The Left Lost My Soviet-Refugee Grandmother. Now They’ve Lost Me Too.

Until the Left returns to normalcy, there will be many non-voters like myself.

On the morning of November 5th, 2024, I made a choice that went against what my friends, the media, and countless texts and campaign ads ordered that I do. I stayed home and didn’t vote. The records had me down as a registered Democrat, but my feeling of allegiance to the Democratic Party had slowly faded into oblivion. I remember when such a reality seemed unimaginable, when I too would demand all others do their duty and pull the lever for blue, but it’s been a long eight years.

In 2016, like many young girls inspired by the prospect of a female-centric future, I voted for Hillary Clinton. As a nineteen-year-old liberal-minded daughter of immigrants, I saw a candidate who seemed to represent everything I cherished: intellectualism, women’s rights, and freedom. That fall, I voted in the basement of my parents’ apartment building for the first time in my life, prancing out of the booth with a cheeky “I Voted” sticker on my chest and my democratic values lodged inside my heart.

As a soph…