148
If Biden 'Must Step Aside,' Why Aren't Democrats Filling the Streets to Demand It?
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
148 points (81.6% liked)
politics
19144 readers
3502 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
how is Biden the only person that can beat Trump? What left-leaning person would go "hmm, it's not Biden so I guess I'm voting Trump"?
It's not that Biden is the only person who can beat Trump. Biden is the only person RUNNING who can beat Trump. There are plenty of people who could beat Trump, but until one of them says they want the job this entire thing is a nonstarter.
the DNC kinda prevents legitimate alternatives from succeeding though. It doesn't have to be this way but the party keeps it like this, maintaining the incumbent as the only choice.
People want more options and they would be available if it was remotely possible to overcome the DNC's favoritism to Biden.
I 1000% agree with you. The DNC shouldn't be operating as an arm of the incumbent, that's precisely why we're in this position now. I just don't know how that changes when the DNC is staffed with people chosen by the incumbent, especially before November.
The level of political analysis in this thread is like armchair traffic engineers talking about how we could eliminate traffic by just opening up another lane.
Winning an election in our current system means running a 50 state strategy and getting more votes than your opponent. Almost everyone who votes is uninformed on most issues, and will vote for the person they like most. Some vote against the person they hate most. A full third of eligible voters did not vote in the last presidential election, and that was the highest voter turnout in 120 years.
To get someone to vote for you, you need three things in this order:
That's it. All of the ads and speeches and interviews and debates are trying to accomplish those three objectives. That's why primaries are important, because it gives the candidates time to differentiate themselves and build a following of donors and volunteers.
An incumbent has a ridiculous advantage in that they have 1 and 2 completed. Everyone voting knows that Biden is the President, and they have seen him doing the job. Trump has also been President and done the job. So it just comes down to which of these two old, white shitbags can motivate enough voters to show up.
If the incumbent drops out, you are starting over at zero. The candidate must introduce themselves to the voters, and then convince them that they have the experience and gravitas to handle the job. The American voters are woefully inept at judging whether a person has the experience or gravitas, but we all believe we are good at it.
A lot of people are motivated to vote because they love Trump. A lot of people are motivated because they hate Trump. Biden might have a handful of supporters that are motivated by Biden, and there might be a few morons who hate Biden enough to vote for Trump. The real hurdle Biden needs to clear is getting people who are unenthusiastic about either candidate to show up.
So the question becomes, is there another candidate who is so energizing and charismatic that they can introduce themselves, demonstrate competence, and motivate the unenthused without alienating the already luke-warm supporters?
What does Harris get you? She's not going to change course on Israel. Youth? She's fairly unpopular among young voters. Women? Anyone who cares about women's rights is already voting against Trump. Minorities? See: Women. Plus, anyone who loves Harris is already going to be motivated to vote for Biden, because he's not likely to go the full four years.
If you don't like Harris, then who? All of the big names in the party have backed Biden and have said they aren't running. Are we going to nominate that Joe Shmoe primary challenger that couldn't even get on the ballot in half the states? He's been running for a year and I can't remember his name or tell you what his policies are.
All of these hypothetical scenarios about how the ticket would be better if the DNC wasn't corrupt, that's just bullshit. Our election system sucks, but we're not going to fix it by complaining about the team uniforms. You want to make it better? Run for office. Write your representatives. Donate and/or volunteer for a campaign. Vote out conservatives at every level of government. Talk politics with your friends and neighbors. These things will all help. Whinging about the DNC on Lemmy will not.
Yeah I was just agreeing with a specific point about how we intentionally give the incumbent even more of an advantage during the primaries. Nothing you said is exclusive to my comment. I know/agree with pretty much everything you said already. Sorry you had to write all that.
All great points. How about we both spread this message and you forgive me for posting my admittedly unproductive comment?
Isn't it convenient that no candidate who wants to stay in the good graces of the democratic party will announce their candidacy until the incumbent democratic president steps down. What an unbelievably paradoxical argument to make.
Because nobody else was allowed to run, exactly.
I would argue that anyone who meets the qualifications COULD have run, but the chances of beating the incumbency advantage were admittedly pretty low. There are a lot of institutional obstacles in the way, but that's not the same as actively preventing someone from tossing their hat in the ring. That's like saying RFK Jr was prevented from running. He just had no chance winning the Democratic primary (because he's a piece of shit) so he went independent.
The deck is clearly stacked against anyone trying to unseat an incumbent, but that's not new information. That's literally how our system works. I would prefer the DNC be neutral and have a drag out fight in the primary and then support the winner, but that's pretty tough to do when the incumbent is the de facto leader of the party.
Did I say that? I might have said something like it in another comment, but I don't think I ever said anyone who is voting for Biden would vote for Trump if the Dems nominate someone else.
There exist many voters who do not follow politics and will only show up to vote for someone they know. Name recognition builds trust and enthusiasm for voting. We need all the voters, not just the ones tuned in enough to know they shouldn't vote for Trump.