Know Your Enemy

Voting: What Is it Good For? (w/ Astra Taylor, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, & Malcolm Harris) [TEASER]

Oct 29, 2024

Debates on the strategic value of voting heat up as guests tackle complex questions surrounding the 2024 election. Is voting a moral statement or a tactical move? Frustration with the current administration intertwines with the need for continued activism. The discussion encourages a deeper understanding of the political landscape, urging listeners to look beyond immediate outcomes. Engaging with these ideas could shape a more informed and mobilized future for the left.

03:41

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Quick takeaways

Engaging with the Democratic Party is essential for the left, despite its current resistance, to foster long-term progressive change.

A successful political strategy requires balancing immediate actions with sustained efforts to build durable left institutions for lasting impact.

Deep dives

The Challenge of Engaging with the Democratic Party

The current political landscape presents significant challenges for those on the left seeking to engage with the Democratic Party. The administration has consistently refused to make concessions or acknowledge the concerns of the left, leading to a perception that any efforts to lobby or protest may be futile. However, it is argued that withdrawing from engagement altogether would be a strategic mistake, as consistent pressure is necessary to influence change. Building and maintaining relationships with the party, despite its current stance, is considered essential for long-term realignment toward more progressive policies.

Navigating Political Frustrations and Long-Term Strategies

3min

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If you're on the left and you've spent time on the internet in the past few weeks, you've probably observe or participated in debates about the strategic value and moral status of voting in the 2024 election: Is it okay to vote for Kamala Harris even though her administration is complicit in a genocide? Is voting an exercise in signaling one's moral convincetions and identity? Or merely a tactical decision calculated to create better or worse terrain on which to organize in the future? Or is it something else altogether?

Perhaps these debates have stimulated you; perhaps they've filled you with despair; or perhaps (like Sam) they've driven you nuts. The intention of this conversation — with three of my favorite writers and thinkers — is to help us see further: past the stale categories and tendentious arguments that leave us, on the left, feeling frustrated and mistrustful, rather than mobilized and oriented toward a future beyond November 5th.

Our guests include: Astra Taylor, filmmaker, writer, organizer, and cofounder of The Debt Collective; author and organizer Malcolm Harris; and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, author, political philosopher, and co-editor of Hammer & Hope — a new magazine of black politics and culture.

Further Reading/Viewing/Listening:

Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, (2023)

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), (2022)

Astra Taylor, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, (2023)

— "What is Democracy?" (Zeitgeist Films, 2019)

Josie Ensor, "They voted Democrat for years — but the war in Lebanon changes everything," The Times, Oct 25, 2024.

"Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats and Community Leaders Statement on Presidential Election," Oct 24, 2024.

KYE, The Uncommitted Movement (w/ Waleed Shahid & Abbas Alawieh), Sept 4, 2024.