Tyler Lyle

Because I want to fortify the system that, though flawed, is the only way to protect human dignity

I’m casting my vote for Kamala Harris on November 5 because she is the only candidate on the presidential ticket who still regards the humanity of her opponents. She is a prosecutor. Her rival is a criminal. Simone Weil, in ”The Iliad or the Poem of Force,” reflects on Achilles’s brutality, noting how his gloating over fallen enemies and desecrating their bodies displeased the gods. Weil argues that force dehumanizes not only the vanquished but also those who wield it. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, we’ve witnessed a similar dehumanizing force: the vilification of immigrants, the inhumane separation of children from their mothers at the border, and the weaponization of rage against “the other.” Trump has claimed that Democrats are worse than foreign adversaries, and in a display of cruelty, reportedly considered withholding FEMA aid to California after fires because they weren’t “his” people. He’s openly declared he would use the presidency to punish and embarrass political enemies. This corrosive force has emboldened his supporters to violence—seen in the attack on the US Capitol, the stabbing of immigrant children in Texas, and the surge in brutal assaults and murders of trans people. Even his own vice president hasn’t escaped his wrath.“Law and order” as a slogan is a stand-in for force. But true law and order—the kind our system was designed to uphold—exists to protect against it. Our system, though imperfect, strives to preserve the rights of all. Adam Gopnik refers to this work as “a thousand small sanities,” the collective effort of reasonable voices resisting senseless violence and the dehumanization that follows from unchecked force. This effort is fragile; the dam is eroding, and it must not fall. The system is not perfect, but it is perfectible. The alternatives—voting for the Republican candidate or abstaining altogether—are akin to lighting a match and watching the Union burn without a meaningful alternative in sight. My vote for Kamala Harris is a vote to fortify the system that, though flawed, is the only way to protect human dignity against the dehumanizing injuries of force that Weil warns us about.

Tyler Lyle is the lead singer and primary songwriter of the band the Midnight. He additionally releases music under his own name and lives with his family in Atlanta, Georgia.