this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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[–] Wojwo@lemmy.ml 63 points 3 months ago (8 children)

She's right. It's annoying at best to have these people saying Biden is a problem, without articulating at least an idea of who should be nominated and how that would work this late in the game.

[–] BarryZuckerkorn@beehaw.org 31 points 3 months ago

In my opinion, it's quite similar to Brexit: maybe you can get a majority coalition to disapprove of the status quo, but good luck getting them to actually propose a more popular alternative. Much less proposing an actual procedure for getting that alternative onto ballots.

Structurally and functionally, our political systems are not set up to run anyone other than the person who won the primary. Changing a presumptive nominee this late in the cycle is fraught with potential complications, but can be done if there's sufficient support for a specific alternative candidate. Realistically, it's Biden or it's Harris. There's no feasible way to get someone else at the top of the ticket.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Exactly

Everyone can agree on something being an issue but there needs to be consensus on solutions

Personally I think Kamala Harris is a viable plan. She's already VP, she's instantly recognizable, and she's also polling well against trump.

And honestly I'm starting to think the plan might be something along the lines of "Keep Biden in until after the election then scoot Harris in under the 25th amendment"

[–] Wojwo@lemmy.ml 20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I don't know if she can. There's still a lot of latent racism and misogyny in American culture, and she'd have to overcome both. Bidens old, but he's a he and the color of skin that's important, for some reason. I wish it weren't so, but it is. I think she could beat a Jeb Bush hands down, but Trump has a knack for flaming those racist and misogynistic feelings in people that aren't usually that way.

[–] Truck_kun@beehaw.org 18 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Also, she is the VP of the incumbent administration. Any complaints people have about Biden, other than his personal age, also can be applied to her. Economy? Immigration? Isreal/Gaza? All Harris' administration. Doesn't matter that she has little input or control of any of those, she is the VP, Trump and Conservatives will blame her all the way until election day, and Fox/Conservative media will be there to parrot and distribute the word.

[–] Wojwo@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago

Without the advantages of being the actual incumbent.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 months ago

She can just say Biden made the decisions, because it's true. Forget how Fox propagandizes things. If you think they have that power to shape reality, we've already lost. Everyone else will take a statement of "that was something I disagreed with, but it was Joe's choice" at face value, because we all know VPs are powerless.

[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's amusing to see people ponder whether a black person could become president, or use that as essentially an argument against running a black candidate.

You're about 16 years late to the party.

Are there LOTS of racists and misogynists out there? Yeah, absolutely. But if you discount candidates based on what you think the bigots will do, you're just preemptively doing their discrimination for them.

Saying, "I don't think we should run a black female candidate because of the racists", and saying, "I don't think we should run a black female candidate because I'm racist" has the same net effect.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

There is a precedent of a black president, but there is still no precedent of a woman president... and the reaction to a female candidate after Obama, was Trump.

Running a black woman candidate, is both unprecedented for the misogynism AND for the combination. The barely 8 year old precedent of voters picking an obvious con artist over a white woman, points to misogynism being still a serious issue in the US.

IMHO, the best that could happen would be having Biden re-elected, then him deciding he's no longer capacitated, and the job defaulting onto Harris. But if Biden can't make it to the polls... well, SOL.

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[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Keep Biden in until after the election then scoot Harris in under the 25th amendment"

That's the worst possible plan, IMO. Biden can lead, I would be fine with him being president for another 4 years. The issue is he can't win against Donald Trump. He was behind in all swing states, and that was before the debate, multiple gaffes and speech mistakes, moments of confusion and freezing, etc...

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Do you have links to her polling well against Trump? That's my one (very large) concern.

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[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it's healthy to have these conversations, although not this late in the game. At the very least, the Trump campaign would need to completely shift if someone else is nominated which would set them back a bit.

I doubt anyone who was going to vote for Biden before the debate changed their mind and decided to vote for Trump afterwards. The biggest concern is people who have not been paying attention to the news and getting them to mobilize on election day. If the Democrats can't get people excited to vote, then we'll have another 4 more years of Trump.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 months ago

It's also not just voting, but donations and volunteering. People don't think Biden can win, so they're directing efforts to other candidates. Exciting those that are already team players has real impacts.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Biden may very well not survive to the election. Plenty of people were raising concerns about his age and the physical and mental decline that were patently obvious four years ago, and were briskly told to shut the fuck up.

Run Harris. That’s the solution, because the democrats are allergic to actually cultivating new leaders.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Run Harris. That’s the solution, because the democrats are allergic to actually cultivating new leaders.

But, how does that work? Does the DNC just declare a new candidate without an election? What kind of rules are there for this sort of thing?

[–] DaleGribble88@programming.dev 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If there is a rule written down somewhere, then follow those rules if they want.

The DNC is a private organization, they can do whatever they want for whatever reason they want.

It probably wouldn't make everyone happy if they skipped steps in their normal procedures, but I say "When has the DNC ever cared about making everyone happy?" It's a big tent with a foundation of begrudging compromise. Some people will be upset, but they have months to get over it.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It’s a big tent with a foundation of begrudging compromise. Some people will be upset, but they have months to get over it.

