .
2
Well said!
Regardless of political affiliation or personal values, vote.
You can't complain with any legitimacy if you don't vote. I'm tired of hearing whining from folks who don't like what's happening and they couldn't be bothered to vote.
My vote is often not heard in this very blue state I call home. But I choose to vote out the comparative incompetence out of office this time around. I know enough history to see the writing on the wall and I want no part of it.
There's no guarantee you'll get what you wish when you vote, but at least you know you tried.
20
@historyRepeated
Vote AND write your Congressional representatives!
And don't forget to express yourself to the
Leaders of Congress, who do have power over Trump.
They are required to take your comments even if you do not live in their districts. Make them get off their DO NOTHING ABOUT TRUMP seats and answer to the American.
Ryan is leaving but I'm sure Senator McConnell would LOVE to hear your "concerns"!
https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactform
On second thought, keep the heat on Ryan and remind him his "legacy" is looking pretty sad.
https://paulryan.house.gov/contact/
2
Trump only serves three segments a) business b) farmers and c) white supremacists. affordable care coverage for pre-existing conditions, medicare and social security are going to get squished. the biggest losers will be the disillusioned ones who stay home. at least they can try to fight to save whatever is left for them before trump gives it all away to a) b) and c).they have nothing to loose.
1
Even a flawed democracy like ours rewards citizens who vote. Politicians pay most attention to middle-aged and older whites because this segment of the electorate votes in very large numbers. I used to tell my students that, if they wanted elected officials to protect their interests, they had to go to the polls .
In like manner, they must choose a candidate with a real chance to win. Young people, in particular, sometimes view elections as an opportunity to express their ideals. Minority party candidates most often embody those ideals because their fringe status frees them of the incentive to compromise. In 2000, Ralph Nader arrogantly dismissed Gore and Bush as tweedle dee and tweedle dum because neither adopted his purist positions on the environment or any other issue. Enough liberal-leaning voters bought his shallow argument to tip the election in Bush's favor. The folly of their decision became apparent over the next eight years.
As Republicans gleefully remind us, elections have consequences. We now have an opportunity to throw that reality back in their faces.
45
@James Lee
Indeed, “if they (students) wanted elected officials to protect their interests, they had to go to the polls .”
Even a blank ballot can help. It dilutes the “appeal to my base” technique.
2
Getting a little tired of the "old white men" excuse when we have plenty of women, as well as both women and men of color, running for office. Yes, those in power are vile, but there have been "old white men" who were admirable leaders. Winston Churchill. Abraham Lincoln (though he was middle-aged when he was murdered). FDR wasn't young. How about Ben Franklin?
1
Look at the Senate. Look at the House. Look at the mix that is America. That’s what people are talking about.
There are no Ben Franklin genius types in this Congress- we wish!
3
Thank you, @rgay for writing this compelling and honest piece. Vote, people, vote!!!
1
If everyone voted there would be no Republican Party. Imagine!
1
Only if the votes were counted.
1
To the the columnist's disillusioned young friend: Please do to forget that some of us 40,000-year-old white males truly believe in the proposition that if some of us are not free--to vote without interference, to worship without ridicule or fear, to be young and full of hope in the face of incompetence, indifference, and even hatred--none of us can be truly free. Vote your interests in restoring hope and a fair and true red, white, and blue. We have hope in you to do a better job with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness than our generation has done for those who preceded us.
23
Election Day in November is the decision point, the critical moment to reaffirm support for fundamental freedoms and integrity in government. We know where Mr. Emolument's base stands. Can we overcome the misogynistic fear mongering & centrist derangement syndrome that brought Mr. Emoluments & his international grifters into power? What he basically declares again and again is that those who demand resistance to our basest and most divisive and hateful instincts should just shut up and stop ruining all the fun. Voting, not just resistance, is imperative.
An historic Blue Wave that retakes Congress is our civic & moral responsibility. We must awaken independents, & Dems across the spectrum to vote Blue.
1
One step at a time
The first step is to vote
1
At a local Democratic campaign office the other day, a black woman somewhat younger than me (a 68 year old white man) said this to a group of younger canvassing volunteers, “When I hear people say their votes don’t matter, I ask them why do they think the Republicans are trying so hard to put up roadblocks to their voting? The answer is that their votes do matter.”
Wise words.
79
Sorry, moderates/liberals and all decent people feeling hopeless is not OK. You’ve got to believe, be strong, and keep fighting until you win. Then you won’t feel hopeless.
1
There's always a better choice, even between two bad ones. If you don't choose, you tell the politicians that they may as well ignore you, irritating you doesn't hurt them.
Your candidate doesn't have to look like you - they can't, for any election with more than 10 voters in it. Same goes on political views - last major election, some people rejected a candidate whose views aligned more than 90% with their preferred candidate (Sanders - versus Clinton) - and then got Trump (0 percent alignment!). That belief that you should decide to reject the candidate because you didn't get the exact one you wanted, fail to vote - that's how we are here.
It's so entitled, when those people do that. Maybe you can endure what Trump can do to us in a term, or whatever other next candidate there is - whether Senator, Representative, Governor, State office... - not everyone can. Many people are paying a high price for your choice to be uncompromising. There's nothing noble about being uncompromising.
27
I live in one of the 26 districts that -- in 2016 -- voted for Clinton and a Republican congressman. Thanks to a state Democratic machine that allowed a senator who was cleared on corruption charges by a hung jury, our Senate race is in jeopardy.
I'd rather not vote for Bob Menendez, but don't have a choice this year. Vote for every Democrat on the ballot. We don't have any options if we want to contain that man.
2
So I should only vote for somebody who looks like me and “understands” my problems? Too bad I voted for Obama. I’m neither black nor male; nor do I think Obama understood the problems of the global interconnected world very well. But he was the best of two uninspiring options. I listened to his speeches: they were centrist enough for my taste, though I found his rhetoric stale. I voted for the platform, not the man, and all in all, I was fairly happy with the result. If you are looking for your mirror reflection in the politician you vote for, perhaps society is better off if you stay at home. We have enough narcissists in MAGA hats running around. We don’t need more identity-peddling demagogues who get votes not by doing but by being, whether it is black, transgender, female or any combination thereof.
"Lives are at stake and if you don’t recognize that, you are no better than those with whom you are disillusioned."
Thank you for writing this. Too many people consider how an election or candidate will affect only him or her, instead of the community, city, state, region, or nation at large.
What we were losing long before Trump is a sense of shared responsibility for the welfare of the country and its citizens. In his evil genius, he filled the vacuum for a large minority by bringing them together in appealing to their worst instincts.
We all have a penchant for those seven deadly sins buried within us--no one is immune. But we are lost if as a democracy we do not constantly strive to overwhelm them with "the better angels of our nature."
Now we have before us a fresh crop of extraordinary candidates who have worked like the devil over the past two years to bring those angels forward, ever striving, thinking of sensible solutions, knocking on doors, bringing people together, aiming for a common good, looking to achieve a positive outcome.
Maybe your district is lacking such a candidate, or maybe you feel the die is already cast due to lopsided polls.
It doesn't matter. You have a right others have died for. Vote.
37
I hate to say this, but a big part of why the country is in such straits as described in this article is because people are not voting. It may seem overwhelming. But it doesn't have to stay that way. Americans of good conscience, regardless of political persuasion, should vote Blue. We need a check on this president!
1
If you want to feel better, don't vote. Voting, regardless of which party, serves the function of drawing you into the political fights and hate. There is no requirement that an American citizen vote to prove or validate his/her citizenship. No one is deprived of any right because they did not vote.
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus the Republicans are trying to deprive you of the right to clean air, the right to safe food, the right to know when you go to work that the government will help keep you safe at work. Above all they are trying to deprive your descendants of a habitable planet. Is that not worth voting for?
2
@AM
None of those are rights. So this article is actually an exhortation to vote for liberals.
I worked for years with an entry-level workforce and friends who did not vote. They did not "choose" to not vote. It simply was not in their life experience. Their friends had never voted. Their neighbors had never voted. Their families had never voted. Voting and elections was kind of like the Cosmic Background Radiation noise. There, but undetected. If I asked them about voting, I always got what I called the "dog look": they heard me, but without comprehension. Yet, they worked hard for lousy pay. They cared for their families. I liked them. They are the invisible part of the non-voters. And reaching them will be very hard.
4
If the lesser of two evils does not get elected, the greater of two evils does.
3
I would offer another word of advice to people questioning the wisdom of voting, especially those who, like me, live in a deep blue sea of liberal views that voting can seem like screaming into an echo chamber (my precinct in New York was 88% for Clinton...so I get it, it feels hopeless at times knowing that you and your neighbors did their part to prevent Trump.)
Pick a district - maybe one where a family member lives, or where you grew up or studied, or one where you feel a special bond to a candidate - and do what you can to volunteer or donate. For me, that was my parents' deep red, rural district in upstate New York, where their Congressman, Republican Chris Collins, was recently indicted for insider trading but still holds a modest lead in most polls. (Republicans will no doubt scream about "outside money" coming in...as they run off to cash their 7-figure checks from the Koch brothers, big oil, and the NRA.)
