Can you explain how you think Biden can win this race?
Hes down 10-15% in the same polls from 4 years ago, hes getting killed in the press, and everytime he goes in front of a camera he reminds people that hes in cognitive decline.
How can the Biden campaign pull off the greatest comeback in political history?
Running a new candidate might be a bizarre and dangerous idea, but the current path leads directly to a Trump reelection.
I haven’t personally run for office, but I have volunteered for a few campaigns, both local and national, and the experience really radicalized me.
I used to have faith in the Democratic party. I used to believe they were interested in serious policy. I used to believe the party had a moral compass. After seeing it from the inside, I no longer believe these things.
The people used to run the Democratic Party, but now corporations are in control. The final straw was the Clinton administration, since then the Democratic Party is just Republican-lite.
One of the biggest issues for the Bernie campaign was that the DNC was actively working against him. But on this subject I may be more hopeful than you- I believe Bernie was extremely close to the presidency, and I believe the next person to seriously take up the Bernie mantle will have a great chance at winning.
If theres only two tracks, the full-on genocide Trump track, and the slightly slower genocide Biden track, then yes the moral choice is the Biden track. But in the real world there are infinite tracks.
Biden can choose a track where he stops sending American weapons. Biden can choose a track where the US stops vetoing UN peace plans. He can choose a track where his state department doesn’t repeat false Israeli propaganda to the American people.
This idea that US politicians must be subservient to Israel or be voted out is from a bygone era. The modern electorate is much less Zionist than it used to be, and the voices of Palestinians are finally starting to gain traction. Now is the time when a principled leader could end the genocide with popular support, but unfortunately Biden is neither principled nor a leader.
Doing a genocide in order to prevent Muslim bans and border cages is not a principled stance, it is not realpolitik morality; instead it is the banality of evil.
You’re right, but you aren’t acknowledging that the current path we are on is an absolute disaster too.
Bidens poll numbers are 12-15% lower than they were 4 years ago when he barely defeated Trump.
To win now, Biden needs to pull off the biggest comeback in US presidential history. And the political fallout from Biden’s disastrous debate and interview performances hasn’t even settled yet.
With Harris, at least we would have a shot at defeating Trump.
The US retains its status as the World’s No.1 Jailer with a prison population of 713 per 100,000 population, more than even any of the world’s most notorious and oppressive regimes like Myanmar (120 per 100,000 population), Cuba (510 per 100,000 population), and Iran (333 per 100,000). The only country that might challenge the US as the world’s No. 1 jailer is North Korea. Although information is limited, North Korea’s incarceration rate is estimated to be between 600-800 per 100,000 population.
Well I’m not at the “destroy the US system” stage yet, I do believe the system can be reformed.
But if it would get to that point, then the justification is simple utilitarianism. If a million people are going to die, and you pull the trolley lever and half a million die instead, then you’ve done a noble thing.
I agree that politics is dirty, no one is going to have 100% clean hands. But this logic is dangerous, it can be used to justify anything. This logic can be used to justify mistakes and minor corruption, and it can also be used to justify the Holocaust. We have to draw a moral line somewhere. Committing genocide cannot be the cost of doing business.
Thanks for your thoughtful response.
You’re right that Biden has taken tons of bribes from Israel. AIPAC has directly given him a record-breaking $5 million dollars, and that doesn’t count all of the dark money.
For my defense, I dont think I am being naive- I think I have a relatively clear eyed and nuanced view of the US political system. What I am, however, is an idealist. I cling desperately to idealism like it’s a life raft in a sea of evil.
I’m not asking for sainthood, but each president in my lifetime has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent humans on his hands. If each US leader continues to be a mini-Hitler, I will not support any of them. And if this is truly the only outcome possible for the US system, then the only moral choice is to destroy the US system.
I find inspiration in the words of Aaron Bushnell, shortly before his heroic self-immolation in protest of the ongoing Israeli genocide:
Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.
I’m happy to hear any pushback or argument.
As for your question, when I think of all the ways the United States is evil: militarism and neverending war, economic imperialism, racism and xenophobia, corporatism and the rotting “middle class”, obsession with weaponry, a lack of critical thinking; all of these are fascist traits. Donald Trump embodies each one of these traits. He is a fascist.
Fascism is the most destructive and evil ideology in the modern world. In my opinion, if a fascist dictatorship ever gains control of America, the human species will go extinct.
Trump has some mitigating factors: he is an idiot, and he is motivated by narcissism. If he were instead a competent ideologue things would look significantly worse. But even with those mitigating factors, I believe he is the most dangerous politician of my lifetime, perhaps the most dangerous in the history of America.
Biden has been on the wrong side of almost every political issue in his career. I don’t want to write a full essay so I’ll just name a few.
His political achievements include championing the brutal, racist crime bill; making student loan debt undischargable even in bankruptcy, and fighting against the public option.
Once when I worked at a credit card company, and it confused me that every bank in this nation had the same address for their billing dept- Wilmington, Delaware. I learned later that this was largely because “the Senator from MBNA”, as Joe Biden was once known, was the most corrupt pro-corporate Democrat. Reducing the tax and regulatory burden on corporations is a race to the bottom. Biden won this corrupt race, and walked away with pockets full of bribes campaign contributions.
Later in life I went through a medical bankruptcy, but I still have my student loans thanks to Biden.
