I truly appreciate how you have thought through this. It's a difficult choice in some ways, and not in other ways. A vote is a very personal thing. No one should feel like someone has forced them to choose someone. I trust you to know your own mind. I hope you're able to come to some sort of resolution by the time you go to vote.
I feel it took a lot of courage for you to share this on so many levels. Thank you for speaking up! You are so not alone in trying to find your big and little P power while wading through the deep moral injuries and double binds imbedded in our social-political landscape and election. We must start visioning our future together with haste (regardless of each person's voting choices now) so that our kiddos can hopefully have a party to vote for that they can truly believe represents them!
Thank you for expressing this in a way that I couldn’t find the words. There are layers and nuances and so much information that sometimes it feels that my head will explode. And I feel so many of these issues deep inside my being. I appreciate you processing this here.
Canadian corporate media report each general election as if Canadians were voting for electoral college votes for the President of Canada, even though Canada doesn't have a President and doesn't directly elect the Prime Minister. There is no “down ballot” – there is only one ballot that has never had a vote for Prime Minister. Canadians who vote based on what the media is telling them vote in ways that mangle the process, bringing in candidates that they haven’t even bothered to learn about.
In the lead up to the next election I'm being told I have to vote for "Justin Trudeau" in order for "Pierre Poilievre" to not become the next Prime Minister, even though neither of those names will be on my ballot. I don't support any of the parties with seats in parliament, or their leaders. But none of those leaders names will be on my ballot, so why am I being told that is the only thing I'm allowed to care about?
When I was younger I thought electoral reform could help fix these problems, only to find that the electoral reform movement in Canada was taken over by partisans who want to bring even more hyper-partisan "yellow dog" candidates into parliaments through party lists or Party Block Voting.
USA has a strong FairVote.org group that is pushing for ranked ballots, but as important as ranked ballots are, that is only part of the changes needed to create a healthy democracy. The corporate executives of political parties control so much of our democratic institutions, and it is extremely hard to get individuals worthy of being voted for onto ballots in the first place.
Canada’s position on West Asia disgusts me as well.
“Two groups conflate Zionism and Judaism: Zionists, who want to legitimize Zionism by pretending it is Judaism; and antisemites, who want to de-legitimize Judaism by pretending it is Zionism. ” - Yaakov Shapiro, an anti-Zionist Orthodox rabbi.
I see so much antisemitic promotion of Zionism within Canadian culture, media, and politics.
The Canadian government (not a specific political party) has not been neutral in this, from its "None Is Too Many" policies on refugees from the Shoah to its ongoing promotion of Israel as the only valid destination for Jewish people. It hasn't offered as blatant cover for Zionist atrocities over the last century as the US and UK have, but it has still never been neutral.
The way none of it brings any sort of relief or resolution is agonizing. The fact we’re here again and it’s only gotten more complicated and worse is heavy. The parts you shared about Medicaid funding and residential care resonated in my gut. The vastness that exists between my disabled son’s future and the complete lack of one for Palestinian children is both infinite and minuscule. Living in a red state where my vote feels canceled out by everyone around me is a temptation to despair.
Thanks so much for writing this. You've clearly described the situation in a way that resonates so much for me, but I didn't have the words to say it the way you did.
I truly appreciate how you have thought through this. It's a difficult choice in some ways, and not in other ways. A vote is a very personal thing. No one should feel like someone has forced them to choose someone. I trust you to know your own mind. I hope you're able to come to some sort of resolution by the time you go to vote.
I feel it took a lot of courage for you to share this on so many levels. Thank you for speaking up! You are so not alone in trying to find your big and little P power while wading through the deep moral injuries and double binds imbedded in our social-political landscape and election. We must start visioning our future together with haste (regardless of each person's voting choices now) so that our kiddos can hopefully have a party to vote for that they can truly believe represents them!
Voting is so incredibly personal. Thank you for sharing your personal dilemma. Speak your truth, vote your truth.
Thank you for expressing this in a way that I couldn’t find the words. There are layers and nuances and so much information that sometimes it feels that my head will explode. And I feel so many of these issues deep inside my being. I appreciate you processing this here.
You aren't alone.
I live under the Dominion of Canada systems.
Canadian corporate media report each general election as if Canadians were voting for electoral college votes for the President of Canada, even though Canada doesn't have a President and doesn't directly elect the Prime Minister. There is no “down ballot” – there is only one ballot that has never had a vote for Prime Minister. Canadians who vote based on what the media is telling them vote in ways that mangle the process, bringing in candidates that they haven’t even bothered to learn about.
In the lead up to the next election I'm being told I have to vote for "Justin Trudeau" in order for "Pierre Poilievre" to not become the next Prime Minister, even though neither of those names will be on my ballot. I don't support any of the parties with seats in parliament, or their leaders. But none of those leaders names will be on my ballot, so why am I being told that is the only thing I'm allowed to care about?
When I was younger I thought electoral reform could help fix these problems, only to find that the electoral reform movement in Canada was taken over by partisans who want to bring even more hyper-partisan "yellow dog" candidates into parliaments through party lists or Party Block Voting.
USA has a strong FairVote.org group that is pushing for ranked ballots, but as important as ranked ballots are, that is only part of the changes needed to create a healthy democracy. The corporate executives of political parties control so much of our democratic institutions, and it is extremely hard to get individuals worthy of being voted for onto ballots in the first place.
Canada’s position on West Asia disgusts me as well.
“Two groups conflate Zionism and Judaism: Zionists, who want to legitimize Zionism by pretending it is Judaism; and antisemites, who want to de-legitimize Judaism by pretending it is Zionism. ” - Yaakov Shapiro, an anti-Zionist Orthodox rabbi.
I see so much antisemitic promotion of Zionism within Canadian culture, media, and politics.
The Canadian government (not a specific political party) has not been neutral in this, from its "None Is Too Many" policies on refugees from the Shoah to its ongoing promotion of Israel as the only valid destination for Jewish people. It hasn't offered as blatant cover for Zionist atrocities over the last century as the US and UK have, but it has still never been neutral.
The way none of it brings any sort of relief or resolution is agonizing. The fact we’re here again and it’s only gotten more complicated and worse is heavy. The parts you shared about Medicaid funding and residential care resonated in my gut. The vastness that exists between my disabled son’s future and the complete lack of one for Palestinian children is both infinite and minuscule. Living in a red state where my vote feels canceled out by everyone around me is a temptation to despair.
Thanks for sharing Tiffy.
Thanks so much for writing this. You've clearly described the situation in a way that resonates so much for me, but I didn't have the words to say it the way you did.