Community Organizers Express Their Views on the Presidential Election
Some activists in California — a safely blue state — are choosing to cast their vote for third-party candidates, while others are voting Democrat.
The views expressed below are solely those of the authors and do not represent Ground Game Los Angeles or KNOCK.LA.
Given our country’s current electoral college system, what does it mean to cast a vote for a presidential candidate in California? In an overwhelmingly blue state, where Democratic candidate Joe Biden has a 36% lead over Republican incumbent Donald Trump, some feel their voices are better heard voting third party.
KNOCK.LA shares the perspectives of three community organizers in Los Angeles County on their choices for the presidential election.
For the record, here is KNOCK.LA’s official recommendation for President:
Gloria La Riva
By Rodolfo Cortes
We have the potential to both participate in and build beyond elections with Gloria La Riva and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
What will it take to win popular progressive policies like stopping police brutality, guaranteeing healthcare, and averting a total collapse of the climate?
After a lifetime of exposure to US corporate media, many working class people may say “Vote Blue!” Some years back, this was also my proposed solution. As a college student, I truly did believe that Obama would promote the interests of young people, and especially of young people of color like myself. As did millions living through the 2008 collapse, I dutifully cast my vote for Obama.
Of course, we now know that the 44th US President orchestrated one of the largest upward transfers of wealth in the country’s history. The same star-struck millennials who voted for Hope and Change in 2008 are now saddled with trillions of dollars in student and credit card debt — and this is especially true of millennials of color.
In 2016, following Bernie Sanders’ defeat at the hands of the Democratic Party establishment, countless young people rejected the media’s command to “Vote Blue” and voted Green instead. I was one of those people. I cast an optimistic, hopeful vote for Dr. Jill Stein, who championed “People, Planet, and Peace Over Profit.”
The Green Party of the United States should be commended for its dedication to maintaining ballot lines, and thereby ensuring that a majority of US voters have a real alternative to the two mainstream parties when casting their vote for President. I was so enthused that I even ran as a Green for Congress in 2018, finishing with the second highest vote total by a Green Party congressional candidate in California.
Today, I don’t think “Vote Blue” or “Vote Green” are the best options for working people. This November, I will be casting my vote for my party’s nominee: Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) on the Peace and Freedom ballot line in California.
But this doesn’t mean I believe that “Vote Red” (true red, socialist red) is the solution to our society’s existential problems. The elections, and the media, are not fair and just to third-party candidates. “Vote (insert a color)” is not enough. If we want to help our families, nurture our communities, and heal our planet, we must also engage far beyond the ballots that arrive in our mailboxes.
What we’re going to need is to radically transform the core logic of the dominant economic system of the US. Simply put, we will need to end the model that revolves around the accumulation of money (capital-ism) and replace it with a model that revolves around meeting the needs of people (social-ism).
Gloria La Riva has dedicated her entire adult life to this working-class struggle for liberation from the exploitation of capitalism. She, and countless other members of the PSL, have been on the front lines of every struggle in modern US society.
Just recently, when Trump threatened Venezuela with regime change, the PSL organized dozens of protests in every major US city.
When COVID-19 hit, the PSL initiated hundreds of coordinated caravan protests around the country to cancel rent.
When the George Floyd Black Lives Matter rebellion kicked-off, PSL organized marches in solidarity with Black America, and its Denver members have even faced political persecution.
Up and down the United States, the Party for Socialism and Liberation — a Party whose working-class members range from students and Uber drivers to nurses and professors — is on the frontlines of defending the interests of working-class people.
How can it do this? Through organization, through commitment beyond elections.
While voting does provide the working class with opportunities to discuss and voice our opinions on candidates and issues, we can no longer abide by the fiction that all that is needed for positive change is casting a vote. Not after Obama. Not after Sanders.
Regardless of the outcome of the election or of the vote totals, Gloria La Riva and the PSL will be in the streets for months, years, and decades to come. We welcome, and we cherish, every single vote for socialism, for Gloria La Riva for the PSL. But we also invite all working-class people to join the PSL, so that all of us, together, can collaborate and achieve liberation from economic exploitation in the historic struggles to come.
Rodolfo Cortes was an organizer in the successful effort to stop SB 625, which would have removed the right to elect the board of the Central Basin Municipal Water District.
Howie Hawkins
By Diana Brown
Every election, we are fed broken promises as we witness our values being thrown out of the window the closer we get to November. In 2020, the duopoly didn’t even try. I refuse to continue going down this endless dark hole. For a brief moment, we had a glimmer of hope with Bernie. In his place, they rewarded us with a racist, warmongering, senile, rapist.
I’m tired of their audacity and will be pushing back! Howie Hawkins is the third-party vote that can finally break the two-party system. I’m tired of representatives that are beholden to corporations. I want a true working class leader in the Oval Office.
Howie Hawkins is the co-author of the Green New Deal. His platform includes Universal Basic Income (UBI), Covid-19 debt forgiveness, Medicare for All, tuition-free education, abolishing ICE, closing detention centers, and — what I love most — recognizing Indigenous rights. I want a president whose priority is human rights, not making backroom deals to pad his wallet.
Continuing to support the same old duopoly won’t create change. I want to vote for a party that can beat them. The Green Party is one of only four parties that has the 270 electoral votes necessary to win. Plus, helping the Greens achieve at least 5% of the national vote would garner $8 to $10 million in 2024 federal funding. That money would help the Green Party break through the duopoly-owned media landscape. With a wider reach, they’d have a chance of polling at the minimum 15% required to earn a spot on the national debate stage.
I will not be dictated to nor will I be defeated by the present situation. Now, more than ever, I need my vote to be for hope. The electoral college is winner take all. I want my vote to count. In a safe blue state, I can confidently vote anti-establishment for Hawkins/Walker!
