Coming off Harris’ amazing acceptance speech at the DNC last night, I was exhilarated. I said to my husband, “We’ve just seen the next President of the United States.”
This morning, on social media, I saw several people saying things along the lines of “How anyone can support that genocidal, anti-Semitic murderer for President is beyond me. It’s vile! If you vote for Harris, you’re voting for thousands more Palestinian children to be murdered! You’re saying you approve of what Israel is doing in Gaza!”
The people who said that did not pay attention to what Harris actually said, and they don’t understand the assignment. They’re too blinded by their ideals to see reality. The reality is, we’re in a two-party system, and if you don’t vote for one candidate, you have, in effect, voted for the other. And by “in effect,” I mean “the effects of your actions.”
I saw a thread on Mastodon yesterday (which, sadly, I can’t find now). The main points stuck with me, however. It was about why politicians and activists do not, and cannot, get along about the issues they’re both dealing with.
Fundamentally, it’s about the parameters of the job. Politicians’ jobs are limited to the moment - their term of office - and they have to do what’s actually do-able in that moment. This means they can’t do things that will make it impossible to keep doing the job (by getting re-elected for the next term). They have to move in baby steps - one small achievement at a time.
Activists’ jobs, on the other hand, are about the long haul. Their job - their goal - is to create lasting cultural change. But culture doesn’t turn on a dime, and it doesn’t change overnight. Activists want big changes, and some of them want them right now, but they’re not constrained the way politicians are.
So we get some activists demanding something that takes long-term cultural change, and demanding it happen immediately. Then politicians do what they can towards that goal in the moment, and those activists say “that’s not enough, do more!” - a demand to which politicians cannot accede, because they have to keep their jobs. (And this doesn’t even get into what happens when cultural change happens faster than the majority of people in the culture can handle it, which leads to a backlash and regression. But that’s a topic for a different post.)
I have several friends on social media who are definitely in this group of activists, who are declaring they won’t vote for Harris unless the war in Gaza stops immediately. My husband has a few co-workers who are doing the same thing. When I see a new post from one of them about how Harris is an anti-Semite who supports genocide, I have to put that person on mute, because they’re in that group of activists, and they aren’t going to listen to the realities of politics.
To those activists: Believe it or not, we get you, but we have to do what can be done now, in this moment, and that means we have to take baby steps. No, we can’t stop the war in Gaza singlehandedly. No, we can’t stop it immediately. What you are demanding is not possible in this moment. And we need you to recognize that part of the long haul is making sure the right wing doesn’t take control of government again! We’ve seen that movie, several times, and it doesn’t end well for any of us or any of our goals. Harris does not have a magic button she can press to stop the war in Gaza. Neither does Biden, frankly. And expecting it anyway means you’re no more in touch with reality than the right wing.
I’m not interested in arguing about it, and you will not change my mind, so let’s not waste time in argument. I’m interested in reality, and right now the reality is we need Harris and Walz in office so they can do something towards fixing the problems (plural) that we’re dealing with.
Yes, activists, I agree with you that what’s happening in Gaza is horrific. But I don’t agree that we can do much about it in this moment, especially if Trump somehow gets back in office. With Harris and Walz in office, at least we’ll have a chance.
Let’s grab that chance.
