In New York, Progressive Values Have a Line on the Ballot

When I was a little girl growing up in New York, my mother would take me to the voting booth and say, “We’re Democrats, but we’re voting Liberal Party line to show what kind of democrats we are — what we stand for and what we care about.”

Decades later, when I became a mother, I did the same with my children. I took them with me to the voting booth and told them that we are Democrats, but we are showing people what we stand for by voting Row D, the Working Families Party line. I’m voting on the WFP line for Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz this year — and I want to explain why is it so important.

In New York, we are fortunate to signal more than blind support for a candidate and his platform; we have third parties and fusion voting, which allows us to find political houses that are more in line with what we believe in and add the nuance we so desperately lack in our two-party system. This is more important now than ever.

On October 7, when I woke up to the news that 1,200 innocent lives had been brutally taken by Hamas, I wept for the victims and their families, and for the hundreds of hostages, and for the unspeakable violence that I knew was soon to follow. unleashed by the far-right Israeli government against the captive Palestinian population already living under brutal occupation. And yet the violence that ensued was far worse than any of us could have imagined: bombings, arson, sniping, mutilation, torture of men, women and a staggering record number of children; unprecedented murders of journalists, doctors, human rights defenders and UN staff; the almost total destruction of every hospital, every university, and countless cultural institutions, schools, refugee centers, entire neighborhoods and entire families, and beyond that, entire genealogies erased forever.

What upsets Democrats most is that the genocide in Israel was aided, abetted, instigated, and funded by our own Democrat president, whose bear-hug diplomacy has failed so spectacularly that it has made a mockery of American and international human rights law. Equally upsetting is President Biden’s seemingly complete lack of concern or even awareness of the harsh realities unfolding in Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon; realities that keep the rest of the world awake and threaten the election of its more sympathetic but, unfortunately, too taciturn vice president.

I cannot and will not support the Democratic Party’s position on the war in Gaza, and I firmly stand by the all-too-obvious truth that genocide should never be allowed, much less rewarded. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been and will continue to be much, much worse; gleefully calling for further escalation and ordering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “finish the job” and “Do what you must.”

In a second Trump presidency, Americans will be fighting for our own survival—from the devastating effects of unchecked climate change, to Obamacare’s elimination of vital health care for women, girls, trans people, and millions of Americans, to the staggering and persistent widening of income inequality. a pet project of Trump’s billionaire donors and it is rapidly tearing at the very fabric of our country.

It’s a grim choice for voters who care about human rights. But because I’m a New Yorker, I can vote along party lines that align with both progressive values ​​and the cause of Palestinian freedom. For more than 25 years, WFP has been a home for voters, and it has been a home for me. Last year I was one of the first public figures require the Biden administration to call for a ceasefirewhen the word meant more than a delaying tactic, and WFP was there for me, rallying people to the cause. When AIPAC, flush with millions in cash from Trump mega-donors and billionaire conservative Netanyahu allies, targeted every Democratic member of Congress who dared to support the Palestinians, The WFP fought back. We didn’t win every fight. But the money has been received by many – and our message is resonating with more people than ever.

There is so much at stake in this election and we can’t go back to Trump’s four years in the White House any more than we can go back to the bad old days that Trump is trying to revive. But this election season, I’m focused on using my voice to strengthen the movement I’m a part of that will ultimately bring about the change we’re desperately fighting for.

In New York, that means voting for Harris-Waltz in Row D Party of working families line, and for all without exception the exciting candidates supported by WFP, of which there are dozens in New York and hundreds in states across the country. Not all states have fusion voting, but many have active and thriving chapters of the Working Families Party that don’t just pop up once every four years to spoil the election, but fight every day to win a far-reaching progressive agenda for the many, and not only for a few.

And to my fellow New Yorkers for whom Kamala Harris may not be the ideal candidate: As my mother would tell you if she were here, when we vote for Harris-Waltz on the WFP line, we are signaling our (God willing) to the next president that we are voting for her as part of a movement that demands she improve. And that our vote is not the end of our interaction with her, but only the beginning.