Despair isn't an option. There is always something you can do.
2
" A representative democracy is flawed but it is the political system we must work within, at least for the time being."
Are you waiting for a Cuban system?
I've always considered voting as a choice between the lesser of two (or multiple) evils. The perfect politician is a character out of fantasy fiction. Just vote for the one that is closest to the values you hold dear.
1
I don't feel hopeless. Know why? My hope is not in politics or government.
1
The phrase "intelligent compromise" nicely captures the call that is needed.
For those that sat home in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in 2016 because you didn't like Hillary, was Trump a better option? And for those that had the energy to show up at the polls but then completely threw away their vote in those same states by voting for Jill Stein, is this the outcome you wished for?
Going back further, for those that voted for Ralph Nader in Florida in 2000 because there was "no difference" between Al Gore and George W. Bush, how do you think the Iraq invasion went?
As had been said many times, elections have consequences.
They have consequences in quality of life, the financial future of our children, the health of the planet and, as is obvious in recent current events, the survival of the Republic itself.
Vote!
It's the last hope we all have.
3
I am afraid to imagine what Trump might do if the Republicans hold on to the House and Senate. The thought of what Trump would do if the mid term elections should be a confirmation of American public support for his radical leadership is frightening even from the relative safety of Canada. The viruses of both hate and cynicism are spreading.
I can’t vote in the U.S. mid terms, but I’m hoping for a rebuke of Trump and a rejection of Trumpism, but I’m expecting to be deeply disappointed.
3
Tell this young person about voter suppression.
I walked the Pettus Bridge in Selma - finally - this spring. Besides family events in my life, this was probably the most emotional.
People have been beaten, murdered, imprisoned, and they protested endlessly, just for the right to vote!
Honor this right! Don’t ignore this right. Maybe even use it as a way to get even with the folks that try to suppress voting or take the right away! WE are better than that!
Stand up and vote. Tell the young person they are better than those who suppress the right!
Yes, their vote counts, because they are a person - and they count! Our votes are us, who we are. We are precious, and so are our votes!
2
Thank you Ms Gay, for a truly outstanding article. As Bill Maher said after Bush V Gore handed the country to the Republicans in a "soft coup"- "We talk about voting for the lesser of two evils-we never talk about the reality that there is a GREATER of two evils". Vote like our lives depend on it. They do.
1
I completely get the feeling that voting makes no difference and that it is fine to just skip it. But it is the only real tool that ordinary Americans have to fight the injustice that we see daily here in the US. Perhaps our government would not look like a retirement home for rich old white men if more of us voted on a regular basis.
Anyone not voting in this election is indicating that they are just fine with the way our government is currently being run. Vote and don't vote for a single Republican, for any office at any level.
1
I voted. I don't know why. Disillusionment, maybe, more like I already know who is going to win and my little vote will not count one way or the other.
Some would say trump's win was a surprise. It wasn't for me.
And please don't tell me he didn't win the popular vote. I know that. He won by gerrymandering, voter restriction, uneven representation, (California vs Idaho) hate, racism, the other isms. And that was predictable. And it is going to get worse. Look at Georgia and several other states who are actually preventing people from voting and destroying ballots.
1
A warning for Democrats if they win:
Surely the lesson for the Left in all this is that if you’re going to govern, you must implement your program. If you can’t see it through, get out of government. Ruling at all costs is for the Right. Let the forces of reaction take the flak when it all goes wrong. While there may be an honest desire to protect workers from the worst consequences of right-wing government, if you are the ones implementing soft austerity, you will be blamed for the social consequences. The Right will win the next election and undo whatever limited good you did. You won’t be thanked for softening the blow, and your credibility as a workers’ party will be blown. - Alex Hochuli
Absolutely. Roxane Gay has described clearly and eloquently the responsibilities of being in a democracy. Get out and vote. And make your voice heard to your representatives so they represent your perspective.
1
Our very fabric of democracy is at stake here. Every eligible voter needs to vote. Preferably for every democratic candidate on the ballot. The GOP needs a CTL-ALT-DELETE reset. They are no longer a party of the people, they are more concerned in their own personal power. They've forgotten that they work for us. The only way that they will remember this is if they all get booted out of office.
1
After reading this rousing article I am inspired to vote. I'll vote for the Republicans, Trump's ticket, because at the moment he's not so full of hate as the liberals.
Is that OK?
I agree whole-heartedly with everything Ms. Gay wrote. I’ve already voted and received notice that my absentee ballot has been received. (I’m overseas military.)
But I’ll be honest. I have ZERO confidence in the integrity of our voting system. Paperless electronic voting machines. How could we ever have allowed that?! Bryan Kemp. How is that man not in jail?! North Carolina’s voters being forced to vote in gerrymandered districts that the courts have ruled unconstitutional. Where are the mobs with pitchforks?!
I fully expect Republicans in every contested district to juuuust barely eke out a victory (one or two points; nothing to arouse too much suspicion). And instead of doing some real investigative journalism, most of those in the mainstream media will be scratching their heads wondering how the exit polls could have been so wrong (again).
3
Roxane,
Last year I was diagnosed with incurable, though treatable, stage 4 cancer. Now in remission, I find that not only have my priorities changed, my tolerance levels have changed as well.
Few would use the words patient or tolerant to describe me. I wasn’t intolerant of people or different views - unless they were patently misinformed or wrong or outrageously stupid.
Social media during 2015-2016 brought out the worst in interpersonal discourse, quickly devolving into insults, incoherence, and occasionally insanity. In a book I’m writing about my cancer experience during 2017’s healthcare debates, I refer to this as “social media psychosis.” The fruits of this poisoned tree are evident in virtually everything associated with the Trump administration.
So your comment, “Given everything that has transpired since President Trump took office, I have no patience for disillusionment” rings my bell loudly.
There are no forums left to exchange differences of opinion civilly. Voting is the last recourse of action left to the individual citizen. Failing to exercise this constitutional right is an abdication of power and personal responsibility. America’s voting turnout rates are appalling and one can draw a straight line from that apathy to this national “reign of terror.”
I hope that young person you referenced takes heed to your words. I hope America does as well. Our future as a refuge of hope and light literally depends on it.
2
I do not understand the "lesser of two evils" argument. Even if it were true (and it seldom is), why stand by and let others choose the greater evil?
2
I dislike all politicians. They are, after all, politicians.
But I also know that one of the best ways I can help shape the future is by choosing the least worst of them. If everyone votes for the least worst candidates, then slowly, slowly, but surely, our future will improve.
1
Republicans want you to look toward Mexico for a nonexistent invasion while they pick your pocket or steal your purse. Face it, they are the party of the rich and corporations. Their policies are anti-people, anti-freedom and anti-happiness, thus the only way they can win is to cheat or to make you so disgusted that you stay home. Even if you show up to vote, they may still cheat, which is why we need an overwhelming majority to vote against them.
And once you vote, stay involved. The struggle will continue.
1
Are people really talking about staying home? What could possibly be the justification for that?
What a luxury to be able to twist your inaction into a form of empowerment. Because that’s exactly what such reasoning is: Twisted.
2
Young Americans worry about voting without knowing everything about the person they vote for, they fear making a mistake by voting for a demagogue, they fear that their vote will lose thus leaving them dejected (from their act of voting), ...
Young Americans are afraid...
Is this new? Is this different than other issues the very young need to experience and learn from? Is it a sign of their extreme idealism and unrealistic immaturity - an expectation that they know everything before they can vote and feel their decision is just?
Yes. To all. The young are wary of mistakes.
As someone who has voted a few times, and has felt the same angst, my response is:
"Just Do It!"
Don't wait, don't worry, don't vacillate, and make the time to get registered.
Basically, Grow Up.
It's your right to vote.
If you don't, you may lose it one day - and never get it back!
This election matters.
Vote for those who satisfy just 70% of your "wants". Don't expect 100%.
Because there is NO politician who WILL "tick off 100%" of your wants.
Just Do It.
Just Vote. And this time, vote to defy Trump.
1
Those 'old white men' - they know to vote - lesser evil if needed. That's why they have so much power. Being all disillusioned and not voting - you've got no power.
Robert Heinlein (another one of those old white men), so many decades ago, said it: "If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for ... but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong."
Making assumptions based on age, gender, skin color is wrong, BTW, yeah, even when it's a old white man. You don't know what they had to do as a young teen, how hard they had to work to get a job, how many times they were rejected, the mistakes made, the experiences they had. Nor does someone have to share your experiences - their positions matter far more.
2
Just. Vote. Only then will we understand the true character of this country.
1
When the City and County of San Francisco registered non-citizens to vote at an outrageous expense to the taxpayers then why bother...
How do you hold a democrat responsible for corruption if the alternate choice is a republican? Disenfranchisement starts with the two party system. These entrenched powers do not represent us.
