Naomi Klein: If Biden Wants to Stop Trump, He Should Step Down
“He has so enraged young voters by supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza that I doubt he can win,” Klein said.
Everytime I read these kind of takes, I think to myself 'Where the fuck is Russia getting all this money to mess with the USA election?'
Naomi Klein is a real person with a real history of political opinions not controlled by shadowy Russian masterminds. Maybe, just maybe, you're hearing this criticism all over the place because it's actually a real issue and "must be Russians" is a comfortable mental shutoff to avoid thinking about how the ego of the most powerful person in the country could be leading us into political danger.
He's Joe Buchanan
You need to wake up, you're sleepwalking into fascism. The DNC thought Hillary couldn't lose and forced her through despite Bernie being more popular. They are making the same blunder again.
There is nobody else with the name recognition or independent/middle clout - the swing voters the Ds need to win. Who are you going to put up - Kamala? Bernie? The middle/middle-right would rather stay home and sit on their hands while Trump drags out his base in the big red states. The best possible outcome is for Biden to take the economic momentum into a win and then step down and give the next generation 3+ years to forge their path. Of course, if you're a Lefty, you don't want Kamala either, so the only option is for the entire administration to step away and watch a true Left slate fail miserably in every swing state.
Hilary wasn't an incumbent. Biden should have been the go to in 2016. You run your sitting vice president if you've got one, because they have a way better chance of winning. Doubly so for a sitting president.
It would be an incredibly stupid political strategy to try to run someone else right now. I think the DNC learned that lesson eight years ago.
They still have enough oil for this - and American politicians are cheap.
Stop blaming all your problems on another government
Anybody else feel like Lemmy is like 60% Russian trolls lately?
Anybody else feel like Lemmy is like 60% Russian trolls lately?
China and Russia both
Most of the super progressive takes are just ways that would definitely help Trump retake the Whitehouse so...yeah.
Always has been man, this place is kind of a dump
Yeah it fucking sucks. Trolls and 14 year old edge lords with no understanding of how the real world works
Maybe someone here could refresh my memory. I could have sworn that during 2020 campaigning, Biden indicated he would be a one term president that would willingly let a younger Democrat run for 2024. I haven't seen anyone really rake him through the coals over that, so maybe it was some misinformation that was spread to make him more attractive, but I feel like it was a really key reason I felt comfortable supporting him.
They haven't put anyone else up. No one has come up to challenge him. The Dems absolutely suck at presenting new leadership.
Probably because the last time someone saw the DNC running us all collectively off a cliff (Bernie in 2016), the DNC actively crushed their campaign, and then blamed them for the as-predicted DNC candidate's loss.
No one wants to see their future political career taken out back and shot, as the DNC's next scapegoat, if/when Biden loses.
I think they wanted to, but the young alternatives that the party leaders and donors liked have almost 0 popular support. Buttigieg, Harris, Yang, Gabbard, and Klobuchar were all relatively “young”, the party insiders liked them, the donors/media owners don’t hate them, but the average democratic voter ether dislikes them or is apathetic.
The people who do have popular support say things that scare donors and media owners. So they have spent years trying to convince the party and moderate voters that they’re not viable candidates.
So Biden it is because incumbent advantage.
You're still living in 2016 based on the names you put out there. Newsom is the obvious answer, who actually has been extensively discussed for this or next election. He has popular support among voters and the establishment Dems.
Others like Whitmer have plenty of name recognition nationally, and in her case especially a great story to run on (Republicans wanted me dead to shut down my political views, now I'm gonna take that perspective to the office of the president).
There are others, too, but if you're still listing Tulsi Gabbard as a Democrat I am not surprised you're not up to date on candidates; she not only left the Democratic Party (and wrote a book about it), she has shifted to the Right on abortion and LGBT+ right, even publicly supporting Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill.
I will always remember that moment in the 2020 Dem primary debates where Swalwell relayed a story about going to a political rally as a 6 year old and hearing the candidate tell people to pass the torch to the younger generation, and then revealing that Biden was that candidate, and Biden then quipping that he'd "hold onto" the torch for now.
He literally is so arrogant that he truly believes he is the only person alive who can beat Trump. He'd rather be buried with that torch than admit that there are many others that could do far better than him.
December 2019:
“If Biden is elected, he’s going to be 82 years old in four years and he won’t be running for reelection,” a prominent adviser to the campaign told Politico.
By Feb 2020 that wording changed slightly:
“I’m in pretty good health, but, look, I guarantee you this: If anything changed in my health, making it incapable for me to fully exert all the energy and mental acuity that was needed to be done, then I give you my word: I would not run again,” Biden said.
I remember this as well and I posted about it either here or the r/ and got downvoted all to shit over it. Gaslighting that it never happened. He said something about being a transition pres, bringing people back together and would hand o er the reins or some shit. I voted for him and he got his 4 years. Now the old Warhawk has lots of potential conflicts to get us mired in and doesn’t want to give up the chair.
