One of our greatest errors as a country has been our nonstop campaign to convince generations of voters that elections are about freedom of choice.
This may be true if you are of a class not historically oppressed by the state. Many white people, particularly white men, fall into this category. They have the ability – the power – to be swing voters, knowing that their basic civil rights are not on the line.
In November 2019, Nate Cohn in The New York Times analyzed a number of surveys of swing-state voters and looked specifically at the “persuadable pool,” the 15% of voters in the battleground states who were undecided and still thinking of voting for Donald Trump or a Democrat.
He found, “As a group they are 57% male and 72% white.”
For most other people, “freedom of choice” in elections is an illusion. We are captives of the two-party system. We are political hostages.