Failing to vote doesn’t send the message you think. It empowers others at your expense. “You’re giving someone an excuse to ignore you,” said Steve Simon, the Minnesota Secretary of state, at a Carleton event. “You are doubling the vote of someone who disagrees with you on everything.”
You should criticize our government. But it’s only meaningful if you vote as well. Elections — especially general elections — are the only time the government expressly solicits your opinion. And they will go on with or without your participation. Forfeiting your vote is counterproductive; it will only have the effect of leaving your opinion out of the process, and it just makes it easier for the side you support the least to win.
This election will end in one of two ways: either Kamala Harris will become president, or Donald Trump will. And while some have argued that the contest is a choice between two evils, the two candidates are incomparable, morally and with every other metric.
The winner for president — as well as for the Senate, the House and other local positions across the country — will affect how every issue is dealt with. From climate change to reproductive rights, immigration to gun control, social security to foreign policy (including the war in Gaza), everything is at stake. And no matter which problem you see as most important, Trump will address it worse.
The United States’ policy toward Gaza has been the source of the most obvious tension on campus. Netanyahu’s government has committed countless atrocities against the Palestinian people, and many argue that the Biden Administration is complicit by not having done enough to end the war. But it is illogical to think Trump would produce a better outcome than Harris, and it is nonsensical to believe that not voting for the better choice will produce a better outcome.
Even among Trump’s other racist comments and policies, his direct comments towards Gaza alone are horrifying. He has said he would let Israel “finish the job,” used the word “Palestinian” as an insult in a nationally televised debate, and has joked about the value of real estate in Gaza for developing property.
Harris, by contrast, has expressly said she wants the war to end and that Palestine should have self-determination. She has pressed for a ceasefire and met with activists demanding one and she has denounced efforts to block humanitarian aid.
Even if Harris’ actions haven’t resulted in the needed change, and even if you believe some of her efforts are hollow, she is — at the very least — receptive to making a difference. Trump fails to come anywhere near that bare minimum.
Back in 1968 — the last time an election seemed as existential as this — the Vietnam War was at the forefront of students’ minds. To protest it, many chose not to vote for Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat who said he would end it. Richard Nixon won that close election in part because of the student protest, and he then continued the war for years. The protest ended up a catastrophic failure—and however bad Nixon was, Trump is endlessly worse. History is giving us a warning. We should heed it.
Bernie Sanders is right when he says there is “a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with Kamala than with Trump, who is extremely close to Netanyahu, and sees him as a like-minded extremist ally.” And he correctly underscores that “as strongly as many of us feel about this issue, it is not the only issue at stake in this election.”
As Wajahat Ali, in a column for The Guardian, aptly put it, Harris and the Democrats should be faulted for failing to properly stand up to Netanyahu, but “Donald Trump will be genocidal and a fascist.”
He will existentially worsen the country. He threatens democracy and praises dictators. He’s taken credit for twenty-one states now banning or restricting women’s health care. He calls climate change a hoax. He opposes common sense gun control. He vows to use the military to deport immigrants and arrest his political rivals, whom he calls “the enemy from within.” To address the criminal justice system, he would let the police have “one really violent day.” And he promises to repeal Social Security and Medicaid, a safety net more than 70 million people rely on; economists everywhere say his policies would be disastrous.
He erodes confidence in our elections by spreading disinformation and conspiracies. He praises dictators and says he wants “the kind of generals Hitler had.” And some of his highest platform points even perpetuate his culture wars to “keep men out of women’s sports” and “make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”
We all will feel the fallout from this election, good or bad. Either Harris or Trump will be president, and there will be no other outcome. And there is no excuse — morally or logically — to surrender even the smallest influence.
So make your voice heard. Vote to protect those around you. Vote so our system is as representative as it can be, or vote so it isn’t more broken than it has to be. If nothing else, vote so you’re on the right side of history. Just vote.
If not yours, others’ lives depend on it.
