The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas on refusing to vote: ‘The two parties are a joke’

The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas has taken to social media to explain his refusal to vote in the Presidential election.

Casablancas shared an image of a sticker which reads: “I Protested” instead of the typical “I Voted”.

In the caption, Casablancas explained that his post had been prefaced by a discussion with his mother, who expressed her disagreement with his decision to abstain from the democratic process. 

“My beautiful sweet amazing mom just told me ‘I agree with you but right now vote at lease to keep trump from winning. Think of your children’,” he wrote. 

Casablancas continued: “Like I told her, I am thinking of my children. The 2 parties are a joke… a horrible lie. The military and oil companies and banks are who we are voting for – and the media is their propaganda/entertainment wing. & with the way they cheated Bernie I see little point in choosing between these puppets… They want you to think it matters. That way nothing will change but it has to change.”

In 2020, Casablancas and the rest of The Strokes backed Bernie Sanders, who lost to Joe Biden in the race to become the Democratic party’s candidate for the presidency.

Casablancas’ post was met with widespread criticism, with fans on several sites, including Reddit, noting they were “super disappointed” in his decision.

Casablancas also shocked some music fans earlier in the week when he spoke to The Guardian for their ‘Honest Playlist’ feature. In the discussion, Casablancas reflected on the band's discography, noting that their breakthrough single 'Last Nite' is a song he can “no longer listen to”. 

“‘Last Nite’ by the Strokes is pretty dead to me. I’m not sure why,” he stated. “There are some others like ‘Reptilia’, ‘Hard to Explain’, ‘Someday’, ‘Take It Or Leave it’, ‘New York City Cops’ that are comparable in terms of crowd reaction that I’m not quite as sick of. If I heard it on the radio, I’d probably turn it off.”