Baba cushioned me under one arm. He used his other to wield unrelenting strikes at the TV while George W. Bush addressed the state of the union for a second time. I remember the rage in his timbre when he yelled “liar” to empty space and a black screen. This was the first time I questioned how we could have a good country and a bad leader. Baba’s brows furrowed and he pushed out heavy, hot air through his nose. I squeezed him. “Baba,” I gulped, “If I were president, I would never lie.” Baba took a deep breath and mustered a smile. He switched off the TV, retreated his attacking arm, and held the rest of me.
Despite my ambitions, I never became president. However, since turning 18, I assumed the next best role: a civically engaged voter. In 2012, I proudly checked the box next to Barack Obama’s name and reminded myself to research the propositions for next time.
That year, I made Obama president. For a moment, Obama restored my faith in the government and made Baba happy.
I made Obama president. Obama brought back troops from Iraq and assured more would return. He promised an equitable healthcare system. He said he would give aid to Palestine.
I made a killer president. Obama fueled a covert drone war in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Yemen killing hundreds of innocent civilians. After building his campaign on ending war, he sent more U.S. troops to Iraq in 2014. President Barack Obama shoveled billions of dollars to facilitate Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
I made a killer president in 2012. And I won’t do it again. Now, in 2024, U.S. citizens are faced with a ballot sandwiching us between a fear-mongering, anti-immigration, elitist who supports Israel’s genocide in Palestine versus a bold-face lying, identity politics-abusing, maniacally-laughing co-perpetrator of the genocide. This election season, I won’t be voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
And I won’t consume the lie that one vote is the lesser of two evils. Sure, maybe one candidate [Harris] won’t openly mock people with disabilities on Live TV, but I can’t account for the depths of immorality she will engage in behind closed doors. Unfortunately, impossible decisions like the 2024 presidential election are a trend in U.S. voter history.
This isn't the first time voters are backed into a corner. In retrospect, it seems nearly every election in the last few decades leaned on the narrative that one candidate is actually "less harmful" than the other. Typically, though, media was able to conceal that harm more effectively than they've been able to with Harris and Trump. In 2012, I had no idea that Obama, the progressive candidate, would end up continuing and escalating the same wars as his conservative predecessor.
This fallacy of choice is the direct result of a two-party voting system. Americans do not have real, sincere diversity in presidential candidates. And oftentimes, the two choices we do have sinisterly mirror each other.
We can't forget Jill Stein! She's our third choice, our option! Until a liberal voter chastises you for choosing a third party candidate and splitting the left. Apparently, in a two-party system, voting Green Party is the equivalent to rotting on your couch, guzzling a greasy slice of pizza, and avoiding the polls altogether. At least, this is what our election system begs us to accept.
The U.S. two-party voting system promises an illusion of choice. We’ve been subject to this type of settling repeatedly. But, now, thanks to the internet, we can't accept the two-choice lie. There’s no longer a monopoly on news. Independent journalists and witnesses on the ground are sharing their perspectives through a variety of accessible platforms. The two parties and their respective mainstream news accounts [CNN and Fox] no longer control discourse. Americans are learning about the world from the source–it’s people. We're wising up to our flawed institutions.
It’s no longer sufficient for Harris’s only campaign strategy to be anti-Trump rhetoric and embarrassing pandering. Harris's propaganda weakens her as it stacks heavily over her hands, stained with the blood of 42,000+ Gazans. Her approach is particularly empty to a millennial Arab-American who's consistently had to choose between two U.S. politicians fighting for votes to continue killing her family and friends in Arab countries.
In the wake of the genocide in Gaza carried out by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the occupying state of Israel, voters are vocal. We've had enough. Despite and due to the genocide in Palestine, conditions in our own country are worsening. Inflation in this presidency hit record highs, the unemployment rate is unacceptable, and the cost of living is rising for most Americans. Meanwhile Harris and Biden send our tax dollars to feed the blood-hungry, land-grabbing entity of Israel. Harris has proven that she is not any less evil than her opponent. Like him and presidents before him, she is a killer. U.S. citizens are smarter than the lesser of two evils. We are opting out of a system that fails us.
In 2012, I was given two choices. I naively believed one was better than the other. As a result, I set myself and the country up for failure. Today, I recognize that opting out of voting for the lesser of two evils is not apathy. Voting third party and rejecting two bad leaders is not lacking strategy or showing apathy. It is resistance.
I am a 30 year-old Arab-American and I am resisting an institution that touts empty choices, while trampling over my people in the name of capitalist pursuits. I am rejecting a system that uses my labor to fund the displacing, assaulting, injuring, infecting, and murdering of tens of thousands of people in Gaza. My people. I am resisting the greater evil, the lesser, and the election system that curates both.
Shireen is an Arab-American teacher & writer who grew up in Fresno. They hope to use their teaching experience and passion for writing to help carve out access and opportunity for valley residents. They contribute to uSpark as a writer and active member of the community.