En cada elección, nos dicen promesas falsas y los valores se tiran por la ventana acercandanos a noviembre. En 2020, el duopolio ni siquiera lo intentó. Me niego a seguir bajando por este interminable agujero oscuro. Por un breve momento, tuvimos un rayo de esperanza con Bernie. En su lugar, nos premiaron con un violador, racista, belicista, y senil.
¡Estoy cansado de la audacia y los rechazaré! Howie Hawkins es el voto de un tercer partido que finalmente puede romper el sistema bipartidista. Estoy cansada de los representantes que están en deuda con las corporaciones. Quiero un verdadero líder de la clase trabajadora en la Oficina Oval.
Howie Hawkins es coautor del Green New Deal y su plataforma incluye la Renta Básica Universal (RBU), el perdón de Covid-19, Medicare para todos, educación gratuita y lo que más amo, quiere reconocer los derechos de los indígenas, abolir ICE y cerrar centros de detención. Quiero un presidente que su prioridad sean los derechos humanos y que no haga tratos clandestinos para llenar su billetera.
Continuar apoyando el mismo duopolio de siempre no generará cambios. Quiero votar por un partido que PUEDE vencerlos. El Partido Verde es uno de los cuatro partidos que tiene 270 votos electorales para ganar. Es posible ganar si todos los que dijeron que un partido tercero no puede ganar votaran por el partido tercero. Además, ayudar a los Verdes a lograr el minimo 5% del voto nacional ganaran entre $8 y $10 millones en fondos federales para 2024. Ese nivel de financiación les ayudaría a superar el apagón de los medios (medios son propiedad del duopolio) y, con el alcance más amplio, una oportunidad para llegar al mínimo del 15% requerido para estar en el escenario del debate.
La situación actual no me impondrá ni me derrotará. Ahora, más que nunca, necesito que mi voto sea a favor de la esperanza. El colegio electoral es el ganador se lleva todo. Quiero que mi voto cuente y en un estado azul seguro, puedo votar con confianza en contra del establecimiento y el cambio del sistema a favor de Hawkins/Walker.
After volunteering on the Bernie 2016 campaign, Diana Brown joined the Green Party of Los Angeles County Council.
Joe Biden
By Scott Schultz
I’m enthusiastically voting for Joe Biden for president, despite the fact that he was not my preferred candidate in the Democratic primary. I voted for Elizabeth Warren on Super Tuesday, although it was clear that she would not win our state’s primary. It’s not that Biden is a bad person, or even a bad candidate, I just personally preferred to see my party tilt further left than the Obama administration.
I never disliked Biden as a public servant, a Democrat, an American or a human being. Joe Biden clearly understands the responsibilities of the presidency. He comprehends the issues, can prepare for any emergencies that may arise, and won’t hide from making difficult decisions, regardless of how it will affect his electability. He also doesn’t have profit interests of private businesses — those are some obvious clear differences between Biden and Trump that make Biden the obvious choice.
Another major difference is that Biden isn’t an asshole. We won’t wake up each day wondering how our president will embarrass us or put our liberties at risk. Biden has human empathy. Biden doesn’t hold grudges. Biden respects the sacrifices made by those who join the military and does not call veterans losers or suckers. Biden isn’t a racist. Biden doesn’t solicit foreign governments to benefit his own personal interests. Biden will never like and forward tweets by Nazi’s, KKK leaders, or White Power prison gangs. Biden won’t attack American confidence in leading medical experts as we face our country’s worst medical crisis in a century.
Biden has also probably not only read the US Constitution, but he probably memorized it, internalized it, and applies it to his decision making. I doubt Trump has ever read the entire constitution, and he clearly lacks any adoration, or even respect for it. Trump doesn’t know the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights, and if he knew what they were, he probably wouldn’t agree with all of them.
Our incumbent Donald Trump is such a horrible president that I would enthusiastically endorse any Democratic candidate running against him. In fact, I would vote for any Republican candidate running against him if that were my only alternative to voting Trump. In fact, I would vote for any character from Tiger King before I would vote for him. I’d vote for the security guard at Ralph’s who doesn’t allow me to bring my backpack into the store over him. In every measurable way, Trump has failed as President. He hasn’t come close to earning another term in office. He should be fired by voters.
Biden has a greater respect for democracy than Trump. Granted, that’s a low bar — Trump has shown that he believes the free press is the enemy of the state. He takes glee in reporters being roughed up by Los Angeles Sheriffs. He sicks the National Guard on peaceful protesters to clear a path for his propagandistic photo opportunity. He declares himself the law and order president, while his inner circle and political team repeatedly face indictments and convictions for an assortment of felonies. He has admitted to being more comfortable around dictators like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-Un than he is with the leaders of our International allies.
Unlike Trump, Biden is not a coward when shit hits the fan. Trump’s handling of national emergencies has been abysmal. When Hurricane Maria obliterated Puerto Rico, Trump tossed them paper towels and essentially left residents stranded. He lied about the casualties then gave himself an A-plus for his performance. Trump was too lazy to read intelligence showing Putin paying bounties to Middle Eastern insurgents who kill Americans. Throughout the pandemic, Trump chose to be a cheerleader rather than a leader. He doesn’t acknowledge the over 200,000 preventable deaths, and he won’t acknowledge the future 200,000 deaths that will result from his incompetence.
Not only do I implore you to vote for Joe Biden, I ask you to badger all of your friends and family living in swing states where their votes matters more than it does here in Los Angeles. You know which issues matter to your loved ones who lean right. Frame conversations in such a way that convinces them to switch their votes from Trump to Biden. As voters who live in an overwhelmingly blue state, we are only able to do so much. We must do our best to convince swing state residents to vote Biden.
Scott Schultz founded the BUSted series of talks by transit riders at Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park.
