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I Recognize My Privilege; That’s Why I Can’t Vote For Biden

Karen Shiebler
4 min readMar 11, 2020

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“Sen Joe Biden at Center for American Progress Action Fund May 20, 2008” by Center for American Progress Action Fund is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

I wrote recently about my firm decision not to vote for Joe Biden if he becomes the Democratic nominee. As a life-long progressive, I’ve had more incrementalism than I can stand. Enough, I say. If my choice is Biden or Trump, I’ll write-in a candidate I can actually support.

Predictably, I have gotten a lot of push-back from my liberal friends. Anyone but Trump, they’ve all said. We can’t cope with four more years of Trump.

They’ve also accused me of allowing my privilege to get in the way of reason. As an older, white, heterosexual, middle class, educated woman, I stand to be hurt less than many of my fellow citizens by four more years of racist, homophobic policies.

I understand their thinking. But I disagree.

In fact, it is that very life of privilege that makes me more determined not to vote for the former Vice President. A Biden administration would give us, at best, a continuation of the economic and social status quo. Nothing would change.

Let’s think about healthcare first. Joe Biden has been lukewarm on the topic of Medicare for All. His position is that providing health insurance to all Americans would just be too expensive to implement now. He prefers a slower, more cautious approach. He promises to maintain the Affordable Care…

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Karen Shiebler
Karen Shiebler

Written by Karen Shiebler

A Mother, a grandmother, a progressive voter. I write because it’s getting harder to march and because words are my weapon. I blog at momshieb.wordpress.com

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