Wake-up Call: Democrats could easily lose the White House and Senate next year
Democrats chances of keeping the Senate are dwindling at the same time Biden's falling behind in national polls.
Doesn't matter what the headlines or the opinion polls say. Vote like democracy depends on it!
I don't live in the US so I don't have a horse in this race
But it just seems like half of the people here can't qualify Biden's successes (and why he'd be worth a second voting for again) and the other half are just scared that Trump is on his way back and therefore the Dems need to vote like crazy to keep him out, regardless of how lacklustre his current term was.
I'll say it here: he lost the popular vote with his unequivocal support for Israel. As a self proclaimed Zionist, he chose Israel's genocide of Gaza over Trump's victory and too many voters are going to remember that over whatever he's going to promise (which so far is nothing; his campaign so far is just reminding everyone that the other guy exists).
There's no way Dems win this one, unless Biden cedes to a more worthwhile candidate.
That's quite the myopic view of US national politics. Biden can't stop Netanyaho from performing escalatio on Gaza than he can force Macron to limit France's trade coziness with China, affect the interaction between Pedro Sanchez and Catalan separatists, or require Erdogan to admit Sweden into NATO. He has influence, but he doesn't hold veto power over a foreign leader.
That Biden can control Israel's domestic policies is a false talking point promulgated by corporate media.
I really don't think Gaza will be a defining issue in the 2024 election. It's already fallen out of the news cycle and Gaza city will be under full occupation by next Nov.
Trump, however, will be in the middle of taking a huge beating by all his court cases. There's zero chance he ever gets more support than what he had last election. The best thing we can hope for is that the GOP puts him up for another election.
Both parties have the same issue right now. Both candidates don't have great appeal. But there aren't any Democrats that have an issue voting for Biden. He's been fine as president. We don't have to worry about him going off half cocked all the time. The party will fall behind him. The same can't be said for Trump.
The populations of US and Canada have a memory of a frog, the people at large won't remember a thing unless you blast in on repeat near election time.
Democrats will likely target abortion protection as it is a winning issue and message for them. Republicans might be hesitant to hold on to the Gaza issue for 10 months as it is so divisive and is best exploited when events happen, plus if pressed on what Republicans and some Democrats would do differently you'd get humming, hawing and platitudes.
If I were a US voter (I'm not) I'd try to look past any single event. Trump continuously stirred shit in the US and around the world and spent his time fellating dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un. His administration focused on separating families at the border, eroding net neutrality, give away money through tax breaks, ample amounts of loans that were forgiven, packing the Supreme court with cronies to twist the meaning of the Constitution. Biden on the other hand put people in charge to hold corporations and anti-competitive monopolies accountable for once, strengthen labour law, did everything in his power to reduce student debt, actually managed the Covid crisis and on and on. He did bung up a few things imo like how he handled the Iraq pullout and the rail strike but those were rough situations that I could at least still put a base amount of trust in him in the future not to fuck up too badly.
half of the people here can’t qualify Biden’s successes
People are happier running around bitching because it is far easier than taking the trouble to delve into the real news. The MSM is largely responsible for it. Biden has to continue aid to Israel because it is popular. What most people don't see is his behind the scene work of getting Israel to the table instead of the launch button. Biden has been working through Qatar to get Iran and Hamas to back off, simultaneously rounding up support for a multinational force to enforce a border between Israel and Palestine while possibly establishing a two state solution with international teeth.
Imagine thinking that Trump is in any way, shape, or form, better for you and your family than Biden.
Conservatives and Republicans: hate working class people, hate people that rent, hate minorities including women, want to privatize every last piece of American society so you'll have to subscribe to your alarm clock and appliances.
It's the illusion the maga crowd clings to. They think the economy was better under Trump and they think that relates to prosperity for them. The truth is that the economy really only indicates how the market is for the wealthy. But they don't see that. Trump, like nearly all GOP, is fully prepared to strip mine this nation of all resources possible, which would me amazing for the economy. 🙄
I don't understand how they can possibly put Biden forward again. He's well past losing his marbles. Way too old to run imo. It's disgraceful.