1
Timely article. Thank you!
The simple fact is this. Elections are zero sum games. Somebody will win and lose. If you vote, the candidate you prefer or the party you prefer gets a better shot. If you don't the other candidate or party gets a better shot. Your not voting is actually an absent vote against yourself!
And voting also sends a message to future candidates and influences their positions on things that matter to you.
So decide what matters to you and which likely candidate or party will support it. Don't make it a one issue vote though. And vote for issues that matter to you and you alone. Not your company, not your church, not even your family unless it aligns with your interests.
It should not take more than hour of your time to decide who to vote and may be half an hour to actually cast it. Do you think that is too much time to invest in your future once in two years? Trust me, you spend more time getting coffee!
As the writer correctly points out, voting for a third party candidate who does not stand a chance is like not voting! So vote wisely.
That said, we should have a goal for every state and federal election commissions - that of increasing registration and participation and if a Secretary fails to do that, he or she loses her job. Period. That should help reign in active voter disenfranchisement.
Vote. For the 99% that is the only, the ONLY thing we can do. The good thing is, that is the ONLY thing that really matters in the end. Your vote!
2
There's only really one perfect candidate with whom you'd agree on every single issue. Even that's debatable as more well-sourced information can ameliorate one's ignorance on certain topics. That one perfect candidate though? Look in the mirror. Even then, hope that mirage of optics isn't compromised by the need to raise funds from moneyed interests.
Politics has always, always, always been about choosing the lesser of 2 evils. The best of the best had plenty of flaws, a multitude of issues you wouldn't see eye to eye with.
That's the essence of democracy. Or if you make up a list of topics and assign them point values according to the importance you place on them, how many folks out there would compile the same list in the same order?
Are people actually too ignorant or stupid to realize this? The former can be fixed with education. The latter isn't curable for most.
The saddest part is the disillusioned ones are far more likely to be young. It's their future that is most impacted by elections. Those 40,000 year old white folks will be dead sooner rather than later. Even if in many cases soon can't happen fast enough.
Besides the chicaneries of gerrymandering, voter suppression, and possible manipulation of electronic voting machines (which are mostly owned by GOP partisans!), we really do get the government we deserve. Or rather some of us are stuck with the one that others deserve by their passivity. Maybe laziness is a better term than disillusionment?
2
Sweeping generalizations such as "cowardice and incompetence" applied to Democrats is lazy and facile, and, generally, not true when one looks at the record of Democrats when it comes to issues which are defining issues of the day. If you want to apply that to individuals fine. Name them.
But does that define Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Adam Schiff, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Andrew Gillum. No, it does not.
It's part of the problem of false equivalency. The journalistic tendency to say if I insult Republicans. I have to have an equivalent insult of Democrats.
Stop it.
Democrats, as a party, support and fight on those issues which Americans care about be that healthcare, education, tax cuts for the rich, civil rights, voting rights, LGBTQ protections, DACA, fighting white nationalism, sensible trade, Medicare, Medicaid, minimum wage laws, protecting Robert Mueller, Congressional oversight, Roe v. Wade.
The argument can be made without facile equivalencies.
For the most part, the grown ups in the room have been the Democrats. We can analyze our politics and politicians without false equivalencies.
3
Thank you for some hard-nosed advice for soft-headed times. As Edmund Burke may or may not have said, "Never despair. But if you do, work on in despair."
1
I agree we must vote. It is the voice of our democracy, sad as that voice is at times. I too am sick of old grumpy white men thinking they know how I feel and what is best for me. I am tired to having my life reduced by people who think success in America is money. How can I express this in one little vote? I can't express it all, but I can try to signal the start of displeasure many of us feel. Vote. I've done it all my life, and never regretted doing it even when results are not what I want.
1
It’s simple, and it’s Trump’s own idea: If you like Trump vote for the Republican—and if you don’t vote for the Democrat.
2
Even if every single candidate was a 40,000 year old white man who doesn't look like you or have familiarity with your experiences, one or more of them will be better than the others.
Even if every single candidate was a 25 year old black woman who doesn't look like you or have familiarity with your experiences, one or more of them will be better than the others.
Even if every single candidate was a 50 year old transgender person who doesn't look like you or have familiarity with your experiences, one or more of them will be better than the others.
It's quite simple.
And it will get better, especially when "looking like you" doesn't matter at all.
2
@North: Although I agree with what you're saying up to a point, "looking like me" is a good clue as to whether or not you are going to have some common ground with a candidate. Most of the time I will vote for a liberal female candidate over a liberal male one, everything else being equal, because I prefer the (generally female) collaborative style of working together as a team. Liberal women also tend to be more in tune with issues that are important to me, personally. In the primaries this year, however, I voted for a younger white male, rather than an older black female, although I agonized over the choice. Both were smart, articulate, and had good ideas. But one had experience in organizing a political campaign and was clearly better prepared than the other. One showed up to a meet and greet with campaign literature and some volunteers to deal with the myriad questions and organizational tasks. The other showed up with her two daughters, who were nice young kids, but she had nobody to answer questions, get lists of volunteers going, or demonstrate that she was in any way ready to run a major political campaign against a powerful congressman backed by a lot of dark money. All other things being equal, I went with the man who was already organized and knew what he had to do to persuade voters to vote for him. Optics are only effective up to a certain point.
On November 6, one candidate will be on every ballot across the nation: Donald Trump. The November 6 election is a national election.
Trump is telling his rally mobs that he is on the ballot and he is right. Every American eligible to vote must answer a critical question, "Does Donald Trump represent you and what you want America to be?"
To answer that question consider what Trump stands for: childish insults of people who disagree with him; separating children from parents to discourage immigration; lying about little things, lying about big things, lying about everything; attacking allies; befriending hostile despots; giving tax breaks to the wealthy; taking away health care from the middle class and poor; angry denials of reality; using the office of the president to enrich himself.
Once you have your answer, vote. If you decide Donald Trump represents a vulgar, coarse, me-first, isolationist America that you don't like and don't want America to be, then vote for all candidates who have the best chance to defeat candidates who support Trump. In other words, vote to defeat all Republicans. They are either cheerleaders for Trump or closet Trumpists. Either way, they enable and abet Trump.
If you vote for any Republican you are voting for Trump's twisted vision for America. If you don't cast a vote, you are deciding that you like Trump, that he represents the best in you, the best America has to offer; not voting is actually voting for Trump's ugly vision for America.
39
I would like to commend the League of Women Voters for their work in sponsoring local political forums. I attended a local forum that presented candidates for the district school board. The candidates' comments changed my vote 100%.
I had been planning not to vote for a candidate who had touted his business experience and promised to end overspending on schools. Overspending, I thought, was not the problem with public school education. But that candidate was the only one who cited statistics on the (not great) quality of education provided by the district. He spoke of mis-spending that did nothing to improve quality. With a multi-million-dollar school bond issue on the ballot, he talked about the need to make sure the funds would be spent to improve academic outcomes, college readiness, and citizenship preparation. Too many of the other candidates rambled on about what they would do to improve school PR and communications with media. Better communications of poor-to-mediocre results? No, thanks!
Meeting with candidates for elected office can make a huge difference in voting for the right people. Thanks, LWV, and please keep up your valuable work.
2
I agree with the basic sentiments here, except for the implicit critique in the opening paragraph of those who cast their ballots for third-party candidates. Votes have to be earned—candidates have no right to expect otherwise. I held my nose and voted for Hillary in 2016, but I don’t blame anyone who preferred a third-party candidate in her stead.
2
@Jessica If you held your nose and voted for Hillary you are a victim of right wing rhetoric.
Obama called her the most capable candidate to ever run for president. Who would know better? She has done more for woman and children than mother Teresa. Her organization has the highest rating of any for the work they do around the world. She was the person the republicans and Putin feared most. That why they spread disinformation about her on social media, infiltrating the Bernie campaign dupping them to repeat their anti democratic and anti Hillary jargon. If in doubt who to vote for vote for the person republicans and Russians fear most. That should tell you something.
2
Jessica - We vote for reality, not fantasy. The reality we now have and will likely have for a generation to come was created in 2016. Anybody who thinks that our future was not radically changed for the worse by the election of Donald Trump and voted for a third party candidate or failed to vote should look in the mirror whenever his latest insult to America is Tweeted or ranted and chanted by his adoring sycophants.
2
@Mike Iker @Mick
Don't get me wrong: I despise Trump and everything that he stands for, so I made the pragmatic choice and voted for Hillary. Like many Democrats, however, I find her too hawkish on foreign policy and too neoliberal in her economic leanings. I cast my vote for her anyway, but I won't condemn anyone who made a less pragmatic choice and voted for a candidate they believed in.
