Voter Suppression Depression

This was my first election as an American citizen. Today of all days there's no shortage of voting stories and political analysis, so it occurred to me that I might write a little something about the experience of voting as a new citizen. But I don't really have any grand thoughts about the experience.

As a long time voter in Canada, the differences were pretty obvious, and probably not all that surprising. Voting in Canada was much easier and I never had any doubt that my vote would be counted. And this wasn't the case here. The voting process is a mess, the ballot is extremely complicated, and I have little faith that my ballot will be counted, especially as I had two write-in votes.

And while I'm a huge fan of more democracy, this country also has a tendency to use democracy in an extremely undemocratic way. Why we vote for judges, for instance, is beyond me. That is, aside from the fact that we can't count on them to be fair without democratic accountability. But making judges electorally accountable doesn't necessarily strike me as a triumph of democracy, but as its failure, which is an argument that I might extend to those who want more democratic accountability in the Supreme Court. It seems to me that democracy is predicated on a shared commitment to the values of freedom and equality, and the fact that we can't count on judges to act in a way that's consistent with these values testifies to the undemocratic nature of our society. We need more of the formal trappings of democracy because we can't count on people to be committed to democracy. Which isn't to say that I don't want more democracy in the Supreme Court, because I do, but it's only to say that the fact that we need more democracy is itself proof of how far we need to go.

But my real takeaway from this election was more mundane. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of New York's Senators, was up for reelection. But I didn't know this. One way of looking at this is that I've really failed as a citizen and a political scientist, because I, of all people, should have known. But another way of looking at this is that if I, a damn political scientist, didn't know she was up for reelection, where exactly has she been? I haven't encountered a single political advertisement, a single campaign speech or rally, or a single flyer, mailer, or poster. NOTHING. And she's going to win.

And this mundane little realization was really depressing. I've long disliked Gillibrand, because she's basically the millennial version of Chuck Schumer. A politician with no commitments except to her own reelection, and who comes off as a tad more progressive than Schumer, but only because her career is in front of her rather than behind her, and the next generation of voters (to whom she needs to pander) is more progressive than the last. And that there was not even the slightest discussion of primarying her was depressing. Worse yet, Gillibrand can take her reelection so for granted that she didn't bother to hit me with even a single ad. I literally didn't realize she was up for reelection until two hours before I voted.

And it made me think about how, even if tonight's results are hopeful, there is so much work to be done. That said, a little bit of a celebration would still be welcome.