Elections Have Only Been About Lesser Evils Since, Well, Forever.
The long-game is called “long-game” for a reason.
I just left Team Black’s third-quarter Federation meeting. Of course, the upcoming election was the topic of the day. Several members mentioned a strange uptick in what sounds a lot like Team White’s 2012 “I just don’t think I can vote for . . .” conundrum.
I assured the members they were mistaken. Articles like Matthew John’s I Won’t Vote Because That’s Not How You Spell Bernie, or Keara Lou’s I Can’t Vote Because I Have A Uterus, or I Am Allergic to Sexual Predators — deleted by the author a mere few hours ago — were anomalies. Everyone understands the stakes, I assured them. No one’s sitting this one out.
I don’t mean to foment conflict, but we understand you have concerns about participating in the upcoming election because it is a “lesser of two evils” referendum, do I have that right? Given this, and our recent string of tête-à-têtes, the Federation’s Board asked me to pass on a purely cautionary DFW — a “dumpster fire warning.” It reads, and I am quoting here, “Dear kinfolk: pull yourselves TF togeth — ” . . . oh, dear. Let’s go with highlights instead.
SHADOW VOTING.
So, first, you really are voting. Whether you hard-vote for a person, soft-vote against a person, or shadow-vote by staying home, it. Is. Still. A. Vote.
Whether you hard-vote for a person, soft-vote against a person, or shadow-vote by staying home, it is still a vote.
Do you know what circumstantial evidence is? Circumstantial evidence is evidence that results from combining existing facts — direct evidence — to infer a new fact. Courts give that inferred or circumstantial evidence the same weight they give direct evidence, or demonstrable facts. As applied here, when you consider you not voting in the context of someone winning or losing, it is fair to say you contributed in some way to that end, even if infinitesimally.
For me, that means every time you say “I won’t vote,” I’m going to ask who your shadow-vote favors for the win. And, look: save your objections for Jesus. My hands are tied on this one, friends.
“LESSER EVIL” AND METHUSELAH? FRIENDS SINCE PRIMARIES.
Next, stop “discovering” stuff you find in people’s pockets. “Lesser evil” is not the exception. “Lesser evil” is the rule. Somebody somewhere has been lying to you. You so very much just discovered fire here. Sliced bread too.
Your decision tree is not an exception this year. This is the only way it has ever been. What will you be discovering next, Selfish Grasshopper? Fire?
Let me re-contextualize. Of the 28 post-13th Amendment presidents, 26 or 27 have been “lesser evil” presidents for anyone who looks like me. Women have been choosing between misogynists and gynist-misas since the beginning of time. Every election, you have two candidates: one is “lesser evil evil” and the is “lesser evil evil.” You getting the picture yet?
Your angst is over the top on this. I am sorry — it had to be said. So much gnashing about compromise during our quadrennial exercise on the art of compromise. This is not an exception, this is the only way it has ever been. What will you be discovering next, Selfish Grasshopper? Fire? Let’s “adult table” ourselves together on this, ok?
I think I know what happened here: Barack Obama. A lot of you were blossoming into your current political selves when Black Ghandi hit the scene. Now you’re out there looking for love, trying to feel something again. Look — you better pick a President who does dishes, and kick those political love stories to the curb.
Getting over yourself is its own reward. In our case, we made election choices because the long-game is the only game. And, that brings us here:
ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE YOURSELVES IRRELEVANT?
If you short-game yourself out of a long-game, eventually there will be no game left where you’re allowed to enter.
Cut up like you did in 2016 and you’re going to lock yourselves out of your own future. If you short-game yourself out of a long-game, eventually there will be no game left where you can enter.
Long-game is your great-great-great grandmother as chattel; your great-great-grandmother all but; your great-grandmother hiding one child so as not to expose the others as non-White children; your grandmother holding her grit past the corner store with a Black man’s testicles in a jar on display; your mother being “aped” on her way to class, and your uncle savagely beaten with a bottle, as those next in line behind the hallowed Little Rock Nine Central High. Now, you have a doctorate. Now, you are clearing a path for the generation behind you.
So, stop playing, quit with the vapors, and vote. It is all hard. It is all sacrifice. And it is none about you. Yours was a game paid for by the person behind you. Don’t be so fixated on your moment. Pay it forward as selflessly as your predecessors did when they deprived themselves to secure a future for you.
Follow us as we push for racial equality. CIVIS ROMANIS. Because sometimes, equality is a contact sport.
Catherine Pugh is an Attorney at Law and former Adjunct Professor at the Temple University, Japan. She developed and taught Race and the Law for its undergraduate program, and Evidence, Criminal Law, and Criminal and Civil Procedure for its law program. She has worked for the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, and as a Public Defender for the State of Maryland. #IAmNeegan #IGoToPrepareAPlaceForYou #SJWDropSquad
To my sweetest of love: I am the wall for them; you are the wall for me. And nothing — nothing — has ever gotten past you. You are my everything. #CubanKitchen.
“It takes the wisdom of the elders . . .” Thank you for teaching us, loving us, leading us all: Andrea Tucker, Lorenzo and Dorris Pugh, Jacqueline and Roger Wallace, Kenneth Davis, and Karen Davis.
