My vote for a third party is a form of protest

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During the 2016 election season, I watched all three presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I was appalled by and terrified of what Trump stood for, the language he used to describe anyone who disagreed with him, and his misogynistic and xenophobic statements. I remember not being able to sleep when votes were counted on Nov. 8, 2016, and the result horrified me.

Fast-forward to our upcoming elections with Trump running again. My perspective has completely changed. The excitement and the motivation to vote for Kamala Harris doesn’t exist, because I am not going to vote just to keep Trump out of office this time. Every four years, we all get invited to play the same political game of voting for the least evil of the two, a choice between a poetic liar or an honest racist.

A large part of why I’m voting for a third-party candidate this year is President Joe Biden’s and Vice President Harris’ ongoing support of war crimes in Gaza and now in Lebanon. It seems as though saying words of empathy about the deaths of children and the mass destruction of entire neighborhoods, while also unconditionally supplying the weapons needed to do so, is considered “hopeful.” If we pause and analyze this type of action, we could call it psychopathic.

I was born and raised in Palestine. I’m used to living under separate laws in my homeland, watching land theft, home demolishment, displacement and mass murder when Israel decides to “mow the lawn” every summer in Gaza. Every single year, there are thousands of Palestinians killed or kidnapped by the Israeli army, but death and destruction are only “complicated” if the victims are Palestinian and Lebanese. Right? Is that why an immediate cease-fire is controversial? Because the value of life is contingent on race and if we align more with “Western values” or not?

I recall early November 2023 when I saw footage of a young Israeli kid who was taken hostage, and it made me think of my own son who is around the same age. I was in disbelief because, since 1947, it has always been us to face these horrors. There was no way anyone could inflict the same on Israelis.

The death toll now in Gaza alone is more than 40,000, which is a bit more than the seating capacity of Target Field. Think about that. What motivation should I have to vote for anyone who has the power to stop the spread of this unspeakable suffering and yet chooses to fund it while gaslighting every local and international effort to end it?

This past year has reaffirmed yet again that the U.S. government, including the Democratic Party, is a sponsor of war crimes and genocide. If Harris wins, we are stuck again with the status quo of the same people showing up on MLK Day, making public statements on this country’s brutal past that includes segregation and land theft, while comfortably funding apartheid and bombing civilians overseas using our pension funds and taxes. No number of civilian deaths, images of families burning alive or U.N. reports of unspeakable suffering will move the U.S. government to end it.

I also understand what it means if Trump is re-elected. Affordable housing, abortion rights, entry visas and immigration for my family, and the rights of my queer and transgender Palestinian friends will be negatively impacted. I also know that Israel will most likely annex the West Bank and part of Lebanon and fully destroy Gaza a bit faster than it would with a Harris administration. At the same time, we may have a chance to better mobilize to fight for these rights here that also intersect with calling to end our complicity in funding war crimes. After all, no U.S. president in history has voluntarily supported human rights without a fight.

My vote for a third party is a form of protest. While we still have control, I am hopeful that other social-justice allies and progressive voters will use their vote to demand an end to Israeli’s impunity from accountability now and not wait for 2025 when wealthy lobby groups take control.

Ashraf Ashkar lives in St. Paul.