As I take up this new project, I think it is a great time to reflect on where I stand and acknowledge what some of my close friends would call contradictions – that voting legitimizes a profoundly racist and violent system, that the two parties are ultimately the same, that the Democrat Party expects the votes of working class and minority voters but rarely delivers on its promises to them. It is easy to empathize with this perspective because it is rooted in true events that most of us have experienced or observed, whether we vote or not.