I can’t stress enough how much saying “I hate both candidates but,” before saying that you want them to vote for Biden hurts outreach efforts. I know the internet makes everyone feel they need to caveat and quality everything but it is genuinely okay to say “you should vote for him and here’s why.”
It is okay to just list accomplishments. This administration has had many. You don’t need to preemptively apologize for your vote. We tend to think of voting as marriage in this country. It’s not. It’s public transit. You take the train that will get you closest to where you want to go. It is fine.
I am voting for Biden this election because the accomplishments of this administration—in the face of SIGNIFICANT headwinds—have been the most progressive on a number of fronts in my lifetime. More than Obama and Clinton. I vote on policy, and Biden’s domestic policy wins speak for themselves.
We need to stop treating Republican obstruction and undercutting and general fascism as a thing that’s just going to happen and thus doesn’t count as a factor in whether this administration can do shit. They absolutely count and the wins in the face of them, in that light, are fucking impressive.
Read about what has actually been pulled off, be explicit about that record, and don’t shy away from saying that it’s good. Because it is. Public transit. It’s moving us in the right direction, and we need to act to keep it going.
If we only allow ourselves to be effusive in our articulation about shit that’s objectively perfect, we are never going to win. Stop apologizing for the failures and point out the successes. There is no shame in that.
