We asked our writers who they were voting for this election cycle and why, these are the answers we received. It won’t surprise most of you out there that most of us are voting for Joe Biden, but our reasons for that vote do differ.
Scarlet Magdalene Tea Addicted Witch
I’m voting for Biden for the same reason why I voted for Hillary Clinton. Because I am a single issue voter, and that single issue is not breaking open the seventh seal to bring on the apocalypse. We have white supremacists in the White House, including our current president. And if he and his army of violent supremacists don’t kill us, we have a global pandemic that is killing people and if THAT doesn’t get us, climate change will. This election will literally determine the fate of not just our country but of the human race.
Martha Kirby Capo The Corner Crone
It’s probably no surprise that I’m voting Biden-Harris. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about voices—who is heard and who isn’t, how we are heard, and wondering why it seems some voices are louder (more heard) than others. I’ve been wondering to what extend some constituencies have to go to in order to be heard at all.
There’s a crucial difference between hearing and listening; one is primarily a physical function while the other indicates an engagement of at least some level of critical thinking. Is Biden my dream candidate? Nope. He’s too old, too white, and too establishment. (And, you know, he’s a dude.) But I do think he listens. I think he’s a pragmatist and I’d take that any day over an ideologue.
I believe he will surround himself with a Cabinet comprised of people who don’t look like him and whose ideas may not always match his viewpoints. Some may think he’s floating that idea because he’s pandering for votes, and perhaps he is. However questionable his motivations might be, though, if the result is that people of color, nonbinary folx, differently-abled folx, and people who are under the age of 60 become effective leaders in a Biden-Harris White House then I’m indeed Ridin’ with Biden.
Courtney Weber Double Toil Trouble & Resist
I’m voting for Biden because for ten solid days, we couldn’t see the house across the street for the smoke from the forest fires. Biden has a plan. Trump doesn’t believe climate change exists.
Gwyn Three Pagans & a Cat
Michigan started early voting last week with mail-in ballots and my vote has gone to Biden/Harris. Was Biden my first choice for the Democratic presidential nominee? No. But he has my vote anyway.
Why? I believe Biden aligns with concerns that mean a lot to me including protecting Roe, protecting LGBTQ citizens’ rights, identities, and safety. Reforming immigration and protecting immigrants who are currently being held on the borders. Reforming and demilitarizing the police. Marriage Equality. Sustainable Energy. Climate Change. Reforming Healthcare to make it more available and affordable. Fair wages and jobs. Environmental concerns (which for me include protecting the Great Lakes, the funding of which Trump slashed by 90%). Do I need to go on?
The current president and his administration have been actively reversing protections, pulling funding, rounding up people through I.C.E. to place in cages. Trump has exited global initiatives on the environment and world health. He has actively misinformed the country about COVID. He actively refused to help states whose governors criticized him. Trump has been fomenting violence and social unrest. He lies repeatedly. Trump supports white supremacist groups by refusing to denounce them. And he is trying to sabotage the election by calling our process into question and calling upon his followers to “monitor” polling sites. Right now, we need to reverse the direction Trump has led before our country goes the way of the Roman Empire. Biden/Harris is who we need at this moment.
Jason Mankey Raise the Horns
Not surprisingly, I’m voting for Joe Biden. Biden was not my first choice, but I thought from the start that he’d make a great general election candidate because he appeals to a lot of different constituencies within the Democrat Party. What I like best about Biden is his decency, and perhaps most especially, his empathy for people. I believe Joe truly cares about others, and that just feels rare in a politician these days.
Biden has a long record having been in politics longer than most of us have been alive, but his record shows a willingness to adapt and change with the times. He was instrumental in getting the Obama administration (and then President Obama) to change its views on gay marriage. He has loudly supported the rights of our trans brothers and sisters, something I never thought I’d see from a general election Presidential candidate.
Politics is not about getting everything you want, and I realize that a lot of more liberal friends dislike (and even detest) Biden, but a step forward is better than another ten steps backwards, and that’s the choice we have in this Presidential election. I think Biden will nudge our country forward and bring it back from the brink that is Donald Trump.
Misha Magdalene Outside the Charmed Circle
This will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but I’m voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Why? Because I’m a polytheistic Pagan witch, and I have no desire to see the country of my birth turn into a Christofascist dictatorship. Because I’m a feminist, and I have no desire to see women turned into chattel. Because I’m anti-racist, and I have no desire to see white supremacy made the explicit law of the land. Because I’m a queer, nonbinary transgender person, and I have no desire to see my rights stripped away and my very identity legislated out of existence. Because I’m an American – with all that implies, for good and for ill – and it is both my right and my civic duty to resist tyranny and oppression.
