For people who know me, it might surprise them to learn that in the four presidential elections in which I’ve participated, I’ve never voted for the Democratic candidate. I’ve voted for a lot of Democrats for other political offices, but when it comes to the presidency, I’ve always had a reason to cast my vote differently.
In 2004, my reason was that I was an idiot. I was less than one month removed from celebrating my eighteenth year on this planet, and was equipped with a set of provincial attitudes that characterize the worldviews (or lack thereof) of a lot of teenage boys from outer-ring suburbs. I cast my inaugural ballot that year by filling in the bubble next to the name of Republican incumbent George W. Bush.
By 2008, I had been thoroughly liberalized by my college education, and even though I was very much hoping for a Barack Obama victory in both that year and his subsequent reelection campaign in 2012, I never voted for him. Accompanying my dramatic swing to the political left was another quintessential ideological development for a college-aged kid—a growing disillusionment with the establishment. I decided to use my voice to cast a vote of dissent towards the two-party system, voting for Ralph Nader and the Green Party in 2008, and some guy from the Socialist Workers Party in 2012. I obviously knew these candidates had no shot at winning, but hoped that a vote for a progressive candidate could signal to the Democratic Party that, if they wanted my vote in the future, they would need to embrace a more progressive agenda.
I used a similar rationale in 2016 when I cast my vote for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Once again, this vote was less of an expression of my desire of who I actually wanted to win the presidency, and more of an effort to use my voice to help influence a political shift. To be clear, my politics had not swung back to the right. The emergence of Donald Trump had me more convinced than ever that right wing politics in America had gone off the deep end. I was, however, convinced that Donald Trump was going to lose the election, and thought that as the Republican Party sought to rebuild after such a train wreck of a presidential candidate, I’d prefer that party to move in the direction of libertarianism rather than further in the direction of whatever the fuck they had come to stand for under Trump.
But Trump didn’t lose.
And while Trump’s electoral college victory shook me as a person, it’s not what shook me as a voter. What shook me as a voter was how close Trump came to winning the electoral votes from my home state of Minnesota.
Minnesota has the longest running streak in the nation when it comes to electoral votes cast for the Democratic candidate for president. There’s a bit of an asterisk next to that streak, as Minnesota was the ONLY state to send its votes to the Democrat in the 1984 Reagan landslide, undoubtedly because the Democratic candidate was Minnesota’s own, Walter Mondale, and voting for someone simply because they’re from our home state is the most Minnesota thing ever. Nevertheless, the Republican Party has not won the electoral votes in this state since Richard Nixon did it in 1972.
But Trump came damn close. He lost Minnesota by 1.5 percentage points, or just over 40,000 votes in 2016. And if a few more Minnesota voters would have played with electoral fire like I did, he might have won the state.
Which is why I won’t be playing with fire in 2020.
Part of my rationale for the third-party vote has always been that, regardless of how I vote, Minnesota is a safe blue state. I could use my vote to influence other changes that I want to see in politics and still feel confident that my state would be sending all ten of its electoral votes to my preferred candidate. That’s not the case anymore.
President Trump’s frequent visits to Minnesota this election season have not been for the hotdish. Minnesota is now a certified swing state, and that should change how we Minnesotans approach the polls. Our votes are now objectively more important than those of voters from safe blue states like New York and California, or safe red states like South Dakota and Arkansas, and with that added importance comes increased responsibility.
And I’m feeling the weight of that responsibility.
In a different scenario, Joe Biden would be EXACTLY the kind of candidate that would push me towards a third-party vote. He’s too moderate, too old, too establishment, and has a political history that includes too many offensive comments and just enough disturbing allegations.
But in this election, the stakes are too high. Minnesota is in play and the alternative isn’t John McCain or Mitt Romney. It’s a person that, I believe, is far and away the most hateful, incompetent, and dangerous person to occupy the Oval Office in modern U.S. history. And even if that guy manages to squeak out another electoral victory, I won’t be one of the voters that lets him win my state on my watch.
So, I’m voting for Joe Biden. I don’t even view it as a choice between the lesser of two evils. I view it as a choice between one guy that’s evil and one guy that’s not. Joe Biden is a flawed and frustrating candidate for a lot of reasons, but deep down, I really do believe that he’s a good person. A person with morals and integrity and compassion. A person who meets the standards of #MinnesotaNice. A person who’s said and done bad things, but should not be defined by them. I hardly feel the same about Donald Trump.
To those who have similar feelings towards Trump but will vote third-party anyway, I did not write this piece to shame you. Voting is a deeply complicated and personal thing, and as a regular third-party voter myself, I fully understand the reasons one might hesitate to lend their support to the Democratic Party or the candidate they’ve nominated. But I also know that if Trump were to win Minnesota and I had not done everything in my power to prevent that from happening, I’d feel regretfully complicit. If you think you might feel the same, then perhaps a vote for Joe Biden is worth your consideration, too.
**************************
Big Cat's Kitty Shed 
This is an interesting perspective and I thank you for sharing it. I disagree with some of your thoughts on Joe Biden, but I can respect your opinion. From one small blogger to another, I wish you luck on getting traffic to your post!
LikeLike
You know I’m voting libertarian, but bill come on man this guy is no good bro!
https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/joe-biden/the-10-worst-things-joe-biden-has-done-in-his-poli/#9-opposed-school-integration-in-the-1970s
LikeLike
No boundaries with this guy what a creepy sicko! Not touching on the legislation he has championed and gotten through that have affected blacks and minorities disproportionately!!
