Given the current state of partisan polarization, it’s unlikely Biden can get majority job approval next year even with the most fortunate set of circumstances. But the good news for him is that he probably doesn’t have to. Job-approval ratings are crucial indicators in a normal presidential reelection cycle that is basically a referendum on the incumbent’s record. Assuming Trump is the Republican nominee, 2024 will not be a normal reelection cycle for three reasons.

  • Zippy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Don’t take it for granted. Hilary lost because of this. Get out and vote.

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      11 months ago

      Hillary lost because she couldn’t read the writing on the wall and told everyone she deserved to win because it was her time. She was the worst person on the planet to go against Trump. The GOP spent 30 years demonizing her and she played right into their hands. Biden should have been the candidate then but that is hindsight.

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        11 months ago

        And even with all of her mistakes and her total lack of charisma, she still only lost because of an archaic system that lets the winner of the popular vote lose.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          And even with all of her mistakes and her total lack of charisma, she still only lost because of an archaic system that lets the winner of the popular vote lose.

          It’s not like this system was sprung on her at the last second. She didn’t take it into account. She pretty much ignored key swing states that wound up going to Trump.

          She was carried in a palanquin across the finish line in the primaries and didn’t understand that she had to run the rest of the way.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Bruh. She ignored a lot of close call battleground states and instead spent the end of the campaign doing “victory laps” in solid blue states like Cali because she was obsessed with beating Obama’s popular vote total…

          You could argue her and her campaign should have known better, I just don’t know where you’d find someone who disagreed to have that argument with.

          And that’s not even getting into how with population growth, popular vote totals will be record breaking damn near every election.

          She was supposed to have the best campaign team in modern history, and either they were too stupid to know what the electoral college is, or they were unable to talk sense into Hillary and get her to actually win the election instead of her fucking self esteem tour to make her feel good about herself after losing to Obama.

          I’m just tired of people making excuses for her one second like it’s her first day in politics, then trying to claim she’s the greatest political mind of her generation the next.

          It can’t be both.

          • mo_ztt ✅@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            “Shattered” is a book which goes into a bit more detail about what went wrong with the Clinton campaign. Also, this particular review represents a rare moment of lucidity from Matt Taibbi, back when he hadn’t quite completed his devolution from whip-smart political correspondent into a Trump apologist for some fucking reason.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You said she only lost because of the electoral college like it’s some weird thing no one knew about…

              Maybe you didn’t intend to defend her, but that’s what you did.

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                11 months ago

                He also said “with all her mistakes and total lack of charisma”. It read, to me at least, as anti-Trump and not pro-Clinton. (Even a bit anti-Clinton, as defending someone by saying they have no Charisma is… a weird way of going about it at least.)

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  She “only” lost if she didn’t know how the scores were counted?

                  If neither her nor or her entire campaign team knew what decided the winner of a presidential election, I highly doubt that was the only issue with her campaign…

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            11 months ago

            If we were deciding our leadership based on basketball games, I’d sure as shit say it was archaic.

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        11 months ago

        Biden had just lost his son and didn’t want the job. He later said he regretted that decision.

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          11 months ago

          It’s not just that, also remember that Biden had made a minor career out of losing the Democratic Presidential Nomination before Obama asked him to be VP. Much of the reason for that is that he had the tendency to say dumb shit. Remember all those “Gaffes”?

          I don’t think Biden could have ever become President before Trump, because we used to have higher standards for what was “Presidential”. But once Trump became President, now all the dumb gaffes Biden makes are no longer a liability.

          I admit I have been more impressed with Biden then I thought I would. I think a big issue is he is a much better President than he is a candidate for President.

          • joenforcer
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            11 months ago

            All those “dumb gaffes” are because he has a stutter. It’s actually way more impressive how well he’s trained himself out of doing it constantly.

            • dhork@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              They’re not all due to his stutter. He didn’t stutter when he said this about Obama:

              I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.

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        11 months ago

        She was the worst person on the planet to go against Trump.

        She absolutely was. And with the pied piper strategy, she basically said who she thought the worst candidate was in the opposition’s field, then lost to him.

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            11 months ago

            Yeah, that electoral college really snuck up on her. Just popped out of the blue in 1789, giving her no time to prepare.

            EDIT: Ok., that was harsh. I should go easy on her. After all, she just lost her dear friend Henry Kissinger.

