Uncommitted voters are not apathetic. The Democratic party is | Camonghne Felix

Americans are recognizing we must do more for Palestine and are signaling dissatisfaction with the party, as they did in 2008

The US is just months away from the 2024 election, and the prospect of a second Trump presidency grows each day as he evades repercussions for the expansive list of indictments he's accrued. With this reality looming, many Democratic party loyalists are panicked about the leave it blank" movement, in which hundreds of thousands of voters have marked uncommitted" on their primary ballots to protest against US support of Israel's war on Gaza.

Some worry that a protest vote at the ballot box is an automatic vote for Trump. They're sure that even during times of mass dissent, harm reduction is the only moral voting strategy. They're afraid that this election will mean the end of democracy, or that the re-election of Trump will guarantee unprecedented disharmony.

Camonghne Felix is an assistant professor of creative writing at The New School