On Voting

I turned 21 and thus became eligible to vote in November 1967. The first presidential election I could vote in was in 1968. I honestly don't recall how I voted that year. I had just begun graduate school in UC Berkeley, and I was very active in SDS and the issues of the day. In 1972, I voted for George McGovern, though I wrote a letter to the New York Guardian explaining why I was opposed to endorsing McGovern (it's in my FBI file). In 1976, I voted for Jimmy Carter who started out sounding and acting progressive, but by 1979, it was clear that he had shifted sharply to the right, especially about Israel. He was the last Democratic presidential candidate that I voted for. In ensuing elections, I voted for candidates like Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, and Jill Stein. I voted for Peace and Freedom candidates and later for Green candidates.

My approach to voting is strongly influenced by some important writings by Lenin, in which he said that the main function of elections in capitalist countries is to assess the political consciousness of the working class. If they vote for their class enemies, as most do in the USA, they are politically backward. If they have their own parties and their own candidates and vote for them, they are more conscious. Still, there is no expectation that elections can challenge the fundamental inequities built into capitalist society. The best we can hope for are some temporary reforms.

For these reasons, I always vote and encourage others to vote for candidates we can support, candidates who reflect our views and represent them. I do sometimes vote for Democratic candidates. I voted for Ron Dellums and his successor, Barbara Lee, though I did not vote for her in 2014 when she voted for more arms for Israel while the Israelis were again committing genocide in Gaza. I also strongly opposed her vote in 2008 for the financial bailout, but I probably will vote for her again in 2016. I never voted for Dianne Feinstein, though I did vote for Barbara Boxer and will likely vote for Kamila Harris this year. I make those decisions based on what I know of the candidates and their records. In presidential elections, I see the failure to desert the Democratic Party when it puts forth unacceptable candidates and platforms as an impediment to building a genuine movement to challenge the self-destructive system that runs the USA and the world. Every four years, fear mongers denounce me for not voting against the Republican menace. In their hysteria, they paint my Green vote as being a vote for the Republican candidate, which is a strange form of mathematics that no mathematician could parse. I see their argument basically saying that because millions of Americans are too politically backward to vote for their interests outside of the Democratic Party, therefore I must join my backward friends in voting for the Democratic candidate.

To me, that is totally illogical. It makes no sense. I refuse to be manipulated into voting from fear, into voting for a candidate I despise to stop one I am told to despise more. In my view, this approach to politics makes the USA the most politically backward country in the world, and I refuse to join my well-meaning friends in wallowing in that backwardness.