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        11 months ago

        biden would have easily won, being the outgoing vp of a well-liked (by most) two-term president. him not running in 2016 is, i think, ultimately what enabled the hateful, incoherent, diaper-wearing buffoon to even have a chance–which was only enhanced by the dnc playing favorites and essentially handing the nomination to clinton.

        i get the ‘why’ he didn’t run; but man, it sure fucked-up this country (and beyond).

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        11 months ago

        That year was probably when we would’ve gotten “peak” or near-peak Biden, but that was around the time when his other son Beau Biden had died, which I thought was the reason he sat out the Primaries, which might’ve made them a bit more interesting, but would’ve had the same effect of shutting Sanders out. The way I remembered it, Biden essentially saved the 2012 Obama campaign against Romney, as Obama had been having a shitty campaign and debate performance up until Biden went up against Paul Ryan and dominated. After that debate, things seemed to turn around and I thought he was a shoe-in for 2016.

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      11 months ago

      Moderates are really really motivated to only be just slightly better than Republicans.

      They want to be as corporation/billionaire friendly as possible, so they get as many donations as possible.

      It’s why Hillary spent money, time, and effort boosting trump and Ben Carson in 2016. There wasn’t much difference between her and Jeb Bush, so she didn’t think she had a chance at beating him.

      The obvious risk was Hillary was/is a horrible candidate and might not have even been able to win against them, which she wasn’t.

      It’s like if the pitcher in a MLB game bet for his team to win, but by less than the spread. He still wants to win, but he keeps throwing softballs over the plate if he starts to win too much.

      But that’s just a game, this is literally playing with people’s lives.

      • chakan2@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        But that’s just a game, this is literally playing with people’s lives.

        Welcome to US politics.

      • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        really motivated to only be just slightly better

        I could be wrong, but I think this impression comes because they are skewing more towards the mean or average, whereas on social media we are quite far left. So to us, they appear similar to republicans, because we as online users on Lemmy are quite far left. However, in reality Dems are quite left of Repubs… just not left enough from our point of view because they appeal to the mean American. Am I making sense? I don’t think I did a good job of explaining myself.

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      11 months ago

      From what I’ve heard and seen, a lot of younger voters are disillusioned by the Democrats’ stance on genocide. I’ve heard the comment many are repeating that they are single issue voters when the issue is genocide.

      • Decoy321@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        From what I’ve heard and seen, there’s a massive astroturfing effort to discredit Biden over the actions of an allied nation. It’s as if a massive propaganda machine is at work that completely ignores the fact that Republicans would have an even worse stance than Biden on this issue.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Charles Manson would make a better US president than Hitler…

          Doesn’t mean people are going to get hype to go vote for Charles Manson.

          And telling people those are the only options will depress turnout.

          And when turnout is depressed, republicans win.

          So how about we try running someone who actually cares about genocide and will at least stop trying to get the perpetrators even more money while telling their own citizens we’re the only first world country that can’t afford universal healthcare?

          Like, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that would get more votes.

          But the people running the Dem party aren’t going to just turn down those AIPAC kickbacks if they can get away with “at least we’re not republicans, so shut up and vote for another genocide supporter”.

          They’ll always aim for “barely better than a Republican”. So let’s fucking replace them with people willing to do more than the absolute bare minimum

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            So how about we try running someone who actually cares about genocide and will at least stop trying to get the perpetrators even more money while telling their own citizens we’re the only first world country that can’t afford universal healthcare?

            This is an unpopular opinion and unpopular opinions lose you elections

            The real world isn’t lemmy.

        • wishthane@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          There are absolutely very important reasons to still vote for Biden, but you can’t rely on millions of people to all do the right thing just because it’s logical. The person who’s running for office ultimately has the responsibility to ensure people want to vote for them. It’s just not really useful to blame millions of people when you know that there are statistically for sure going to be disaffected people out of those who need to be motivated. It doesn’t even matter whether most voters who would vote for Biden turn out to vote for him - they almost certainly will - because this fight is at the margins, and to win, you have to capture the irresponsible and unreliable people too.

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          11 months ago

          The “but it could be much worse” argument doesn’t carry much weight for many people on this issue.

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            11 months ago

            Has anyone tried explaining that if you allow in the people literally trying to take their rights away, they won’t get another chance to vote in a politician against genocide?

            Like the genocide is awful but it shouldn’t make people forget they have very close to home issues currently happening right now.

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              I hear that excuse every single election and have always found it lacking.

