Vote. Or don’t. I don’t care.

The U.S. mid-term elections are coming up next Tuesday, on November 8th. Of course it’s being called the most important election. The U.S. is more poorly run and broken each time there’s an election, but I’m not sure whether that makes each one more important because there’s more to fix or less important because it’s obvious that it doesn’t really matter who gets elected.

I’m not even going to bother naming any of the issues because this article is not about that. Instead, it was inspired by the post Vote for democracy (please!) by John Quiggin (Crooked Timber). That post is pretty short and includes the following plea,

“There is still a slim chance that this disaster can be staved off but, even if it isn’t, it will be a shameful memory to have abstained, or voted for a third party with no chance, in this last real election. That’s true whether the decision is out of laziness, hopelessness or a pseudo-left (in reality, aristocratic) view that both sides are equally bad. If you fall into one of these categories, (or if you actually want a Trumpist dictatorship), please don’t comment on this post, or interact with me in any way from now on.”

This dude is not even American. He’s Australian. His panties are bunched up so tight about anyone who disagrees with him about the futility of voting in America that he’s willing to just burn them all. You do you, John Quiggin, but Australia has more than enough problems of its own that you could focus on before you start castigating any American who doesn’t vote or votes wrong.

His use of the phrase “this last real election” means that the poor guy has probably been inundated with emails and tweets and other propaganda from the ruling party about the absolutely dire state of democracy. Sure, sure. I’ve heard it all before. It is absolutely breathtaking when, in a two-party system, one party declares that their loss would mean the end of the whole system. And people like this chump Quiggin swallow it hook, line, and sinker and then start yelling at all of their friends and readers.

Honestly? I would welcome an end to the system as it is now. It’s not been a democracy for a long time, if you’ve actually been paying attention. Citizens United was the nail in the coffin, but it was a long time coming. Quiggin’s just an Australian economist, a dilettante who dabbles in American politics and thinks he knows what’s actually going on. A vote for either party is a vote for the continued corporate rule. Neither one of the parties seems to believe that the populace can influence their power in any real way.

Not understanding what democracy is

He ended with,

“Everyone in the world will be affected by the end of American democracy, but the great majority of us have no vote. All we can do is appeal to those who do to make the right choice, as I am doing here.”

There is no right choice, you dipshit. That’s the problem. You’ve told us that we’re not allowed to hate both parties and we’re not allowed to even try to vote for a third party because we have to destroy democracy in order to save it[1] and because now’s not the time. It never is, is it? That’s how those two shitty, shitty, shitty parties remain in power.

Quiggin screams about “voting for democracy (please!)” then orders people how to vote. Because he’s not self-aware, he then accuses anyone with an alternate opinion of being “aristocratic”, a glorious hypocrisy and case of pot-calling-the-kettle-black at the same time. For good measure, he then tells everyone that in his democratic world, he’s not even willing to listen to anyone with a different opinion.

An Australian ordering Americans to vote a certain way in order to save democracy—NO DISCUSSION—is deliciously ironic. Even more so because “shut up. your opinion doesn’t matter. do what I say” is exactly the attitude that got us into this mess in the first place. It’s not going to work particularly well on anyone I know in America. It tends to make them vote the other way, really.

What did I do?

I decided not to vote in the midterms for the first time in as long as I can remember because I had the choice between an absolute criminal of a Democrat and two Republican idiots.

I decided that my vote wasn’t worth the price of a stamp from Switzerland.

I vote in New York State. I suppose Mr. Quiggin above simply cannot understand how I would be unable to bring myself to vote for Chuck Fucking Schumer.

What are the choices?

The country could go in two directions:

One is, possibly, toward a less-democratic future, but it remains to be seen if what the Republicans campaign on is what the Republicans do. They rarely have before. Instead, they’re more likely to increase corporatization of the state, which is quite a coincidence, considering their competition.

The other direction is whatever Chuck Schumer’s agenda is, which is the increased corporatization of the state. He campaigns on something completely different, like anti-racism and rainbows and sunshine—or, more recently, just anti-Republican—but he’s laser-like focused on helping the rich get richer. He always has been. I honestly don’t know how he’s not a Republican. He’s almost certainly delighted that Netanyahu is back in Israel. Also, he’d just love to start another war in Iran. And Taiwan.

But, yeah, Quiggin, you’re right. You, as an Australian, know better than any American how to handle this situation. You order everyone you know to vote Democrat or you’ll never speak to them again. It must be nice being your friend.

What could you do?

People of America: vote your hearts. Your (0ur) country has been fucked up for such a long time and has been going in the wrong direction for such a long time, that there’s really no saving it as it is currently constructed. The silver lining here is that you also can’t really make anything worse.

It’s honestly hard to imagine how incremental change would bring about the necessary course correction. Maybe a horrific intermezzo of Republican Ayatollahs is what it will take to wake people up. Who the fuck knows? I’ve been wrestling with that question for decades. I don’t have any simple answers, unlike Australian economics professors.

Not an hour after I posted this, I saw the article The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them to Save It by Chris Hedges (SubStack), which sums itself up as,