5mo ago

Biden calls his decision to step aside from 2024 race a matter of defending democracy

www.cnn.com Biden calls his decision to step aside from 2024 race a matter of defending democracy | CNN Politics

President Joe Biden, speaking to the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday evening, framed his decision to step aside from the 2024 presidential race as a matter of saving democracy and passing “the torch to a new generation.”

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There's a ton of trolls in here who can't celebrate anything good while anything bad is happening. Yes, his response to the genocide in Israel was abysmal. I have no illusions that the right would have done any better, and in fact believe Trump would have thrown more fuel on it. I'm ecstatic that Biden is not running again so that maybe Kamala can finally fucking do something about it. But I think we can take five seconds to admit that he did a lot of good for our country in other ways and made the right call here in dropping out.
For those who won't budge:
There's literally no winning, huh? Any flaw or misstep is enough to complain about and use as a reason to abstain or be an accelerationist. Y'all will claim Biden and Dems are monsters for their flaws. All that does is hurt the sane side of our government and make the actual fascists who have done so much worse have a better chance at taking over.
Can y'all please please please not let perfect be the enemy of good for once in your miserable life? This thinking is what brought us Trump in the first place, and while I can agree we need to do better, start at the local level, because only caring when we're on another brinkmanship presidential race makes you look like short-sighted toddlers.
- it's pretty telling that, for all the biden bashing and accusations of "you support genocide!!!" in this thread, i see very few concrete actionable suggestions from those people about what everyone should be doing right now. beyond "sToP sAyInG gOoD tHiNgS aBoUt BiDeN"
  LOL
  no.
- Look, all these posts from accounts on lemmygrad, chapotraphouse members, lemmy.ml…they’re all bullshit. I’m convinced that they are entirely Russian trolls. There is no making them happy with slightly left of center. It seems they’ll never be happy until America has been destroyed. There is no point to placating them or even acknowledging their existence.
  The “genocide Joe” moniker was particularly stupid. Do you really think Joe Biden was going to single handedly denounce Israel and kill off a key strategic alliance because of a few extremists? It is a completely silly notion.
  
  they’ll never be happy until America has been destroyed
  it's important to slap down the nonsense and call out the bullshit at every opportunity. they're coming out of the woodwork to harass and manipulate everyone into second guessing themselves, for the sole purpose of getting trump into the white house.
  fuck that shit.
  
  The problem is this isn't true. I hate Biden but I despise the way Trump makes him look decent comparatively. How long can keep running slightly worse candidates compared to your previous one (hopefully Harris bucks this trend)?
  People who call out Biden get called single issue voters; by people who's only concern is Trump doesn't get elected. They are ignoring absymal healthcare, terrible foreign policy, horrible housing prices, costly food bills, even the stable finicial sector is now losing jobs due to the AI craze.
  I understand why people are worried about Trump. Still, we need candidates who actually want to run the country correctly and not just cater to the rich. We cannot sacrifice everything because the news makes Trump to be all powerful.
  harass and manipulate everyone into second guessing themselves, for the sole purpose of getting trump into the white house.
  You are gas lighting. We need to start caling this everytime we see it. Otherwise, you would bother people on Truth Social and Twitter (or even reddit which actually has a population that could matter in a national election) if you wanted people to stop voting for Trump. But that would make too much sense.
  
  Gaslighting? What?
  You’re never going to get the perfect candidate until we reform elections (ranked choice, more parties, get rid of citizens united).
  
  Gaslighting is a colloquialism, defined as manipulating someone into questioning their own perception of reality. - Wikipedia
  You cannot blame us for not liking Biden when he does not cater to us. We are not the problem, even if you manage to phrase the issue to make it seem we are at fault.
  You’re never going to get the perfect candidate until we reform elections (ranked choice, more parties, get rid of citizens united).
  Absolutely keep voting the most liberal Congress people you can. But let's not kid ourselves: you have to vote for the people who want reform election to get reform election - and Biden isn't one of those people.
  Edit: extended last sentence to make it make more sense
  
  Is Trump?
  
  Trump is a distraction. He's a tool to compromise values and pretend we have a common goal. Yelling at Biden accomplished more already than fearing Trump.
  
  I’m asking you directly: is Trump a better vehicle to achieve these goals?
  
