5mo ago

Joe Biden has dropped out of the presidential race. What effects will his decision have?

115 comments

I'm actually pretty dang hopeful right now. The right has spent so much time and effort focused around Joe being old and tired, and now that is all dead in the water.
Now we have a new candidate starting from zero with many people, vs trump which is obviously very well known. In short I'm trying to say we have the element of surprise, the benefit of the unknown. They have to convince moderates that this new candidate is still somehow worse than trump, and these aren't the hard right people, these are the undecided (somehow) and centered voters.
Far right voters will always back trump, but the indecisive voters and moderate Republicans who don't like trump but fell for the years of propaganda against Biden have been wanting anyone who is better than Biden but not trump. Same with more centered Democrats, not that they wanted to vote for trump but Biden was not a great candidate for them either.
The rights whole plan was "Joe is so much worse than trump!" and they had 16 years of content to pull on. They can't do that again with a new candidate. People say they handed the election to Republicans. I think it's the opposite. I think Republicans demanding Joe drop out when anti Joe was their only message may have just accidentally handed the election to Democrats.
If the Dems come out strong on this I think it could shake up the whole election. I see people online saying doom and gloom, I strongly disagree, I think this is a huge rallying cry.
- Joe being old and tired, and now that is all dead in the water.
  Nope. Now it's trump who's old and tired. Kamala needs to go after trump and his crime family like she would other criminals and prosecute them in the press. She is a former prosecutor, after all.
  
  I was very against Biden dropping out, but i think this is a pretty good point. I think it is still very risky for her to run due to race and sex discrimination, but it might not be a predetermined loss at least.
  
  Honestly yes, not that the hard right will see that, but yes she has the huge opportunity to say something like "it's time we put power in the hands of people who will see the effects of it" so to speak. If she used rhetoric similar to that it could be impactful for getting young people to actually vote like they did for Obama
  
  … Now it's trump who's old and tired …
  So it’s his turn to drop out of the race?
  
  https://twitter.com/AdamJSmithGA/status/1814723038564192535
  
  That's certainly what US media should be focusing on, but probably won't.
  
  Yeah, all their shooting against Biden will now come back to haunt them. It's not like Trump isn't a senile old man. He's just senile in different ways.
  
  I'm hoping she sees a surge of support when she starts removed slapping Trump around for being a treasonous felon
- I agree completely. I think the strong move for Harris will be to focus her campaign around abortion rights and promise to fight for federal laws guaranteeing the right to an abortion, even to the point of openly defying the Supreme Court if they reject the law. She also needs to focus on court reform, push for a strict code of conduct to be enforced against the supreme court, and either impeach/replace Alito and Thomas or (if there aren't enough votes for that) eliminate the fillibuster to pack the courts with only a simple Senate majority.
  
  I am hesitant about is right now the best time for a black woman president, are the people ready for it, but the way you framed it put it well. A strong eloquent black woman who is ready to put women's rights at the forefront where her opponent is actively trying to take away those rights may work extremely well.
- Well said man. Totally agree.
- If the Dems come out strong on this
  That's my concern. When was the last time they came out strong on anything of importance to the average American?
  
  So far just doing this at all is a pretty strong stance. That's why it's exciting, I was with you I fully expected them to do nothing. "Biden's our best shot, stick with that" This is completely out of character for them. (And it was them, the party pushed him to leave)
  
  When was the last time they came out strong on anything of importance to the average American?
  When Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

I'm not sure, but I think it makes it very unlikely he'll become president.
- Only time will tell.

I'm a LAW AND ORDER REPUBLICAN and I'm going to vote for the CONVICTED FELON over the COP!
- phony trial by the crooked liberals was a political hit job
  It's really easy for them to dismiss that. Once you've dismissed objective truth and logic, nothing stands in your way.
- Holy shit I match this caricature, and it changed my mind!

Seems good, man. Basically that makes the election:
Decision 2024: Cop vs Felon
Who will America choose?
- Yeah I don't think DNC leadership appreciates the current public sentiment against law enforcement in the country. Based on her career, her would be base are the moutb breezers simping for trump
  For any self respecting liberal, you just have to ignore her job. There is no good way to spin it besides, she knows how to run a shop of prosecutors lol never, just don't fucking mention it.
  Bizarro fucking time line tho jfc
  
  I know we sometimes feel like the majority here on the fediverse, but we have to remember that most democrats don’t feel the same way about cops that the “far” left does. Most democrats are just capitalist liberals that enjoy the status quo and maybe some slightly progressive policies.

