this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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And sadly, the DNC is going to cause it, because they're trapped in the 90s. Bill Clinton, who was elected president in 1993, is younger today than the person they're throwing into the ring 31 years later.
I live in California, which is going to go Democrat no matter what, so there's not much I can do but sit back and watch Biden lose swing states.
Hillary's refusal to bow out when it was clear how deeply unpopular she was put Trump in office in 2016, and I'm going to be shocked if Biden's same arrogance doesn't cause it this year.
Biden's gonna "hold onto the torch a little longer" out of pride, and we're all gonna suffer for it.
It is not the fault of the DNC that the Republicans are full fascist. I wish there were a more compelling candidate that Biden but put the blame where it belongs. Squarely on the shoulders of the GOP and their voters.
See, it's funny because when I say, "just vote for whoever you believe best represents you, politically", I get told that I need to address the practical realities of politics, and that sticking to ideals is wrong for me to do (and that it is thus incumbent upon me to vote for Biden).
Often the phrase, "a vote for anyone but Biden is a vote for Trump" or similar gets deployed.
But when I say, "okay, the practical reality is that Biden is looking more and more likely to actually lose to Trump, so the DNC forcing bad candidates like him through is wrong, and making Trump more likely to win", I get told it's actually the fault of the GOP.
Yes, it is of course on Republicans for voting for bad people. But if it's wrong for me to ignore that they will, and vote for whoever best represents me (and trust in democracy and the citizenry to deliver the person most-liked by most people), then it's also wrong for the DNC to choose their preferred but likely-to-lose candidates like Hillary (and now Biden) over candidates who would have been likely to beat Trump.
Can't have it both ways.
Biden was trailing Trump nationally before the genocide in Gaza. Before the special counsel report talking about him presenting himself as old and forgetful. Before the press conference meant to repudiate that report, in which Biden then went on to basically prove it correct.
Our best hope is Republicans doing something so incredibly stupid that they shoot their entire metaphorical torso off, because at this point shooting themselves in the foot alone may not be enough.
Wow, what a fucking bad faith argument. Nobody is telling you who to vote for in the primaries.
First off, who said anything about just primaries? I've been deadass told that if I leave the line for president blank, it's the same as voting for Trump, which is literally this argument (that the moral imperative in voting is to minimize the damage of another candidate, not to say who best represents your political beliefs).
But secondly, all the people in the party who pushed for Democrats not to run against Biden were saying exactly that, but taking it even a step further, by saying that we shouldn't even have the choice to vote for other candidates in the primaries. So no, not a bad faith interpretation at all.
And now it's too late, god help us.
The thing I'm noticing now is a deep stratification between Democrats who are begrudgingly forcing themselves to vote for Biden because a second Trump presidency basically means the end of the United States if it wasn't already inevitable, and Progressives who are refusing to vote for Biden because of his tacit support of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, who feel it doesn't really matter who they vote for because the AMIC ensures that bombs will fall and innocent people will die regardless of who's in the White House.
And the thing is, Biden has achieved a lot that goes quietly unnoticed. $130 billion in student loans debt relief, the $35 cap on insulin, gains in employment and reduction on inflation, to name a few accomplishments. But America's been circling the drain for a long, long time, and the refusal to admit it, and hold accountable the people responsible for it (because as much a sin it is to engage in bothsidesism, those people bankroll campaigns for team red and blue) is what will end up being the death knell for democracy in America, and even if it's not, the earth is falling apart faster than we can fix or escape it.
Me, personally? I'm voting for Biden, but I'm not holding my breath for hope in this lifetime. Suicide rates are the highest they've ever been and it's not hard to see why.
I think the real stratification is between Democrats who acknowledge that Biden is culpable in no small part for Israel's current impunity in executing this genocide, and those who want to pretend otherwise, either claiming that Biden is actually slowing Netanyahu's hand (despite all evidence to the contrary, including Netanyahu's public repudiation of calls from the US to avoid civilian casualties), or who just rationalize the issue by saying that because Trump could be doing worse, that makes Biden's actions okay.
Back during 2020 my dad and I were discussing Biden, and I told him that my opposition to him was based on his outdated views, not because I think he is a bad person. Sadly, Gaza is making me back off on that; I think that when taken together with his other policies (like still being tough-on-crime and pro-cop), I think he is ultimately the exact kind of person that MLK Jr. was referring to when he denounced the White Moderate.
He is just so incredibly paternalistic and arrogant, and it's literally getting thousands of people killed. And his refusal to drop from the race (which has caused other Dems to not run at all, out of fear of splitting the vote), despite polls and just the atmosphere out here, means that the additional deaths that Trump enables will also partially be on Biden, because right now he's clearing the metaphorical landing strip for Trump's second term.
Trump is absolutely compromised by Putin. The Kremlin leak in 2021 confirmed that, but that story also flew under the radar for most people.
It would have been nice to have 2 terms of Sanders, and be ready to move on to a younger candidate now, but now he's too old as well. Oh well.
Yes, an opinion by experts. It is an opinion, but not one that can be dismissed without competing opinion from others of equal credential.
Absolutely agree, although I think it's 'more true' stated the opposite direction: even without Russian interference, Hillary was never going to win, because she was a bad candidate, and her disastrous campaign was the nail in the coffin.