I get it. We didn’t get the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We didn’t get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We didn’t get the legislation on gun control, debt relief from student loans and climate change that we wanted.

Instead, we have a Supreme Court that has struck down affirmative action and the right to safe reproductive health care. We have “anti-woke” governors and legislatures outlawing efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion and the teaching of Black history as if they were public health threats like mass shootings.

All the while, hospitals and patients are suffering in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs, deaths of despair and chronic illnesses continue to plague working-age adults and lower their life expectancy, and the constant threat of gun violence harms the mental health and well-being of our nation’s children and youth.

I get it. We are frustrated and angry with the people whom we voted for and helped elect. Moreover, we are upset with systems of government that continue to sustain racist, unjust and inequitable policies that plague our communities.

Our frustration is so great that some of us are contemplating sitting out this upcoming election. That would be a mistake. We must stay politically engaged. Our problem is that we are participating in politics enough to be frustrated but not enough to be satisfied.

American politics is a complicated game — it’s played out in three branches of government and at the federal, state and local level, with numerous competing institutions of power. This is the context in which we are trying to implement anti-racist, just and equitable public policies. The more political entities we control, the more we can implement and sustain our policy agenda.

Politics is a difficult game; history tells us we can’t win with just a single move. If we elect a president, governor or mayor but do not control the legislative branch, our agenda can be stymied, and progress can be grinded to a halt. See the terms of former President Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.

If we have the executive and legislative branches on board but do not have the judiciary, our policy achievements can be discarded with a single judicial ruling. See the 2006 extension of the Voting Rights Act, which passed with near-unanimous support in the House and Senate and was signed into law by former President George W. Bush, only to be gutted by a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court in Shelby v. Holder.

These examples illustrate that we must compete for every square on the political game board if we want to implement a conscious agenda. One electoral victory will not satisfy our political hopes and dreams. Politics is an ongoing game, and to win and sustain victory, we must participate in every round with the goal of gaining influence and control over the political entities that determine policy.

We must know how control of each branch of government is determined. We must participate in every election. To stay at home is to cede power and influence over whatever is on the ballot to others who may be hostile or indifferent to our policy agenda.

So let us not be so frustrated with President Joe Biden as to stay at home. In him, we have a president who will promote and protect our rights. We have the presidency, let’s keep it and go after more squares on the political game board to make anti-racism, justice and equity a reality.

Dr. Darrell J. Gaskin (dgaskin1@jhu.edu) is a health economist focused on community, neighborhood and market-level policies and programs that reduce health disparities. He is the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also an ordained minister in the A.M.E. Zion Church. This article is independent of his affiliations with Johns Hopkins University and the A.M.E Zion Church.