Beloveds, I want to share something because I foresee folks blaming fellow community members for the election results. I tried sharing this a few months ago but people would not listen. So let me try again.
One thing Empire is good at is keeping a lie and secret. Give me a moment here and forget all you’ve learned about your vote and US elections.
This will be upsetting for many people.
Many people believe it is each of our votes that matters in the presidential election. Unfortunately, it is not, it is our votes as a total state that count and within that, it is all or nothing as a state. This is why local organizing is so critically important. Let me elaborate.
And note, this is about the presidential vote, not other votes and initiatives. For those, our individual votes absolutely do matter. Every single one.
This will be enraging. Learning about Empire is enraging. This may shatter everything you know. But I hope that has already happened.
Our election does not work by the number of each of our individual votes (aka popular vote). It just doesn’t.
If we actually functioned by a popular vote (like other countries), then yes, a vote for a third party could directly mean a vote less for Republicans or Democrats. But that’s not how it works.
Because of the Electoral College, that is not the case. Candidates only need to win more than 50% of a state to win the entire state. Once that happens, they only count how many electoral votes the state holds toward determining the presidency.
Your individual vote does not make it to the next stage of the process. It gets butchered through the Electoral College.
Here’s an example:
Even if a solid blue state had 5 million blue votes, and 3 million red votes, the only thing that counts now are the 30 blue electoral votes. It no longer matters to the system that the blue votes had a 40% margin, nor does it matter that it was 2 million more individual blue votes.
This example is close to what happened in New York State in 2020.
All individual votes are not equal. It depends on which state you are in. For some states, they matter more, for others less. Not accounting for this erases the important differences between Blue, Red, Lean, and Swing states.
Remember, we live in an Electoral College Empire. Saying, “I’m voting blue” in a solid blue state means something entirely different than if you say that in a swing state. The former is privileged, the latter is a strategy.
So it is not as simple as “vote for Democrats so that we beat the Republicans.” The Electoral College butcher block makes that statement moot. In fact, it is this thinking that has helped Empire all of these years maintain the 2-party system.
Instead, what we should be asking is, what is the strategy of each state? If it is solid blue by 40% then we have some room to make a statement. One such statement could be a 5% third party vote.
When you review historical margins, the solid states typically have a margin so wide that candidates often ignore those states when campaigning. Because they know they got you already. They have already trapped us.
There should never be an assumption of our vote. But because people feel they only have two options, candidates can make that assumption. And that should enrage you.
If you are in a solid blue state, by definition that means it will be blue. As such, it can be strategic to vote for a third party since the solid blue will already win. By voting for the third party you are creating more opportunities for a different structure in the future. Again, voting for a third party in a solid blue state at this point is not going to change the overall results of that blue state. Typically, the margins of solid blue states are 20-50%. Third parties have historically been 1-2%. So before you start blaming people, do the math.
For something we are told is so important, we are only really given one option. And it is not even ranked. We cannot say, as we do with much less important decisions, “I like this most, then this, then this.” No, we are only allowed to say, “This is the only one.” It is not actually a real choice.
Don’t you want a choice? Don’t you
want to not feel forced to pick someone just to stop the other person? Don’t you want agency? Don’t you want your vote to be powerful and empowering?
If so, we need to already be planning and organizing for a different outcome.
I am against Empire’s 2-party system. I am against the Electoral College. I am against a system that assumes our votes are already theirs. I am against the colonial deceit of making people believe they have to fall in line.
The day after the election is more important than the day of. Organize to change everything.
Comments are closed.