Cory Doctorow (highly recommend his writings btw) said it best: "Is voting politics? Well, sure, but voting is to politics as shopping is to boycotts. For several decades now, most voters have been asked to chose the lesser of two evils (and now they're asked to choose the significantly lesser of two evils). Voting can change things, when there's something good to vote for, or something very bad to vote against, and when lots of people show up at the polls.

But to make voting effective, you have to do politics. You have to get involved in the primary races that select the candidate. You have to go to candidates' meetings and ask tough questions. You have to ring doorbells for your chosen candidate, volunteer to take your neighbors to the polls and volunteer to defend the polls from chuds and ICE fascists. The part of voting that takes place in the booth is the least important part of politics."

Full blog post: https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/21/purity-culture/#stop-fucking-that-chicken

To be clear, I am not saying "don't vote." I am saying "vote, and then also encourage everyone you know to vote. Become that one person your elected officials dread showing up in town halls, because you're going to loudly demand that they keep their campaign promises."