One of the many problems with the two-party system is that the public has to decide between two entities with a single person as the face of each. It reduces the multifaceted views of the American public to nothing more than a coin toss and leaves everyone: Democrat, Republican or other feeling like they have to squeeze every nuanced belief into one label. So when their side loses an election, it feels like a betrayal of everything they care about, and it is.
It starts with a betrayal. If you don’t like the Democratic candidate but you vote for them because you’re loyal to the party, that’s a betrayal in itself because you’re already using your voice to put someone in office that you wouldn’t otherwise support. The same goes for loyal Republicans who don’t like their candidate. Then, when the candidate you voted for enacts policies you don’t support, your voice is still part of the reason they’re able to do the things they do. This flawed system leaves people feeling powerless and hurt by pigeon-holing them into voting against their interests.
The 2024 election cycle had a lot at stake with people’s freedoms and livelihoods hanging in the balance, and 92 percent of black women who chose to vote voted out of obligation to protect. When that sacrifice proved for nothing, voting black women decided to detach from the rest of the world as a way to protect themselves.
This is the crux of the issue: unity and community is the only way to ensure the safety of the American people, especially in late-stage capitalism where every man is for himself. Without a village, people will lose everything. Black women wanting to turn inward and only focus on themselves isn’t a bad thing, but this rhetoric despite the context around its birth is what promotes individualism and loneliness. The way to protect ourselves is to build strong bridges with our neighbors and neighboring communities.
At the end of the day, when we fight with each other, the only people who lose are the people fighting. Instead, if other communities found ways to come together and show that everyone’s sacrifice still means something, we might find solutions to problems on our own without having to look to political offices for guidance.
