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.”

219 comments

History will paint Biden very kindly. This speech will be the example of a humble, good man.
- This is like calling a school bus driver a hero because at the last possible second he hit the brakes instead of intentionally driving the bus off a cliff.
  It's good he stepped aside, but he waited till pretty much the last second and clearly didn't want to hit the brakes.
  In that analogy, the heroes are all the people that got him to hit the brakes.
  
  I didn't call him a hero, though, I called him humble and good. In your zeal to urinate on corn flakes, you forgot basic reading skills.
  
  That's an interesting analogy because objectively the bus driver is a hero for stopping a bus full of kids hurtling off a cliff.
  
  Absolutely nothing was stopping him from remaining in the race until the convention and becoming the official nominee. That was a viable path forward, if he had wanted to choose it. That he did not, deserves acknowledgement and respect.
  
  He could have shrugged it off like RBG did and fuck everyone for generations. Better late than never.
  
  Maybe the timing was to ensure an albatross like JD was firmly tied around his neck.

“You know, in recent weeks it’s become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term,” Biden said. “But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So, I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”
- It's mind boggling the "new generation" to pass the torch to is nearly 60.
  
  i would vote for a geriatric chimpanzee in a coma over trump
  
  Hot take: 60 is a perfect age. It's when most people (especially lawyers) have a ton of experience, but are mentally just as sharp as 30 year olds. In ancient human societies she'd be "an elder" in charge.
  
  I'll take 60 over 80.

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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.

At first, I was pissed that he didn't bow out two months ago.
Now I have nothing but respect for the man. He realized when to step aside and let his partner take the reign, and did so with effective enough timing to throw a massive wrench into the republicans' plans.
If Kamala wins, history will see him as the kind elder statesman who knew when to step aside for the good of the country.
- John Adams is the first American president to make unpopular decision and did not let ego rule him, despite losing him the election. Americans were baying for blood to go to war against the French in 1799 but Adams refused, knowing that America will lose if he declared war. It cost him his re-election, but he did the right thing.
  Edit: wrong year
  
  John Adams is the first American president to make unpopular decision
  Nobody tell this guy about the Whiskey Rebellion.
- Couldn't agree more and his words on the matter were really touching.
  I just hope the party as a whole can keep this up. I have never felt like the party cared more about being in touch with the people than it does now.
  
  I do agree, but also in 4-8 years I’d like an actual competitive primary. Like the kind Obama won
- If Trump wins, history will remember Biden as "the antichrist, bringer of despair, slow witted grim reaper, sad."*
  *This antiwoke curriculum is approved by the council of Gilead.
- Biden got forced out by his donors and other Democrats (establishment ones surprisingly). He would have kept running if he could.
  
  honest question, are you guys making any headway outside of hexbear and lemmygrad? i mean i'm sure everyone loves you in your safe space, but you have to know your "vote josevlad marxtalin 2024!!!" stance is pretty laughable out in the world
  
  So what? At the end of the day he did what people wanted, it just took a demonstration of how badly we wanted it.

Not to mention he's basically been given the green light by SCOTUS to eliminate the opposition. He's been given supreme executive power and is choosing not to exercise it.

"Defending Democracy"
lmao
- What’s funny?
  
  No one voted for Harris. She was just... selected. Without a single vote. Democrats.. spouting Democracy. fkin lol.

Fuck off Joe, you're slightly better than Hillary because you did eventually listen to reason.
But he should have said years ago he wasn't going to run in 2024.
Hell, even if he just said it 6 months ago we could have had a real primary
It's good he finally did the right thing, but he came damn close to not. He's not a hero because he stopped doing the wrong thing at the last possible second. A week ago he wouldn't stop rambling about "Lord God" was the only one that could make him drop
Dude is off the deep already, and has been for a while.
- nah. i won't call him a "hero" but this is the best way it could have happened, rather than republicans having YEARS to foment hatred and spin conspiracy theories and make everyone waste time debunking lie after lie about harris.
  and nobody's going to switch from D to R because it's harris instead of biden. you can be fairly certain, however, that there WILL be people voting who weren't going to vote at all when it was biden instead of harris
  should he be applauded? yes. is he a hero? no. should he have announced it years ago? no fucking way.
  
  That's a really awful take. It's good that Biden has stepped aside but our lack of a primary absolutely isn't "a good thing". Primaries are how we battle test our candidates and Harris has never performed well in one. I hope to hell she wins but I'd have more confidence if she'd been able to secure the nomination through traditional means.
  
  but this is the best way it could have happened
  The best way was this happening a year ago so we could have a primary...
  But you don't think Dem voters should have had a say?
  I'm a lot more democratic than you apparently...
- Now that he's stepped down, it's a lot harder for you to hide that Trump love. You've lost your talking point, lol. Floundering just like the GOP.
- He didn't think he'd be pressured out 6 months ago. He's obeying popular opinion that shifted after the debate.
  Someone here compared it to convincing an elderly parent to stop driving. They're not heroes either, it just sucks for everyone that nature works this way.
  
  He did like a tenth of the press conferences as the last two presidents...
  And people were pointing out his age related issues 4 years ago.
  The only reason it took till the first debate for a critical mass to demand he drop out, was that was the first people had seen him speak for longer than 5 minutes. Ive been calling for him to do more public appearances/interviews this whole term, lots of us did. But we were called conspiracy nuts for saying an 80 year old was as capable as the average 80 year old.
  The people around him day to day knew how bad it was and knew he'd be forced to step down if the public knew. So they fucking hid him. Just like Republicans did with Reagan.
  Like it or not, that's what happened.
  I hope you at least learned that it's not just ok to criticize your "team" it's fundamentally necessary.
  If people hadn't, wed still be running Joe and trump would still be likely to win.

219 comments