Black History Month 2026: Voting Matters!
Day 10
Yep, I’m going to be that annoying guy who tells you voting matters--because it does! I’m not saying you shouldn’t do other things like protesting because you absolutely should (more on this later).
I get it: both parties are right-wing capitalist parties who are owned by corporations. Both parties take in hundreds of millions of dollars from SuperPACs to support the interests of billionaires and corporations over the interests of the people. All of that is true, and I will not dispute that. (Ironically, the Citizens United ruling that created our current situation was done by a conservative majority.) Even with that, voting still matters.
Why? Because the easiest way to get someone in office who listens to you is by electing them. The problem is people don’t vote enough. Only showing up for the US general elections every 2-4 years doesn’t yield good candidates. You must show up to the primaries. You must show up to state and local elections. Most importantly, you must convince other people to vote as well. That’s how New Yorkers elected Mayor Mamdani, a candidate who started out as one of the least popular candidates [1]. They showed up, they volunteered, they spread awareness, and they voted!
Democracy requires participation. When people don’t participate, anti-democratic forces can take power. This is why conservatives, who are inherently hostile to democracy, fight so hard to prevent people from voting [2]. That’s why they fought to strike down the Voting Rights Act. That’s why they started closing polling places in Black and brown areas of cities and passing voter ID laws [3][4]. That’s why Florida conservatives tried to ban giving water to people standing in line at polling places [5]. If voting didn’t matter, conservatives wouldn’t be doing everything they can to lower turnout.
When people don’t vote, conservatives get elected to the White House. The conservative President then appoints conservative Supreme Court Justices. That’s how we got a Supreme Court that struck down Roe v. Wade. That’s how we got a Supreme Court that made the infamous Citizens United Ruling. That’s how we got a Supreme Court that gutted the Voting Rights Act. All those Justices were appointed by conservative Presidents.
Voting matters, but it’s not all that matters. Protesting is important, too. Protesting is good--and it works [6][7]! The reason protesting works is it inspires people to activism. This can mean more people being politically informed, more people volunteering for their favorite candidates, and more people running for office. But when those candidates run for office, you still need to show up and vote!
Is the system perfect? No. Voting doesn’t always yield good candidates. Sometimes you Manchins and Sinemas. But you still have to try. The same process that gets you Manchins and Sinemas also gets you Sanders, Markeys, The Squad, and Talaricos (hopefully)!
Sources:
[1] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-zohran-mamdanis-victory-matters-how-it-happened-what-it-means/
[2] https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josi.12633?af=R
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/11/us-polling-sites-closed-report-supreme-court-ruling
[4] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/impact-voter-suppression-communities-color
[5] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/florida-strips-language-bill-effectively-banning-voters-being-given-food-n1263568
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/25/protests-effective-history-impact
[7] https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-protests-can-swing-elections
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