The left is polarized
Millions fueled by renewed hope
Hope of avoiding the horror of Trump
The existential threat of project 2025
But a pivotal minority are enraged
Protesting outside of the DNC
Demanding an end to arm sales to Israel
An end to our active complicity in genocide
Imagining the power of struggle
I understand both of these worlds
I see the hope and the horror
I believe in the imperative of stopping the right
But also in demanding so much more
The imperative of challenging the deeply flawed Democratic Party
In some ways the party has been a vehicle for progress
But it is a proverbial big tent
Claiming both progressives and centrists
Committed to a liberal variant on capitalism
Embedded in the logic of empire
The question is how we change it
Is there a hidden fulcrum of transformation
A portal to visionary politics
An aperture towards systemic change
Our nation’s engagement with Israel is criminal
It is unconscionable that the convention silenced the movement
Refusing to allow a Palestinian speaker
Refusing to acknowledge genocide
Praying for peace as if praying for rain
As if the bombs and munitions are not our own
Yet my spirit has been lifted since Biden stepped aside
I don’t believe that Kamala Harris represents better politics
I am not inspired by voting for a former prosecutor
A candidate who made a career jailing poor black men
A politician invested in the toxic culture of mass incarceration
A Vice President who toured Latin America
Lecturing working people not to cross our manufactured border
Commanding them to remain amidst acute economic scarcity
Demanding submission to the toxic world order US empire has created
But i do believe in the newfound hope of so many around me
I believe in making the best of a flawed hand of cards
This is a new candidacy
That means its politics are malleable
Subject to our demands
Responsive to a social world of system failure
We have a formerly unionized teacher on the ticket
A man whose daughter is a social worker in a homeless shelter
We have reason to hope amidst so much horror
The dialectic of rage and patience is at play
Its torrid waters hard to navigate
How do we use this moment to build alliances?
How do we prepare for years of strategic struggle?
I pray that we can change our nation’s direction
That we can abandon the hubris of empire
Creating space for liberation
But we cannot afford to risk project 2025
We cannot surrender to a candidate demanding mass deportation
We cannot afford to have our votes guided away from this imperative
Elections rarely allow us to vote for our dreams
Most of the time we must compromise
We must be strategic
So this anarchist will vote for Kamala Harris
I will vote with no illusions
I cast my ballot against a far more dangerous possibility
This prayer for a president we might hope to hold accountable
This is the calculus of lesser evilism
And in this moment
It is an imperative
But what we do to change our world is so much more than this
There are people of conscience on opposite sides of this divide over the election
Let us not make enemies of one another
Our capacity for system change is in the balance
We need radical energy both inside and outside the Democratic Party
We need a vision
A portal beyond this narrow electoral calculus
Our roots sink deep into the earth
We can draw water from the depths
Lending power and flow to strategic resistance
Lead image by David Amoroso: @AmorosoART on IG and twitter/x
–BYPO PHOENIX c)2024