That's what we get with a two party system. The parties don't really need to compete through better policy, simply spending more and being marginally less bad in the eyes of the voters on your side of the line is enough to win.
If 3rd parties were viable, democrats would actually have to compete in the ways that matter, and we wouldn't see shitty politicians like Biden as much.
But we're not going to get that until election reform (STAR & Approval voting, ban on money in politics, etc) happens.
Age limits are something we should talk about in general, but using that as the reason to discount only one candidate is asinine
And you think the Dems don't? Don't mistake pandering for genuine concern.
So I'm supposed to vote for the genocide supplier?
want to privatize every last piece of American society
And Democrats are not doing this?
Like it or not we are stuck with a two party system. As fucking awful as Biden is, and he is, Biden is the lesser of two evils by far. And that applies to democrats/republicans as a whole.
Both parties/candidates are to some degree cool with genocide and privatization, but only one of the two stands out as the worst, and the worst by a lot.
Don't like it? Vote for local candidates/congressional candidates in primaries that will fix the two party problem. But in the mean time the better presidential option will be anything with a D next to their name.
Donald would send significantly more funds for that genocide and would help Russia with their genocide in the Ukraine. So doing some basic room temperature IQ thinking I'm going to pick the less genocidal option.
The USA is going to back a genocide regardless of your opinions. Learn how dirty your hands are and then make decisions that lessen the dirt in the future rather than digging straight into the shittiest option by trying to appear righteous.
Biden could have done what’s best for the country and been a one term president. I’ll still vote for him but not because he’s some amazing leader or anything.
So they did it to themselves if they lose.
I don't know, I think the situation is more nuisanced. I didn't vote for Biden in the primaries (I did in the general), but I have to admit he's accomplished a lot more than I anticipated he would. At the time I just wanted a president who wasn't a complete train wreck.
I'd be all in if he was younger, but even so, I'm not sure what the best option is. If Biden stepped aside, I'm not sure the Democrats' ability to win in 2024 would go up. Incumbents have an advantage for sure, and there isn't an obvious choice to replace him. The most important thing at this point is that Trump doesn't win. Whatever situation maximizes the chance of him losing is good with me.
the aituation is more nuisanced
You got that right!
I see that point of view. Out of curiosity, though, do you think there’s an obvious next in line on the bench? The only person I can think of as a no brainer for electability is Michelle Obama.
Do you think, that maybe, if Biden had chosen to support another candidate, all those "Blue No Matter Who" types would dog pile people not supporting that candidate?
they've had four years to figure that out. That they can't... is either a sign of gross incompetence or of intentionality. either way, at a certain point, you need to stop and realize the way it's not worked for 30+ years is... not working and maybe it's time to change things up a bit.
She does not want to hold public office. As you may recall she wasn't treated very well.
At the beginning of his term, I'd have said they were lining up Harris; black, woman, young, and they made her highly visible in the first few months. I thought for sure they were going to spend 4 years lining her up for 2024. Biden would gracefully bow out citing his age, ride the 1/2 term election cycle, and badaboom: first female president.
And then she faded away. I don't know what happened; she didn't poll well, or do well, or polling showed D chances sank without an old white guy in front... but it makes me kinda sad, because I thought it was a good strategy, and it'd be nice to have a run of diversity in the White House.
I'm really hoping Gretchen Whitmer runs in 28 but for this cycle it would probably be Newsome. Sherrod Brown would be great but he is the only person in Ohio that could keep that senate seat blue. Manchin probably runs off Biden isn't there. Harris and buttigieg are"in line"but personally I can't stand either.
Tats a really hard question. I guess Newsom or Whitmer if we’re talking politicians that seem to be up and coming. But I can think of many other candidates that I would like to see take the position even if they aren’t as electable. Tammy Baldwin, Mark Kelly, he’ll even Adam Schiff, even though he couldn’t win in the general.