Voting should be considered a privilege, not a right. Too many people are more focused on posting their outrage on social media than getting to a school, firehouse, etc., and casting their vote. They want to be seen and heard, but don't care about being effective. Our choices are slim, Republicans with their fear and panic, and Democrats with their infuriatingly spineless approach to battle. I am a lifelong Democrat and have witnessed my party become more and more feckless as the other side becomes more and more determined to create a society where 0.1% control everything. I applaud Ms. Gay's essay, but fear it will fall on deaf ears (although be shared and retweeted millions of times).
6
@New Milford. Wrong. Voting is a right, and it ought to be an equal right, fully protected by federal voting rights legislation. Right now, we need votes for legislators committed to restoring that protection.
More importantly, voting is a responsibility of citizenship. Casting a responsible vote these days requires familiarity with the issues, knowing what's at stake, reading and fact-checking and critical thinking, and not just relying on FOX Fictions to tell us how to do it. No one has the "privilege" to impose more oppression on so many of our fellow citizens.
I'm not simply being picky about your word choice. I need everyone who's qualified to vote intelligently. We all count on each other to do that much.
12
@Mary C.
That's fair enough. My point was that we have become complacent in this process and have forgotten has precious it truly is.
1
@New Milford I think voting is an obligation. To one's self, to one's country, and to one's neighbors.
3
I have always voted, but when I heard from Rita Jensen about the benefits of the LBJ years, and how so many of these benefits have been taken away, even by dems in power (Clinton!) I couldn't help but feel disillusioned. In those days, the dems were not the lesser evil, but were doing things for progressive change. There are some good people out there, and I hope the younger generation saves this country, but it won't be in my town (and probably not in my lifetime).
4
We have voted since the Nixon years and always vote. Alas, change doesn't happen if the public keeps reelecting incumbents (usually over 85% of the time) and voting for the letter behind the name on the ballot rather than the person.
9
@tom right now the letter D is all that counts. Or maybe the letter M for Mueller. Which in that case the letter D is still your only choice. Anyone who votes for R doesn’t deserve the D for democracy. They are voting R as in Russia.
2
At 60, I have always voted.
I take it very seriously.
My first time was at 18 in 1976, our Bicentennial, and for Jimmy Carter.
Voting, and paying taxes, are my duties as a citizen.
Sometimes my vote is for a candidate, sometimes it is against one.
My vote is my part in our democracy. It is my part in the promise of America.
Vote Democratic on November 6th.
Every seat, every office.
Changing Majorities in Congress is our best course of action.
Vote.
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@D. DeMarco If your sage advice were available 8 years ago, everyone would have voted for more Democrats. Obama would not have heralded the loss of 1100 Democrat politicians. Merrick Garland would be on the SCOTUS. Everyone would have the same doctor, healthcare would not cost one thin dime, more. The climate would have just right. Not too hot. Not to cold.
And Bernie Sanders would be president.
@D. DeMarco - residents of Baltimore have been voting in Democrats for every seat, every office, for every election, and the city is a dysfunctional mess.
2
@Midwest Josh
No. Baltimore is not.
The PAC ads you see for Gov. Hogan are filled with lies.
The reason Maryland is a decent state to live in with good services for it's residents is because we are lead by Democrats.
Just like Trump, Hogan is all to happy to take credit for the progress made by Democrats.
1
I have decided to support a local candidate by using an avocation I have nurtured in retirement--cooking. After bringing weekly meals for several months, for the last 4 days of the effort I will be the Commander-in-Chef at the campaign HQ, feeding an ever increasing cadre of canvassers so they can saturate the district and drive the most vigorous GOTV effort possible.
Oh, and I will also vote.
17
This is outstanding. It ought to be anthologized, made mandatory reading for everyone on their 18th birthday, and re-printed as often as "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" for its enduring relevance and clarity.
32
I didn't find Gay's advice to be terribly moving even if correct. Some other motivations to share with the disillusioned might be: Be on the right side of History; Negate the vote of one Deplorable; Don't chance future regret; Provide others with an example of citizenship.
6
Vote to end the two party system. There are third parties not beholden to corporations and 5he wealthy.
4
@Spectator
Please dont do that until we have instant run-off elections. I thought the same way in 2000 and voted for Nader. How many thought the same in 2016 and voted for Stein? The stakes are too high to cast a symbolic vote.
32
Third parties have proven to be dismal failures in one way or another.
Maybe if there had been no Ross Perrot, who was a crackpot; or a Ralph Nader, who was arguably blamed for siphoning votes; or a Kill Stein, who had nearly always been,a political failure; and instead, someone came along with ideas and a vision sound and workable enough to ne taken seriously, things might have been different.
But certainly not in my lifetime.
2
@Spectator -- you do understand that in the US, a vote for a third party is a vote for the status quo, right?
Because we don't have a system where the 2nd and 3rd place finishers in a race where no one gets a majority can form a coalition and take office. It's winner-take-all, whether the winner gets the majority of the votes or not.
Since third parties tend to take votes away from those running against incumbents, all you're doing is voting for a continuation of the insanity we have.
2
Absolutely agree and wish more Americans had embraced this wisdom and voted in the 2016 election. That said, in some states voters still face barriers to voting and/or will cast their votes on machines that are vulnerable to hacking. Vote purging or "use it or lose it" (GA, KS, OH, AL, etc.) has essentially been blessed by the conservative Supremes and gerrymandering cases have yet to change anything. The problem of insecure machines means that votes can be tampered with -- as we're seeing in TX when voters try to vote a straight Democratic ticket. There are not enough registered Republicans for the GOP to win--without blocking Democractic voters from voting or doing everything in their power to keep their votes from counting.
14
@Ann
The voters spoke Hillary won the popular vote, but then there was the electoral college. VOTE anyway,, VOTE it is the only way we can have to resolve all these issues that trump has used to devide our nation. And now he is sending our army to stand guard . Where are our civil rights. Who will he next decide when anyone who stands against him is our enemy? The army should not be used to enforce a police state.
12
The current state of affairs in America justifies the act of voting against those in power as primary motivation.
One does not have to be 100% for a particular candidate to make a positive impact.
22
Yes go and make your mark. Vote. The statistics are poured over and even a strong swing in an area where the one you want maybe can't win is worth registering. Someone who scrapes a win, by a very narrow margin, is on their toes to pay attention to their voters while they are in office. So yes, no excuses get into that polling booth and vote!!
13
Hillary was far better than Trump in that she would respond to pressure. We have to elect people we do not like or trust or agree with on many things, and then find ways to lean on them.
Bernie said that we needed a political revolution, and that without this political revolution little will happen no matter who we elect.
The election is going to have to be the beginning of something and not the end. If we win, we are going to have to figure the next steps towards the political revolution (including leaning effectively on the people we elected) and take them.
14
Vote, vote, vote. Yesterday disillusioned voters voting as a civic responsibility with little hope of ousting a mayor of 25 years did it. It turned out that there were many more silent partners to our views than we could have imagined. Don't give give in to the hype or underestimating the public. Just vote. It makes all the difference when you do
19
Please let me add my advice to that young woman in Milwaukee:
Don't concern yourself too much whether a candidate looks like you or has familiarity with your experiences. Barack Obama doesn't look much like me. Somewhere between his unconventional childhood and his highly privileged adulthood, he may or may not have had a brush with experiences like mine. But I wholeheartedly voted for him twice and was glad to have him as my president. I'd have felt the same if he had been a she. Sexual orientation? Whatever.
The kind of representation we need in public office is not representation of identity categories, but of humanity, honesty, wisdom, and moral courage. The people we need are the kind who can think and feel outside the "box" of personal experience. Don't let anyone tell you they're non-existent. The candidate to look for is one who will be a good representative of us all, not a surrogate for Little Me.
Please get out and do the things Roxane Gay has urged you to do. When it's all over, win or lose, you'll at least have peace of mind knowing you did all you could. But if you did nothing, and it turns out that a few more votes would have made all the difference -- what will you have then?
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@Longestaffe
It does matter that a politician identifies with their constituents. It is why Obama talked more about his Kansas roots than his Kenyan roots in Iowa.
When you don't vote, you are voting to let others choose for you, and they may not have your interests in mind.
And that parody video that came out the other week said it all, really. You're a young person? Politicians don't have to pay attention to you - because you DON'T VOTE. But old people get the attention of politicians, because they DO VOTE. Congress won't do anything about student loans as long as young people don't vote in large numbers. They won't dare touch Medicare - despite all the talk from Ryan and McConnell - because old people vote. And the candidates we have may not to be to many persons' liking, but they're out there as a result of who votes - and who doesn't.
40
Instead of advertising $25 per vote to reach them, just have a $10 Starbucks card at the drop off boxes. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 25 get a card.
4
There are some great candidates out there. We have Beto, of course. But we also have great congressional candidates, such as Mike Siegel (Texas 10). There is so much positive energy flowing from these campaigns. They are surrounded by enthusiastic volunteers, working hard to help people get to the polls. It's wonderful to see people coming together for a common cause. The whole surge of new blood, new ideas, and a new sense of community are all exhilarating. I was excited to vote. I'm excited to see the long lines and hear everyone talking about voting, with some businesses closing on Tuesday, so that their employees can get to the polls. It makes me want to cheer, and I'm going to remember this campaign year and its great memories of bravery, humor, and hard work, regardless of the outcome.
