Election Day is here, and many are riddled with anxiety over the battle between Vice President Harris and former President Trump. As Trump has taken marginal leads in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia, Democrats have started to rally around “fight for democracy” messaging as a last stand to support Harris’ campaign, emphasizing Trump’s fascist nature and the loss of rights his administration would incur. 

Yet, this is no new narrative; the Democratic Party has long been attempting to usher itself in as the party of the people, with former House Speaker and Rep. Nancy Pelosi recently saying that this upcoming election is to “save our democracy.” During these times, voters must come to terms with the fact that a vote for Harris is not saving our democracy, and achieving that goal will require work beyond the ballot box. 

For many, voting has become difficult due to the variety of issues apparent on both sides of the race. Some have pointed to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the support both candidates have for Israel’s right to defend itself as evidence of both parties’ complicity in violence. 

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Democrats have come to Harris’s defense, citing the need to pick the lesser evil. Harris herself responded to protesters at a Detroit rally, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that.” 

The Democratic Party’s complicity has been compounded by pushing out Democrats willing to speak out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, aided by pro-Israel lobbyist organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In this year’s Democratic primaries, AIPAC spent around $23 million to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Cori Bush, both of whom are vocal critics of Israel’s crimes in Gaza. 

While there is certainly a case to be made for supporting Harris out of sheer desire to keep Trump out of office, it is crucial that we do not use Trump to distract from valid critiques of her policies and history. 

Harris’ prosecutorial career has raised questions about her stances on mass incarceration, and the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policy has cracked down on asylum seekers over the last four years. 

When we frame the election around saving our democracy, it begs the question of who that democracy exists for. We cannot define ourselves as democratic if progressive policies benefit us in the United States while our foreign policy supplements genocide in Palestine. 

Harris’s proclamation of support for Israel in light of its atrocities is something we must be willing to challenge because not doing so normalizes these issues as an inevitable reality of our political system. 

Democrats are often able to avoid ceding to progressive demands on issues such as Gaza because they don’t see the necessity of meeting those demands — they know that they will get much of the left’s vote out of sheer animosity toward Trump, so they seem to focus more on appealing to the centrist-right population as a means to win elections. 

This has become increasingly evident as Harris has run to the right on issues such as immigration and foreign policy, calling Iran the U.S.’ most dangerous adversary and emphasizing her desire to make sure that America has “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”

Forcing the Democrats’ hand to put in policy measures cannot start and end with voting. It must be part of a continuous process to put political pressure on politicians, especially through grassroots organizing. 

For example, community networks can leverage their power as constituents to influence Harris’ decisions — such as the Network for Public Education Action that criticized Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and urged Harris to consider Tim Walz instead as the vice presidential candidate. 

As the election comes, I urge us to move away from idealizing Harris and instead realize that a victory on her side alone will not save democracy but rather will create a potential opening for strategic engagement — an opening for voters to mobilize in ways that can pressure Harris to abandon tough on immigration measures and ongoing complicity with genocide. 

This can look like becoming politically active in local and state politics to influence policies that directly impact your community. It can look like pressuring policymakers through protest to change our foreign policy or engaging with mutual aid groups to materially improve disparities within our communities. We must commit to doing work beyond the ballot box every four years if we are to have any chance at democracy.