              If we always have to wait until after the next election to demand better of the Democrats then we’ll never see any change. “Lesser evilism” will only allow the Democrats to continue sliding the overton window to the right.

              Even if you’re already planning to vote a straight Democrat ticket, don’t tell them that. Make them think you’re a swing voter they need to pander to.

              • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                How are you hearing it every single election? The main issues didn’t start popping up (or at least blatantly enough to change voter turnout) until the 2016 election.

                Like that’s not nearly enough elections in between to hear the excuse every election.

                • SCB@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  How are you hearing it every single election?

                  He’s only seen 2 that he remembers.

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            11 months ago

            Which is still an ignorant take, because we’ve only got two realistic options. Bad and worse.

            Any complaints otherwise are ignorant at best, if not maliciously deceptive.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Which is still an ignorant take, because we’ve only got two realistic options. Bad and worse.

              The solution isn’t “shut up and be grateful we’re not worse”. It’s actually running someone that’s good.

              We’ve tried the “shut up you don’t have a choice” strategy and that just keeps ending up with republicans in office.

              Why not just run good candidates that want to help America if they get in office?

              • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                You push the Democratic Party candidate to the left. Supporting Republicans (which is what you’re doing if you don’t vote for Joe Biden, full stop) isn’t going to help anyone and won’t get you better candidates in the future. It will literally have the opposite effect. There’s a great batch of possible candidates for 2028 (Witmer, Shapiro, Newsome, etc). Sure I’d prefer them over Biden for 2024 but they’re not running.

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Supporting Republicans (which is what you’re doing if you don’t vote for Joe Biden, full stop)

                  “Vote red no matter who, because Dems are worse” is how trump became the face of the Republican party…

                  If the Dem party’s only standard is “there’s a D next to their name” we’ll gonna keep getting shitty candidates that lose half the elections to republicans. And even when they do win, nothing gets fixed.

                  Normally I’d push for primary participation and then begrudgingly voting for the winner of the primary.

                  But we don’t even get a primary because a private organization controls that, and they decided we don’t get one.

                  Will I still vote for Joe?

                  Sure, I’ve voted for every single shitty D candidate in the general since I turned 18. But telling people to just shut up and stop complaining about how fucked it is won’t fix anything. Hasn’t for decades.

                  And pretending that shitty milk toast candidates don’t depress turnout and give Republicans a chance, is like asking why poor people don’t just make more money. But you’re not going to reach that 1/3 of eligible voters on a political sub on a fringe social media website

                  The absolute easiest way to get them to vote, is run a good candidate.

                  So how about you spend your effort communicating that to the Democratic party? That might actually accomplish something…

                  Although, they’re probably just say “shut up and vote for me, at least I’m not a Republican”.

              • chakan2@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Why not just run good candidates that want to help America if they get in office?

                Because that doesn’t make nearly as much money donations as “Look at how awful the Republicans are.”

                If the D’s ran a real candidate that actually cared about the country, they’d get blasted in fund raising…People like Booker would go broke overnight if we got universal healthcare. Pelosi would lose her ass if we outlawed congressional trading.

                We’re fucked…irrevocably completely and utterly fucked.

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  If the D’s ran a real candidate that actually cared about the country, they’d get blasted in fund raising

                  Not really, Bernie and even trump made enough off “small” donations to run effective campaigns.

                  The difference is small donations from voters don’t come with all the perks and kickbacks as the same amount from a single PAC/billionaire/organization.

                  And as long as the bare minimum is having a D next to your name, grifters are going to run with the D, and get those huge donations because the people making them expect a return.

                  So yeah…

                  People like Booker would go broke overnight if we got universal healthcare. Pelosi would lose her ass if we outlawed congressional trading.

                  Those are two great examples of politicians that need to be replaced, and why our standards need to be more than a single letter.

      • Silverseren@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        The issue with that is that Republicans hold an even worse position on genocide in multiple ways and would have been gunning for not only Israel killing all Palestinians, but ejecting all Muslims from the US as well. Which they will also totally do if they win the election.

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          11 months ago

          Two fascist parties?

          Time to stay home on election day. I refuse to be complicit in the crimes of the State.

          If the Democrats want my vote, they can start pandering to me instead of AIPAC.

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        11 months ago

        Idk, if the GOP collapses and all the rural dumbasses (or rather their children) learn critical thinking over the next 30 years to form some new age progressive movement then in that case Dems would become the bad guys. Definitely vote DNC this election tho, theres too damn much at stake to be picky.

        • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Nobody’s saying vote democrat for the rest of your life, they’re saying to vote for the rest of your life. The fact is, Trump won one of the lowest turnout elections of our lifetime, and encouraging low turnout was part of his strategy to win. We know that Trump targeted likely dem voters with messaging campaigns saying things like “she’s got this in the bag, don’t bother” and “they’re all the same anyway”. Voting is how we spite the powerful regardless of what party they affiliate with.

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            11 months ago

            Not very true statistically to say DNC candidates are more likely to win with higher turnout. While data does show that DNC voters overall are more likely to sit elections out due to lower partisan loyalty than Republicans, there is a big misconception that voter turnout benefits Democrats when historically there hasn’t been any consistent correlation in the past 70 years. This view is likely caused by the fact that voting ease of access is a partisan stance upheld by the DNC.

            I don’t remember my sources, you’ll have to either take my word for it or disagree and move along. You have the right to fact check this but not any obligation.

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    I don’t have to like Joe or his policies to know that voting for him is the better choice. It sucks to have vote for the lesser evil, but right now the gap between the lesser and greater evils is so large that it makes the decision simple.

    Joe will be a lame duck in 28’ ineligible to run in 28’which will hopefully give us a chance to force the issue on not wantting to vote for the lesser evil then. However right now the greater evil is the issue, if we want to have a system to reform in 28’ the choice on who to vote for now isn’t a choice at all.

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      I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when my best choice is to vote for someone who I know will not adequately address the multitude of extremely time sensitive issues facing our planet and country.

      Like yeah, Trump will be worse, and the system is such that you literally have to vote blue if you want to mitigate the damage. But climate change isn’t waiting for us to “fix the system”, Americans dying of inadequate health care don’t have time to wait, the rich aren’t going to stop widening the wealth gap just because. And for all of this, my vote goes to an administration that will only employ soft tactics to stop genocide…

      But hey, at least it could be worse right…

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      Lesser evil might have been a thing 20 years ago, calling Biden lesser evil is just ignorant.

      He’s going up against a man that does not believe in democracy or the peaceful transition of power.

      It’s like looking at broccoli and dog vomit and saying I’ll eat broccoli it’s the lesser of two evils… 🤷‍♂️

      • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Pretty good metaphor since the only one who’d say that for real is a fucking child who’s mad they don’t get ice cream for dinner

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        11 months ago

        I was under the impression that “Lame Duck” refers to a sitting president that can no longer run. I was incorrect. I ment to state that with Joe being unable to run, 28’ is the better time push the lesser vs greater evil issue.

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      Russia stopped pushing Jill Stein quite so hard once they compromised the major parties (democrats by releasing their emails, republicans by using their email trove as kompromat.)

  • TwoGems@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Are people this dumb? Would they really consider Trump for another presidency, let alone another insane Republican candidate?

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      11 months ago

      Imagine if the DNC gave democrats a worthy candidate. Then we wouldn’t have to strongarm democrats to vote for democratic candidates.

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        11 months ago

        Who?

        The problem is sort of chicken and egg: if there were an obvious democratic alternative the party could agree on, Biden would be out. There is no such person, so we get stuck with what we have right now.

        Hard to fault the party for not wanting to bruise their most likely candidate in a tough primary, either.

        This sucks, but it’s not the Democrats’ fault: it’s our first past the post voting system.

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          11 months ago

          If the DNC hadn’t shoved Hillary down our throats, Bernie would have certainly won the primary. But on policy the best candidate would have been Andrew Yang.

          The DNC would rather lose elections than give us non-establishment politicians.

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            11 months ago

            I was under the impression that Bernie was too left even for a lot of Democrat voters, so winning the elections could’ve been a tough one

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              11 months ago

              And just like that, the party’s voters aren’t expected to fall in line for a candidate they don’t want in order to stop Trump.

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                11 months ago

                Not like expecting them to fall in line would’ve done anything if you’re losing a hefty chunk of the moderates. That’s what seems to decide American elections, who can claw more of the middle ground undecided voters to their side.

                • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Not like expecting them to fall in line would’ve done anything if you’re losing a hefty chunk of the moderates.

                  So “vote blue no matter who” was a crock of fucking bullshit put forth by hypocrites who never intend to follow their own advice if a candidate isn’t their very first choice.

          • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Oh yes how the DNC shoved Hillary down our votes by mind controlling millions of so called Bernie supporters to not even turn out for him and then throw a tantrum that other voters didn’t vote for him on their behalf.

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        11 months ago

        Imagine if people who pissed and moaned on this point actually turned out to vote in the primary process that selects the candidates.

    • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOP
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      11 months ago

      Sadly, yes. Even a lot of people who talked about how dangerous he was while they worked in his administration aren’t willing to commit to voting for Biden over Trump if it comes down to them in the general election.

      • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Pence is going to vote for him despite that whole attempted murder thing. What I want to know is what Mother thinks about that.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If Trump is still the nominee, he will likely have been convicted in at least one of those 4 criminal cases, but still holds sway in the party to win anyway and will double-dog-dare Georgia to throw him in jail. In that case, I don’t think enough people would willingly vote for a felon (even a Republican one) to give him a chance.

    This leaves Biden a single thing he absolutely needs to win the election: a pulse. I think the only person keeping America from becoming a fascist dictatorship is not Biden, it’s his cardiologist. That doctor needs to keep Biden’s heart ticking until Jan 21 2025.

    • chakan2@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I don’t think enough people would willingly vote for a felon

      It does lay the groundwork for a civil war. You know some redneck dumb fucks are going to try to break him out of jail, and then it’s on. It’s clear that Trump’s base is voting Trump no matter what.

      • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        His base sure, but his base aren’t all of the people who’ve voted for him, and being a convicted felon is going to tank his numbers outside that base

        • chakan2@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          The other people that voted for him are still going to vote for him because R.

          Pretending otherwise is why Biden is behind in the polls.

    • SonnyVabitch@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m equally happy with a Saddam style lookalike or if he kicks the bucket in the last few days, even a Weekend at Bernie’s solution.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The worst possible timeline is if Biden wins the election, but croaks before the election can be certified by Congress. There will be legitimate challenges over whether any Biden/Harris electors can be accepted at all, and the election may go to the House/Senate to decide. And even if the Democrats control Congress , if the House has to vote on who should be President each state’s delegation gets 1 vote, and that math favors Republicans.

        In that scenario, a Trump/Harris administration is extremely likely, even if the Biden/Harris ticket won enough EC votes to win.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    I think the most important metric for Biden and the Democrats in the upcoming us election is a blood pulse.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I would argue that some cognitive ability is required also, in order to perform at the debates. But Trump has already set the precedent that the front runner can ignore debates.

      So the only metrics Biden needs to meet are

      • earn more EC votes than Trump
      • Have a pulse when the EC votes are counted in Jan 2025
      • Be able to repeat what some guy in a robe tells him to repeat on Jan 20 2025

      If he does all that, but keels over on Jan 21, his second term will still be a success.

  • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Why does anyone presume that his opponent will be the orange guy? If he hasn’t keeled over with hamberders and buckets of KFC, he still has 91 felonies hanging over his head. He likely will be imprisoned, or disqualified by then.

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Why does anyone presume that his opponent will be the orange guy?

      Because he’s winning the primaries now by some distance, it’s not illegal for him to run from prison and at least one state court has already decided that he did engage in an insurrection but that that doesn’t disqualify him either.

            • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Listen, I’m not sure where you get your news, but what I’m reading is that they decided he did, but that didn’t disqualify him.

              • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Found the typical Lemmy user! Always reading things and then thinking about things before commenting on things. You need to go back and re-read what you were reading when you read that, because it’s clear that they decided he did, but that didn’t disqualify him.

    • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Well for starters a lot of his full trial dates are being set for after the primaries

      They’re basically trying to take what comy did to Clinton and dial it to 11

      • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Speaking of which, the Russian emails, had presumably classified information. The rules over classified documents are to never comment about them, because any information released is another clue about what is contained in actual classified documents. This left Clinton in a limbo of not being able to defend herself, while being smeared. Comey, believed the emails, until they were fully investigated and well after the election. We didn’t hear about the planted parts, one way or the other, because of those same security rules. I DO remember the US security council trying to limit damage after Trump was elected.

        The GOP has a choice of whom to run. I assume there will be a way that will be found, for them to switch candidates, if Trump is in prison, Even if it occurs in the window between his winning the primary, and election, they will find a way. It may even be to their advantage, as the new candidate receives Trumps blessing and gives Trump clemency.

