No One is Entitled to My Vote

This election cycle, traditional Democrats have used “vote blue no matter who” as a means to shame disenfranchised young progressive voters in order to coerce their allegiant participation at the polls. This rhetoric intensified when Bernie Sanders exited the Democratic primary race in April, taking many of his enthusiastic supporters with him. This rallying cry comes off as an entitled demand telling people to fall in line and vote for a candidate they may not like, or else Trump wins again and the world ends. All despite making no effort to appeal to the ideals of the disenfranchised. This is not going to be a winning strategy for Democrats.

What exactly have the Democrats done to engage voters they so desire that are tired of the establishment? Not much. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Joe Biden was viewed largely as a sell-out job. Joe Biden has loudly proclaimed that he does not endorse the Green New Deal, will not ban fracking, and supports additional funding for police training. These talking points are not popular with anti-establishment non-habitual voters. A "Return to Normalcy" is the exact opposite of what these people want.

If there’s one group that dislikes the old guard of the Democratic Party, it’s the Bernie Sanders’ supporters that they are trying to coerce. Not only have establishment Democrats endorsed candidates running to unseat Progressives, but they have not made an effort to engage the young enthusiasts looking for meaningful representation. Take a look at what recently happened with Ice Cube and his advocacy for Black Americans. Joe Biden neglected to embrace the opportunity to attract a lot of commonly disenfranchised voters.

Despite all of this, disenfranchised, anti-establishment voters are finding themselves being shamed into voting for Democratic candidates that they don’t support. Claims that a third-party vote or not voting at all is a vote for Trump are disingenuous. A vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for a third-party candidate. It is someone’s right to not vote just as much as it is their right to vote. For Democrats to openly claim that third party votes and non-votes only take away from the Democrats’ vote counts is presumptuous, to say the least. Anti-Establishment voters do not owe anything to the party that turned its back on them.

If the Democrats want to abandon anti-establishment voters, that’s fine. After all, they are part of the establishment; it may be ill advised for the party to wholly embrace a population of people that isn’t guaranteed to vote. With a familiar face in Joe Biden, Democrats can embrace a significant population of people who just want things to go back to normal. But it must be understood and accepted that if the disenfranchised aren’t acknowledged, they likely will not be voting for Joe Biden on election day.