OPINION: I’m voting in the 2024 election because progress is incremental—whether we like it or not

Revolutions do not consist of one single shout, one single action, or one single person. They are made up of little pieces of progress.

As a 28-year-old queer woman who cares deeply about the environment, I understand keenly the dismay that election season brings. Since becoming old enough to vote, I have only ever known election cycles that have involved Donald Trump, and while virtually any alternative is a better candidate, his counterparts haven’t been particularly inspiring, either. It’s easy to look at the options we’re given every four years and find ourselves filled with dread, helplessness, and frustration— emotions that, if we aren’t careful, can easily lead to inaction.

Still, I’m filling in the bubbles on my ballot this week. Why? Because whether we like it or not, progress is incremental. The country—and the Arizona—we want and deserve will not be built in a day.

Like me, you might wish you could wake up one morning to an equitable world in which trans healthcare is a human right, people with uteruses have full control over their bodies, and communities of color no longer face barriers to education or clean water or the polls. It would be downright dreamy to find this world awash with robust environmental regulations designed to protect public lands and slow climate change. We would all like to be free from corporate price gouging and instead have the funds to invest properly in small businesses, community initiatives, and our personal wellbeing.

But we won’t reach that world unless we take the slow (and sometimes boring) steps it takes to get there. We set up community refrigerators and donate to GoFundMe campaigns in an attempt at mutual aid. We advocate for resources for our increasingly unhoused neighbors. We clean up trash. We protest. We boycott brands that act against our values. And we vote. 

Revolutions do not consist of one single shout, one single action, or one single person. They are made up of little pieces of progress—ones that, though they might be tiresome to put together, create the foundation for the world we want to see. There are candidates on this year’s ballot who could make small yet meaningful differences in our lives or our neighbors’. I’m voting for those candidates so that my queer friends receive gender-affirming care; so that my teacher pals are compensated fairly for the life-changing work they do; so that childfree people like me can safely remain childfree; and so that the state I love gets to boast about its flora and fauna for generations to come. 

Are you?

Are you ready to vote? See who’s on your ballot and make a voting plan here.

READ MORE: A first-timer’s guide to voting in Arizona in 2024