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TThis week, in one of his first in-person appearances since the pandemic began, Joe Biden made a promise to some Pennsylvania voters.
“I am not banning fracking. It doesn’t matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me, ”said the Democratic presidential candidate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where much of the nearby industry relies on the controversial technique to extract natural gas.
It was a move meant to clarify his position and extend an olive branch to workers who depend on the fossil fuel industry after he reiterated his commitment to combat climate change in recent weeks.
But for a different section of voters, it was another nail in the coffin.
“I don’t want to vote for Joe Biden and I don’t want to vote for Trump,” said Jason Kishineff, who is running for the American Canyon, California, city council. “I think either option will lead to human extinction.”
Kishineff is part of a progressive group of far-left voters who say they will not vote for Biden, even if it means a Trump victory, largely because the candidate did not adopt a progressive agenda on health care, mass incarceration, medium environment and vigilance.
In 2016, this group was among the estimated 5 million Americans who voted for third-party candidates, including hundreds of thousands of voters in swing states like Florida and Michigan.
But two months before the presidential election, and after four years under Trump, experts say the group is a less important factor for Democrats than it was in 2016. That reduction in power could serve to further alienate the progressive voters or to convince them to eventually vote for Biden, especially if they choose to adopt more leftist policies.
“That group is smaller,” said Rashawn Ray, a political sociologist and fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Deliberate decisions have been made with people saying ‘we can’t make this mistake’ again, knowing they played a role, even a small role, in the election of Trump.”
Nick Cruse, a 29-year-old from Kansas City, Missouri, said it wasn’t that simple for him. “There is no one who has done more harm to the black community in the last 40 years than Biden,” he said.
Cruse, who is Black, cited Biden’s authorship of the 1994 crime bill, which contributed to mass incarceration rates, and his 2005 bankruptcy bill, which made it harder for people with limited incomes pay your debts. While Cruse is firmly against Trump and the Republican party, he said that Biden represents many of the same ideals as the current president when it comes to corporate policy.
Angelica Whipple agreed that avoiding Trump’s reelection was not reason enough to vote for Biden.
The 29-year-old moved from Puerto Rico to Massachusetts as a child and has been a resident there ever since. A few years ago, he left his 11-year job as a personal care assistant for the elderly due to a disability. But trying to get disability benefits was difficult, he said, and he went months without health insurance, delaying surgery for ovarian cysts in the meantime.
Whipple had voted for Barack Obama in previous elections, but said his political views changed in 2016, when Sanders ran for president. The Medicare for All platform and the legalization of marijuana became non-negotiable for her. Biden has not committed to any of those policies, although she supports a public option health plan.
“He’s very adamant about doing nothing for progressives,” Whipple said. “I don’t see how he is much better than Trump. At least with Trump we see it head-on ”.
Both Cruse and Whipple said Biden’s vice-presidential pick, Kamala Harris, was another drawback for progressives, mainly because of her previous role as prosecutor. That has become an even more acute issue during recent months of protests over police brutality, as neither Biden nor Harris have explicitly condemned far-right agitators or pledged to withdraw funds from police departments.
“He’s been doing all these horrendously centrist things and has given in to the Republican narrative that protesters are rioters,” said Matt Myers, a software engineer in Seattle. “Doing the false equivalency… is simply not acceptable. He’s basically kicking left in the teeth. “
Still, several of the progressive voters said they would consider voting for Biden if he adopted some of his key platforms, such as Medicare for All, which has broad support among Democrats. So far, they said, that has not materialized. “If Biden is willing to support [those policies] I will sacrifice my own integrity and vote for him, ”Kishineff said.
Cruse also said that he would vote for Biden if he adopted Medicare for All and legalization of marijuana. But, he said, that would still be a “great compromise.” And Jessica, a voter in Texas the Guardian spoke to earlier this year, said she still plans to vote for the Green Party.
Myers hopes Biden will also reform student debt, which bankrupted him after he went to college for the first time. While he already plans to vote for Biden, he continues to be a vocal critic in helping try to push the platform to the left, which he said is not only ideological, but a better strategy for Democrats.
“I feel like the Democrats have been throwing easy elections because they keep running boring centrists who don’t get anybody excited,” he said. “But my biggest fear is that Biden represents four more years of a weak and useless Democratic party that … just sets the stage for someone worse than Trump.”
Meanwhile, the fact that Sanders actively supported Biden in a way that he did not endorse Hillary Clinton did not seem to resonate with his own supporters. “I think he has divided the Sanders movement into pieces,” Kishineff said. “Many of us are not sure if he got into this career compromised.”
Ray noted that Biden had embraced part of the progressive agenda, though not always explicitly. He noted that the candidate has had public conversations with supporters of Sanders, such as Cardi B, and that he chose a black woman as his running mate, even if Harris was not the candidate chosen by the group.
He also thought that Biden would end up reaching progressive voters in the days leading up to the election. “Part of what’s happening with Biden is that she hasn’t had to do that yet,” Ray said. “He doesn’t want to draw those cards too soon.”
But for some of the #BernieorBust crowd, voting for a third-party candidate or withholding your vote isn’t just about Trump and Biden. It’s about trying to weaken the country’s two-party system, in which both Democrats and Republicans have engaged in what matters most to them.
Until then, and perhaps despite that, this group of voters has no plans to support what they see as an establishment candidate. Kishineff said he will vote for Gloria La Riva, of the Socialism and Liberation Party. Cruse plans to vote for the Green Party, he said, to send a message to Democrats. Whipple plans to write to Bernie Sanders.
“We continue to embarrass progressives, but maybe it’s time to look at Biden and push him to the left,” Whipple said. “Let that be the change.”
