It's almost 2018. For the next 12 months, disabled voters new and old are going to hear some variation of the following (particularly from right-wing family members): “Don't just vote your disability! Vote on other issues!”
This seemingly innocuous advice can be translated as “Don't vote on issues that affect you! Be a good wallflower and vote for policies that'll kill you so I can save a few cents on taxes!”
In that spirit, I'm going to tell you something that should be said:
It's okay to vote your disability.
In fact, you should. Government policies affect you a lot more deeply than able-bodied folks. To wit: If a gun owner has to go through a background check, he's mildly inconvenienced. If two gay people get married, nothing happens to anyone but them personally. If you lose your Medicaid, you're dead. Pretty high stakes to be considering things that have a negligible impact on your life if you ask me.
And I know a lot of you are concerned about what other people think if they learned you put your disability as the primary concern on Election Day. My question is why? Our thing is “We're disabled, we have annoying things we deal with. If you're concerned about the wheelchair/service dog/ whatever else to see me as a full person, screw you.” Why change that policy on ElectionDay, arguably the most important day of the year for us? Because your uncle whines about “identity politics” (while engaging in identity politics of his own). Frankly, that's a good time to double down.
And a lot of disabled people and special needs parents are concerned about what would happen if their church found out that they used their own or child's disability as a major factor in their vote, possibly even letting it override the church’s positions on their pet issues. Why? Churches, especially evangelical ones, have always been opposed to disability rights. They fought against the Americans with Disabilities Act allegedly because of some crazy conspiracy bullcrap. Truthfully, they don't want us in their churches and don't want us in their schools. They fought against universal healthcare (despite it being the only way disabled people, especially severely disabled people, would ever get anything half-resembling health coverage). They want to gut Medicaid and say we should just depend on charities that don't exist, never existed, and will never exist. And you can bet that any future disability rights legislation will be crusaded against by churches. Letting churches influence our vote is akin to Jews taking voting advice from anti-Semites. Long story short, there is no reason for us to consider the opinions of institutions that don't want us.
If you have friends and family who keep badgering you to not vote your disability, dump them. There are other humans in the world who don't want you dead. If your church says that you shouldn't let your disability influence your vote, find a better church! There is no shortage.
You can call your representatives or protest, but here’s the truth:
If you want disability-friendly things, you have to vote for disability-friendly representatives.
Imagine if special needs parents and disabled people got on the same page and voted for pro-disability candidates. Medicaid would never be cut, special education would actually be funded and teachers would follow the IEP rather than make up bullshit reasons to ignore it The past tactic of voting for anti-disability candidates and asking them really nicely to not be anti-disability is a 100% Grade-A FAILURE! It has to die in 2018.