A Codependent Relationship

Over the past few years, I’ve been doing a lot of 12-step recovery work as I wrestle with codependency, the curious ways I set-up, serve, prop-up, people-please and enable bad behavior in my relationships with individuals and institutions. I get stuck saying “yes” – even when everything in me wants to say “no” - because I believe I am supposed to, because I believe that things will be better. This time. 

In recent days, I’ve been thinking about how many Americans (myself included) are caught in a codependent relationship with electoral politics. I am positioned to the left of Bernie Sanders on the political spectrum. Like Dr. King, I am absolutely convinced that without a radical revolution of values, the US will never heal and real justice will never become a reality. One major obstacle to MLK’s radical revolution is that both major political parties promote profit motives and property rights over the needs of people. 

I live in a swing state. So liberals tell me that I have to vote blue no matter who. I, of course, agree with my liberal-moderate friends: Republican policies are extremely destructive. But I’ve been paying attention to Biden - and Obama and Clinton before him. These Democratic Presidents – despite their campaign promises - continue to sell out poor and working people, over and over and over again. 

Joe Biden had the power to raise the minimum wage, to guarantee sick days for rail workers, to cancel all student debt, to renew the child tax credit and more. He didn’t. Why? Because he is beholden to powerful interests that are solely concerned with one thing. Profit. Biden and Trump have this in common. 

Both candidates are also committed to bloating the military budget, keeping taxes low for the 1%, increasing police presence and surveillance, building more prisons, supporting Israel no matter what, maintaining a “for-profit” healthcare system and funding an unequal public education system through property taxes. This is a super destructive bipartisan consensus that reverses King's revolution of values. 

I am not trying to be cynical. In fact, I am seeking agency and empowerment. Which always starts with the truth. Many of us who are serious about implementing progressive policies are stuck in a codependent relationship with the Democratic Party. Many of us are addicted to a corporate-sponsored "culture war." I am asking folks in a similar position on the political spectrum, in a similar emotional process. What is your strategy for the 2024 election?