Another election cycle has come and gone, and the implications are clear: In general, it seems that Democrats overwhelmed Republicans in suburban America to the point where they have gained an outright majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Even the congressional election for our district, NY-22, has been close to the point where we still don’t know who will represent us come January. We have voted. We have made our voices heard through this system. But that is only step one.
Voting is necessary for those who have the ability to do so; it is not, however, and should not be considered a replacement for participation in our community. It is neither that, nor a way in and of itself to hold our already-elected representatives accountable. It isn’t even actually representative. Our political system isn’t designed to facilitate that. For one thing, it is designed to exclude those among us who are the most marginalized. It also does not protect against demagogues who rule by tyranny of the majority. Take Brian Kemp, the former secretary of state of Georgia, as an example. In his campaign for governor this year, he effectively oversaw his own election, using his powers as secretary of state to purge people of color from the state’s voting rolls and placing many tens of thousands of voter registrations on hold just one month before the election. In other states, voter identification laws were passed to “combat” the nonexistent problem of voter fraud as Department of Motor Vehicles offices were closed down in marginalized communities so that people in those communities couldn’t get voter identification cards, a form of voter suppression we have seen in Alabama. This is not to mention the cost of such ID cards: The cost of travel, for one, and other documents to obtain an ID can be expensive, as we have seen for persons born in the Jim Crow south.
There is also the issue of gerrymandering and representation. We see this being discussed in the context of the House of Representatives often. But we must look at the Senate as well. It is, effectively, one of the most anti-democratic institutions to be found. This is not by accident. It was the consensus during the Constitutional Convention that the Senate would “restrain” democracy — this at a time when many of the delegates, for context, owned living human beings as slaves. Jay Willis writes in GQ, “Since there now are a greater number of sparsely-populated, mostly-white, right-leaning states than there are heavily-populated, racially-diverse, left-leaning states, the Senate acts to preserve power for people and groups who would otherwise have failed to earn it. A voter in Wyoming (population 579,000) enjoys roughly 70 times more influence in the Senate than a voter in California (population 39.5 million).”
And this is to say nothing of the electoral college. Some may claim that we live in a republic, not a democracy, and that this entire piece of writing is moot. But it is a distinction without a difference, one that can be understood as code for, “I don’t care if some voices in society are more important than others, as long as mine is considered important.”
Since we operate under an anti-democratic system, what can we do? One could attempt to work within the system to try and reform it. These reforms can achieve ultimately so much, what with the vast swaths of wealth influencing the system to begin with, and may be rolled back by its other participants. A more effective method is building up alternative institutions, challenging oppressive systems directly and taking power that way. Joining an organization and performing local work in this community is a way to do that. Organizations like Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, Truth Pharm, the local Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and other organizations all provide ways to get involved in this community. All it takes is the desire to build power for all.
Jacob Hanna is a junior majoring in economics.