Reasons to vote for Biden that aren’t Joe Biden

I’m not going to tell anyone they have to vote for Joe Biden. Generally I think voting is a good thing, (especially for down-ballot races and the slew of bad Constitutional amendments on Wisconsin ballots this fall). But considering our options for the top office this year, particularly for anyone angry about our complicity in the genocide in Gaza or who watched Thursday’s debate, I understand. 

I was never a fan of Joe Biden. He seems like a decent enough person, but Biden the politician has a history of being too stuck in the present or near-past to make decisions that age well. What if he hadn’t sided with the anti-bussing movement, or even promoted de-segregation? What if he’d taken Anita Hill’s testimony about Clarence Thomas’s sexual harassment seriously? What if he’d let the other women who came forward with allegations about sexual harassment from Thomas testify? What if he’d had the forethought to see that incarcerating mostly Black and brown people was not a solution to crime? 

I knew exactly one person who was excited about Biden the nominee in 2020 and thought he must be the only one. Then Biden won the South Carolina primary. There was a lot of analysis afterwards of Black voters and why Biden seemed like the pragmatic choice for that voting block. It’s also worth noting that this wouldn’t even be a conversation if the Republican Party wasn’t so firmly anti-Black. There would be no Republican Party and there would have never been a President Donald Trump if it weren’t for white people.

So I’m not here to guilt anyone into voting for Biden or tell you it’s your fault if Donald Trump wins. There’s plenty of blame to go around: the Republicans for not coming up with a single not-horrible alternative, Republican primary voters for voting for Trump, the Republican Party for giving him the nomination (not yet, officially, but barring an Act of God, we know its coming), and the Democratic Party for not listening to its own voters. Also, everyone who chickened out and didn’t make Trump or his top allies face any consequences for trying to overturn the 2020 election. 

I do think it’s worth pointing out that if you’re planning on sitting out as a protest non-vote, thinking the Democratic Party will learn ANYTHING from people not coming out to vote—they will not. They will spend three years blaming progressives, the uncommitted or uninstructed campaigns, young people… basically anyone who isn’t nice, white centrists, AKA themselves. And then the establishment will back the most Biden-esque person for 2028.

No, what I’m here to do with this series is if you do plan on voting for Biden, but aren’t thrilled with the idea, here’s some other motivations for filling in that little oval. I will run as many segments as reasons I can come up with but one of them will definitely not be Merrick Garland.

The first reason is pretty obvious given the news that came out on Friday and Monday: our Supreme Court sucks. This election will decide whether it sucks slightly less or a lot more. 

Clarence Thomas is 76 years old. Samuel Alito is 74. Sonia Sotomayor is 69 and has had health problems in part due to diabetes. Whoever wins in 2024 will select at least two, probably three justices. 

Sure, Biden could have staved off the worst of the court’s decisions of the past four years if he’d had the guts to add more justices to the court. But we knew he wasn’t going to do that, right? That guy? C’mon.

But if Biden is elected, he will probably nominate Thomas’s and Alito’s successors. Then we’re back to 5 “liberal” justices and 4 Federalist Society hacks. And our long national nightmare will be on pause, until the next election, or until we actually get some people in charge who are willing to make serious structural changes. But in the meantime, we have Biden. 

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