The same could be said about Biden.

[–] DrJenkem@lemmy.blugatch.tube 8 points 3 months ago

You think Biden will get younger? The media will stop covering his fuck ups every time he steps foot in front of a camera? I don't see how Biden can gain so much ground short of discovering the fountain of youth.

[–] DaleGribble88@programming.dev 5 points 3 months ago

To my point- that's all I've ever heard about a Biden presidency.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely in "vote blue no matter who" mode. That said, if I can vote for someone that I actually like and that I feel has a better chance of winning, then all the better.

[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Kinda makes you wonder if they’re democrats at all….

Right?

[–] Wojwo@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's guaranteed that the issue is being boosted by the opposition, and probably foreign interests. Who wouldn't take advantage of the seed of doubt?

[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago

I wonder…..

[–] DrJenkem@lemmy.blugatch.tube 7 points 3 months ago

You're right, I'm not a Democrat. I'm a socialist and anti-fascist. My interest right now is seeing the fascist lose. I don't see a path for Biden to win.

Biden shouldn't have run again. The Dems should have primaried him. If they had, all of this would have been apparent long ago, but instead his aids have tightly controlled his media appearances for months to hide his cognitive decline from everyone except those playing close attention.

It only gets worse for Biden from here. He is at both his floor and ceiling, he has the "vote blue no matter who" and that's it.

There is definitely risk in running Kamala or someone else at the top of the ticket. They might lose anyways. But any other Dem would start approximately at Biden's spot in the polls and then have numerous paths to get where we need to beat Trump.

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[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We have a convention for a reason. Biden says he's dropping out, his delegates are released to vote for a different candidate.

Someone nominates Mark Kelly for the top of the ticket, the delegates vote him into the nomination, he accepts, and Trump loses.

It's a pretty simple plan, and rests on the assumption that Biden and Harris can put country and party ahead of their pride.

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[–] Doom@ttrpg.network 8 points 3 months ago

I think there is money involved to create this narrative

[–] within_epsilon@beehaw.org 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Move Biden left in 2020 became just take Biden again 2024. I will keep the language US centric. Democrats are surprised they are losing progressives by appeasing conservatives and moderates. A better progressive option is Jill Stein or Dr. Cornel West. Would be surprising for a coalition between Democrats and Greens.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The same Jill Stein that attended a dinner with Putin and Michael Flynn? That Jill Stein?

[–] within_epsilon@beehaw.org 4 points 3 months ago

That's informative. I haven't paid much attention to her. I know she is the Green Party candidate.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 points 3 months ago

Progressives are concentrated in states that are going to vote blue no matter who. Democrats already win the popular vote because of these states, but lose in the electoral college, specifically because they ignore the swing states and the red states.

Go look at every living Democrat who has won an election in a red state. Those are the candidates who can poach voters from Trump's base and win the election. One of those candidates is your nominee.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What I will say is what upsets me is [Democrats] saying we will lose. For me, to a certain extent, I don’t care what name is on there. We are not losing. I don’t know about you, but my community does not have the option to lose. My community does not have the luxury of accepting loss in July of an election year. My people are the first ones deported. They’re the first ones put in Rikers. They’re the first ones whose families are killed by war.

But you probably are going to lose

[–] millie@beehaw.org 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Only if you allow it.

Do you respond to some stupid political polling and scare mongering articles by insisting that Biden can't win and demotivating Democrat voters? Or do you respond by talking to people and getting them to text their friends in swing states to tell them to vote?

Mobilize voters rather than just passively putting down your own check mark in November. Build energy for the campaign rather than diminishing it.

It's not the fucking weather that we can't do anything about. It's not a hurricane. It's human beings making a choice. Our narratives matter to that choice. It literally makes all the difference in the world.

Don't passively assume defeat. Especially as it gets close to November. Let the media burn all their sabotaging, pro-corpo bullshit now. Let it be old news. Get inoculated against it. Then this fall, when we're getting close, be relentless. Reach out, make connections, push that missing voter participation so it's fresh in everyone's minds.

We absolutely have this, but only if we put out the effort to take it.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I really doubt you'll have this, no matter what you do

[–] millie@beehaw.org 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's because the corpo media really wants you to doubt that we'll have this.

Quit being a debbie downer and try!

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it's more that the candidate you're running isn't great and the candidate running against you just got a hell of a boost on top of the lead he already had. Hard to believe you're going to turn this around.

Quit being a debbie downer and try!

I'd rather let you figure out your own elections

[–] millie@beehaw.org 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

If you'd rather let us figure out our own elections, why are you out here building energy for the Trump campaign?

🤔

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If me saying what everyone is already predicting is "building energy for the Trump campaign" then you truly are fucked.

[–] millie@beehaw.org 7 points 3 months ago (9 children)

And yet you're still spending your limited time on Earth seemingly doing everything you can to maintain that narrative! Weird!

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[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Or hear me out, they can just gaslight us more. That'll turn things around for sure.

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[–] Zeke@fedia.io 9 points 3 months ago

Biggest thing is just to vote whether it's Biden or his replacement.

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