I predict it brings the chance of a second Biden term to zero
- Thats some dangerou/s thinkin', u best stick to ur accounting ;)
  Family Guy watchers will appreciate this bit
- can't any citizen be president? I don't remember George Washington running for president

I have a quick question as someone not from the US. What is the general opinion that people have of Kamala Harris? Do people voting Democrat have an overall positive impression of her? Or are there people who could be disappointed with the choice?
- From the US and I pay a lot of attention to politics.
  Her past is she was a bulldog in the courtroom, absolutely a firebrand and ready to take on anyone. By making her VP, her job was mostly to not make the administration look bad, which is a tough job for a firebrand so for years it felt like she was put in the back and kept quiet.
  Roe v Wade decision happened, making the abortion argument on the side of the Republicans getting what they wanted, Biden is a Catholic and male so completely uncomfortable using the fact that abortion is the winning ticket item for the Dems so Harris has been beating that drum hard and getting out. GRANTED the media has been focusing on "Biden too old!" (Legit had to learn a Biden policy from BBC because American news isn't going to talk about that) so she's still feeling a relative unknown to the country at large.
  There are people calling for wanting the DNC to do a vote, but we're past that marker, there's people disappointed, and then there's a lot of people excited. Right now this election is going to shape up to be more "interesting" than Bush v Gore or Trump v Hillary.
- I have heard literally 0 news about her for this entire presidency. She's probably fine. Definitely better than Trump, so, ya know. Voting time
  
  I always thought this was a negative - she squandered the opportunity to stand out - but yoypire probably right
- She's generally average from what I've heard amongst my friends. Not a slam dunk but not stumbling over herself. I think she'll really have to prove herself and release a strong platform to sway any voters. The good news is that a decent number of people are going to vote for her just because she's not Trump.
  I suspect the real problem for some Americans will be a woman as president...which is just about how screwed America is right now.
  Pretty notably she doesn't have any big skeletons in her closet (that I know of at least) that Republicans can latch on to and create drama over.
  
  but - from what I've heard while there is a vocal minority of women who are happy about roe being overturned, the vast vast majority of women are not happy about it. For a lot of women born after Roe, for example, it was a given that they had the right to get an abortion, and people took it away from them. I was worried about a woman being nominated - but honestly it might be the perfect time to nominate a woman.
  On one side you have a bunch of old white men literally taking away women's rights. On the other side you have an actual strong woman who wants to codify those rights into law.
  
  Not an American, but wasn't the school duty kind of a big deal?
- Politically? The general public sees Kamala Harris as a nothingburger. She's practically a blank slate despite spending the last four years as VP. Nobody's going to be disappointed because the average person only knows her as a background character.
  It's the best option the Dems have got, but we'll see how much they want to win when they announce the VP candidate nomination.
- I’d say largely neutral. Progressives don’t love her because she was a prosecutor. She has a bit of a reputation for opportunism and lacks charisma but pretty standard democrat overall.
- Left left looks at her time as Attornry General of California and sees her as corrupt and responsible for high incarceration rates among other general issues with the overall Democratic party platform.
  libLeft sees her as solid dem if not their new prophet, though not like the right worships trump.
  Center will probably see her similar to a batman police commisioner. Generally assumed good and unencumbered politically.
  Right will only see gender and skin color, and not in a good way.
  Vanilla to anyone not fitting neatly in those categories.
  Her not being seen for the last few years is good for dems as there's nothing for the Republicans to latch onto beyond racism and mysogyny. They don't have the long developed hatred that they have for Hillary.
  Realistically it's the least divisive choice the dems could make.
- I'm in Trump country so I am relaying their opinions not my own. "removed who slept her way to the top", "lier that is letting the border crisis happen", " hypocritic that ruined young peoples lives over pot even though she smoked it too".
  Otherwise nothing burger, and besides the border debate all of the personal attacks are honestly minor compared to how Trump supporter view Trump out here (you know "he's not a good man but ...").

All there is left to do is to fucken send it. Talk to every democrat you know and make sure they know when and how they will vote on voting day and commit to it. Hit up all your younger friends (who might forgor 💀) get that young vote out there cause the older of us most likely know what we are doing already.

I wonder if Biden's stepping down was partly influenced by the assassination attempt. If he hadn't, the most prominent symbol of this election would still be that image of Trump screaming "fight" while pumping his fist against the background of the American flag. But if someone from a deserted island opened a news website today for the first time, they wouldn't even know there was an assassination attempt.
- That's an interesting. I would put my money on him catching covid being the deciding factor.

No one will be able to tell you. But it SHOULD change nothing regarding to what to vote for. You either vote against Trump / fascism / climate collapse, or you support those things either by vote or inaction.
- Yes, yes. Thank you.
  We know the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" crowd was always going to vote for the blue candidate. That's a given, and beating the dead horse is just preaching to the choir.
  What's important is that now the Dems have a chance, and the DNC has a precious few days with which to change the future.
  
  It's not about voting blue no matter who, it's about preventing Trump. If you think that's beating the dead horse then you clearly still not understand the threat, the things that are at stake here, the implication his presidency has for the future of all of us.

As Trump has proven, people will vote for an unqualified person so you really just need a warm body.

A ton of states are going to fight to keep Kamala Harris off the ballot.
- How? Biden wasn't the official candidate yet.
  
  A lot of states have laws that don't conform to the national primary process. For instance, Ohio has a law on the books that says the official nomination has to occur by a certain date which is before the second major party convention.
  It is important to know that elections are technically run at the state level with some federal oversight.

I'm pretty sure that him giving up is the best chance he has at success.
Ironic right?
- As an Alanis Morisette song.
- Much of the world is irony.