And now, whether due to dementia or Zionist fervor, Biden has gone further than other rightwing warmongers like Reagan and HW Bush in allowing Israel to do whatever it pleases with US weapons. Biden circumvents US law to send weapons to Israel, and he addresses the nation to spread false Israeli propaganda. Remember when Biden said, multiple times, that he saw “pictures of 40 beheaded babies”? I can’t get over how disgusting that lie is. How can anyone with even a shred of morality lie to the entire nation like that…
Biden is aiding and abetting a genocide. If the Nuremburg laws applied to US presidents, he would be found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As for Kamala, I hate her for her faux progressivism and because she is a cop. When she started her primary run, her policy platform was center-left; she was trying to be a milquetoast Bernie Sanders. When this failed, she adopted the center-right mainstream democratic party platform (and failed again). This demonstrates to me that she is not dedicated to policy or ideals, and will instead always shift with the political winds.
Surely some Biden naysayers are Republican ops, and some are lifelong Biden-haters like myself. But look at the state of the race: Biden is losing horribly.
If you think democracy is on the line, if you’re afraid of fascism and project 2025, then how can you continue to support a candidate that is almost sure to lose? Biden needs to pull off the biggest comeback in modern political history, yet he can’t form a coherent sentence.
Yes, I hate Kamala too. And yes, changing candidates would be chaotic. But at least with Kamala we would have a chance to stop Trump.
Well it seems a bit unfair since no one answered my questions, but I’ll bite.
Kamala Harris has lower poll numbers because she has not been campaigning for herself. Being at the bottom of the ticket is not the same.
Once she is nominee, she will have hundreds of millions of dollars to sell herself to the American people. She will be front and center in campaign rallies, press briefings, high profile interviews, and (hopefully) the debate stage against Trump.
What can Kamala do that Biden can’t? She can speak without showing obvious signs of dementia.
It’s been 8 years of Trump vs. Biden, most voters know where they stand in that race. But Harris vs. Trump means voters can reevaluate their position and get a fresh view. Democrats are being destroyed in the polls, they desperately need a refresh.
I think most people don’t care about their primary votes- remember it was mostly Biden vs. Uncommitted. People understand it was not a real primary when theres only 1 viable option on the ballot. I think the overwhelming majority of the party will gladly adopt Harris now that Biden has shown how bad his dementia is progressing.
Kamala is not charismatic, her politics suck, but at least her brain works well enough so that she would have a shot at beating Trump.
And he’s the best chance we have at defeating Trump
Have you seen the polls lately? You’re riding a dead horse.
Biden is polling 10-15% below of where he was 4 years ago, back when he barely defeated Trump.
How do you propose Biden will make up that ground? Do you think he has a strategy to pull off the biggest electoral comeback in our lifetime?
You can make a futile attempt at policing anti-Biden comments, but it’s not going to stem the bleeding. Normal Americans can see the dementia written all over Biden’s confused face. They can hear it everytime he struggles through another incomplete, mumbled sentence.
I hate Kamala too, but I hope the DNC pushes her forward- at least she has a shot at stopping Trump.
Hiding and denying the anti-Biden news is what got us to this point.
Compare the polls now to 4 years ago: Biden is 10-15% behind where he was when he (barely) won. To win now, Biden needs a miracle.
Our only hope of stopping Trump is to replace Biden ASAP.
Of course Israel denies that it intends to commit genocide. If you’re looking for genocidal intent, just look at the words of Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and Netanyahu. Or the words of thousands of rabid Israelis on Jerusalem Day as they publically call for ethnic cleansing.
The IDF stopped the knocking-before-bombing system very early on in this conflict. And when you’re bombing refugee tent cities, no warning is possible.
Your genocide denial is disgusting.
Saying “maybe people are the problem” is reductive and unhelpful. But I agree with you broadly, religion is just a system or a tool, it can be used for good or evil.
To judge if religion is a good system or a bad one, we can use a cost benefit analysis. This is what we have been attempting to do in this thread.
But when it comes to sensitive subjects like religion, many people have a tendency to avoid, overlook, and deny the associated costs.
And the leader who preceded Hitler, and whose blunders helped Hitler gain power, was Paul von Hindenburg.
Von Hindenburg, running for his second term at 84, was widely regarded as being too old and incompetent. For the centrists and center-left parties, he was their only hope in defeating Hitler.
After Von Hindenburg’s defeat, Hitler passed the Enabling Act to assume full power.
History may not repeat, but it rhymes.
Anti-science, misogyny, etc may be bad independently of religion, but they aren’t independent of religion. Religion is a source of these problems.
You can imagine a hypothetical religion that is simply a “social club” or whatever, but here in the real world religion comes with baggage.
Religion is why my cousin’s children have never seen a doctor in their life. Religion is why my gay friend in high school tried to kill himself. Religious indoctrination has led to lifelong shame and trauma in many of my friends.
And this was just from a “moderate” sect of Christianity- the millions living under fundamentalist religion have it even worse.
What you said is all true, but you are ignoring the negative aspects of religion.
Religious influence, both on their followers and on government, is anti-science, misogynistic, and anti-LGBT.
Religions are funded like pyramid schemes, with the most desperate and vulnerable as their victims.
Religious indoctrination is child abuse.
Corruption has been legal since 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United vs. FEC
If you have any data or hypothesis to explain why the polls are off by >10% then I’d love to hear it.
Otherwise, denying reality is the Trumpian response. I was hoping for a serious answer.