Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled. The progress which the proletarian party will make by operating independently in this way is infinitely more important than the disadvantages resulting from the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body. If the forces of democracy take decisive, terroristic action against the reaction from the very beginning, the reactionary influence in the election will already have been destroyed.
Karl Marx Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League London, March 1850
It has to start at the municipal level. You cannot change the outlook of an entire nation without changing its sociopolitical fabric. “Starting all over again” is a very privileged take because it ignores the true cost of a violent revolution. Revolutions are bloody, full of death and despair, and they come with a lot of human lives as collateral damage. We can wield a lot of political influence if we collectively start showing up to vote. We have before and can again reform the system. Yes, there will be a lot of pushback, but that is your chance to show the world why you think reform is needed. Burning something down is no solution because until you build awareness among the voting population, their rights will slowly keep eroding away from them. And I’d argue that if you can accomplish that, you wouldn’t need to burn anything down anyway.