politicians are not your friends

you actually don't need to adore the people you plan on voting for

i made a lot of americans angry by simply posting “i swear to god some of you would vote for a set of jangling keys” on tuesday. many took that as me telling them not to vote, or that they should vote for donald trump in the 2024 US federal election. i said nothing of the sort, but it clearly struck a nerve.

i intended to make an observation about how lots of people in the US have a tendency to get distracted by the performances and veneers politicians put up while running for office in their broken two-party state. if you shook a set of keys in front of the faces of democrats, they would vote for those keys and stan them til the end of time if that was the democratic candidate, especially against someone like donald trump. and the fanfare for kamala harris and tim walz feels exactly like that — jangling keys in front of democratic voters, expecting them to be grateful for mediocrity and scraps after the party has consistently shown outright disdain for its own voter base.

many young progressives in the US saw harris choosing walz as her running mate as a victory, since the other major contender, josh shapiro, had a very pro-israel track record, having even written that he volunteered for the IDF, a statement which he walked back once it gained attention.

walz was lauded as not only a victory for the pro-palestine contingent of the democratic voter base, but also as a victory for progressives as a whole, with walz having a record of protecting abortions rights in minnesota, providing free breakfast and lunch for school children in the state, and signed a bill that allows for free tuition for students at the university of minnesota and minnesota state as long as their families make $80,000 or less, just to name a few of his popular decisions.

but he’s also very clearly not perfect — while he signed a bill in 2023 committing to having 100% of minnesota’s energy come from carbon-free sources by 2040, he also flailed on challenging enbridge’s line 3 replacement pipeline, and when he was serving in congress, he voted for the keystone XL pipeline. and on palestine, while he praised minnesota voters who voted “uncommitted” on super tuesday as being “civically engaged,” he also has the very typical pro-israel stance that all democrats have. some hope that he and harris can depart from that stance together, but that has yet to be seen. don’t forget that just a day ago, when a kamala harris rally was interrupted by pro-palestine protestors, harris flippantly dismissed them, saying “you know what, if you want donald trump to win, then say that. otherwise, i’m speaking.”

but because walz is a former school teacher, coach, and a veteran that has no investments and puts up the image of being an everyman, him being the running mate of kamala harris has given some democrats hope of a better future if they are elected, being seen as people that can actually be pushed left, something progressive democratic voters have been saying they could do for eons, to no avail.

but to some angry americans on twitter, my pointing out that the façade is just key jangling makes them think i’m saying not to vote at all, or that there’s some alternative. i think this assertion says a lot about their own insecurities and fears about their electoral system, as well as their tendency to stan anyone who does less than the bare minimum.

i’ll be very clear here: i am not saying not to vote. i am also not judging those who choose not to vote. personally, if i were an american who lived in a swing state, i would vote democrat. but if i lived in a state where my vote genuinely didn’t matter, i wouldn’t be able to vote for the democratic party, knowing they have been facilitating a genocide in gaza, and allowing israel to kill palestinians for decades, going way back further than october 7th, like many people conveniently ignore. i would feel like i had blood on my hands.

but that’s not me telling anyone not to vote, that’s just my own opinion. i understand that trump winning the election would have terrible consequences for americans with regards to abortion access, mass deportation, criminalization of protestors, access to gender-affirming care, and a lot more. but i do have a question for democrats who fear these outcomes from a trump presidency: what has the democratic party done to prevent any of this?

roe v. wade could’ve been codified into law, but instead it was used as a bargaining chip. it was repealed, and now the democrats can hold it over everyone, saying “if you vote for us, we’ll give you abortion rights” when they failed to protect them while in power already. the biden administration approved higher funding for ICE, perpetuating and strengthening an institution that detains and abuses immigrants. Under Biden, police arrested student protestors at campuses across the country, from columbia to stanford and everywhere in between, with nothing being done to stop these militarized police forces from shooting students with rubber bullets and forcibly breaking up the encampments and protests. so tell me, when you have a choice between republicans who want to strip away your rights, and democrats who won’t do anything to stop your rights from being stripped away, why would you believe another establishment democrat ticket would act any differently?

one of the funniest things to me about the reactions to my post was everyone pointing out that i’m canadian, as if american political actions are somehow insulated from the rest of the world. americans are so ignorant of other countries around the world, let alone the neighbouring ones, that they don’t realize how much their politics impact others. canada is one of the biggest allies of the US. how the fuck wouldn’t it impact me? that’s not to mention the fact that i have many family members across the US and many american friends, the lives of whom all matter deeply to me, so i care about the outcome of elections as well as decisions their elected officials make. i’m employed by an american company, i get paid in USD. i frequently visit the US. US culture war issues spill over into canada constantly. if trump got elected, followed by the inevitable election of pierre poilievre in the next canadian federal election, i have no doubt the political situation in both countries will be awful. so yes, i do have skin in the game, contrary to the beliefs of some moronic americans.

even if i had no skin in the game, i care about those impacted by american politics worldwide. i care about the genocide gazans are facing. i care about the establishment of a palestinian state that is recognized by major world powers. i care about the impact the US has on the climate crisis, impacting everyone on earth, disproportionately so those in the global south. i care about the impact of american imperialism on every country it touches. i, as much as anyone else on the planet, have every reason to care about US politics.

so no, i’m not telling anyone to vote for donald trump. i’m also not going to shame those who decide not to vote, or those who do. making a simple observation about the cult of personality people build around individual politicians spiralled into being accused of saying many things i didn’t say. all i’m saying is that these people tend to fall for jangling keys a lot. canada isn’t any better, we did the same thing with justin trudeau in 2015. remember all those articles about how dreamy he is? it was disgusting. i’m not throwing stones from a glass house, i’ve been critical of it all along.