Biden is fine but he looks and sounds horrible quite a bit of the time. There is nothing exciting about his policies and I feel he has way too much baggage.
Gavin would probably be the best pick. But if we’re making up scenarios, hell put Tom Hanks in there or Jon Stewart like that other commenter said.
Really I’ll always be bummed about not having Bernie but that ship sailed as well.
I’m not a super leftist, more of a left leaning no centrist. Still reason, passion, radical change for what a leader could and should be like really get me fired up. The policies are important but we all know that the president is a figurehead as much as it’s a powerful position. I’d rather see someone call the citizens of the country together and be a fighter for even the same type of incremental changes that Biden professes to embrace and maybe have a signature mission.
I do feel that his administration is chock full of smart and professional people. As a leader and a figure he’s just old and gross. Haha.
As other commenters have pointed out, anyone but a conservative would be fine. They all fuckin suck with their evangelical positioning and horrible policies. Trump being the nastiest of the pile.
What a short sighted view. Had he came in guns blazing we would have never heard the end of it from Republicans. Dudes done quite a lot without giving the Republicans much ammo.
Wake up call for who? Will the Democrats ever wake up and give their base something to vote for, instead of "hey, the other guys's worse, whaddya gonna do?".
What the hell are you talking about???
The dems have absolutely given us things to vote for: infrastructure act, record low unemployment, union support with the pres visiting the picket line for the first time ever, we have the best inflation rate across all of the G7.
Yeah it’s not enough but that’s on the contrarians more than anything else.
The fuck you talking about
America is becoming increasingly radicalized on both ends, the leftists must side with the center-right neoliberal while the fascists get to vote for fascists.
It isn't surprising to see disappointment from leftists, even if they still absolutely should vote for the lesser of two evils.
Then they promised billions of dollars of orphan killing aid to Israel, because they just can't resist being neoliberals.
Yes, they're better than a party full of fascists and fundamentalists, but so is a suit full of roadkill and excrement.
That doesn't mean people need to enthusiastically cheer as we hurtle towards oblivion.
I think they do: https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
I just think the Dems suck at advertising it. Hell, I think Biden is trying for at least some student debt relief.
You aren't wrong, in a way. I'm nearing fifty and Biden is arguably the most progressive president in my lifetime. The problem is, that says more about the quality of presidents in my lifetime than it does about Biden, and with the climate crisis and encroaching global fascism, we don't have anymore time to wait. The Democrats are doing more, now, because pressure from the left has convinced them that they have to, but the leadership is still dragging their feet in defense of corporate profits as much as they can. The fact that they are doing more doesn't mean it's time to lower the pressure - it means the pressure is working, and we need to dial it up.
I don't really agree with you, but even if I did... "advertising it" is a big part of politics! It's called messaging, and it's important. You have to get people excited to vote for you. They need to feel like you're fighting for them. If you can't manage that, then don't blame people for not voting for you.
They give money to run ads for the most insane GOP people so they can have easier opponents, they wanted Trump to win the primary because it would have made the GOP a laughingstock. Problem is over time this emboldens and normalizes this faction, and now it's just this death spiral where they can't change or the other faction will win, it's like this logical inevitability at this point. Dems said it loud and clear in 2016 they will choose a candidate friendly to donors over one that could easy win against Trump.
Where'd you get this hot take? X or corporate news media?
I get it here on Lemmy anytime someone complains about Biden and they are piled onto by people saying he's the lesser of two evils.
Uh... Haven't we been screaming that Biden is a pretty bad candidate since he took office and begging him to not run for re-election?
This is a surprise to who?
Even Obama said Biden shouldn't run in 2020, but when it seemed like Bernie Sanders would win, he put in the calls to get other candidates to drop and support Biden, who became the democrats' only hope.
