The Eck’s Factor: The ‘Harry Potter liberal’ voting rhetoric is flawed


“Are you registered to vote?”

I exit out of the Instagram advertisement as I resist the urge to throw my phone against a wall. Yes, Instagram, I actually already voted. Leave me alone, please. This is one instance of how voting culture has infiltrated pop culture and my personal life. 

It has morphed from a movement to incentivize voter turnout into an aggressive game of gaslighting and bullying. Don’t be stupid and waste your vote on a third-party candidate, vote for Joe Biden! For the record, there are people who just do not like to get involved in politics — they might as well wear T-shirts that emblazon, “The outcome of the election will not affect me in any sense whatsoever, so I do not care enough to vote” across the torso. 

However, there are also people who are disenfranchised, people who are incarcerated and people who simply do not want to participate in a “democracy” that has oppressed them for thousands of years. This liberal rhetoric of “Just vote!” becomes problematic when it completely undermines the roadblocks that prevent people from being able to vote in the first place. Voting culture exposes our faux democracy — solely relying on voter turnout is not the solution to improving it. 

As detailed in an op-ed published by Jacobin, a U.S. socialist magazine, liberals’ infatuation with the magical fantasy world of Harry Potter segues into politics. “‘Magic,’ as it is discussed in the Harry Potter universe, is a force that allows its wielder to have a profound and measurable impact without organizing, sacrificing or indeed doing much of anything.” As a result, I refer to the cohort of liberals who brand voting as the answer to all contemporary political turmoil as “Harry Potter liberals,” or HPLs.   

HPLs will relentlessly encourage their followers to vote but make no efforts to advocate for those who are blocked from voting or who face insidious voter suppression tactics at the hands of the administration. For instance, early voting records are being shattered across the nation and that speaks volumes toward the significance of this election. However, voters in states such as Texas and Georgia are waiting in lines for two to eight hours.  

In fact, according to an analysis by Georgia Public Broadcasting and ProPublica, two-thirds of Georgia polling places that had to stay open late during the June primaries were in majority-Black neighborhoods, despite making up only about one-third of the state’s total polling places. Furthermore, in a study led by economist Keith Chen at the University of California, Los Angeles, voters in predominantly Black neighborhoods waited 29% longer than those in white neighborhoods during the 2016 elections. 

Not to mention the fact that Republican lawmakers such as Sen. Ted Cruz denounce the notion that people who are incarcerated have the right to vote. During Amy Coney Barrett’s Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing, Cruz claimed, “One of our colleagues, Sen. Sanders of Vermont, over the course of the Democratic presidential primaries, argued not just felons who are out of jail, he argued that felons in jail, literally Charles Manson, serving a life sentence — or I think multiple life sentences for murder — should be able to vote.” 

Ironically, Manson died in 2017. Cruz admitted he didn’t know that in a tweet, but he continued his tirade that Democrats only want people who are incarcerated to vote because they will be a Democrat voter and enhance the party’s prospects on Election Day. However, whether incarcerated people vote according to Democrats’ interest or not, Cruz’s rhetoric stems from a flawed generalization that labels the opposing party as “criminals,” only to function as a scapegoat to disenfranchise the rights of American people. 

Additionally, Florida election officials are taking steps to remove formerly convicted people from voter rolls if they have outstanding court debts. This issue extends to the racist system of mass incarceration in America, which is a much broader conversation, but think about it: If you were formerly incarcerated for a minor drug crime and cannot find employment because you have a criminal record, Florida wants to revoke your voting rights because you are poor. Rooted in decades of exclusionary practices, these policies strip people of their rights with the facade of being fair. 

Millions of people want to exercise their right to vote but physically cannot. Where is the outrage over this? Where is the advocacy beyond Instagram posts about the importance of voting, contributing to democracy and kicking the Cheeto out of office? This is where the term “Harry Potter liberal” becomes significant — this issue of blatant disfranchisement will not mend itself, but HPLs act like it will. 

Ultimately, I am not writing this to tell anyone how they need to vote. Our democracy and the electoral college is corrupt — a study released by the National Bureau of Economic research found that the electoral college favors 65% of future Republican candidates. However, I believe there is a way to dismantle the system, which will be even less feasible under another four years of a fascist Trump presidency. We must remember that defeating Trump will not fix the system like magic. We simply cannot afford to not be pragmatic. 

Matthew Eck is a junior writing about culturally relevant social issues. His column, “The Eck’s Factor,” runs every other Wednesday.