If voting could change the system, they would make it illegal. (Jamil
Al-Amin, aka H. Rap Brown)
Here are a few
arguments for those who insist on voting for the lesser of evils.
One of the first
things Black folks say is, “We fought and died for the right to vote.”
Yes, having fought
in every war beginning with the revolutionary war of independence from Britain,
we have always done the dying; we've always been on the front lines of struggle
in this country. SNCC, Fannie Lou Hamer, and all the valiant freedom
fighters of the civil rights movement are to be honored and revered for their
uncompromising fight for our right to vote.
However, after we won that particular battle in1965, the reactionaries in power initiated new ways to suppress and vacate our vote -- new rules and laws of disenfranchisement, such as denying prisoners and felons the vote, fraudulent registration procedures, vote tampering, rigged voting machines, new photo ID requirements, etc.
Eric Nielson writes that since 2010, 11 states have passed laws that make it more difficult to vote. Citing a report from The Sentencing Project, 5.85 million people are now barred from voting because of a felony conviction, about 2.5 percent of the total population. The principled position would be all of us or none or all for one and one for all.
The systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters in Florida, 2000, and elsewhere across the country validates the following statement:
"...the two
parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a 'gentlemen's
agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote...May God write us down as
asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either Republican or the
Democratic parties." (W.E.B. DuBois)
