I’ve been troubled since writing recently about Epistles related to “Let our lives speak.” What does my life say now? Am I living up to the spiritual leadings to reject Christian colonial capitalist violence?
Rejection of Electoral Politics
The most difficult thing I’ve faced recently is writing this critique of electoral politics. In large part because my parents and I were among thousands of Quakers and others, religious or not, who put a great deal of time and effort into using electoral politics to try to create change. Many Quakers view their support for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) as their primary means of justice work. (Along with the American Friends Service Committee’s international work). I imagine it is as difficult for them to consider turning to a just alternative to electoral politics as it has been for me. But I’ve had years of experience with an alternative that works, Mutual Aid.
FCNL has been a model of integrity in discerning the concerns of Quakers across the country and advocating on our behalf by diligently participating in the many aspects of the legislative process, while maintaining political neutrality. And providing training and tools to support grassroots advocacy.
Just this year, I joined a local FCNL Advocacy Team, because that seemed a possible way around a few of the many forces influencing Congresspeople in Washington. And because the focus of the advocacy at this time relates to my deep concerns about Palestine. I greatly admired the work being done there and the nearly decade-long relationships with local political staff. I participated in a virtual lobby visit and had a letter to the editor published.
And yet, almost no legislation we advocated for had any chance of passing. The vast corporate donations politicians receive and the open antagonism against voters that many legislators publicly display today dispel any semblance of participatory democracy. Checks and balances of the Judicial and Executive branches of government failed.
It was horrifying to witness the rejection of any pro-Palestinian sympathy by the Democratic presidential candidate in the last election. At the same time, the Biden administration sent 2,000-pound bombs that were dropped on the tents of the Palestinians living among the rubble of Gaza and the West Bank. Realizing I could not vote for either the Republican or the Democratic candidate forced me to accept my own rejection of electoral politics.
Holistic Conscientious Objection and Resistance
I’ve written of ‘conscientious objection’ to colonial capitalism. This is part of a broader spiritual awakening. An objection to participating in the very processes that one is opposing. Voting, regardless of the candidate, grants legitimacy to a political system that is fundamentally intertwined with capitalism and white supremacy. An example is the U.S. Electoral College, whose historical origins are rooted in the desire of slave-holding states to protect their political power and the capitalist system of human bondage.
Refusing to vote is thus seen not as a failure of civic duty but as a conscious refusal to grant moral or political legitimacy to an inherently unjust system.
This was really impressed upon me when I read the 2025 update to Des Moines Mutual Aid Points of Unity.
5. We are a revolutionary organization. We are united in a basic agreement that the ultimate goal of revolution is the abolition of the state and of social classes, and that the state’s institutions are not a means to achieving that end. We are against participation in electoral politics, because we are for the development of mutual aid as an alternative and widespread institution.
Des Moines Mutual Aid Points of Unity: Updated 2025
An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK
