Is Change Really Coming?

On Tuesday, all across various forms of social media there was an unmissable message. The specificity of the words differed, but the point was the same; VOTE. I saw it on stickers, on drawings, in voice, in song, hell I even saw it painted across abs and arses alike.

Because it was the US midterms and, in the biggest and most important western liberal democracy, nothing is more important than voting. And what I saw that stayed with me, and encouraged me to write this, was the reasons people were giving to justify you NEEDING to go out and vote. That there is a vile fascist in the office of President, that his lap dogs control both houses of Congress, and that change is needed. Mass change, change in every aspect, change to make the lives of the individual a lot better. This change, apparently, could come about by voting.

But, like, could it?

Not to be the guy who quotes Karl Marx in his blog posts, but Karl Marx once said that (and this is Lenin paraphrasing him, so take it with a pinch of salt) ‘the oppressed are allowed every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressive class are to represent and repress them.’

And this is why, throughout the entirety of Tuesday and the US midterm elections, something just wasn’t sitting right with me. I was seeing all these people, from A-List celebrities to social media ‘influencers’ to cult heroes, talking about wanting change and needing change and people doing everything they can to get to the polls to ensure that change happened!

There are 96 new people in Congress after these elections. Of the 470 Congresspeople who could have lost their jobs on Tuesday, only 96 did. This number gets even worse when you consider that not even all 96 lost their election – 63 of them weren’t even standing for re-election. They’d either retired or were seeking other political positions (Senator, Governorship etc…), and open elections were held. So arguably, real ‘change’ only happened in the 29 seats where incumbents were defeated somewhere along the process.

29 out of 470. 6.17% of available change actually happened.

This is just something I’ve been unable to get over when people preach about change. Under half of the individual elections taking place were even deemed ‘key races’, where the chances of an incumbent losing their seat was quite high. But, all over social media, this narrative was created in which something magnanimous was possible, where the atrocities and the horrors of the current Presidency could be fought back against. In the end, only 96 new faces will be seen in the 535 seats in US Congress. 17.2% are new faces. Only 6% are of a different party.

Look, I’m not sat here calling for an instant upheaval of the entire system, calling for the revolution to happen and to be televised. It would be ignorant of me to ignore the progress made on Tuesday, or believe I know better than Karl Marx (here we go again) and Friedrich Engels, who stressed the importance of using democracy to transition to socialism, and the importance of democracy in a post-capitalist society. The Democrats retaking the House of Representatives is a very important factor in stopping the current asinine regime in the White House, as the opportunity to shoot down divisive legislation cannot be missed.

The importance of the election of socialists such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley cannot be understated. Neither can the election of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim women in Congress, or Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, the first Native American women in Congress. These victories, however small, can be mighty for the future of the rotten system we live in. Look out for these women, listen to them, understand them, and let them aid in the formulation of your opinions on matters which they know best.

But if you’re expecting real, significant change en masse via democracy anytime soon, you’re going to be disappointed.