Marc Lamont Hill to vote Democrat for first time in 24 years

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 07: Moderator Marc Lamont Hill attends BET Presents "An Evening With 'The Quad'" At The Paley Center on December 7, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET Networks)

Marc Lamont Hill says he will vote as a Democrat for the first time in this year’s presidential election. 

The author and professor revealed in an online conversation that he’d been voting with the Green Party for decades. When a young woman asked would he be voting in this year’s election, he revealed his prior political affiliation.

“I am absolutely going to vote, I have never not voted,” said Hill in a one minute and thirty-second clip posted to his Instagram page.  He goes on to say, “I have voted for the Green Party for the last 20 years.”

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The woman challenges Hill and accuses him of throwing away his vote. He refutes with, “I think it depends on how you understand voting,” says Hill. “I think voting is absolutely harm reduction, it’s a tactic to buying time.”

Hill continued, “Sometimes the goal of voting is to build long term vision and sometimes it is to stop an immediate harm, there have been many elections when the distinction was relatively minimal and I think the distinction has been relatively minimal and I thought it was important to build up grassroots support for the Green Party.”

Marc Lamont Hill attends the “Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement” screening on May 24, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images for BET Networks)

The Green Party is an independent political party with a connection to the socialist movement and the Green movement per GP.org. They have four pillars: Ecological Wisdom, Non-Violence, Grassroots Democracy, and Social Justice.

Hill says this political moment is “on fire.”

“I would say for the vulnerable American it is always on fire but Trump isn’t watching the fire he is pouring gasoline on it. And Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both problematic candidates but I don’t think they are the same. 

He goes on to explain why is finally voting blue after all these years.

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“Four more years of Donald Trump is not only dangerous for the vulnerable here in America but he is dangerous for any type of movement. As much as I dislike Joe Biden he can be moved, he can be persuaded. So for the first time in 24 years, I’m going to vote for the Democrat.”

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