January 6th occurred, Trump has been relatively unscathed, and Trump is running again. That's what has changed since 2019.
If Trump had been fully prosecuted, or had decided not to run Biden likely wouldn't be running.
Even if Biden beats Trump, I still fear for the effect of an apathetic, depressed voter turnout on down-ticket races. If Biden holds onto the presidency, but a congress and state and oocal races go the other way, we won't be in a great place.
Apathetic and depressed is not what I'd call the voter turnout in the elections since 2020. The R's blew their load too fast on overturning Roe v Wade and it's been consistently fucking them in the ass since.
Yes, it's been a good 4 years for getting the American left to the polls, and if that continues, we'd have less to worry about. I hope we continue to vote enthusiastically.
I think it is far too late for that.
Where the fuck is the VP? I have not seen her since she was elected.
She wants to run for president, probably thinks that being too public right now might hurt her reputation long term.
She stuck her neck out and tried to make a name for her self earlier in the presidency and was met by foaming frothing rage from the right (nothing new there despite openly pandering to them) and apathy or distaste from the left. She and her team probably think that response is from her association with Biden, but I suspect that is more to do with the vibe she gives off of being a careerist politician.
Being from Oakland a lot of us also know that she's totally fine jailing people for weed, you'd think that a rationale move you would try and step away from the "just doing my job DA" to "Vice President of the People" by pushing for policies that prevent unnecessary jailings.
But you're right, I didn't even really realize until now that Kamala has been almost seemingly less active than Mike Pence as VP. You're probably onto something with the long term campaign, although I also wouldn't be surprised if it was "suggested" that she let Biden take the lead or something.
The older Americans hated Hillary. Much less than Biden, who they see as a benign figure. And they very much vote. Most of them have realized that Trump is a liar and unstable.
Remember when Biden told rich donors "nothing would fundamentally change" if he was elected? Man lived up to his word, smh
Biden told rich donors, "If you pay more in taxes, nothing will fundamentally change." That is, the union will not fall because they didn't get tax cuts. Don't be disingenuous about what actually happened.
Please don't spread misinformation by including something in quotes that is your own editorialization. The actual quote is 10 seconds of googling away:
"We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it's all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one's standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change."
https://www.axios.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-wealthy-donors-demonize
They thought Hillary couldn't lose too.
I went to bed that night and checked my phone looking at the electoral map. I sad to my partner, "Hillary is going to loose.." The numbers and visuals all just right there, election night, telling a very different story of what polls (remember the NYT Prediction tracker? Clinton 96% chance or something crazy?) Indicated. Woke up and was like "The son of a removed actually did it.". I couldn't even think or feel, it was so insane and such a deviation from the norm that I had no ground to stand on. It was en entirely brave new world.
Howdy. I am well aware of Klein, as her investigative journalism is what kept me motivated to keep asking questions about environmental justice and doing research. She, frankly, knows her shit and is one of the most well spoken and passionate people I've ever had the chance of reading and hearing.
And she's absolutely right. Without a shadow of a doubt, "hoping" the DNC doesnt suffer from the self inflicted "no-bernie no-vote" mistake is not enough. It's too close and too much is at risk for the people who do vote Democrat.
It's a good point. Biden's unconditional support for Netanyahu is not helping him at all (even though he seems to be trying to mediate in the background, he's not very successful and the optics are really bad).
But the question is, who else would be a candidate with enough support? He's counting on the incumbent bonus now but I also doubt it's good enough, if "not Trump" is the main thing he has going for him. I don't know US politics well enough to know about any alternatives. Buttigieg maybe?
But another Trump reign would be bad for the whole world order and climate so I really hope that won't happen.
I think a Bernie win would be amazing but I doubt he has enough hardliner support even on the Democratic side.
Newsom.
Biden doesn't have support based on who he is. If he wins it will only be because people don't want Trump, so anyone else who hasn't pissed off most of the Democrat voter base will do just as well or better. Literally anyone on the street who can say that they aren't supplying bombs for an ongoing genocide.
Or Jay Inslee from Washington State who isn't running for reelection, or maybe JB Pritzker from Illinois, or (god forbid) another Democrat that doesn't fit the white guy in government mold.
The only reason it feels like there's no alternatives to Biden is that all the alternatives to Biden don't want to spoil the election, there's plenty of good and better choices out there. It's very frustrating.
I don't want Newsom as president.
I'm done with him as governor. It's not an all bad policy thing, I view the CPUC in bed with utility providers with unlimited energy rate hikes, as very much a Newsom thing.
Every single CPU Commissioner was appointed by Newsom. Yes it needs Senate approval, but he is the one who chooses who to appoint, and the senate approves it.
PG&E's rate just went up again upon CPUC approval to $0.42/kWh