Voting Alone Won’t Fix This.
By: Lauren Elizabeth
Tags: Society, Election 2020, Politics, Government, Economy

Voting Alone Won’t Fix This.

And the sooner we realize that, the better.

Photo by Steve Houghton-Burnett on Unsplash

It’s difficult to believe that it has only been five months since the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold here in the United States, and frankly it’s still difficult to even begin to wrap my mind around how much things have worsened in that short amount of time. Over 150,000 people are dead, and tens of millions of people are without work in an economic climate where an estimated 42% of jobs lost aren’t expected to return. Even in spite of the risk to their health and frankly their overall safety, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people were motivated to take to the streets in the largest civil rights protest in history after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department. The protests were recently re-ignited after unidentifiable federal agents were snatching protestors in Portland, and throwing them in the back of unmarked vans without just cause or due process.

And here’s the kicker: we haven’t even begun to reach the tipping point.

I’m not sure it could overstated just how much worse things are going to get, and quickly, considering the fact that at the end of July, the extra federal unemployment benefits of $600 (the equivalent of $15 dollars an hour for forty hours a week) expired, leaving the tens of millions of people currently dependent on that money to pay rent, mortgages, and keep themselves and their families fed unable to do so. Along with it, the moratorium on evictions has ended as well, and those with any sort of federal loan are expected to begin paying. It’s not a stretch by any means to suggest that we are on the precipice of a humanitarian crisis the likes of which this country has arguably never seen, and certainly not in its modern history. Meanwhile, the Senate leaves for a month long recess in just a couple of days.

In response to current events, on July 31st, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich tweeted:

“25,000,000 people will lose their $600 extra unemployment benefits today, and the Senate skipped out of town. Have you registered to vote yet?”

While there’s absolutely no arguing that everyone should register to vote and participate in the electoral process, this notion that Mr. Reich and countless liberals seem to have that voting alone is going to be nearly enough to solve the scope of the crisis at hand is frankly laughable.

Imagine telling people on the verge of losing everything — if they haven’t already — to just sit tight for a few months, and vote in November.

Our government has actively cultivated a scenario fundamentally designed to enrage and radicalize even the kindest, most politically apathetic people in the country, and the fact that there’s still a certain segment of the democratic base under the impression that just putting Biden in to office is going to solve this will never cease to amaze me. What — might I ask — do these individuals suggest people do in the mean time? What should they do when the Biden administration — if he’s even be elected — inevitably doesn’t even attempt to do a fraction of what will be required to heal this country and repair the lasting damage these past five months have done? After all, he did promise that nothing will fundamentally change.

Sure, some of those affected might simply sink into despair, accept things as they are, and our lawmakers won’t even bother giving them a second thought outside the debate stage and their typical pandering. Far more likely, however, is that all of these people begin to realize that our government never had any intention of helping them in the first place. Far more likely is that they find each other whether it be in person or on social media, and they slowly begin to realize they are not alone in feeling as though they have absolutely nothing left to lose. Not only that, but they realize that they are in the conditions they’re in because of our government’s inaction and through absolutely no fault of their own.

And we expect them to just sit and wait until November 3rd?

It would be nice if voting alone could fix this. It would be nice if Americans could find solace in the fact that this is just a minor bump in the road, we can rely solely on our electoral process to turn things around, and everything will okay again, but unfortunately we just can’t. Why? Because for decades our politicians and the elites that control them have become far too comfortable, and insulated from our rage. They think we’ll just sit back, and continue to take it while they go on recess, and face absolutely no accountability whatsoever.

They do not understand the rage.

They do not understand the pain, desperation, and despair. Why would they? Why would they when our government solely motivated by power and money has been structurally designed to allow those furthest away from the real concerns of the working class to succeed? Can we really be surprised that Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Schumer aren’t exactly feeling the dire sense of urgency when they’re all worth tens of millions of dollars?

Of course, vote. But in the meantime, make them know our rage. Make them know the pain. Take to the streets, organize with one another, find solidarity in common struggle, and remain relentless until our lawmakers and the ruling class remember that power in numbers can only be suppressed for so long. They have no idea what’s coming, and I genuinely hope — from the bottom of my heart — that our response to their criminal, sociopathic inaction makes them as uncomfortable as it possibly can.