Shameful Politics
I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness. From time to time, I’ll mention this in my writing because it has EVERYTHING to do with who I’ve been, who I currently am, and who I’ll become. For a little over 1/2 of my existence, my religious background was at the root of a LOT of confusion in my life. When it comes to politics, there’s no exception. Now, what I’m about to say COULD have changed because SO MUCH has changed in that religious organization over the years. Believe it or not, there was a time when you could not serve in any position of leadership or do anything that would uphold you as an example to everyone IF you wore a beard or braids. That has since changed. However, I don’t think their stance on politics has evolved. I’m willing to be corrected if I’m wrong. Nevertheless, I grew up in a time when Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t vote. It was against their religious beliefs to get involved with politics outside of paying taxes. The simple explanation was that Jehovah’s Witnesses view God (not the son (Jesus), but the father) as the sovereign leader and we weren’t to put our faith and trust in the imperfect men of this world. Our allegiance was solely to The Almighty Jehovah God. Therefore, Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t vote. Since it’s a religious decision, it becomes kinda taboo to push for more conversation. Much like someone who wears a hijab, doesn’t eat or touch pork, and won’t consume liquor. All of these things can be connected to religious beliefs, which EVERYONE has a right to exercise, without being forced to comply because the personal (religious) preference doesn’t harm anyone.
I came of age to vote in 1997. Just a year shy of choosing who would become president out of Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot. Despite spending years ignoring politics and only being 16 when the 1996 presidential election happened, I did watch the news during that time because it was hard not to; most people watched the daily/evening news decades ago. From my corner of the world, I heard most of the reasons to elect Bill Clinton had to do with him being “culturally” relatable to the people who looked like me (see: Black/African American). Some policies got passed during his tenure that made it very clear that him being able to play a saxophone really well and possess some rhythm wasn’t enough to actually be anti-racist.
Fast forward to my FIRST opportunity to vote in a presidential election, and it was Y2K. We had the opportunity to choose between the main candidates: George W. Bush, Albert Gore, Jr., and Ralph Nader. Dubya won by the skin of his teeth and it’s still debatable to this day as to whether or not the election was won fairly. A different conversation for a different post. However, I didn’t vote and I was 21 years old at the time. I was still in the frame of mind that my religious freedoms dictated I didn’t have to, so I EXERCISED MY RIGHT to NOT vote. However, I was becoming more and more curious about the election process because SO MUCH was happening that was NOT due process. People were allowed to get away with not abiding by legal requirements simply because they were politicians. Something was obviously wrong but when I asked questions, I was either yelled at to “GO VOTE!!” or told that I better vote if I wanted a right to complain… but so much STILL didn’t make sense. No one and I literally mean there was NOT ONE PERSON in 1999-2000 that wanted to explain the shit show of politics or direct me to where I could figure the shit out on my own. So, I started using the same tool that had been used against me… I started using certain words to shame people into answering me. Was it effective? Most of the time, sure… because shame is a tool often used to get people to do what we want them to do.
Shame is often used within religion and definitely throughout all of politics. It’s also an immediate go to in any abusive dynamic BECAUSE of how effective it is…if you can successfully make someone feel guilty, embarrassed, inadequate, like a failure, while presenting evidence that you’re right and they’re wrong, you can succeed in getting people to do what you feel and think they should be doing. It is quite insidious and nasty when you think about it, but familiar.
So, the 2004 presidential election comes around and I’m 24 years old. The main candidates were Dubya (AGAIN, aye dios mio), John F. Kerry and someone else who received ONE ELECTORAL VOTE. As wild as the first Dubya Reign was, he was elected AGAIN. Americans really are gluttons for punishment. We learned to accept that George Bush didn’t care about Black people… and pretty much anyone else who wasn’t a white male. Also, another discussion for a different post. Did I vote? NOPE. At this point it was more so in defiance of the system that I COULD SEE was EXTREMELY FLAWED. However, this is when I started learning that OUR GOVERNMENT ISN’T FLAWED. It works EXACTLY how it was designed to back in 1776. Despite there being an obvious need to adapt, the government still mainly serves its intentionally designated group for the last 200+ years. What was perfectly legally back then regarding the treatment of ALL people who were not white males has been deeply embedded into how THIS ENTIRE COUNTRY operates. At its core, the American government is a oligarchy and dictatorship that only postures as a democracy. If we’re being 100% honest with ourselves, we know this to be true. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT TELLS US IT IS. I AM TALKING ABOUT HOW IT ACTUALLY GOVERNS THE PEOPLE. We, the people, are supposed to be able to have the power and yet look around… there are more of us afraid of those running the government when those elected into office should be sleeping with both eyes open.
Fast forward to the next election in 2008, a huge historical event that included a [obvious] Black man. It came down to Barack H. Obama and John S. McCain. Barack not only won the electoral vote by almost 200 votes, but he won the popular vote by a little over 9.5 million votes. It’s safe to say there was no miscount or shady business at play. We considered this a fair and square win. Did I vote? YES. It was my very first time. What was the difference? Someone actually took the time to explain things to me that I didn’t quite understand.