        • ggBarabajagal@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Russian emails? Are you thinking of the Wikileaks stuff, with the hacked data from Clinton’s campaign staffers? I am pretty sure those are different and separate from the emails that Comey was investigating for the FBI.

          There are two “Hilary’s emails” stories. It is easy to confuse the two – Republicans worked very hard throughout 2016 to make it easy to confuse the two – yet they are two different series of events and almost totally unrelated to one another.

          The original “Buttery Males” story: Comey and the FBI investigated emails that were stored on a private server owned by the Clinton Foundation, a server that Hilary had used for official business while serving as Secretary of State. In July of 2016, Comey announced that while they did find a small number of documents marked “classified” stored on the server, this violation was obviously inadvertent and should not be prosecuted. “Sloppy but not criminal,” or something like that. Then later in October (after taking a few months of heat from his fellow Republicans for not going after Clinton harder) Comey announced that there may be files on a laptop owned by Hilary’s assistant, Huma Abedin, that the FBI had not yet had a chance to review. Comey announced this privately to a congressional committee and it was leaked almost instantly, about a week before election day.

          The “From Russia with Love” email story: Meanwhile, Russian hackers infiltrated Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and stole thousands of personal emails and other data from her staffers and people they’d communicated with. None of these emails were classified and the FBI never investigated the Clinton campaign in this case (except as the victims of a crime). Wikileaks and Julian Assange got in on the action and built up lots of hype. That’s when, in the middle of a campaign speech, Trump made his famous on-stage plea: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

          Trump was clever, mendaciously associating the original “classified documents on your private server” controversy with the “Russia stole your data and is about to release it on Wikileaks” controversy, but the two stories don’t really have anything to do with one another, at all, and they never really did.


          It may even be to their advantage, as the new candidate receives Trumps blessing and gives Trump clemency.

          I also have been wondering what the race will look like in six months, when all this speculation about Trump’s trials (and potential prison time?) will be upon us for real.

          Legally (so far at least) they say Trump can run from prison. If he were to win, as POTUS he’d have many options available to clear his name, dismiss his accusers, and attack his opponents.

          I don’t think Trump will give another candidate his endorsement, even from prison. If he does, it won’t be without that other candidate publicly swearing fealty and promising to grant clemency, as you say. The way I see it, any candidate who’d be willing to do that will look weak and subservient, and probably look worse than Trump’s going to look, even from prison, by the time they get to the general election.

          I think the only way another candidate wins the GOP nomination is by taking it from Trump – not by Trump lending it out to them.

          • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Good points. A sycophant will rail about how unfair the partisan attacks have been against Trump. They will right this grievous wrong, and will pardon Trump. Anything less is akin to leaving a fallen warrior behind.

    • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOP
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      11 months ago

      He shouldn’t have been the nominee in 2016, either. It’s not safe to assume anything at this point.

      • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The Russian playbook of getting dirt to smear an opponent did not work when the Biden hard drive was shown to be Russian sourced. Gulianni’s provider is charged as being a foreign agent, as of a week or so ago.

    • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You really think Trump will serve any time? If it were anyone else I might agree. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.

    • Phegan@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Most of those won’t go to trial until after the election, and the courts have shown zero desire to actually punish him in a meaningful way. I will be very surprised if he is not the candidate

      • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yeah it would be surprising, it would also upend the entire democratic election strategy so not planning for that outcome is still a risk. Biden is a huge liability if anyone but trump comes out to rep the gop.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Most of those won’t go to trial until after the election

        Literally every trial begins before the election.

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m old and cynical, but my opinion is that Trump will never go to prison. That is a pipe dream.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Why does anyone presume that his opponent will be the orange guy?

      Why do you assume that he will suddenly begin seeing proportionate consequences for his actions in the next 12 months when it’s never once happened in his life before this point?

      I agree with your disposition toward him and admire and envy your optimism…I just don’t share it.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I keep seeing messaging that essentially amounts to “Biden doesn’t have to try, everything is great actually, and, besides, Trump is unelectable”. Clearly the democrats learned nothing from 2016. This is too big to fuck up, don’t phone it in.

    • chakan2@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The secret here is the D’s aren’t actually trying to win this one.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I want to disagree with you, but I just can’t wrap my head around team Biden’s messaging feeling this completely disconnected from the reality on the ground for a lot of Americans. And when you call out the disconnection, the answer isn’t anything approaching empathy or understanding, it’s “you’re wrong lol”. It just feels like they’re not even trying.

