Progressives: Now is not the time to protest vote

Former Vice President Joe Biden is not everyone’s first pick for president. During the first few primaries, Biden lost to Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the more progressive candidates on the ballot during the Democratic primaries.

Biden won South Carolina and swept the board on Super Tuesday after multiple other candidates had dropped out of the race. The candidates who suspended their campaigns, including Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, then put their support behind Biden. Moderate Democrats who supported Buttigieg and Klobuchar also put their support behind Biden because many of his policies and goals were similar to those candidates.

The group that struggled with Biden’s win on Super Tuesday was mostly members of the Democratic party who supported more progressive politicians, including Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren. The reality now, however, is that voting for Joe Biden is the only choice for progressive voters in this election.

The argument is not that progressive voters cannot be upset that their candidate lost in the face of a complete DNC overhaul during the primaries. Moderate candidates suspending their campaign to consolidate support around Biden is understandably frustrating.

However, this political move illustrates the fact that, at the current moment, strictly progressive politicians are going to be stopped from making it to the White House. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC survey, two-thirds of respondents said that they would be uncomfortable with a socialist in office. Sanders is in fact a self-proclaimed democratic socialist. The Democratic party takes this discomfort with the idea of socialism and runs with it, offering up a moderate Democrat in place of Sanders for the past two elections.

The reality is, whether or not you voted for a progressive candidate in the primary elections, the only choice now is a moderate Democrat. While it may not be the first choice for many voters, it is a step in the right direction for more progressive policies.

Furthermore, a lot of policies the Biden campaign has taken on are indeed similar to progressive policy goals. For example, while Joe Biden said in the final debate that he does not support the Green New Deal, much of his own proposed environmental policy is similar to it in many ways. Both emphasize the importance of clean energy and create a plan for jobs that both come out of clean energy and those that may be negatively affected by the transition to clean energy.

Biden has also been endorsed by many environmental groups, including League of Conservation Voters and The BlueGreen Alliance.

There are legitimate issues many voters have with voting for Biden. Indigenous voters have been questioning how productive voting for the lesser of two evils can be, as the process of voting itself is referred to as a “system rooted in colonial domination and exploitation” in an article on the website for Indigenous Action, an organization dedicated to Indigenous rights to land back reforms.

Victims of sexual assault struggle with voting for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, as both have sexual assault allegations against them. These are legitimate reasons not to vote, rooted in generational or personal trauma.

However, if you are choosing not to vote because your specific candidate of choice isn’t on the ballot, or you simply dislike the two-party system, that is unrealistic. If you are a progressive voter not voting or voting third party, it is essentially a vote against your own interests, especially when it comes to policies regarding issues such as healthcare and the environment.

The power of politics does not end with voting for president. You can vote and advocate for local politicians or create petitions on policies to appear before the state, or maybe even make it onto a ballot in the future. You can protest or help with local community programs. The work to get progressive policies neither starts nor ends with Joe Biden – voting for him is just another part of the bigger picture.

Even if Biden is not your first choice, right now he is the only choice.

Lauren Ballinger is a sophomore journalism major interested in social justice and environmental issues.