You want the actual answer? Because the Democratic Party has spent the last decade torpedoing non-establishment candidates. They killed off other candidates even running in this primary, and shut down several primaries entirely. Why would we waste our time?
And let’s be honest, let’s say that now the DNC appoints a new candidate, like they legally can do, it’s not going to be an AOC or someone even slightly to the left like Warren. It’s going to be another neoliberal like Buttigeig who will continue to Biden’s legacy of absolute mediocrity and screwing over the American people in the name of “freedom”.
This is 100% correct.
Small thing to add - we’re also in the midst of a devastating heat wave across most of the US at this moment. Taking to the streets isn’t exactly an accessible option right now, but anyone who has been remotely engaged in online discourse should be well aware of voters’ discontent with Biden and the status quo. They certainly won’t be discussing it on MSNBC however.
Your comment illustrates how our broken news system is the reason why four months is an insufficient runway for candidate policy clarity.
How do you consider Buttigieg a neoliberal? He wants to remove financial lobbying and stock trading permissions from Congress, create a nine Justice SCOTUS with three Democrat nominated Justices, three Republican, and three voted in by the previous six, his campaign raised $80M from small donations, and he endorsed the Green New Deal.
Just because he’s not as progressive as AOC or Bernie, doesn’t mean he’s not a big step in the right direction.
Thinking back to 2019 iircc the only Democrat candidate of the ±15 that was more conservative than Biden/Harris was Bloomberg. -I guess you could also argue Gabbard but she opted to go a different direction altogether. Regardless, a lot of Democrat voters seem to be projecting their values onto Biden without evaluating him as he is and always has been. He’s never been particularly progressive.
People forget that Biden was paired with Obama because Obama was seen as “too liberal” for “mainstream Democrats”. Biden was supposed to be a “correction” for Obama’s crazy ideas like the ACA (that was actually originally pushed for by, wait for it, Ronald fucking Reagan. The only difference was that Reagan didn’t propose any kind of public option, but that was the first thing Democrats killed in the name of “compromise”)
Yet Biden has been way more liberal than Obama.
Are you joking or not? I can’t tell.
He has. By literally every measure.
Ok. I’ll let you believe what you want to I guess. Evidently Obama actively supported multiple genocides instead of passively supporting one.
They didn’t call him Wall Street Pete and Wine Cave Pete for nothing…
I mean, they packed university campuses across the country and then the riot police went in. What kind of goldfish memory is this?
Gold
They’re asking why democrats aren’t in the streets though. Democrats were largely against those campus protests since they were perceived as harmful to Biden’s reelection chances.
DemocratsBiden supporters were largely against those campus protests since they were perceived as harmful to Biden’s reelection chances.Fair enough.
The last time we filled the streets we wanted police reform and didn’t get it.
The time before that it was to protest a war that happened anyway.
Not only did we not get police reform, we got a cop as a democratic vice president.
Yes, top cop Kamala. And now they’re threatening to roll with her if Biden has to step down. We’re doomed.
Because that’s not a thing and never has been? Find me any large scale protests in the history of the US where they were protesting a candidate prior to an election.
There’s not a single liberal or leftist (a few paid shill podcasters notwithstanding) in the whole country saying “Joe Biden’s brain is so soupy that Donald Trump would make a better president.” We’re saying Democrat leadership suppressed the primary to anoint an incumbent who’s going to lose. Democracy is on the line, and we’re running out of time to put our best foot forward. It’d be one thing if we were getting honest and reasonable arguments in response, but instead we’re getting gaslit (Only the elites want Biden to step aside?) and being told "get in line or you’re helping Trump somehow. " Meanwhile, Republicans are preparing to sue to keep Biden on the ballot in the event of a switch, because they know who they want to run against.
I hope I’m wrong and I hope he wins, since we’re probably stuck with him on the ticket. Given that he’s down 12 points from where he was in 2020 against Trump, where the swing states that gave Biden the election were only fractions of a percent in his favor, it’s gonna take some kind of miracle. We don’t have to be in this seemingly hopeless situation, but Biden’s ego and stubbornness seem like they’re gonna keep us here.
Historically protests are at the convention when the unpopular candidate is named.
Then the people who named the unpopular candidate blame the protests for the loss
People love to blame the people who make noise to warn about loss.
Cassandra of Greek legend was less cursed cause of a god but because no one wants to hear someone else be right about something they don’t want to accept.
I agree with this message, but the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests were in part due to the nomination of Hubert Humphrey.
In Chicago even.
Honestly. The number of people just on this platform saying “nobody thinks biden should drop, you’re wrong, you have no right to be upset with Biden’s team, and anyone who says otherwise is a bot” is seriously making me wonder if that narrative itself is the one being pushed by bots to sow discord between us. Who honestly jumps directly to “bot or stupid, no other possible explanation” when they disagree with an opinion so clearly held by a substantial number of people with nuanced opinions.
Anyone paying attention would see that Biden, having won on razor margins in 2020, on promises of being a 1-term president, could not afford to lose ANY ground in democratic turnout. Every feeler they put out is coming back showing we have lost that ground substantially and Biden is utterly unable to campaign to gain it back. Anyone can be not Trump, not everyone can run an energetic campaign on their own merits, and that is overwhelmingly what motivates people to turn out to vote.
It’s not a difficult connection to make and the assumption that bots would be the only ones to make an argument to replace Biden, after they ran a “primary” in which they hid Biden away from us and didn’t let even anyone remotely viable run, is just such an uninformed and arrogant viewpoint to witness in such droves that I hardly believe it’s real.
They don’t have or need good arguments, they just need to run out the clock until “It’s too late to change” becomes a legitimate argument.
I seriously wonder the same thing. People panicking and the response being to the people panicking
“don’t worry no one is panicking cause he’s a good pick”
feels like the psyop that helps the Republicans win.I know it’s just willful ignorance because they find this easier and less scary but like… Are they just Trumpies?
Because there aren’t any other viable candidates.
I agree with you, and that’s how you know it’s just disinformation and dishonesty. Nobody ever has a serious name to replace Biden. You press them for the replacement candidate, and you’ll get a ridiculous answer because they don’t actually have a plan. They just want to knock Biden down.
Harris is already on the ticket. If she’s the reason to vote, good news! Biden can step aside after he beats Trump and hand Harris the big chair. She can then run in 4 years as an incumbent (assuming she does a good job.) If she’s not the dream candidate, then why aren’t we talking about replacing her on the ticket? You want Whitmer or Newsom or Buttigieg, then put them on as the VP and let them run behind Biden.
You don’t get away from Biden’s baggage by having him step aaide. His record, his endorsements, his policies, those all come with the package. The only thing you shed is his age. If that’s the only reason you’re concerned about Biden, then it’s not a serious concern.
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:
- Recognize your name
- Believe they know you well enough to see you in the job
- Be motivated to go out of their way to cast a ballot
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.
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.
All great points. How about we both spread this message and you forgive me for posting my admittedly unproductive comment?
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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.
Nobody ever has a serious name to replace Biden.
Oh, they’ve moved on to indignation now and pretending they didn’t spend the last few weeks disappearing after being asked for a name. But they still very rarely actually give one.
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