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The Case Against Voting for President

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Collage by author

As individuals, our choices make very little difference to the state of the world, often virtually none. Nonetheless, those same choices can have significant effects on ourselves, sometimes profoundly.

For example: One can give up driving for biking, and though this will make no difference to global pollution output, the profits of oil companies or the fossil-fuel focus of US imperialism, it could definitely improve your health, save you money and grant you great enjoyment of the outdoors. Or one can quit eating the flesh of domesticated animals, and though this will make no difference to the beef, pork or poultry industries or save even one cow, pig or chicken from the slaughterhouse, you will no longer be taking into your own body the products of such horrific suffering yourself, and that is bound to have a positive effect on you personally, if only at a subtle level of consciousness.

Or one can cast a vote for president believing it counts for something, and though the likelihood of your action making any kind of difference is vanishingly small, you will have succeeded in deluding yourself.

How so? In several ways:


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Politics, Perspective & Imagination

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

I was camping with a friend in southern California recently and we were talking about politics. Not “talking politics,” as in weighing the features of the Green New Deal or arguing blue vs. red – that is, policies and parties – but talking “about” politics. I gestured towards some nearby vegetation to make a point.

“See those two trees,” I asked. “Right next to each other there?”

My friend nodded and smiled. She saw where this was going.

I jumped up, ran over and stood between the pair. With exaggerated movements, I faced first one and then, ostentatiously, turned around to face the other. “They’re coming from completely different directions!” I declared. Allowing myself a smirk I said, “That’s the perspective of a partisan Democrat or a Republican.”

I jogged back to her. “But from here, it’s easy to see how close they are to each other.”

Indeed, the branches of the two trees were growing in each other’s airspace, meaning that their roots were probably entangled under the surface. They were quite literally drawing their sustenance from the same ground.

I pointed up at the rocky hills behind us. “And from up there, the view is different again.”

“You might not be able to tell them apart,” she said.

I nodded. “And from here, we can only imagine that perspective, unless we go up there.”

This is why imagination is so important.
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No, Bernie’s not anti-war

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

[Collage by author from Wikicommons images here & here]

“A number of lefties are softening their criticism and some are even announcing their support for Bernie Sanders. Yet: Those who have watched Sanders for years – e.g., anti-war activists from Vermont – know better than to trust Bernie “Chavez is [a] dead, communist dictator” Sanders. When push comes to shove, he will side with imperialist power – e.g., voting against the invasion of Iraq but voting to fund the occupation.”
–Phil Rockstroh (2/27/19)

“One keeps looking for the moral clarity of Gene McCarthy, Wayne Morse or Mike Gravel from Bernie Sanders on issues of war and peace. Yet what we are offered is mush and drivel. One might be tempted to blame it on his age. But like Reagan, he knows exactly what he is saying and why.”
–Jeffrey St. Clair (2/23/19)

The Democratic Party has an undeserved reputation for being anti-war. The last time the party ran an anti-war candidate for president was George McGovern in 1972. The 1980’s was the last decade when it was typical of candidates to pledge “defense” cuts or nuclear arms reductions. Dennis Kucinich has been the only exception to that rule this century. In fact, the most successful anti-war candidate of the last twenty years was a Republican: Ron Paul, who made a notable splash in both 2008 and 2012.

Though he is not a member of the political party that writer Paul Street regularly refers to as the “dismal, dollar-drenched Dems,” Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders is once more seeking its presidential nomination and has signed the requisite “loyalty oath.” Sanders is often considered anti-war, but this is wishful thinking. His decades-long record in office demonstrates otherwise.


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Our Preoccupation with the Presidency is Killing the Planet

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

"The really critical thing isn't who's sitting in the White House, but who is sitting in – in the streets, in the cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the factories. Who is protesting, who is occupying offices and demonstrating – those are the things that determine what happens." - Howard Zinn

Meme by the author. Original photo by Jim.

The 2020 US presidential campaign is already underway. With each day that passes between now and election day, all other topics will receive less attention, both from talking heads on the news and from regular folks (and bots) in the social media universe.

This is quite unfortunate because the race for this office is far less important than a myriad of other topics, chief among them the environment and (inextricably connected) US militarism.

“But wait,” insists the true-believer political junkie. “The outcome of this race will have a big effect on those issues.”

Yeah, except that it won’t.


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