Aya de Leon:

I went to Elizabeth Warren’s rally last year in Oakland and fell in love. She was warm, funny, and was outlining policy platforms that would transform the US into the nation I would be proud and joyful to live in. But I wasn’t ready to endorse officially. After all, I’m Black, and Kamala and Corey were still in the race. I owed it to my people to at least check them out.

At the time, I was still soured on Sanders for his speaking against “identity politics” and the Bernie Bro issues from 2016. But Naomi Klein had a great piece in the Intercept: “Forget Bernie vs. Warren. Focus on Growing the Progressive Base and Defeating Biden.” She was right. Since then, I have supported both candidates, donated to both candidates, and called for peace between their supporters on social media. I’ve been upset that I can’t vote for both in the primary.

They both meet my basic climate criteria, which is that they support the Green New Deal and are ready to take on the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold on our democracy. Beyond that, I like each of them for different reasons. Sanders is a Democratic Socialist and my politics align better with his. Still, I like Warren’s explicit commitment to intersectional analysis of problems and solutions. Warren seems like she would be stronger as far as getting things done, but Sanders has a foreign policy agenda that aligns much more strongly with my own anti-imperialist views. At the end of day, I waited until after the results from South Carolina to make my decision.

Now, the decision is clear. Biden is surging, and I’ll vote to back Bernie to stop him. Think Sanders can’t win? Think again. Biden would be a nightmare. People think he’s more electable because he so closely resembles 44 of the last 45 presidents. But they don’t understand that he’s an even worse candidate than Hilary, and the GOP has had 4 years of executive branch power to increase their voter suppression. The notion that Biden is the only one who could beat Tr*mp is an outdated notion, based on demographics of US voters from the 1980s and 90s. Biden is like a Kerry or Al Gore—he won’t inspire the young voters, progressive voters, or voters of color. When they stay home (like many do with uninspiring, conservative-leaning Democrats) we lose. Obama was the last win we had, and he was anything but a conventional choice. Ian Haney Lopez has a current electoral analysis that people should also read if they want a clear strategy to win in November.

I know that the Democratic establishment doesn’t like Sanders and doesn’t want him as their nominee. They don’t like Warren, either, but she isn’t as far left as Bernie. I worry that if Sanders doesn’t go into the convention with as strong a majority as possible, establishment Dems could steal the nomination from him and give it to Biden, even though he has no majority and no mandate. So even though Warren is my favorite in a lot of ways, my vote is strategic to support Sanders and be a wedge against these miserable moderates: Biden and Bloomberg.

Elizabeth Stark:

In college, I risked arrest in political actions, stopped to observe cops’ interactions on the streets, and tried to prepare myself for the utopia I felt sure we were creating. But I was skeptical about voting. Voting endorses the system in a general way, and I was young and radical and wanted systemic change. Now I’m older and still radical and definitely want systemic change, but I am a “by any means necessary” activist–and that definitely includes voting! Really it always did–I’ve never not voted, though I have displeased some mainstream liberals with my choices.

So now it’s Super Tuesday in a very active race. After South Carolina, I woke at 4:30 in the morning and read the Times opinion pieces and Googled, Who does Ta-Nehesi Coates support in the primary? Which led to a dawn encounter with the July 2019 headline Ta-Nehesi Coates: Joe Biden Shouldn’t Be President. But I knew that. It was the Bernie/ Elizabeth struggle that kept me awake, and which Aya’s brilliant insights, above, has reawakened. 

Yes, voting is keeping me up at night. Voting matters. (My 19-year-old self rolls her eyes, youth and privilege glowing in her skin.) Please vote, and please vote for a climate future we can live with. But don’t think of voting as the be-all, end-all action. The only or the final step, after which, elation or despair. We need to turn this trajectory around, whoever wins. Yes, we must have an ally in the White House, and we need the House and the Senate on our side, too, but we plan for all contingencies. It’s vital that we see voting as part of a multi-tiered approach to the necessary and swift world change we need to see in time to redirect the climate emergency.

The Sunrise Movement has launched a three-part strategy for 2020, and VOTE is step two. Step one is to Organize. And actually, while I urge you to vote for Warren or Sanders in the Primary–for climate consideration at the level that could have enough impact to change the trajectory–we are actually in the organizing phase. Because we are all going to vote again in November. So vote today and then get back to organizing, and remember, no matter what happens with the vote–it’s our second step, not our last!  We are going to keep fighting this fight, by any means necessary. Today’s the day!