The Chemo, Not the Cure

A vote for the Democratic presidential candidate is the chemo, not the cure. Regardless of who is president, the cancer — the system — is feeding itself on our bones.

Laura Camacho 14.Jul.2024

Today, I decided that I'm no longer going to participate in the online discourse about presidential candidates. I'm equally as exhausted by the Biden nay-sayers as I am the aggressively chipper Vote Blue No Matter Who ladies who insist that everything's fine and the rest of us are the real problem for suggesting there might be a problem.

I am tired and disillusioned and really, really fucking angry to continuously being fear-mongered at to vote for candidates who do not represent (or deliver on) my values in any meaningful ways.

So, here's my statement, for what it's worth:

I will vote for Biden (or whomever replaces him, if that turns out to be a thing) this Fall, in the same way I might choose to undergo chemotherapy.

The goal of chemotherapy is to destroy the cancer before it destroys the body. It’s a gamble I would take in order to try and spare my family the trauma of watching cancer ravage my body.

I’ll vote for Biden in the hopes that he ravages what’s left of our democracy more slowly than his opponent most assuredly will.

I will vote for Biden knowing he will not follow through on whatever are his lofty campaign promises — either from lack of ability or will.

I will vote for Biden knowing he is a staunch Imperialist who will continue aiding and abetting genocides and fascist coups around the world, all in the name of “protecting democracy.”

I will vote for Biden because he is “the lesser of two evils.”

(It doesn't escape me that statement acknowledges that he is “an evil.”)

I will vote for Biden because maybe, just maybe, this time — if we can buy ourselves more time — the white ~~blood cells~~ liberals will stay awake and fight while the chemo is flowing.

I know the Cancer is not one man. It’s not one party. The Cancer is the imperialist white supremacist capitalist cis-hetero patriarchy* under which we live.

A vote for the Democratic presidential candidate is the chemo, not the cure.

Regardless of who is president, the cancer — the system — is feeding itself on our bones.

We are being crushed by “the booming economy” now. Our human rights are being stolen from us now. We’re watching families being smeared into the dirt by US bombs, live on Instagram now. We’re afraid for the safety of our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ loved ones now. Climate change is boiling us alive now. More people than ever are being detained at the Southern border right now.

And right now, the figurehead of all of this trauma and travail is one of the “Blue No Matter Who” variety.

The President cannot save us; our only calculation is how fast we decide they destroy us.

I’m not an accelerationist, and I want to hope that people are waking up and realizing that only we can save ourselves, and that no President — however good and ethical she might be — will ever be empowered by the system to dismantle and reshape itself.

So, I’ll vote for Biden, knowing that if nominated, he, too, will comply with the system that inflicts terrible damage and pain on the world.

Biden is the chemo, not the cure.

The cure is the work we commit to while we weather the current chemo’s destruction (that is, between election cycles, when most people forget politics even exist).

The cure is what we are (or must be) doing — in our daily lives, in our communities, in our homes — to decolonize our minds and practices, to squash authoritarianism, to abolish the police state, to protect human rights, to heal our suffering planet, to listen to Black and Indigenous women activists and do what they’ve been telling us to do for generations.

None of us can do it alone, and all of us can (and must) choose some consistent action to offer to our collective momentum toward the future we desire and deserve.

Note

Yes, I know it's not a perfect analogy; I know exactly where it breaks down and I very nearly didn't publish this because I perseverated on its weaknesses for hours. I don't want to talk about it. I think you can get my meaning regardless!