Two Evils

As Democrats place their bets on who will lead the party in the fight to defeat President Trump in November, a consensus has emerged among the base: We must get behind the candidate with the best chance of beating 45, no matter what. “Party solidarity” suggests that voters should support the nominee put forth by one of the two dominant political parties—even if that candidate has a history of racist policymaking or of mistreatment of women or simply doesn’t align with one’s core values. This mentality degrades our democratic system and stifles the power of this country’s emerging majority.

Let’s be clear: The consequences of elections are real. Countless lives have been lost or forever damaged by Trump’s presidency. The desire to vote him out by any means necessary is visceral and righteous; it is about our survival. But voters must remember that we have options in 2020. Polls have shown that most of the top-ranked Democrats would beat Trump in a general election. Before we dust off those “lesser of two evils” talking points, it’s important to seriously consider the short- and long-term impact on historically disenfranchised voters. In effect, we could be asking them to set aside their conscience and cast their vote for a politician who may not be the worst-case scenario but is certainly close.

During the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Representative John Lewis said, “Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.” As corruption, outsize corporate influence and foreign interference continue to erode our government and election systems, the urgency of Lewis’s words becomes more evident. For many Americans, especially those who have historically been denied the right to participate in the system, voting is one of the few bits of political capital we have—an investment in our values and a chance to ensure those values are reflected in political and legal institutions. What is a voter to do with this most “precious” and “sacred” resource when the only options are candidates with track records of acting against your values and pursuing policies that cause irrevocable harm to your community?

Voting for a candidate just because you think they have the best chance of winning directly reinforces white supremacy. The idea of electability is based on who has historically been able to run for office and cast a vote in this country. Whether it was the three-fifths compromise, literacy tests, prison walls, poll taxes, the recent voter-ID laws or voter-roll purges, our federal and state governments have gone to great lengths to ensure that the vast majority of people deciding who is electable are straight cis white men with means.

Even as the pool of eligible voters becomes more black, brown, young and progressive, the mainstream continues to prioritize the same demographic over and over again, just as the founding fathers intended.

This trend of voting for the party’s nominee against your better judgment also weakens the political power of women and people of color. Take for example the case of Governor Ralph “Blackface” Northam of Virginia. In the summer of 2017 I led a project called In Charge: Black Women Taking Action. Our mission was to organize black women to get out the vote for governor. Northam was your textbook “safe bet” Democratic nominee, and he was running against Ed Gillespie, who ran a campaign that was deemed overtly racist and bigoted. Northam was certainly the “lesser of two evils,” but there was nothing about his candidacy that would draw black voters out in the numbers he needed to win. Groups including BlackPAC and Collective PAC worked to mobilize black women and community leaders to vote. Northam became governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia due in large part to high turnout among black voters in the Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach areas.

It stands to reason that if black voters played a significant role in handing Northam the gubernatorial election, then black community voices would receive significant weight and consideration in his decisions. But when Northam was accused of appearing in blackface in a photo that surfaced at the beginning of last year, he ignored the calls of thousands of his black and brown constituents and refused to resign. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus issued a statement calling for his resignation, and NAACP leaders organized a number of protests in the state, but Northam remains in office, having faced little to no consequences. His refusal to bow to political pressure from the very people who elected him is more harmful to black voters than 10 pictures of him in blackface: It sends a message to future candidates and the general public that it’s actually not necessary to be accountable to black people and anti-racist voters. It means that even overtly racist behavior in the past is excusable if your opponent is just a little bit more racist.

I regret asking black women in Virginia to vote for a candidate like Ralph Northam. I won’t make the same mistake in 2020.

This election cycle, I’m committed to organizing with black voters and progressive voters to support a candidate who not only aligns with my values but is enthusiastically ready to be accountable to my community. With so much at stake, we can’t afford to just donate our vote—that most precious and sacred tool John Lewis spoke of—in the name of “party solidarity.”

Angela Peoples is co-founder of cultural and political brand the South and director of Black Womxn For.