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Nov 02, 2020 Ganser By Charlie Landsman Photography by Kirsten Miccoli

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. Charlie Landsman of Ganser 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.

The Chicago-based quarter released their new album, Just Look at That Sky, in July on Felte. It was the follow-up to their 2018-released debut album, Odd Talk.

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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The first vote I ever cast was for Obama’s reelection in 2012. At the time I had a very uninformed understanding of what it means to vote. To me the Democrats were the good guys and the Republicans were the bad guys and voting is enough to keep out evil. It was the narrative I had grown up with and was something that made sense to me. As I’ve gotten older and the political landscape of the United States gets more terrifying and surreal, I have begun to realize it’s not about who are the good and the bad guys anymore. There are no good and bad guys. They’re all bad guys. You cannot operate as part of or within the political system of the United States and not be, in some way, holding up all the horrible institutions that make up the government. So when you vote for Biden this election you must understand it’s only a small piece of what your true “civic duty” is. Because the choice this election is between a violent, misogynistic, racist orange trash bag full of very stupid fascist rats. Or someone who still believes that capitalism is not inherently violent and thinks that cops aren’t all bastards. You can have a conversation and change the mind of someone through meaningful action and discourse. You can resist their racist and useless policies and try to get them to pass ones that make sense. You cannot talk to a bag full of fascist rats. Bags of fascist rats don’t know what science is. Bags of fascist rats don’t listen. You have to throw the angry bag of rats away, or else they’ll breed and before you know it the fascist rats are out of the bag and running the world around us. GO VOTE!

www.ganserband.com

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