23
@Allison Beto is a fake, sweet talker that when the going go tough abandoned his alleged principles. I can forgive politicians a lot, I am willing to allow them to disagree with me on most issues. I will not allow them to be unprincipled talking heads. At least not if they want my vote.
"If you remain disillusioned or apathetic in this climate, you are complicit. You think your disillusionment is more important than the very real dangers marginalized people in this country live with."
Thank you for your bluntness, Roxane Gay.
Nobody said life, political or personal, was a bowl of cherries. In other words, you can't use the lack of a "perfect" candidate as an excuse for not voting, in the hopes that one day you'll be inspired.
Did anyone ever stop to think about how fragile our democracy is right now? Your nonvote today could mean no vote tomorrow.
In just two years, we went from President Obama with his eloquence and basic decency to President Trump with his mendacity and divisiveness.
It can happen that fast--all it took was 77,000 votes that gave him the victory. And while we'll never know if that victory was caused by nonvoters, or 3rd party voters, or disillusioned voters aiming to blow up the system, the fact remains that not voting is the ultimate selfish act.
I maintain that the price of freedom IS voting. We abstain at our peril.
Even if you think your vote doesn't count, vote anyway. You'll never know what would have happened--for the better-- if you had.
109
I remember, years ago, when Jesse Jackson won in our district, it was a sign that honest people were counting the votes.
1
@ChristineMcM
And 77000 votes decided the matter when well over 50 million votes were not cast! Imagine that! That is every reason to vote.
4
My dad taught me and my brother the importance of voting, back when Civics was a high school requirement;- "teach to the test" not on the horizon. I registered to vote when I was 18, and never missed an election, all over the country.
I taught college to millenials for 30 years. They're the most idealistic generation since the Civil Right movement--just starved for information about the three branches of gov't, how a bill becomes a law, etc. Direct them to a great non-partisan site. Type in your address and zip code, and your entire ballot will appear--with all candidates. The site also partners with Lyft to sponsor rides to the polls for the disabled, or those who can't drive. In addition, it will provide the nearest polling place--w/o bias.
Since I didn't trust the American Bar Association (the people who brought us Judge Kavanaugh), I called Legal Services for another rating site for my state. This will vary by state, but the public defenders will certainly have information about judges.
My dad always said that the best defense of democracy is more democracy. Maybe you have to be my age--I lived through Civil Rights Era, Vietnam (almost killed in a protest), ex-husband stood next to the girl murdered at Kent State. The most important thing to remember is the old Civil Rights slogan: "Eyes on the Prize." We're activists now, and if the worst happens and the Republicans win, we'll NEVER stop fighting. Never again. We'll never let hate take over our country.
49
Which site are you referring to?
So so true. We must forgive those who vote for trumps republicans. We can not forgive those who do not vote at all.
If you think healthcare coverage is important, vote.
If you think Medicare is important, vote.
I could go on and on. Vote for your best interests.
That means, Unless you’re a billionaire (and could care less about your country) vote for a Democrat.
33
@BillBo
The billionaires buy access to their and your representatives, but the only thing that really matters is your vote. Even that is under threat particularly from Republican states. So exercise your vote. Send a strong message.
1
From the story: Citizenship is precarious? How so. One is either a citizen or is not. Student loan debt? Self inflicted! Could have learned a blue collar trade/skill a and moved on with their life. Home ownership out of reach? It is for most people. Lower your expectations, get a fixer upper that fits your budget and move on. I did. I could not afford new or upscale when I retired from the army so I worked with what I had and stayed within my pension. Only after buying was I able to find a job. Such is life. Still live in the same house.
Self pity is NO excuse for not voting. Don't vote, don't complain! You have one voice. Win or lose, use your vote. It is precious. Men and women have died in uniform keeping our freedom alive and elections free and open.
14
@Old Sarge- As a soon-to-be-retired soldier myself who’s looking forward to enjoying a healthy pension and a lifetime of taxpayer-funded healthcare (after enjoying FREE housing the whole time I was in), I can’t believe you’re lecturing others on how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
1
Pension? What’s a pension?
@old sarge
I agreed with you up to your line about uniforms. We haven't had a war defending our freedom since the civil war.
I did vote today -- a straight Democratic ticket with Stacey Abrams at the top. The poll workers talked about giving peaches (I Voted stickers with a Georgia peach on them).
Georgia is especially rife with voter suppression these days.
When I was growing up, either my mother or my father always took me to the polls with them when they voted. They were matter of fact about it, a civic duty that they did as a matter of course.
It had nothing to do with disillusionment or high expectations. It was expected; it was the right thing to do; and you checked it off, although I suspect bringing a child was a deliberate model of citizenship.
The other day I overheard a student talk about running a gauntlet of bad luck to vote. No breakfast at the cafeteria, the first bank where she went to get her absentee ballot certified turned her away since she wasn't a customer; the branch of her own bank she went to had closed down; and eventually in the rain she got to City Hall, bedraggled and rushing to get to class.
When she told a fellow student about her travails, the student (a semi-stranger) looked at her sympathetically and asked if she would like her to run out and get her muffin. She laughed and shook her head. 18 years old, first election, strange city, strange procedures. As I left, I told the girl that she was a hero for voting.
She was. Good luck, everyone. Hopefully enough votes get counted.
61
Abrams is an inspiring candidate. I'd vote for her but she's not running in NJ, so I can't. I will still vote for Menendez, warts and all, because he passed a lot of legislation to help animals as well as people. One of those "it's not always perfect" candidates.
8
I just attended a local rally for Andrew Gillum (FL) and finished watching MSNBC's town hall with Beto O"Rouke (TX).
I'm encouraged! Two engaging, articulate young men with goals and visions to unite us.
30
The Republicans have chosen to sacrifice morality, ethics, the entire American tradition of democratic values, and truth itself in the service of grabbing and maintaining power. They can no longer be reasoned with. They cannot be appealed to by argument or common decency. The only language they understand is power. The only solution is to vote them out of office, despite their attempts to steal elections by gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters. There is nothing more important than voting them out. If we don't do this next week and in 2020, we don't deserve out democracy.
70
An important point, at least in California where we get tons of ballot measures and minor positions that few people are familiar with, is that you don't have to vote on every office or proposition. Even if you are only interested in voting on your Representative or Senator or Governor, vote for them and leave the others you don't know anything about blank. But vote.
38
@Philip Greider : Check with League of Women Voters for recommendations on those proposals, candidates, and judges about which you are unsure.
1
When we are disillusioned, it is even more important to vote.
62
Ms. Gray hits the nail on the head: Voters have to be pragmatic, and your dream candidate will not always be nominated. That does not mean you should not vote. When people do not vote, we end up with nightmares like the current presidency.
67
Thank you. This is our true powervas citizens. Until people understand that, we will be victims of the corrupt and are complicit in our Republics fall to the likes of DT and those who would take our rights away. Stand up akd be heard.
20
I have always been led to believe, a voter should be an INFORMED voter. The antithesis of that would be, "Just go vote, for somebody." A week into early voting and a week from election day, screaming "JUST VOTE!", seems like something those crazy Trump people would say.
Riddle me this,RG, Trump voters had 8 years to get ready. Nobody showed up on October 30th, 2016 and yelled, "GO VOTE". Why does the average anti-Trump voter think a quick trip to the polls will solve all of the problems Trump has foisted on the world?
The difference today and in 2007, the current POTUS does not roll over, when the MSM says to. In fact, the current occupant at 1600 PA Ave, barks back and bites for enthusiasm. IOW, 2020 won't be anything like 2008. You will rue the day, you encourage your readers to blindly follow orders.
4
@Mike
An informed vote is not that difficult. What is the party of each candidate? Well, there you go, one will caucus on one side, one on the other, and Republicans have shown they will party-line vote for even horribly toxic candidates and bills - so if you don't agree with those, that's all the information you need right there.
8
Studies have shown that regular Fix viewers are less informed than those who don’t watch any news. If anybody should abstain from voting it’s them.
1
Trump is the worst president in American history. Anyone who doesn't vote, or votes for a third party candidate, is voting for Trump and deserves what he or she gets.
Sadly, the rest of us don't.
76
@bnyc so the real message is Go Vote As Long As It's For the Candidate I personally Endorse!
8
No
Vote for reason
For an optimistic future
Don’t vote on emotion like hate
That translated means vote Straight Democratic
4
How soon we forget that Bush Jr was so much worse. Ask the people of Iraq.
I’m sick of the complaints about having to vote for the lesser of two evils. Even if that’s the case, who wouldn’t vote for less evil? Less evil is sounding pretty good right now, what with the worst president and worst congress and increasingly worst judiciary.
