voting Archives - Wear Your Voice

Native American Voting Power Made An Impact In 2020

A record-breaking six Native Americans candidates were elected to Congress while several others were elected in states across the country, showing the strength of Native American voting power. By Terrelene Massey When I think about the past year and what it meant

Dec 8, 2020

News & Politics

If This Didn’t Push You Further To The Left, What Will?

There is no freedom under capitalism, white supremacy, and cisheteropatriarchy. If none of this pushes you further left, then what will? If last night’s political theater didn’t push you further to the left, then I don’t know what will. If it wasn’t

Sep 30, 2020

News & Politics

Civic Engagement Does Not Begin and End With Voting

Civic engagement is about more than just going to a poll to say you did something. “Engage” is a verb. It requires action. At last night’s Presidential Democratic debate, almost all of the candidates took rightful digs at former New York

Feb 20, 2020

News & Politics

Florida Lawmakers Are Working Hard to Bring Back Racist Poll Taxes

Aiming to mitigate the impact of a new felon enfranchisement measure, Republican lawmakers are turning to Jim Crow like policies. Republicans typically don't like taxes, unless they’re poll taxes. Last week a bill passed the Republican state house panel in

Mar 25, 2019

News & Politics

The Voting Happened, Now What?

It is our duty as people who exist on land that was brutally taken and brutally exploited, to make time to be informed and active political beings.

It’s a huge relief that the midterm elections are over. Everything leading up to Nov. 6 felt like having a cystic pimple being squeezed. For Black, Indigenous and people of color, especially those of us who lean left to far-left, the constant and consistent “vote you lil’ fuckers, or you’ll DIE” from liberals of all colors felt like being pelted by dirty, newborn baby diapers. It didn’t matter if we wrote about and organized against voter disenfranchisement, white violence, systemic racism and the need to focus on the ways in which white people vote. It didn’t matter if our lives revolved around grassroots organizing and various means of protest. It certainly didn’t matter if we were well-informed human beings who understood that change doesn’t come entirely from the ballot box, but rather that, as Lucy Parsons put so perfectly in The Principles of Anarchism, “Governments never lead; they follow progress.” So, here we are. The Democrats and their “blue wave” (or rather their tepid, little splash in an inflatable child’s-sized pool) took the House of Representatives, while alleged serial killer Ted Cruz kept his Senate seat thanks to the massive amounts of white people who fear a brown planet, while other key seats remained under Republican control. This morning blue voters can pat themselves on the back for ushering in more women than ever into office, as well was a few other notable wins which ought to not be firsts, but who are we kidding in Amerikkka? Another day under another imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist, misogynistic, queerphobic, colonialist government continues and we’re here to remind you that your vote is not enough because centrism won’t ever defeat fascism. For many people, their participation in politics begins and ends with voting every two or four years. Part of this is because the United States government and capitalist entities have worked tirelessly to ensure that the working class has little time, energy or interest in participating in political matters, but for many other people, our existence is so heavily political and influenced by various oppressions, that we don’t have a choice but to pay close attention to what elected officials are up to the few days that they actually do work for the people, and we don’t have a choice but to organize against the ruling class aka, the bourgeoisie, the 1% and the people who uphold and protect them: police forces, judicial officials, politicians, etc.. It is easier to maintain a system of oppression that seems like it is either so terrible that we can’t do shit about it, or that it is so insidious that we wouldn’t know what to do about it because we know that the cuts hurt, but we cannot see the blade that sliced us open. But the truths are there and it is our duty as people who exist on land that was brutally taken and brutally exploited, to make time to be informed and active political beings.