Mostly, though, because I’m a human being, and I believe that a continuation of the banality, cruelty, and grotesque bigotry that exemplifies the administration of Donald Trump represents a literal existential threat, not only to our democracy, but to our world. Joe Biden was not my first choice, nor even my second, but he is the only viable choice in this election. Whatever Biden’s faults may be, he will be the kind of president Trump could never in his wildest deranged fantasies aspire to be.
Storm Faerywolf Modern Witch
I am passionately casting my vote for Joe Biden. Why? Because he is the only viable choice forward if we wish to preserve and repair our democracy. The person currently occupying the Oval Office is demonstrably a racist, xenophobic, bigot who has no idea how to actually run a government and so has been hellbent on destroying it. While 30% of the population cheers him on, the rest of us are trying to build a soceity that is kinder, fairer, and meets the needs of all its’ people, not just those at the top. Joe Biden is our current best chance at correcting the dangerous course this country is on, and opens the door for more progressive values to guide our policies moving forward.
Mortellus A Crow & the Dead
Biden is not who I would have wished for, but he is who I will vote for. We live in, for all intents and purposes, a two party nation. All our ideals reduced to red and blue. During my time in art school we were taught that the symbolism of red, when used politically, is often a reference to the blood of Christ. Blue by contrast, is associated with harmony, with wisdom, and with confidence.
Much like the blue that symbolizes Biden’s party (and my own) he represents peace for my nation, and I will not allow my red-tinged fellow citizens to lift up banners stained with the blood of Christ and create a theocracy that will oppress and harm and pull us apart at the seams.
When I cast that ballot for one I would not have chosen, I will remember that blue can also be a color of battle. I will remember that my Goddess is one of strategy, who chooses the field upon which She wages war. When I vote, in spirit I will have spear in hand, my skin stained with woad, and a flurry of crows at my back – leading the charge into a battle that I know we must win.
Heron Michelle Witch on Fire
Without any hesitation, my vote goes to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Of all the candidates on this ballot, their positions most closely align with the progressive and inclusive ideals I hold to be sacred. From policies for environmental protection and addressing climate change, to protecting women’s rights, and healthcare for all, denouncing racism and fascism, to more fair taxation, Biden/Harris offer the most reasonable plan to correct our course. Biden may not have been my first choice, but I trust that he respects the office, and will fulfill that responsibility with the best interests of the American People in mind. I am most excited to see Kamala Harris, an abundantly qualified and accomplished woman of color take a well-deserved position in the White House.
However, the most important criteria to me in this election is that Trump and the rest of his Republican, theocratic sycophants be removed from office in a decisive, and indisputable loss. Biden and Harris have the best chance of defeating this racist, misogynistic and fascist menace, and so I support the Biden/Harris candidacy fully. God/dess protect the election process from all baneful interference!
Alura Rose The Fairy Tale Witch
I will be voting blue, no matter who because I feel that our country was in way better shape prior to the current presidency but there are so many other reasons too. Biden/Harris all the way!
Tom Swiss The Zen Pagan
Living in a deep blue state, my vote will not affect the outcome. Biden will take Maryland’s electoral votes by double digits as sure as the sun will rise in the morning. So I do not have to engage in the “lesser of two evils” calculus, and am free to take a longer, anti-evil view.
The awful choices the major parties are offering are proof that our political system is badly broken. Trump is a vulgar and vile authoritarian con man willing to pander to the most racist and hate-filled elements of the electorate. Biden ran to the right of Richard Nixon on crime, supported the Iraq invasion and Obama era war crimes, pushed neoliberal economic policies that have helped the wealthy at the expense of the working class, and once voted for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. While I’m disappointed with the Green Party’s rigged process this year, it looks like the best way to leverage my vote for reform is to give it to Hawkins.
Sarah Babbs The Spiral Strega
I live in a red state – Indiana – which produced Mike Pence. My apologies everyone. I am voting for Biden – Harris, without any question.
Donald Trump stands opposed to all of the values I hold dear: justice, equality, dialogue, education, freedom of thought and expression, and most importantly the flourishing of all people, not just wealthy white folx.
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