LikeLike
Good lol
LikeLike
Conspiracies? Fake news?
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/biden-his-rhetoric-vs-his-abysmal-record-on-race
LikeLike
You have to be clueless to think like this!! And or have complete willful ignorance and disregard for the past and the consequences of people like crime bill joe and his actions effects. You claim to care about blacks and support the blm one of the most detrimental and negative things for blacks that held them back and disproportionately affected blacks and other minorities is joe biden and his infamous 1994 crime bill he authored and sponsored and pushed through and later bragged about lol you kids are idiots!!
LikeLike
Name one thing trump did or implemented to negatively Or That disproportionately affect blacks? I will wait, just one???? Give just one???
Now lets do the same with joe biden??? Lol fucking disgraceful you guys 🤦🏻♂️
LikeLike
Name one thing trump did or implemented to negatively Or That disproportionately affect blacks? I will wait, just one???? Give just one???
Now lets do the same with joe biden??? Lol fucking disgraceful you guys 🤦🏻♂️
LikeLike
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-director-of-national-intelligence-confirms-hunter-biden-laptop-not-part-of-some-russian-disinformation-campaign
LikeLike
Really keeps good company too lol headlines are misleading and almost like click bait from the article:
“ Biden did deliver a eulogy for Byrd on July 2, 2010. A video of the speech can be found here and a transcript can be found here here .
Other prominent political leaders such as President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton also spoke at the Funeral. Byrd was not a grand wizard of the Klan. He was, however, a former organizer and member of the KKK. A Washington Post article reviewing Byrd’s memoir explains these years in more detail ( here ).
In the early 1940s, Byrd recruited 150 people in West Virginia to form a chapter of the KKK. Joel L. Baskin, the grand dragon of the mid-Atlantic region, arrived to organize the chapter. Baskin was impressed with Byrd’s skills and encouraged him to get involved in politics. Byrd was unanimously named “exalted cyclops”, which meant that Byrd was the top officer in the local klan. The responsibilities for this role included leading meetings and initiating incoming members“
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-byrd-eulogy-biden-kkk-grand-idUSKBN26S2EE
LikeLike
I guess if history is a guide this was or the kkk rather was a creation of the Democratic Party lol so no one should really be surprised joe Barack and other Democrats spoke highly of and at this kkk guy’s funeral they were probably all bros lol
LikeLike
I mean really ?? You are ok with this level of corruption and deceit?? This whole scandal has shown so much of the media and it’s leftist biases as well!
https://tennesseestar.com/2020/10/23/commentary-the-biden-family-scandal-is-monumental-its-the-october-surprise-joe-biden-just-wants-to-go-away/
LikeLike
Welcome to the matrix! Where your reality is controlled……
https://djhjmedia.com/kari/google-employee-admits-bias-against-trump-to-project-veritas-video/
LikeLike
Pingback: Don’t Vote For Trump: A Final Plea to Potential Republican Voters | Big Cat's Kitty Shed
You seen and heard your guy lately trying to speak a coherent sentence? Still think he was The right choice for your vote?
LikeLike
You voted for a guy whom sexually assaults women tara reid? Lol
LikeLike
Public schools in one picture! Did read above you named a kid you had after vlad lenin?
https://mobile.twitter.com/ConceptualJames/status/1422027527766282241
LikeLike
Funny. This guy that Bill blocked on Twitter retweeted the same cartoon right around the time that you posted this comment.
LikeLike
Well isn’t that special… get your detective 🕵️♀️ hats on kids 😂 you think one person only shared that? Or that one person thinks you are an idiot? Cpk real cpk I could careless about who that is, reading your crap is mind numbing and oftentimes infuriating. That is why i keep reading and commenting you need and deserve pushback on your lunacy!
LikeLike
My comment get deleted?
LikeLike
Deleting comments on a blog? Lame totally lame…..
LikeLike
Hmmmm Bunch of real Sherlock holmes here on the case! I was a pl student of his for a year then moved over seas….Did you just assume my gender “the real CPK”? I’m a she fyi. Tin foil hatting it much? Maybe we know each other…. Maybe they follow me on the twitter… maybe I follow them…. Maybe we all follow the same people….maybe lots of people are sick of marxist Leninist ideology… i have shared a post or two of his…reading these blogs and comments and from twitter. i want to meet cpk or real cpk whom ever this person is, If that individual can get so much coverage so to speak… even on twitter cpk was mentioned to me?
No I could tell as my teacher he had an agenda or bias despite being a nice teacher/guy etc… found him on twitter from the wrestling he does and this blog after that. On the blog and twitts i saw his agenda and biases…Then got blocked on twitter for asking about the naming of his kid and razzing about that and the ideology being pushed…End of story… stay woke…. Haha
LikeLike
This aged well beautiful truly beautiful the idiocy in this all especially given what’s going on 😂 you got so much blood on your hands billy you the left anyone whom voted for biden this is your and your alone’s mess bravo 👏 make sure to remember all this and whose to blame you and those like you how do you sleep at night? Parents throwing there children over barbed wire to us soldiers people falling from planes and being killed trying to escape the hell in Afghanistan biden and his team created you fucking tools! Useful idiots is what you are! Our country will remember this and your words and what you advocated for!
LikeLike
Joe bidens America is great definitely building back better hahahahaha 👏!
https://mobile.twitter.com/rising_serpent/status/1450603412232495104
LikeLike