I also had a spreadsheet of ALL the candidates: presidential, local, and state included. I decided that if I was going to vote, I was going to be well-informed. It was a LOT of work BUT that spreadsheet was worth every minute of filtering and pivoting. The person who explained things created space for me to ask anything and everything. Surprisingly, they were 100% honest about the process and didn’t lie or attempt to get me to make any decisions in the moment, despite being faced with conflicting information. That was the one and only person who’s ever CONSISTENTLY been honest with me about politics. While they had a lot of conservative beliefs, they voted for Obama that election and so did I.
Full transparency, yes, I did vote for Obama because he was Black. I agree that it comes off as flimsy reasoning. However, after a little over 230 years of white men being the masthead, I wanted to see a little more color in the Commander and Chief of this alleged free world. Have I agreed with everything Obama has said and done? NOPE. My personal opinion of him is another post in and of itself. But to be clear, I don’t think I’ll ever 100% agree with any politician. Sure, some are FAR LESS horrible than others but none of them can be the poster child for honesty and transparency.
So where does the shame in politics come in? It’s been directly around me from the minute I turned 18. However, I felt it the most during the 2008 presidential election because it’s when I became more vocal about politics. I started asking more questions and the answers people were giving didn’t make any sense. The reasons to keep voting in a system that has always been engineered to prevent entire groups of people from voting, reeked of cognitive dissonance. And we just seemed to be accepting it as part and parcel of the political game, while hoping for change.
So, Barack Obama runs for president again in 2012 against W. Mitt Romney and Gary Johnson (who won NO electoral votes but had almost 1.3 million popular votes). Obama won and ran the country for another 4 years until the terrifying 2016 election where we got to choose from a human too despicable for me to include their name here, Hillary R. Clinton, Gary Johnson (still no electoral votes BUT almost 4.5 million people voted for him!), Jill Stein, and Evan McMullin. DESPITE KNOWING THE MAN WHO WOULD BECOME THE PRESIDENT WAS NOT A QUALIFIED CANDIDATE, he received 304 electoral votes and almost 63 million people voted for him. The people seemed to want Hillary but I guess the idea of a woman in office was more terrifying than a raging bigot deadset on destroying us all. With only 227 electoral votes, Hillary didn’t win the race.
We can get into all of the fuckery that took place during those horrific years at a different time. I never supported that man being in office but I can only imagine the shame that would have been directed my way if I did. While it is a fact that we can choose who we want when we go vote, if we don’t choose who others think we should, we will experience some form of shaming. The side of the fence being good or bad tends to determine if the shaming is acceptable or not.
Fast forward to four years ago and the 2020 presidential election involves that despicable creature running for president AGAIN. This time, he ran against Joseph Biden, Obama’s Vice President. Joe won with 306 electoral votes to that other human’s 232 votes; 81.2 million votes from the people for Biden compared to the other guys 74.2 million. We thought we would be free of President 45 and then he decided to run in the current 2024 race against Kamala Harris, Biden’s Vice President. Jill Stein is back, with Cornel West, and Chase Oliver (who would be the youngest president this country ever had, IF he had a chance of winning).
I have voted in every presidential election since then because it is important to me NOW. And we come back to the shame we attempt to inflict on others about politics and voting. However, there are two things that are usually met with refusal to acknowledge… things that actually fucking matter when it comes to our voting process AND the need for change.
1) Congress passed the 15th amendment (the right for African American MEN to vote) in 1869 and it was ratified a year later in 1870. Congress passed the 19th amendment (the right for women to vote) in 1919 but it wasn’t put into effect until over a year later in 1920.
This country was being run by white men with no say so FROM ANYONE ELSE for almost 100 years. This country was run BY MEN, with no say so from ANY women for almost 145 years. It’s laughable that we continue to posture as THIS being the land of the free. It ain’t never been and we comfortably reside in the illusion that a teench of freedom is better than none at all. Anyway, NOW everyone [allegedly] has the right to vote. When we talk about having the right to do something, it’s often left out that we have a right to NOT do it, too. HOWEVER, there’s a lot of shame cast upon people who exercise their rights in ways that others feel they shouldn’t; people would sooner force each other to do something they don’t want to do instead of respecting their rights to make the decision for themselves. EVERY TIME I have brought this up, it is either met with silence or combative dialogue saying that we have a social responsibility to vote out of respect for all the people/women who couldn’t prior to 1920. Basically, we are surrounded by people who would sooner replace one oppressive notion with another instead of respecting what rights really entail. Despite that constant shaming, I holdfast to EVERYONE having a choice BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HAVING THE RIGHT TO DO (OR NOT DO) SOMETHING LITERALLY MEANS. We can’t say we want oppression to end and then demand people do things one particular way. I’d much rather people admit they just want to be the ones in control instead of pushing the neverending illusion of choice that shields our view of who will be the future oppressors.
However, if you center the act of voting over what having a right means, you’ll also have no problem leaning into abusive forms of shame to accomplish any other goal.