Nobody really knows. The situation is somewhat unprecedented.
If you’re asking for personal opinions: this was absolutely a catch-22. But I do think that it’s probably a good move in the pragmatic context of “find a way to beat the fascists”. I also think it’s hilighting some glaring flaws in our primary system that I hope will be fixed, but I don’t honestly expect to be.

Gotta imagine there are a few more surprises in store for the convention.

More threads mentioning Joe Biden in the title than Trump.

I think he will don pipe and slippers and spend his remaining time with his family. It's the right thing to do.

Harris isn't burdened with some responsibility for the Gaza genocide. That will help with younger voters who otherwise would have abstained. Things feel more positive from where I sit.
- unburdened by what has been, you say

It will confuse the tankies until they can write and send out their weekly newsletter with all the fun slogans to use over the next 7 days.

All future articles regarding things the executive branch does will go from "Biden did X" to "The Biden-Harris Administration did X"

Well, he won't be running for president, so there's that.

I'd love to say it will change the likely outcome, but I'm pretty sure no candidate has ever been subbed in this late in the race and gone on to win. History says people prefer a known quantity. Even if Harris is the new candidate, people don't pay attention to VPs, so she is kind of an unknown quantity to your average voter. AFAIK she hasn't participated in any "proper" debates with Trump
On the other hand, assuming it is Harris, the right's attacks on her are likely to be a lot more openly bigoted, which will lead to less people wanting to vote Republican. The Republicans tend to do better when the criticisms of their opponents are based on something legitimately concerning, like Biden's age. We are about to see some incredibly disgusting rhetoric from republicans, and it's liable to make them less popular. Much as I dislike all establishment neoliberal democrats, I have to say I feel sorry for Harris for what she is about to endure if she becomes the nominee. The right has gotten a lot more bold in their willingness to take the mask off since Obama was president, so if you thought the shit he had to wade through was bad, it's nothing compared to what they will fling at Harris.
The biggest thing at this point is that it's way too late to have a primary, so whoever is selected, they will be subjected to the very legitimate criticism that they were simply appointed as the nominee by the DNC. That would have basically been true even if there was a primary, but at the very least the primaries create the illusion of a democratic process. People aren't going to be psyched to vote for Biden's last minute substitute.
- People aren't going to be psyched to vote for Biden's last minute substitute.
  I sure am. Considering the filthy alternative.
- Actually the presidential candidate was selected on the day of the convention up until around 1970. They had conventions that would last days, they would lock the doors until a candidate was picked. Then ideally everyone stacked behind the final candidate.
  I'm pretty sure there was actually almost a contested convention in like 1980. So no, this is objectively wrong and a bit of a modern convention.
  
  It's been true for roughly the last half a century that there has been a clear presumptive candidate going into the general. And in any case, the purpose of a primary is to select the candidate. As I said I think it's going to be detrimental that Harris hasn't actually won a primary, even though the primaries are a sham.
- the right’s attacks on her are likely to be a lot more openly bigoted
  They're already dusting off the ole Obama birther playbook and asking if she's qualified to be President due to citizenship.

Trump will win for sure now.
- The opposite. Democrats might have a chance now.

Likely none, since he never had a chance anyways.
- Kinda beside the point? The question is really what chances will the nominee have.
  
  The question is "What effects will his decision have?" and not "What changes will the nominee have?".

Now the "vote blue no matter who" crowd will be trying to gaslight leftists into voting for a pig.
Somehow, I think that's going to be a much harder sell than even Genocide Joe was.
- You've already made your determination not to vote, and no candidate seems to please you. So what are you going on about? What do you want?
  
  You’ve already made your determination not to vote
  Feel free to go through my post history and see if I've advised any USian against voting.
- If you ain't voting for her, at least vote 3p... Write in carlin or Stewart... Doesn't really ducking matter
  I do feel sentiment on the pig angle tho... I don't get how this is supposed to resonate with the the base lol

Literally the end now for the USA. Handing the white house to Trump and Vance. This couldn't be worse. You're going to see all kinds of violence in the country. Kids shooting kids at school, cops shooting first asking questions never, women's rights to reproductive health taken away. Shits going to get real scary now.
- Kids shooting kids at school, cops shooting first asking questions never, women’s rights to reproductive health taken away.
  So exactly what we have now. Nothing you listed would be new, all of those are already here.
  
  He's from the UK. Like me in Canada, we get to live in relative bliss in not needing to worry about living in the current US reality...
  
  Same reaction here...
  Like bro we are already getting squeezed on all fronts... Rent health care education all fucked
  No social policy to speak of. Homeless...
  Like we know it will get worse too lol the regime choice: is who do you want to fuck you this round, boy?
- If that happens, the biggest impact will be the “boring” stuff:
  breaking the executive branch by turning it from a meritocracy to a bunch of toadies
  breaking long-standing alliances to stand alone
  breaking progress on climate change
  setting back civil rights
  instigating pointless trade wars in various directions
  more divisiveness, distrust of institutions
  societal norms? What are those?

115 comments

Decision 2024: Cop vs Felon

Who will America choose?