154
@Yeah
Or evil is evil and there are those who won't support it just because the system is rigged to only allow two evil choices. Just imagine if people like you didn't blindly support parties. We might actually get candidates who aren't corrupt.
1
@Yeah....we've never been a perfect country. Less evil sounds like a picnic right about now. Never had more evil dominated our country than today.
2
An excellent piece, Roxane. As Robert Heinlein says, you have to vote - there may not be anyone you want to vote for, but there is always someone you need to vote against.
229
@Jane
Seems a bit paltry. And, perhaps, how we "elected" Trump. Hilary hatred got us here?
1
@Jane
He also wrote starship troopers which is a seminal piece of science fiction supporting rabid nationalism and fascism.
@AK
Come now - I've read it. It's a work of coming of age and of being a soldier, it's about sacrifice and what is worth your life. People having different political views is not a bad thing.
How can homeless people & nonviolent felons get voting rights? No address no vote. You stay invisible. Native Americans who live on reservations that don’t give specific addresses are being denied the right to vote for the first time. Why? Because they would not vote straight republican. Republicans are running scared this election & are removing more & more eligible voters from rolls than ever. Why can people no longer use General Delivery as their address at a post office? All American citizens should be permitted to vote no matter where they live or if they live in a homeless shelter? Special ballots should given to them at each major election.
28
Very few Americans actually vote in our elections, regardless of whether the election is for a local, state or national election. Why not?
The answer is quite easy. We don't HAVE TO vote regardless of what the election is for. We have to PAY our taxes, but we don't actually have to pay our taxes - much easier to go to H and R Block, or pay your accountant to do it. We also MAY have to serve on a jury, but this may never be required of most of us. Yes? t
The US government has created a 100 question manual which ALL candidates attempting to become citizens must know backward and forward if they want to pass the test to become a US citizen. And question #48 illustrates why so few Americans pay attention to voting. Because it's a farce. It says you have to vote, but you don't have to, regardless of what the test for citizenship says.
If we want Americans to vote, it must be mandatory, and there must be a penalty for not voting, like going through a red light, or failing to pay your taxes, but there's another way, and countries like Australia have discovered it. Tell citizens that they must all vote, and those who don't must pay a fine of around $200. Australia has a voting rate of around 90 percent.
Voting is the responsibility of living in a democracy. Choosing who our rulers should be important enough for us to vote on our own, but if we don't want to participate, we should be required pay for refusing to take part in the sacred task of choosing our leaders.
14
@W. Michael O'Shea
This is the key idea. We are required to answer the census because representation is core to republican democracy. Require every adult citizen to vote. The Feds can do it for federal elections using the enabling clause of the 15th amendment and for state elections using section 5 of the 14th.
Think how the conversation changes is you have to convince 50% + 1 of **everybody**. No more minority rule. No more voter supression. Enfranchise the imprisoned too since they have the most daily interaction with the government.
I am an informed old white man, I vote in every election, I vote left center on social issues and right center on financial issues. Many times I am on the losing side and I know that going in, but I vote anyway, because I have found that if the losing side is large enough then politicians tend to moderate their actions. They have to stand for reelection and do not want to get too many people mad at them.
The other reason I vote is because change only happens when people are dissatisfied with the status quo and express that dissatisfaction. Sometimes change is very slow, sometimes it is astonishingly fast. Ask the editors and writers of the NYT what they felt like on election night 2016. They had gone from arrogantly assured to gobsmacked in a matter of hours.
So that is why I vote. If you don't vote, I hope you trust my judgement, because I am going to determine what a large part of your life is like. . . . .
74
From the birth of their American nation enslaved and separate and unequal black Africans in America have believed in and fought for a nation that denied their humanity as persons and their equality as Americans. Neither despairing nor disillusioned by nature nor nurture.
While white people are desperate and despairing with a decreasing life expectancy due to alcoholism, drug addiction, depression and suicide. Along with an aging and shrinking white majority because of a below replacement level birthrate.
MAGA?
6
Democracy depends on an active citizenry -- preferably an informed one.
Once it was clear that Bernie Sanders would not win the Democratic Nomination in 2016, my millennial stepdaughter and some of her contemporaries thought they might sit out that election. They didn't see anyone -- Republican, Democrat or third-party -- who fit their bill the way he did. So the next time she was a captive audience in my car, I told her:
"There is no perfect candidate. You haven't lived through enough election yet cycles to see that everyone is flawed in some way, but if you find one you agree with 75 or 80%, vote for him or her. When everyone seems undesirable, figure out who's the least undesirable. If your whole generation abstains, you'll make yourselves irrelevant. Candidates don't care about non-voters."
I have no idea how much or little influence my words had, but she and all her friends did their research and voted. I was glad for their participation. And even though her choice didn't win, so was she.
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@D Price
Way to teach her how to settle! I wonder if this might ever backfire?
@AK
We're all always settling to some degree, no? But settling is better than sitting on the sidelines. She felt better after knowing she hadn't helped the winner win, and sometimes that's all ya get...
p.s. she recently helped organize a fundraiser for her local congressional candidate, so chalk up one more active citizen on the tote board!
6
I have been disappointed all my life at the dearth of female candidates. Angry-disappointed. I loved voting for an African-American President who used some part of his efforts in clarifying why and how racial diversity can make a difference in perspective and add depth to our social vision. I look forward to more diversity, and candidates who help all of us see how to do things better, while acknowledging what we hold in common.
Ultimately, whether your representative looks like you ought to be completely unimportant, since we all really know is that we have is one vote, which is our share. I might prefer someone else, but that is not what faces me in the moment of voting. I have cast votes of principled outrage in my younger years. That just takes out that slender reed that your vote actually is. No single vote is less important than any other. That sounds preachy, but I mean it in the most pragmatic way. Vote.
If everyone who believes that healthcare should be available to all actually voted as though that this was a critical, universal issue, they would honor candidates who are in favor of continuing efforts to really bring that issue to the fore. This is not a debate that is going away and we are socially obligated to solve our dilemma. If we can decide to solve the problem, then we can more honestly debate the best way to structure such a system.
Then on to the next problem. There are some big ones that hurt us all.
10
I am disillusioned and middle aged guy living in a city of blue and seeing a life time worth of the same old Democratic polices with nothing to show for it except for worst credit rating of a major city . What I have seen in my city goes most other democratic run cities
1) If the polices worked we would have affordable housing for working class families in all parts of the city
2) If the policies worked we would not see The African American population go from 1.2 million to 880 k in 20 years
3) If the policies worked , we would have more woman and minorities with little or no income gaps
4) If the polices worked , we would not see shootings from disenfranchised gang members thinking only crime is the only way out
My warning to the young people , don't fall for what you want to hear and sounds easy , but listen to what you don't want to hear and it is hard
11
@Longtime Chi
Fair enough.
1
@Longtime Chi Are you saying long time Democrat policies are not effective?
I might be mistaken, but, of the top 10 US cities, San Diego might be the only GOP run town. The other 9 are Democrat shining stars. But, I wouldn't want live there. Mo-town is not on the list. Surprisingly, neither is Atlanta.
Quick, run out and vote. For anything or anybody. Really, Atlanta?
4
@Longtime Chi
"Don't fall for what you want to hear and sounds easy..."
Yes. I believed in the Democratic plan for access to health care for all. My health premium increased by $300 a month. Even though it is a challenge to pay and requires some sacrifices, I would be okay with it but now, while many now served by ACA pay a small amount for office visits, I pay $350. I can't afford to take my kids to the doctor anymore when they are sick, because I'm supporting others to have access. I cannot financially afford to be a Democrat anymore.
4
I'm so happy that you are writing for the Times. I look forward to your columns. Thank you for keeping it real!
20
Well put. I earnestly hope that the Democrats obliterate the Republicans soon. And once they do, I can finally stop voting for Democrats.
8
I’ll never forget the arrogance of those who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, telling reporters in their haughty way, that they wouldn’t vote for the same thing. They wanted something—someone—different, someone who would miraculously offer America a future untethered from its roiling past. They couldn’t accept the dark suit on which the dandruff stood out like snowflakes. It was so inelegant and not worth their vote.
The same naïve and Quixotic disaffection in 2016 produced Donald Trump. When voters think their ballots don’t matter, they cheat America but, even worse, they cheat themselves. With voter suppression the major—some will say the only—shaft in the Republican sheath, those non-voters who think their unhappiness with this or that candidate is a breathtaking statement mirroring their own shallow indifference that they wear like a shroud, thinking it avant-garde, miss the point. They become irrelevant and boring, the worms that eat away at the fabric of America.
81
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13, ‘18
As always, you make some important points.
And congratulations on your Sox. At least there's that to be happy about.
17
There never was any equivalence between George W. Bush and Al Gore or John Kerry. There was never any equivalence between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, either.
The self-indulgence of voting in vain, or of sitting out an election, is especially maddening in close contests. Republicans don't behave this way, and liberals should not be so self-defeating. Liberal purity tests will ensure far right Supreme Court appointments, trashing the environment, guns everywhere, and a backward social agenda. What kind of stand to take is that?
