What a depressing slate of candidates! Biden, Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Scott, Christie. Yuck. And now recently Andrew Sullivan, whose voice I so often respect and even agree with, is touting Tucker Carlson and RFK Jr., not as serious candidates for the presidency, but as voices that “we need both of them in the mix — for a healthier, more democratic politics.” Uh, what? I’m sorry, any vision of a healthier democracy in America does not involve Tucker Carlson. The man has spent years railing against democratic institutions, cozying up to fascist dictators like Victor Orban, and (apparently disingenuously) supporting Donald J. Trump, whose democratic instincts are lacking, to say the absolute least.

We have terrible options all around. And it’s made all the worse when you look at the actual looming threats and challenges facing our country – technology and the rise of AI; the effect of social media on our brains, our pocketbooks, our children and our democracy; climate change and the unrest it will spark, just to name 3. Do you really trust any of our current batch of leaders – all of whom are either octogenarians, plastic corporate cut-outs, or role-playing reactionary fake tough guys – to actually tackle any of these issues in any real way?

It just underlines my continuing frustration with much of my fellow left, which has become beholden to institutions and solicitous of current power structures and systems. The answers we need to the challenges we face aren’t coming from inside the system; they are out here with us. Those fools in Washington (and in our state capitals) are doing nothing but continuing to play the same bullshit political games that they want us all sucked into 24/7. Let’s all ignore them and do the actual work that we’re all gonna have to do in the end anyway when they let us down again. Let’s not just get sucked into quixotic political campaigns because the candidate self-brands as an “outsider.” And let’s not assume that we have to choose one candidate or the other to get behind, especially if doing so requires us to compromise our values. To not make a choice of a candidate is to make a powerful choice for dissatisfaction with the status quo. Politics and elections aren’t sporting events, and we aren’t fans. The future of our lives is more important than that, and we must demand better.