  • neptune@dmv.social
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    11 months ago

    Trump has all the weaknesses of an incumbent and few of the benefits. I knew some people who tried to play very agnostic about his record in 2016, but now as in 2020, the American people have a record to judge him on. And it’s not very pretty. Biden is going to start laying into that record. And soon the negative polarization will build back up, after the GOP decides who exactly the are with their candidate chosen.

    • hansl@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      He’s already reached it. If he fails it won’t be a failure of his administration, it will be a failure of the electorate.

        • hansl@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          So the American people would rather have a fascist that has sworn revenge on his political enemies, to Biden who actually helped American families. Telling.

  • blazera@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Time for everyone to bemoan the two party system but you dont dare suggest they stop supporting it

  • kiljoy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    How pathetic is it that we are forced into a situation where both candidates suck ass. Let me vote harder for shit to get worse either way.🙄

    • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOP
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      11 months ago

      Yay, more “both sides” bullshit!

      Yup, Biden is absolutely the same as Trump. Nothing progressive has come out of his administration at all.

      • kiljoy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Cool bro, my grocery bill is fucking outrageous the cost of living is going up with no raises for the regular guy. They do everything but actually help the middle class.

        • Scientician@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I’m not giving Biden a full pass, but inflation has struck across the globe. Why do you think we would be special?

          There’s a land war on in Europe, and another more recently in the middle east, tech is still confused about how to deal with a post COVID world, and just laid off hundreds of thousands of employees, refugees from climate crisis and political unrest are fleeing across the Americas, Asian and Europe, nationalism has been on the rise for nearly a decade, and here at home the GOP is in a true state of crisis, as their old guard evil white guys are dealing with the insane fascists new guys.

          The world is crazy right now, but eggs are expensive, so fuck voting I guess.

          • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            There might be yet another land war in Africa soon,

            Ethiopia has been developing some very strange definitions of colonialism, specifically that water rights and sovereignty over your own coastlines are colonialism apparently.

          • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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            11 months ago

            Also those egg prices spiking headlines have been around times of deadly avian flu outbreaks over the past couple years (we just had another one too). Kind of the the cost of cheap eggs. If you want your eggs dirt cheap, well they get that cheap because they come from giant factory farms with them all crammed together in horrible conditions ripe for diseases to spread. So everytime there’s an avian flu outbreak, they have to kill of millions of chickens to prevent it from spreading further, and egg prices will spike again. In the outbreak in 2022 egg wholesale prices doubled in less than a month after an outbreak, and 20% of all egg laying chickens in Iowa (nation’s biggest egg producer) alone were culled. Eggs are often loss leaders for grocery stores too who may sell them for even less than wholesale, so the price is quite manipulated and retailer dependent. Often why you find them way in the back corner of the store so you have to walk by all the higher margin products. Point is, eggs are a terrible gauge of who to vote for, unless you’re trying to reduce animal cruelty but that would make eggs more expensive anyways so, /shrug

          • kiljoy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 months ago

            Corporations are gouging for more profits and Bidens response is to tell them not knock it off? It’s greedflation and our representatives refuse to do anything to help the regular person. I don’t see the c suite sacrificing.

        • Lightsong@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yes, the president is single person that can change all of that for you at the snap of their fingers.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Have you considered quitting and getting the same job at a different company for more money?

      • kiljoy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        I’ll agree when he doesn’t put out an economic plan that isn’t means tested garbage. Didn’t do shit about student loans either. So yea for the average middle class person they both suck ass.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          that isn’t means tested garbage

          Are you in favor of a flat tax too?

          Didn’t do shit about student loans either.

          All student loan forgiveness has been by executive order, thus Biden is literally the only person who has ever done anything about student loans

          • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Studies have shown that the benefit Means Testing earns by excluding would be users of that program is vastly outweighed by the expense required to actually means test every applicant for that program.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Weren’t these studies specifically about drug testing welfare?

              Like, I’m all for means testing Social Security, because it becomes immediately solvent if you do, and it’s very easy to do.

              • ÞlubbaÐubba@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                No it was about any means testing, the cost outweighs the benefits, what makes Social Security solvent is removing the income cap on your contribution

                • SCB@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Porque no los dos?

                  Do you have a link to the study? Very interested in challenging my priors on this one as I currently very strongly favor means testing as a concept.