I was a hardcore Bernie supporter. This is why I switched to supporting Joe Biden.
I became a supporter of the junior senator from Vermont after hearing his detailed, substantive response to the 2019 State of the Union Address, which I found far more compelling and substantive than the response by Stacey Abrams. Since then, I attended his Twin Cities rally in November 2019, maxed out my donations, put out a yard sign for him, wore Sanders merch, sang his praises at meetings of the local county Democrats and Student Feminist Organization. I risked Coronavirus to work my local polls so that an older worker didn’t have to put themselves at risk and cast my ballot for him. Hell, I even posed for this photo, which I’m sure rightwingers would be circulating as a “cringe” if Sanders had won the nomination and which some liberals might do anyway:
My reasons for supporting Sanders included that I was consistently and reliably informed that Medicare for All would cover more Americans at a lower cost for the working class. That forgiving student debt would stimulate the economy in a way where the benefits would rise up and actually trickle down to the downtrodden due to reduced class barriers, not to mention making necessary, understaffed job fields accessible to the less fortunate. Above all I thought the man who’d voted against the War in Iraq when that was an extremely unpopular position and admitted his error in voting for the War in Afghanistan would be most likely to finally get American troops out of our endless wars.
I was dismissive of Biden in the extreme. I cackled when Matt Christman and company of the Chapo Trap House podcast mocked him. I watched numerous videos of Jimmy Dore and Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk fame tearing into Biden’s debate performances and his record. I knew all the buzz phrases about Biden: Corn Pop, leg hairs, smelling toast, etc.
Now I’m fully committed to voting for Biden and have donated to him.
Initially I did so reflexively, only out of fear that the assassination of General Solemani meant that the president was so eager to start a war with Iran, one which would be ruinous for economies around the world and leave behind a pile of corpses to dwarf that of the War in Iraq. Then I looked into Biden’s campaign platform. Despite what popular podcast hosts like David Anthony of The Dollop and West Wing Thing have told me, there are a large number of progressive values supported by his candidacy. Most significantly to my family is student debt forgiveness for households making under $125,000, which would be a godsend for my family members in Texas that have been working for years with law enforcement and fear they’d never be able to retire otherwise. God knows there will be columns of indebted students in equally practical fields that won’t be able to get financially viable jobs during the present and future times of economic hardship.
Further, progressives need the environmental regulations that Trump has removed across the board. But you know who needs them more immediately? People that live in areas with lower air quality, which are disproportionately minorities and impoverished whites. In 2018 deaths from pollution-related causes were up around 9,700. Now Republicans will tell you that pollution doesn’t immediately kill a person, which is true. However if the GOP has years more to allow this level of pollution, that defense gets smothered as the rate will grow higher and higher. While Progressives generally are more concerned about climate change than short term air quality, the danger of pollution deregulation in regards to people’s immediate health is more firmly established and more tangible, so I know for me at least it’s a more compelling issue.
I also would greatly appreciate Biden lifting tariffs as he’s promised to do. The trade war is a way Trump has raised taxes on Americans that the GOP condemned at the time but have gone silent on lately. Trump’s trade war massively raised farm foreclosures in my home state of Wisconsin pre-pandemic (correlation is not necessarily causation, but I doubt it’s a coincidence that there’s been a corresponding rise in farmer suicides.)
I have my grievances with the Biden/Harris ticket. I completely disagree with adding more gun regulation on any state or federal level. Frankly I think pursuing such regulations is stupid. I would be relieved to see anti-AR-15 former candidate Robert O’Rourke removed from the campaign to send a message to the nation’s swiftly growing ranks of guns owners (of which African Americans and women are the largest growing segments for obvious reasons) that their gun rights will be safe under a Democratic administration. I am doubtful that any such dismissal will take place. However the current president’s bump stock ban and support for red flag laws have shown me that we can’t trust our gun rights will be safe under him either.
When I’ve discussed my Biden support with people further to the left of me online, I’ve encountered the same sound bytes over and over. I’ve heard the “nothing will fundamentally change” quote used incessantly. What I’ve never heard any of them acknowledge is that Biden was referring to how raising taxes on the wealthy would not harm their quality of life. Considering the need to address the deficit (up by $3 trillion in 2020 alone) I’d say that’s a pretty necessary action. And considering the aversion the wealthy have to taxes of any kind, it also sounds pretty honest and daring to say it to their faces. Frankly after I learned the context of the quote I got annoyed how long people had been tricking me with it.
Not to mention how I was told in harsh language by progressive how the Democratic platform had supposedly removed opposition to fossil fuel subsidies when the truth was that a rough draft which did not include subsidy position. In actuality the Biden campaign remained firm on ending fossil fuel subsidies. It’s been deeply distressing to see how many falsehoods are seized upon to justify non-participation.
In the constant deluge of trivial criticisms and sound bytes about the president, it feels like we’ve all become dumber. I mean, we cared that the president gave football players fast food while the government was shut down. What the hell was wrong with us? It’s long past time we focus on matters of substance.
And to end by bringing it back around, here’s cringey photo of the new, Biden-supporting me.
Dustin Koski can be found here on Twitter.
