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Nov 02, 2020 By Drew Citron Photography by Greg Hermann Beverly

With tomorrow’s election day looming and millions of Americans already voting early, we put the word out to see if any musicians wanted to write about why they were voting for Former Vice President Joe Biden over President Donald Trump in a series we are simply calling Why I’m Voting for Biden. Drew Citron wrote this entry.

For those on the left, and the vast majority of the indie rock musicians we tend to cover are left leaning, this is very crucial election, especially as it’s one in the middle of a pandemic that has threatened their very livelihood, with touring put on hold until a vaccine is found and independent venues across America facing possible extinction.

Citron is an artist of many talents and many bands, including Beverly and Public Practice (as well as being a touring member of Frankie Rose and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart), but last month she released her debut solo album, Free Now, via Park the Van. Citron engineered, produced, and plays most instruments on the album, but Free Now also features some notable collaborators: Scott Rosenthal, Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian), Tim Wheeler (Ash), John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile), and Danny Taylor.

Visit vote.org or headcount.org to get information on your polling place or on mail in voting, and to find out what else might be on your ballot.

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I take it for granted that we have to vote for Biden in record numbers this November. It seems like such a no-brainer and such a given, but there are a few outliers who can’t bring themselves to vote for Biden because of Bernie-divergent policies. This is absurd. We all have to vote for Biden, we have to vote early, we have to encourage everyone we know and also strangers via phone banking, we have to request mail-in ballots ASAP, we have to show up and make sure the polls are flooded with votes to eliminate Trump and his fascist cronies. There is too much at stake.

I’m voting for Biden because he’s a level-headed and reasonable person. I’m voting for him because he has a plan to expand medicare and make sure 20 million people can keep their health insurance. He believes scientists, and is going to modernize infrastructure/our grid, creating jobs and protecting buildings from the hellscape of fires and storms we will be increasingly experiencing due to climate change. And most importantly for me, he will appoint someone to the Supreme Court who believes women have the right to make their own choices when it comes to reproductive health. Yes, he is slightly ineffectual on gender rights, racial injustice, and police brutality; however, he is not a sensationalist divider, a corporate puppet (on a Trump-esque scale), a liar, a bully, and a child. We need to make sure we get Trump out, and the only way that happens is with our vote. We need to be vigilant, follow through, make sure our votes are counted, and hopefully show up in person. Voter suppression is real.

There will be an attempt to delegitimize the entire democratic process, and thus, a popular vote of landslide proportions is needed to offset any hubbub surrounding mail-in ballot fraud. Every single tally in the popular vote matters. I want to encourage anyone reading this to avoid third party voting for this reason. We cannot dilute the total if we are going to have a chance at evicting Trump.

www.drewcitron.bandcamp.com

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