Is This The Best We Can Do?

Watching the first presidential debate of election season last week was a harrowing experience for many of us. It felt like a reality TV reunion show — one with equal parts foolishness and audacity, just for the ratings.

Trump’s boldfaced lies plus Biden’s struggle to effectively communicate his points (or effectively shut Trump down) resulted in several now-viral cringey moments that matched the sheer chaos of a Mona Scott production. Is this real life? I wondered. My angst about the upcoming election swelled.

If anything, the debate was a reflection of a two-party political system that just isn’t working. Biden and Trump are two (physically, mentally and spiritually) old white men fighting for the most powerful seat in the world, and they don’t seem to be connected to us at all. This simply cannot be what we call American politics anymore.

As a young Black voter, I know I’m not alone in wanting to move away from a political landscape that demands we commit to the “lesser of two evils” — especially since living through the blatant criminality involved in a Donald Trump presidency followed by a Joe Biden presidency where we feel completely unheard on crucial issues, like the war in Gaza.

Young Black and Latinx voters account for a huge voter bloc trying to navigate an election where we are broadly not drawn to candidates from either major party. According to a recent Pew research, about 49% of Black voters currently say they would replace both Biden and Trump in the general election if they had the ability to. A considerable numberof those dissatisfied voters are Black voters under 40. Young Latinx voters also account for a large population of voters who are dissatisfied with both candidates, which is raising alarms