July Dean Magazine: July 2023

Premio Didn't Vote
by Steven Evangelista
“What do you mean, you didn’t vote last year? You have so
many strong opinions.”
to the voters who will turn out, especially those who are
undecided.”
It was hard to make out through video chat whether
Premio’s face really shifted at my comment, but I thought I
saw his mouth contort uncomfortably. Perhaps it was
confusion.
Premio shrugged. “What difference does it make if they
care about me? The politicians are all liars anyway; I see
other people getting all these phone calls and mailings,
and I don’t have to deal with that bullshit.”
“I don’t know, maybe I did,” he said. “I don’t remember. The
election isn’t until next year, I thought. That’s all Trump
keeps talking about, 2024, 2024.”
It was one of those moments of a flash decision, which
seemed to happen frequently in my now-weekly video chats
with Premio. His bringing up Trump reminded me that if I
encouraged him to vote, I would be hurting my own cause.
But if I didn’t engage him in genuine conversation about his
civic duty, I would have no chance of changing his mind.
I chose to dive in.
“You know,” I started. “You’re the type of citizen that the
campaigns don’t even care about. If they think you aren’t
going to vote, they will lump you in with people they can
ignore. Their time and money are limited so they will cater
After a pause, he went on the offensive. “Why do you
waste your time with this crap?”
“People died for the right to vote,” I said. “And like you, I
have ideas for how my community, and my country,
should work. If I don’t vote, I don’t have a say. That’s the
essence of democracy.
If you don’t get to the polls, you have no right to
complain about the Pledge of Allegiance not being
required in schools, or taxes being too high, or ‘In God
We Trust’ coming off the currency, or any of the other
crazy conspiracy theories you’ve told me about.”
And as I registered my own flustered tone, I realized
that, yet again, while I thought I would be pushing his
buttons, Premio was riling me up instead.
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | July 2023 | p.22