It has come time for another presidential election, and this time around we are faced with the seeming non-choice between George W. Bush and Al Gore, both of whom have gone to great lengths to dispense with all their perceived differences. It should come as no surprise that they stand on the same side of nearly 90 percent of the issues, since they are both working for continued profits for the rich at the expense of the rest of us. They are unanimous in their support for the use of the death penalty, welfare reform, "tough on crime" legislation, militarized borders and murderous immigration policies, wage decreases, continued HMO control of our health, increased military spending, decreased social spending, rollbacks on environmental protection... the list goes on and on.
The claim of many a Democrat that voting for Nader is equivalent to voting for Bush, relies heavily upon the incorrect assumption that Bush's election would actually mean the government taking different policies, and therefore holds little weight. Voting for Nader, however, is just as counter-productive, if not more so, than voting for the "RepubliCrats." There is no chance that Nader will be elected, and no chance that his progressive reforms would be pushed through congress even if he were elected. If he obtains the five percent of votes needed to get equal funding for the Green Party, we can rest assured that this money will not go into grassroots organizing efforts, but into the party's next bid for president. Most importantly, however, voting for Nader further legitimizes our fake "democracy" by convincing others that, because a third party can garner some votes at all, their voices are being heard, and therefore our political system works to include everyone. Nothing could be further from the truth, but peoples' confidence in the system will be the end result.
Yet it is rare, in the frenzy of information and activity surrounding the election, for us to stop and examine what exactly is taking place in our political system, and what it means for us to be participating in it as voters. This is no accident, and it is certainly not a fluke occurrence. For as long as governments have existed, they have all existed to one end, and one end alone: the protection of the ruling minority class from the rest of society. The American government is not, and never has been, an exception to this rule. Under ever more clever guises, our government continues to protect and support the elite, wealthy, ruling class of the "new" globalized economy through tax breaks for corporations, a de-facto regressive taxation system, massive corporate welfare programs, the wide-scale gentrification of cities, and injection of wealth into the technology sector via defense spending and research programs.
More direct methods are also employed: military interventions abroad, often in the name of "protecting democracy," to protect the industries or property of American-based companies, as well as the use of police repression and the construction of a racist and classist criminal justice system domestically. And that's just the beginning. This is the social reality with which we are faced, and yet we are told, and supposed to believe, that we are fulfilling our civic duty as decent human beings by casting our vote once every four years for who we want to lead us. The constant barrage of news about the election under which we are buried, "Rock the Vote," and the multitude of other organizations which badger us to register and vote, have but one real effect: the legitimization of the political system under which we live by creating the illusion of a truly participatory democracy.
We should entertain no such illusions about our political system as to assume that positive change can actually occur from a change in parties, or from the act of voting, for that matter. Certainly the most important thing to realize amidst all this political fury is that, at no time in history, has positive social change been achieved by the election of a politician. When we organize ourselves along truly democratic lines - by taking grassroots initiative, refusing leaders and personality cults, using open and participatory methods that put us on a face-to-face level - to struggle for improvement in our lives, and even to further radical demands, we possess a power that is frightening to the ruling class. Anyone truly seeking change would be wise to pursue these tactics instead of wasting valuable time and energy campaigning for a politician. We need to absolve ourselves from all electoral politics, organize ourselves and our communities, and take our demands to the streets, not the polls.
Roger Winn is a sophomore majoring in peace and justice studies and Russian literature. Geoff Downs is a sophomore who has not declared a major.
