Check Your American Privilege and Vote

This piece is part of a series of articles produced in a special topics class taught by Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought Lawrence Douglas on the 2024 election. Articles may have been reviewed by Douglas as well as other members of the class prior to submission to The Student.

Once again, the American youth displayed pathetic levels of voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election. Despite the 2020 presidential election having the highest voter turnout rate in American history, just 50% of Americans aged 18-29 voted, and early polling indicates that we voted at much lower rates in 2024. Interested in what Amherst’s voter turnout might look like, I reached out to the Head of AC Votes Maida Ives, who told me only 717 ballots passed through the Keefe Campus Center for the 2024 election out of the 1,739 students enrolled. While 12% of our students are international and therefore ineligible to vote, and some Northeasterners might have driven home to cast their ballots, the fact that only 47% of our school received a mail-in ballot is incredibly disappointing to me. I understand that some may feel scared to share their thoughts in a polarized world that harshly judges those with differing views. However, I cannot for the life of me understand how so few members of Gen Z voted — a private action that decides the direction of our nation and whose policies will impact them for the next four years and beyond. Not only do some of the nation’s most pressing issues — such as the housing and climate crises, gun violence, depletion of Social Security, and the job market disproportionately affect the youth — but failing to exercise the most basic form of civic expression is incredibly disrespectful to those who fought for your suffrage.

Two hundred forty-nine years ago, the founding fathers overthrew the British government to establish an unprecedented form of governance — one designed to serve its people and enshrine fundamental rights. Although they failed to protect the rights of most demographics beyond white, landowning men, the democratic structure and right to free speech have enabled the expansion of civil rights for women, African Americans, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, religious minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and others. However, these expansions of civil rights within America are only due to the relentless efforts of protests, strikes, boycotts, and, most importantly, voting. As Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” If you are someone concerned about social injustices in America and yet you do not vote regularly, I am directly accusing you of failing the bare minimum in advancing the values you claim to believe in.

In America, the youth have been instrumental in driving progress and change through our democratic process. In a psychology experiment examining how age affects openness to different cultures and ideas, Ted Schwaba found that openness remains relatively stable in emerging adulthood (ages 18-25) before declining in mid-life and old age. This explains why the elderly are often less likely to accept new ideas. Whether it was coordinating Freedom Rides and sit-ins to combat racial segregation and protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s, or using social media to mobilize modern movements such as Black Lives Matter, environmental justice, gun control advocacy, and the #MeToo movement, America’s youth have consistently played an instrumental role in forcing change and progress. If you choose now to remain silent because it feels too hard to speak up, you are failing to build upon the legacy of those trailblazers who came before you.

In addition to the civil rights movements that have expanded freedoms domestically, nearly 1.2 million men have died in foreign wars defending our nation against adversaries. For people like me — whose family members have served in every foreign war fought by America since World War I — this is my primary motivation for voting. There are individuals who have paid the ultimate sacrifice just to protect your right to vote, yet many people are still too lazy to fill out paperwork or spend five minutes researching which candidate better represents their values. If my ancestors could cross the world’s oceans to fight Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the least I can do is vote.

I’m fed up with people's obliviousness to the privilege of living in Western democracies—Americans specifically. Only 20% of the world’s population lives in countries with protected civil liberties and political rights, 57% of the world’s population lives in countries with “high” or “very high” restrictions on religion as of 2012, and there are still about 50 million people living in modern slavery worldwide. Furthermore, the United Nations reports that 26% of the global population lacks access to safe drinking water, 46% lacks access to safe sanitation, and 37% have still never had access to the internet. As of 2024, only 34 of the world’s 195 widely recognized countries have legalized same-sex marriage. In 64 countries, same-sex relationships are criminalized, and in six countries, homosexuality is punishable by death. Women are still banned from secondary education under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and it was only recently in Saudi Arabia that women have been allowed to drive or travel without their male guardian’s consent. Dozens of countries still engage in torture, suppress access to education, fail to provide a fair trial and due process to their citizens, with some countries such as North Korea even embracing “guilt by association,” where entire families can end up in jail or labor camps if a relative breaks a North Korean crime (like the Red Terror under Stalinist USSR.) You could have been born in North Korea, where torture, executions, brutal imprisonments, forced disappearances, and forced labor are all norms, and the freedoms of expression, association, and religion are all foreign concepts, but you were not. You were born in the United States of America—a country with its flaws and a complicated history—but also a nation where you have the opportunity to change your circumstances. It is through voting that we preserve our freedoms, and we can only continue to safeguard them by actively participating in the process. Countless people around the world would give anything to be in your position, as reflected in the ongoing border crisis, and it is so selfish and entitled if laziness was your reason for not voting this November.

Furthermore, there still exists a widespread, flawed misconception that unless you live in a swing state, your vote doesn’t matter. While it is true that the structure of the Electoral College gives you less influence over presidential elections if you reside in a swing state, local elections, state-wide elections, and amendments arguably have more influence over your daily life than the President. In addition, if you live in a blue state like California but complain about how blue it is, please understand that California’s laws are so liberal exactly because there isn’t a competitive Republican Party to rival it. If more California Republicans showed up to the booths to vote for U.S. representatives and state legislators, even though it would likely be less than needed to tip state-wide elections red, the state would at least have a more robust defense against the California Democratic Party to deter hyper-liberal laws even moderate liberals debate.

No matter how imperfect this nation’s history or current state may be, the democratic experiment our founding fathers envisioned has created one of the finest nations the world has ever known. We boast the world’s strongest military, foster unrivaled economic opportunity, were the first nation to land on the moon and continue to lead in space exploration, lead the globe in scientific research and discovery, hold many of the world’s top academic institutions, and are one of the largest providers of foreign aid in developing countries. Furthermore, we serve as the world’s melting pot and American culture has set the world ablaze. From Hollywood films and music to fashion and sports, our culture is admired all over the world, carrying with it the ideals of individualism and freedom. I say this not to make you feel guilty, but to remind you of how much better you have it than many others—even if you are a member of a marginalized group.

So I leave you with this: Unless you are a white, Christian, landowning man over the age of 21 — and, in many cases, only a member of a specific denomination of Christianity — the only reason you have the luxury of voting is that millions of Americans before you fought the hard but worthy fight. They challenged unpopular narratives, stood up for what they knew was right, and worked within the parameters of our democratic system to drive progress. If you fail not only to speak out and protest injustice but also to complete the simplest action of voting, understand that you are allowing complete strangers to dictate your life and failing to move this nation forward in the way you believe is best. Politics affects you whether you like it or not, so it would be in your best interest to shape the world you want your family to live in. Civil disagreement will never be the demise of American democracy, but political apathy will. So, for the love of God, VOTE.