  Absolutely not. I don't want him to win. The original person I replied to stated that those who hate Biden secretly want Trump to win. Which is false. It's an outright lie. I'm over this game of OMG McCain, Romney, Trump, etc. may win so compromise your values and slowly let this country rot or risk everything collapsing.
  
  Nothing happens overnight in government. It’s a huge ship to turn. If you want progress, vote for the party that aligns closest with your goals. Otherwise you’re simply whining.
  
  Leaving aside the actual political substance of your comment. Don't you think it's a bit... Head in the sand to assume anyone who disagrees with you is some "Russian troll"? I know we all exist in social media bubbles, myself included, but my social circles and my online circles all share "radical" concerns about the administration and country in general but it generally comes from a genuine desire for our politicians and therefore country to be and do better. We're all Americans just like (I presume) you.
  I joined lemmy.ml cause of the FOSS stuff but I'm learning it comes with a reputation I didn't know about.
  
  When you say slightly left of center, to whom are you referring? Bernie wasn't allowed to run for President.
  Slapping a rainbow sticker on capitalism doesn't make the Democrats leftists. We have two conservative parties in this country, just one that's evolving into their final form (fascism). Don't get me wrong, I'll be voting for Harris in November and I'm ecstatic that Biden stepped aside. But if all the leftists online are "Russian bots", than all you centrists are pro-capitalism LLMs. And we'll be right back in the same position in four years.
  
  In my childhood (in Russia) I'd talk this way about Russia. So they might be real.
  I just (EDIT: later) realized later that many of the good things around me are too, well, not from Mars.
  And that many of the bad things around me are absolutely not specific to Russia or ex-USSR.
  And that one thing absolutely right is scolding all you don't like and not bowing your head, because when you accept fools and their foolery because of some false "lesser evil", you lose.
  Not all of them are trolls. Shit, I've met tankies more libertarian that a lot of people "not interested in politics", because the norm for that grey mass has shifted to a really dark place.
- Trump essentially said he would just let Israel “finish the job”. So yeah, throwing fuel on it is exactly what he would have done. Turned Israel loose.
- Finding a reason to permanently write somebody off as bad is the way of the ~~sith~~ conservatives.
- There’s a ton of trolls in here who can’t celebrate anything good while anything bad is happening.
  The spectacle of the presidential election has diverted a lot of attention away from the genocide in Palestine, the upswell in COVID infections and deaths nationally, and the decaying domestic infrastructure driven by climate change. Biden's retirement isn't changing any of that.
  There’s literally no winning, huh?
  Kamala's been the heir designate to the party for less than a week and she's already writing condemnation letters aimed at Palestinian Rights protesters in DC. Its a grim state of affairs, particularly with the police violence on student campuses still fresh in people's minds.
  Can y’all please please please not let perfect be the enemy of good
  We're waiting for some good. So far, we've had a bumper crop of cutesy memes and a bit of relief from the deeply depressing poll numbers that signaled Trump would receive a free ride into the White House in November. But we're still waiting for a candidate to put more on the table than her famous "$20k in relief for a Pell Grant Recipient who runs a business in a disadvantaged community for at least three years".
  Not everyone is happy to open their wallets and bust out the walking shoes for just any generic liberal candidate.
  
  I cannot wrap my mind around this level of privilege. In all honesty I really can't. I don't think there's a thing I could do to change your opinion and this nugget:
  Not everyone is happy to open their wallets and bust out the walking shoes for just any generic liberal candidate.
  Suggests you or others with your opinions won't vote because... she's generic? Or didn't do enough yet? And claiming that Biden dropping out won't end the genocide, so let's not see it as positive?
  What saint would you prefer we vote in? Can you explain how they are both morally spotlessly pure AND have a snowball's chance in hell? If you're convincing enough, maybe that second coming of Jesus will lead us to a utopia. /s
  Some of us are not in the position of being able to use a foreign tragedy as our stopping block. Some of us have our rights and safety on the line.
  
  I cannot wrap my mind around this level of privilege.
  Folks on Lemmy think this entire election revolves around them.
  
  This is the biggest self-own, wow.
  
  I just stole this and it’s already relevant
  
  If stopping genocide is your biggest issue, I suggest going to rail against in it right-wing spaces instead. There's a lot more pro-genocide to stop there.
  
  rail against in it right-wing spaces instead
  If you're defending a genocidal administration, you're a right-winger.

219 comments