THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG
One of the commenters on my earlier “don’t waste your vote on a third party candidate” post played the “my vote won’t affect the outcome in my state” card.
I’m not surprised. I’ve played that card myself a couple of times. Personally, I’ve come to regret those choices. Your mileage may vary, but here’s my story.
In 1968, I lived in Kansas – then as now, Republican territory. Its electoral votes were going to go to Richard Nixon, no matter how I voted, whether for Hubert Humphrey, Dick Gregory, Pat Paulsen, George Wallace, or not voting at all. My preferred candidate that year was Bobby Kennedy. He didn’t exactly lose the Democratic nomination. He was assassinated on the night he won the California primary. An unworthy candidate won the nomination. Fuck you, Hubert Humphrey. I’ll sit this one out. I voted in the down-ballot elections, but left the presidential vote blank.
By 1980, I was living in Arizona, another solidly Republican state. My options then were Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, or John Anderson (a liberal Republican, at a time when there were such things), but it was a foregone conclusion that Reagan would get Arizona’s electoral votes. I thought I was smart back then. Fuck you, bumbling ineffectual Jimmy Carter. I’ll stay pure and vote for someone who has no chance of winning. I voted for John Anderson.
With the benefit of hindsight, I’m embarrassed by both of those decisions. Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Nixon was a terrible president. Tens of thousands of people died because of him – people who would have lived had Hubert Humphrey won the election. More or less the same thing happened in 1980. Ronald Reagan had a sunny disposition, but his policies ruined lives. Jimmy Carter looks pretty good in retrospect.
In neither case did my lone vote “matter,” except to me. Now I wish I had voted for Humphrey and Carter. It would have been a better use of my franchise.
That same commenter also noted that he wouldn’t vote for a warmonger, a racist, or a rapist, no matter what party they represented.
Those seem like reasonable cutoff points to me, too. But if “warmonger,” “rapist,” and “racist” were intended to describe Joe Biden, I have thoughts.
The only rape accusation I’m aware of directed at Joe Biden was made by Tara Reade. I kept an open mind while the press investigated Reade’s allegations. As best I can tell given the evidence I’ve seen, there’s no there there. I base that conclusion both on reporting by reputable news organizations, and also on the fact that Republicans long ago dropped the issue as an angle of attack.
“Warmonger” seems a little over the top, although Biden was a get-along-go-along senator who tended to support military action if a president said it was necessary. He was a conventional senator in that respect. I hope, and assume, that he’s learned from his – and America’s – mistakes. This time around, Biden will inevitably be surrounded by advisors who are focused on 21st century realities. Our biggest problems are not military, and Biden knows it. What war is Biden currently mongering?
As for the racism charge, if it refers primarily to Biden’s disgraceful conduct in the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, it’s hard to argue. Shame on him. On the other hand, that was thirty years ago. People change.
You know who doesn’t think that Joe Biden is a racist in 2020? Barack Obama, Jim Clyburn, the late John Lewis, and the entire Congressional Black Caucus. You wanna argue racism with them, knock yourself out. I could add Bernie Sanders, Noam Chomsky, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Biden’s list of endorsements, but it wouldn’t matter to folks who are Bernier-than-thou.
And, what the hell, I can’t argue with the assertion that one person’s vote in a deep blue or deep red state won’t affect the ultimate outcome. For me, it’s about what I want my personal karmic legacy to be, and maybe I’m making a bad bet. By the time I find out for sure, I may have been re-incarnated as a cockroach, or a Republican. Thoughts and prayers, por favor.