First off, I'd like to say thanks for the response. I feel what you wrote here and for myself personally, I agree with damage mitigation and buying more time.
That said, I cant say that not voting hasn't crossed my mind, and my perception is colored by my experiences and the experiences of the people around me.
I grew up in Memphis and Mississippi, dealt with a lot of racial trauma and hardcore racism all my life. Not gonna lie, I grew up with a deep hatred of my environmental and society as a whole. Even hatred of myself for my blackness, growing up black in a racist environment can hit like that.
I navigated systems that were designed to keep me down, police who were quick to pull weapons on me and rednecks who openly hated black people.
There was a point where I was completely disillusioned to the political happenings in America and it took a lot of work and educating myself to get out of it. In fact, if it wasn't for me moving out of Mississippi, I probably would STILL have that perspective today. I still know what it feels like, and I still battle that feeling on a daily basis at this point. So when I see someone who says fuck it, and doesn't vote because of disillusionment to a system and people that tells them they are worthless (at least until it's time for you to vote 😉) then all I can say is I understand. I don't encourage anyone to not vote and that's not the point I'm speaking to, but what I will speak to is understanding. People are beat down and tired, mental health fucked and financially burdened, historically silence and you watch as your people are called terrorist, or thug, or whatever dehumanizing term the political machine has for your group of people and you have to summon that energy to vote for them same mutha fuckas that just made your depression even worse just five minutes ago.
That shit is hard as fuck. ?As you know as you just spoke on it) It ain't easy. And having to do that while being in the crosshairs of both political parties is even wilder. When no matter who you vote for your people are getting killed and all folks can say is, "aye, could be worse, you could be dying more and we could be dying too" it shouldn't be so hard to see why someone would tap out. So when folks turn around and blame these people it gets under my skin.
At the end of the day, our participation HAS to go beyond voting. We have to make our voices heard and truly band together to hold politicians accountable.
We can't just keep getting a dem in office and getting complacent like we do when they win. Democracy takes constant maintenance and attention and even when a dem wins we can't make the mistake of getting too comfortable by not getting out there and making our voices heard.
Sorry I tend to hit these stream of consciousness rants and ramble on.
