Sure, if you’re on the edge of survival then that comes first. But I don’t think that’s the case for most people engaged in this conversation. Very few people in developed countries are literally starving.

But you’re right that this is unfair to people who pouring all of their energy into basic survival. In a better, more liberated world of the future, I hope voting will be sufficient. But that’s just not the world of today. We live in a world where we got to choose between two candidates who both favored materially supporting the murder of thousands of Palestinian children. Between killing the biosphere slowly or quickly. Between brazen corruption or discrete corruption.

That’s not a world where voting is anywhere close to enough.

But this is also why I think mutual aid is the single most important political action right now. If we can provide for and protect our community, this builds up our power naturally and gives those people experiencing hardship a chance to participate as well. And once we are united we are unstoppable.