2) IF WE ARE TRULY A DEMOCRACY, the people are supposed to possess the power. We posture that this happens through voting and then nothing ever happens to the people who allow voter suppression to happen. In fact, we’ve grown to just expect voter suppression, at this point.
But the reality about voting that we refuse to acknowledge is that voter suppression has been around for as long as our government has existed. The United States of America’s government allows each state to modify the law and make their own election rules. Say hello to the real bad guys. There was a time when people considered less than (see: farmers and commoners) couldn’t vote, right along with white women, African Americans, Native Americans (imagine ACTUALLY BEING FROM HERE and some white man telling you what you can and can’t do), and immigrants. Again, anyone who wasn’t a white (wealthy) male, IN THIS COUNTRY, held not even an iota of power in THIS DEMOCRACY. When I mention this as being a reason why I understand people choosing not to vote in a system that wasn’t meant for us to vote in, it is IMMEDIATELY met with shame. Regardless of ANY facts being shared that should cause us to focus on why we aren’t vehemently seeking accountability from the government to enforce voter suppression laws. Instead, people would rather behave oppressively towards each other to ensure their desired outcome. We actually become the monsters by behaving just like our government. But shame falls under the radar of horrific behavior because there’s no immediate physical manifestation of what shame does to others.
It’s even been assumed that I’m telling people to not vote when I bring this up. I think voting is a great thing when the intentional roadblocks are removed. I’m clear about what I mean; if we SEE the roadblock, why get annoyed at the people who refuse to keep going down the same road?! My push is for us to do something different so that our vote CAN and ALWAYS WILL literally count. Despite intentions to shame me, it never works because I know us critically thinking about this is far more important than putting on blinders like willful idiots.
I want people to be able to vote for who should run this country. It’s why I continue to find ways to discuss how to stop voter suppression, without yelling at people to go use the same system that intentionally works against us. Imagine someone telling you to go back to an abusive partner because having a partner is better than not having one. That’s what we sound like when we yell at people to continue voting in an abusive system. There was a time when I thought the system was ass backwards but it isn’t; it’s working just fine. What’s ass backwards is the amount of energy we expend trying to make fetch happen. The oppressors will ALWAYS be the problem, not the people challenging our views of the oppressor and their systems.
If you don’t want to go all the way back to 1776, you can start with the last 20 years of democracy. It aint been all that democratic and not just on a presidential playing field. State and local government are equally as shady and oppressive when it comes to how and who is getting voted into office. I AGREE THAT OUR VOTES ARE SUPPOSED TO MATTER, yet there are people who intentionally fuck up the numbers. They have not suffered any consequences for breaking this law. It’s no secret that it’s easier for the wealthy and powerful non-politicians to continue their capitalistic reign of tyranny if the country is run by someone who agrees with them and/or can be easily manipulated. This isn’t conspiratorial banter of a mad woman; we all know this to be true. Always follow the money.
Nothing about American politics is something to be proud of… and I don’t care if this is called unpatriotic. I’m not proud of this country or government because the good here has NEVER outweighed the bad. THAT is shameful in and of itself, yet, I’m encouraged to look for silver linings that really don’t exist. I’m encouraged to be hopeful and develop more faith than the less than mustard grain seed worth I currently possess. I’m pushed to have delusional optimism for things and systems that never possessed intentions to give a damn about anything other than profits and whiteness. It’s exhausting, to the point that I have no fucks to give about any shame directed my way. There are more than enough people depending on me and others to become ashamed enough to change our rhetoric to something more…nice. I don’t care to join those ranks. I would actually have to give a fuck about appearing nice to other people to reframe reality into some palatable delicacy for easier digestion. None of this is supposed to go down easy. It isn’t supposed to taste good. It’s supposed to make me, you, and anyone else who gives a damn, be uncomfortable.
However, history has dictated that if it aint a significant amount of people (or the right people) saying the same thing, the message will always be drowned out by the syrupy shit that can make people feel better. That is, until the next blow to humanity comes along to shock everyone back to their realistic senses. So, no, I don’t push reform because it’s nothing more than breadcrumbs of action sprinkled on a rotten ass system. We need a humongous wrecking ball, new foundation, and more importantly, leaders who aren’t interested in oppression OF ANY KIND.
I’m viewed as being socially irresponsible when I say that continuing to vote IN A SYSTEM THAT WAS ALWAYS DESIGNED TO PREVENT OUR (anyone who isn’t a [wealthy] white male) VOTE FROM MATTERING, IS COGNITIVE DISSONANCE. Yes, we might all practice some form of cognitive dissonance throughout our lives but stop saying that as a means to deflect from WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS OTHER THAN YELL AT PEOPLE TO GO VOTE??? Again, I am met with silence… and more shame.
However, I’ll keep shouting into the ether about revolution over reform, with the hopes that the universe listens to the mice among men. I’ll keep challenging people to think critically and to stop spreading misinformation. I’ll continue to fight and be disruptive in the best ways I can because I refuse to be shamed by anyone who blindly goes along with these shameful politics.
