During the 2020 election season, I made a silent prayer to myself; it went something like: “Please, for the love of God, let this be the worst election I ever vote in.” I had spent the year working as an election official for my local county seat—a job that consists primarily of guiding people through early-voting procedure throughout the mid-to-late summer, and then providing support to the polling locales once Nov. 7 rolled around. Never before had I experienced such a level of societal rot as I did at that job in that specific historic moment: I was routinely accosted by voters—accused of electioneering, burning their ballots, or being in the pockets of the “satanic elite.” As you can imagine, it was miserable. However, it was as depressing an experience as it was an enlightening one. I walked away from the job dissatisfied with the American system of government, and with a deeply cynical view of the democratic process as a whole (at least, as it exists currently in the United States). 

Welp, in an act of what can only be described as divine malicious compliance, my prayers have been answered. The monkey’s paw has furled back, and it seems that the 2024 election will pit Joe Biden against Donald Trump in a race-to-the-bottom campaign for the presidency. To put it bluntly: I just can’t do this again. Joe Biden’s handling of the Palestinian genocide has already bloodied my ballot-weilding hands enough, and I simply cannot vote for him again in good conscience. The whole “voting for the lesser evils” schtick has worn thin—truth be told, it had worn thin in 2020, but now, more than ever, it’s clear that the term “lesser evils” is, itself, a myth. Are the bombs that fall on Palestinian children the “lesser” evil? No. “Lesser evil,” in this case, is not a distinction on the quantity of evil that either candidate will enact upon the world, but rather a distinction of target; the average line-toting Democrat wishes to assuage liberals’ disquieted sensibilities via the export of American hatred and evil outwardly (and thus beyond the concern of the myopic liberals). It’s turtles all the way down. 

But wouldn’t Trump handle everything worse than Biden? I don’t know, but my ever-creeping suspicion is that Trump wouldn’t have been better *or* worse, but rather the exact same. I truly believe that the outcome of the 2020 election wouldn’t have made a material difference at all. Trump may have enacted this horror show with more gusto and machismo, but truly, what difference would posturing have made? It’s still the same tax dollars funding the same genocide that’s been occuring throughout the tenure of both Republican and Democratic presidents for years. It’s the same reactionary zealotry in the hearts of American conservatives that increasingly pushes our country towards fascism. It’s the same economic death-spiral. What difference does it make? What good are the slim few things Biden has done if they are at imminent risk of being undone? What good are the Democrats if they bend to the whims of the Republicans (and, by extension, American capitalism) at every opportunity? Truly, I don’t even think we have a two-party state anymore. . . (if indeed we ever did), what we have is a singular capitalist state, with two aesthetically-curated identities to choose from, and I’m sick of it. 

 I refuse to vote for Joe Biden.