33
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13, ‘18: Right; that self-indulgence probably made that election close enough for the Republican justices to steal it. (but shafts are held in a quiver).
13
I’m really weary of people running down the Democrats. Cowardice? On the contrary, it takes more fortitude than I will ever have to face hatred on a daily basis the way Hillary Clinton has for going on thirty years. And yet, she still is advocating for a better way. What you got?
139
@Sarah
Can anybody be worse than Trump ? If hillary, bernie, lizzie warren, kamala, joe biden and nancy are compared with him, or any one of the potential democratic party leaders are compared with trump, no matter what their minor imperfections may be. ok i am perfectionist. i want a perfect and inspiring democratic party leader. it is unrealistic to expect. they are all better than trump.
2
@Sarah
Running down the Democrats? Where? not here for sure.
1
@Sarah
Well said. People are putting targets on their faces literally and with words. Hillary and Barack suffer because of misogyny and racism.
1
I'm tired of this sort of thing. "You've got to get out and vote," but vote for anyone's who's not completely terrible. Yes, if that's what you'd like to do, by all means do it. But if you're staying home because you don't like any of the candidates and can't bring yourself to vote for them then you're doing it wrong.
Go and vote for someone else. Vote for a third party candidate if you like one of them. If not, vote for literally anyone you want. Just write in someone you'd like to be elected.
Of course they're not going to be elected. But if you show up and vote, politicians will care about you. They do not care about people who do not vote. If all the people who aren't voting because they're disgusted with politics and politicians showed up and voted for whoever they wanted, there'd be a huge portion of the vote for "other". And those would be votes that candidates would work for.
It's never a waste to vote for anyone. It's not just about who's going to win this time. It's about what's going to happen next time, and the time after that. You know that people analyze voting statistics to death. So get out there and be part of the electorate.
7
@Joe "It's never a waste to vote for anyone."
And it's never effective.
3
@Joe: We live in a two-party system. It's not ideal, but it's the reality. If you don't vote for one of the two candidates who are actually on the ballot and write in someone else, you are allowing the rest of the country to decide for you who will win the election. And you get to live with the consequences. (So do the rest of us.) If you decided to sit out 2016 because you wished Bernie had the nomination and thought Clinton was flawed, you allowed Trump to get elected. Are you happy now with your idealism?
5
@Joe
I'd say voting for one of the top 2 is better - but voting 3rd party beats nothing.
However - a 2 party system is not the evil some think. If there are 2 candidates, the winner at the least got 50%. If there are 3 - and A is a major candidate, but a minor environmentalist, B is a major candidate, totally against environmental regulations, and C is a major environmentalist.... think about it. If the environmentalists split their vote between A and C, then B wins, even if 65% of the voters consider environmental regulations important.
Two parties ensure that the winner must represent to some degree, must be considered the lesser evil by 50% of the voters.
3
You do realize that 30% of Trumps votes came from people who voted for Obama in 2012. It’s not a lack of enthusiasm as much as the Democrat Party not having a middle class message. Promising free stuff, higher taxes, open borders, abolishing ICE & police is not a good message. The Democrat Party has turned into the party of radical marxists. And also the party of immoral wealthy elites & corruption.
Times have changed. People are waking up, not just here, but all around the world. The globalist agenda is being rejected because it simply doesn’t work.
9
Radical marxists? You’re joking. Today’s Democrats are the Republicans of the ‘70s. It’s only that the country has drifted so far right that you think they’re radical. And only because you don’t know what Marxism is that you call them Marxists.
97
The party's name is the Democratic party. trump also incorrectly calls them 'Democrat' party, just like you. I wonder how you know what 'radical marxism' is when you don't even know the correct name of the party you are accusing of being radical marxists.
27
@JOSEPH I think you mean Harpo. He was the radical Marx.
27
One of the most frustrating things about being a progressive Democrat is the incontrovertible fact that Republicans can rely much more on their base to vote than we Dems can,
The two most unreliable groups in the potential Dem base are young people and blacks. When Obama was not at the top of the ticket, both these groups were too lazy and/or clueless to get off their behinds and vote. As a Bernie guy myself, I detested Hillary and her neoliberalism for her paymasters at Goldman. That said, I voted Hillary as the lesser of two evils. But too many blacks and kids did not. All that Trump has done and will do is on them, since if they had voted against Trump, he would have lost—period. “Disaffection” is no excuse in the face of how devastating it will be if Republicans keep the House. Vote, for God’s sake!
15
@Fred White let's may not call the "blacks" "lazy"
Stops the entire conversation short. Also there are systemic reasons why young people and POC have lower turn out rates than white people and the elderly. So, no, it's not just laziness, and no, we can't just blame 2016 on these demographic groups.
7
@Fred White I would encourage you to donate to organizations such as Spread the Vote and VoteRiders devoted to fighting disenfranchisement and onerous voter ID laws that keep young people and black people (*and* young black people) from going to the polls.
There are plenty of people who need a ride to the polls on Tuesday more than they need another liberal person throwing them under the bus.
4
Don’t point the blame for Trump’s election on the youth and blacks, you could also just as easily hang it on the white women who pushed Trump over the top, many of whom previously voted for Obama. There’s tons of blame to go around without us pointing fingers. Just let’s get out as much of the vote as we can. Voting is done by people who are engergized by good candidates they connect with, let’s nominate good Democratic candidates. I see many in the election, especially women.
11
Ah, Roxane, there’s a cost to depending to the extent that you do on the disengaged, on those who would rather spend their time in sports bars either (still) celebrating a Red sox win or crying over it, two or three brew empties in front of them … than go to the inconvenience of traveling to a polling place, waiting on line in oddly-odiferous high school basketball gyms (and possibly in the rain) to cast a vote. Hillary’s déplorables indeed may be deplorable, but they DO vote with some reliability. Notably in the rain.
It’s true that young people are facing a lot of problems they had no hand in creating. It’s also true that they’ll probably sit this one out as they sit out ALL midterm elections.
Have you folks noticed that liberal pundits, even while grudgingly writing encouraging things and exhorting what they assume are the dedicated to vote, as Roxane has here, are telegraphing a deepening sense of foreboding over the possible results of next Tuesday’s contest? I have.
So, kiddies, open that third or fourth brew on 6 November and continue to marvel at the Red Sox win. Trust me, the world will continue un-eaten by a ravenous space-monster that wears road-kill on its head.
4
@Richard Luettgen
Ah, Richie. Your presidente is the one who’s running scared, dashing around the country yelling “caravan!” and tweeting at 3:00 a.m.
43
@Richard Luettgen-
Voting does matter. Trump and his party are destroying principles and laws and institutions and the Earth—some in ways they we might be able to mend in time, others that we may not. Only ppl like you with no concern for the world and the ppl who come after us thing voting does not matter.
19
@Richard Luettgen
Wager ??? Put your Money where your mouth is.
Seriously.
6
Voter apathy is the biggest threat to our democracy as was proven in 2016 when the Republican Party voter suppression and gerrymandering and Russian interference gave us the ignorant, dangerous racist and abuser of women, Donald Trump.
The GOP strategy for winning elections with a minority depends on low turnout and they were not disappointed in 2016 when 40 million registered voters stayed home. All American citizens including African-Americans, Hispanic -Americans and Millennials (the largest voting bloc) must be motivated to go to the polls to take back our government. We cannot let the one-party Republican dictatorship headed by the Trump nightmare prevail.
Voters that will suffer the most under a continued Republican one-party government are non-white voters and the Millennials. Voter suppression, anti-immigrant laws and repression of hard-fought civil rights are guaranteed under the new Supreme Court majority. Denial of climate change and destruction for the planet's environment for generations to come are Republican mantras. It is shocking that those who have the most to lose cannot find the motivation to get out and vote for their own interests. It does make yuuuuge difference!
Become active in voter turnout projects, give money and spread the word about the critical importance of the 2018 election. Vote and get out the vote!!
9
@jefflz
Of course, voter supression and gerryamndering were peachy keen when it was the Democrats doing it. Itonly became a crisis for the politicized news media when Republicans and people familiar with arithmetic gained majorities in state legislatures.
4
@L'osservatore
State legislature majorities they bought with Koch brother money as part of the highly organized, carefully calculated and systematic Red Map gerrymandering scheme directed Karl Rove. Systematic corruption of the electoral system..that is the now GOP way of life.
9
@jefflz
Give me a break with the Koch pity party and systematic "corruption." I don't hear you complaining when San Fran's finest Tom Steyer throws another $65MM to back another pro-left cause or candidate.
Republican Party Goals -
Deny Climate Change
Tax cuts for the wealthy
Privatize SS & Medicare
Deregulate banking, finance
Limit consumer rights
Limit environmental controls
Citizens United - campaign $
Fight gun control.
Repeal Roe V Wade
Close Planned Parenthood
Repeal LGBT rights
Repeal Obama care
Democratic Party Goals -
Address climate change
Increase taxes on the rich
Protect SS & Medicare
Support Planned Parenthood
Protect consumer rights.
Protect the Environment
Support education,
Support LGBT rights,
Regulate banking & finance
Support the poor & unemployed.
Repeal Citizens United
Gun condtrol.
Vote!
128
A nice wish list for the Democrats but I don't hear anyone in the leadership calling for measures that will cost their major donors an extra dime in wages or taxes. They're just doing what they get paid to do: slow-walk progressivism. The only things I hear from Chuck and Nancy are about preserving whatever programs we already have, and the rest of the warm and fuzzy identity politics agenda. Some of the fledgling congressional candidates are talking about real bread-and-butter issues, even a basic income, but it will be years before they have the power to implement them.The Democratic party has yet to come out from the shadow of Clintonism.
3
@stan continople Which is exactly why we should support the many new progressive candidates who refuse to accept donations from corporate PACS (there are many this year!). Beto is the best known example, but the more of these gold we can put in Congress, the greater the possibility of creating some meaningful campaign finance reform. Don’t be cynical - find the change you want and support it.
9
@stan continople Totally agree. I wonder if you could call it corporate-ism (or corporatism) instead of Clintonism then we might get to share the term on our side of the Atlantic.
1
Thanks Ms Gay for a wonderful essay.
At the moment, I am on the ballot for a very minor elected but technical office and my wife just asked me, "Don't you care if you win or not?"
It's hard not to be dispirited. I am qualified to fill the office but a little, dark voice says, "Who cares?
We can not let the little voice carry the day. VOTE!
Thanks, again.
48
What would I tell a disillusioned person? I'd tell them they don't get to whine unless they vote.
Then I'd tell them that if they'd just thought for a moment, they could have voted for a woman whom they did not like, who would have had a hard time accomplishing her agenda. BUT... she would have held a finger in the dike against the rampant stupidity of the GOP. We might have an uninspiring President, or even one you thought stole the primary, or even one you thought corrupt.
But we'd still have Bears Ears, and environment protections for water in mining regions. We'd still have a larger chunk of the ACA. We'd still have protections against for profit colleges. We'd still have the dignity of knowing that some of the white supremacists are maybe not really nice people. We'd be protecting DACA but looking for a real solution at the border to what is going to be years of mass migration if we don't figure out how to improve central America. We'd have a President who didn't undermine the concept of truth and fact and would condemn the murder and dismemberment of a journalist living in our country. We'd have smaller deficit.
Vote, because all that stuff that happened in that last paragraph? Happened because some whiners didn't like the choices.
223
If voting were pointless, the Right wouldn't work so hard to suppress it.
11
@Cathy Well said. Exactly right.
4
What to know what happens when WE stay home ??? TRUMP. Now, imagine being a Democrat in a ruby Red State. Talk about discouraged and depressed. DO NOT become KANSAS. We can resume the usual circular firing squad AFTER the Midterms. Get out and VOTE, contain the damage, neuter HIM. As for his Collaborators: VOTE THEM ALL OUT.
Seriously.
197
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Mr. Melania Knavs Trump won Florida
Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
We did not stay home. Black women turned out and voted at higher rates for Hillary Clinton than they did Barack Obama. While a majority of white women voted for Donald Trump.
7
@Blackmamba
Yes, I know. And I have a special and unique perspective, I’m mixed race. Just so YOU know.
12
@Blackmamba
None of us are our group. Some black women voted for Trump, many white women voted for Clinton. It's not about your group and how they vote, it's about how you vote.
I've seen way too much trying to act like white women are the problem - never mind men, white men, or so many others, never mind the accuracy of the stats most often quoted, never mind that there is no "white woman vote", any more than there is a "black woman vote" - there's just each voter. We should not stay home, we should all vote. Simple as that.
5
Trust me, the people who feel hopeless don't read the news or columns like this.
10
Thank you. I am tired of the whining about the state of the country. Voting is the floor. You want to be part of the conversation, voting is the least you can do.
71
I'm a 75 year old white man, and I'm sick and tired of voting for 40,000 year old white men too. But this year I got to vote early for Stacey Abrams for Governor, Sarah Riggs Amico, Lt. Governor, Jen Jordan, State Senator, and Betsy Holland State Representative.
So please vote, it's getting a lot better out there with fresh faces running for office, with thousands of them women all over this country. It's just so important.
242
@cherrylog754
Thank you !!! I only wish I could VOTE for Stacey Abrams.
I’m jealous. Sent Money.
36
@cherrylog754
Sir, I wish I could vote for all the democrats there. I did the best I could. Voted for Gavin Newsom, Javier Becerra and Kevin De Leon, and to preserve the gas tax. Ca's roads and bridges need work. There are millions of cars on our roads. Potholes will cost me 100s maybe 1000s in repairs. I prefer that the gas tax stays in place.
10
@Phyliss Dalmatian
"Sent Money"
So it's you I get to blame for the dozens of daily robocalls? So glad when next Wednesday rolls around.
2
1888 President Rutherford B. Hayes noted in his diary that the United States ceased being a government for the people and had been replaced by a "government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation.” Did he really say that? “There’s no proof of anything.” - DJT
4
But will I still be encouraged to vote if I vote Repub?
4
Fully informed, thoughtful participation is what matters.
11
@Quinn
Sure. But that’s selfish thing to do. Seriously.
10
@Quinn
The key is to vote.
We are a democracy - a representative democracy. Democrats tend to believe in that and support getting everyone to vote, no matter for who, it's the Republicans who have been working to suppress the vote in areas that tend not to vote for them.
1
This article has further convinced me NOT to vote at least for Congress. It ignores the basic structural reality that PREVENTS real representation, the single-member district electoral system. My district is a gerrymandered, non-competitive district as are roughly 400 of the 435 congressional districts. If Republicans maintain control of the House it will not be a vote for their ideas or policies. It will simply reflect the effectiveness of post 2010 Republican gerrymandering efforts. Many states and probably the country will vote for Democrats but Republicans may prevail because they have chosen their voters.
So please don't tell me I am selfish or disillusioned or ignorant. I am realistic. I will vote for ballot measures in my state but electoral democracy at the national level is mostly a sham designed to fake people into thinking they have some influence. If you live in a competitive district by all means vote. Personally I hope it goes Democratic. But I won't participate in meaningless, "rah-rah, let's all vote" when for me, as for most Americans in gerrymandered districts, the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
2
@James Durante
Can't be Jimmy Durante, he was more perceptive than that, dead as he is. Your VOTE is, if absolutely nothing else, one more brick in the pile of evidence AGAINST the gerrymandering you rail against. Every time a vote doesn't count because of gerrymandering it's one more opportunity to use the mathematical models on the evidence that your vote helps provide to overturn the gerrymander. When you don't vote, that evidence is lost. So, for god's sake, vote.
56
@James Durante
You're telling everyone to ignore you and your opinion then. And you aren't realistic - this article is realistic. You don't vote, if you can be made upset enough to not vote because your preferred system is in place, then your opinion is irrelevant to our political system, because votes are how things work.
4
That's the problem. The vote. Those that do, shouldn't and that those that don't, should but rarely do. Progressives tend to be more narrowly focused and are simply intolerant of any differences. They are intolerant of small, sometimes perceived, transgressions. Somehow, Democrats must find ways to stitch them all together and get the Republican-supporting white working class types to realize that they're simply being stupid.
4
It's amazing what some people are willing to say about 60% of their fellow Americans with absolute conviction on the front page of the New York Times.
7
Roxane--I'm always excited when I see you've written a column. People who are disillusioned and won't vote are thinking only about their needs and identity and not about the greater good. We are all in this together and we need to realize that the vision for this country is bigger than anyone's gripes.
18
We deserve, too, political leaders whose primary concern is for citizens, not for the deep-pocketed special interests. But still, the best counterweight is greater participation, from voting to contacting representatives about how they are or aren't doing their job. Apathy only makes the picture more bleak.
21
This is so so important, I am going to share with my class tomorrow, my students, who represent our future. I told them earlier, as a teacher who wants to serve them and somehow be a custodian for both them and our lovely planet, it is my job to expose them to this essay from Roxanne Gay with its hope and pragmatism...
76
@Prof. Kim Gutschow
Another liberal professor preaching to a captive audience.
It's not your job.
1
Our country is a better place when citizens participate in this process called Democracy. VOTE! Even better, walk or drive to the polling place with a friend or neighbor. Afterwards, enjoy a cup of coffee or a meal together. Take a breather and talk about anything but politics. Always remember that this is a wonderful country we live in!
27
@Sunny. I would say that our country is better off when INFORMED citizens show up and vote.
4
@Vincent Tagliano
Far too many use "INFORMED" to mean people who agree with them, call people who hold differing political beliefs sheeple and such, without bothering to realize that maybe they are informed, but merely coming to a different conclusion.
2