Voting for Biden or any Democrat is like voting for a car salesman. They're there to sell you corporate bullshit. Voting for Trump or any republican is like voting for a used car salesman. They're trying to sell you old non working pieces of crap or shitty russian knock offs.
The article could have, but didn't, make the point that our politics and the rhetoric surrounding it today serve the right by subverting faith in democracy, and by exhausting likely voters' critical faculties:
Yesterday, David Roberts of the energy and politics newsletter Volts noted that a Washington Post article illustrated how right-wing extremism is accomplishing its goal of destroying faith in democracy. Examining how “in a swing Wisconsin county, everyone is tired of politics,” the article revealed how right-wing extremism has sucked up so much media oxygen that people have tuned out, making them unaware that Biden and the Democrats are doing their best to deliver precisely what those in the article claim to want: compromise, access to abortion, affordable health care, and gun safety.
One person interviewed said, “I can’t really speak to anything [Biden] has done because I’ve tuned it out, like a lot of people have. We’re so tired of the us-against-them politics.” Roberts points out that “both sides” are not extremists, but many Americans have no idea that the Democrats are actually trying to govern, including by reaching across the aisle. Roberts notes that the media focus on the right wing enables the right wing to define our politics. That, in turn, serves the radical right by destroying Americans’ faith in our democratic government.
There's also the tendency for people to assign to the incumbent all of the problems that happen on his watch- at this point, even with material improvements for most people, it's a hard sell to convince people that they're better off when every bit of right-wing media is devoted to telling people they're worse off and the mainstream media just both-sides it like there isn't one party trying mightily to end American democracy.
Right wing media hasn't eliminated the incumbent advantage.
Stop trying to trick people into thinking they want the Dems to weaken their position by officially showing the world that they don't have full faith in our current president.
Unless you really just don't realize...
Stop trying to trick people into thinking they want the Dems to weaken their position by officially showing the world that they don’t have full faith in our current president.
What the fuck are you talking about? Where did I say that?
So sad that after so many failings, they still cannot learn! Do what's right, not what's personally profitable, you scumbags.
Do you want trump? This is how we get trump.
If you want to prepare, watch The Handmaid's Tale. Probably less entertaining when it's real life.
Exactly, the best thing Democrats or anti-Trump voters can do right now is blame the party for it's own failings rather than shame the left voters they need who are on the correct side of every issue. I view that as more a confession than anything. Too often this turns in to "oh you care about ____, well that's how we get Trump, get off your high horse and live in reality." Well now that blank is genocide, so they can't say this and save face anymore. Even though the US is always supporting this type of foreign policy, and you can rant about it all day if you're on the left while they shame you for caring, you're only taken seriously by Democrat voters when it's not able to be brushed under the rug as a minor issue.
Just think about how this is framed, "damn, this genocide is really bad for... Biden's polling." If that's the main concern of someone's here then you've already lost.
Task: literally impossible.
unfortunately for us and the world:
Do you want trump?
Roughly half of voters: YES
If you support biden, you are the scum bag.
Billions for bombs on Palestine, zero money for student loans.
I will never forget. And I will never vote blue again.
Billions for bombs on Palestine
And that's wrong. But it's better than a Trump presidency giving x10 the amount.
zero money for student loans.
It wasn't zero. Biden was still able to get some borrowers off the hook, just not as sweeping as necessary.
And you're ignoring SCOTUS's part of this.
And I will never vote blue again.
Which is the exact type of decision that will lead us to another round of election lies, social safety net destruction, defunding of education, and corruption.
I'd rather haven Biden than live in Gilead.
zero money for student loans.
I will never forget.
Bruh you already forgot lmao
Through making changes to programs, after SCOTUS rejected his larger plan, $127B in loans has been forgiven.
The "Biden sucks" narrative is a little out of control at the moment. I hope his team pivots to highlight all of his successes around the time Trump is getting tossed in prison. That should hopefully be enough juxtaposition for even the most terminally online idiots in this country to not vote for the meme candidate again.
Part of the problem also is that centrist Dem voters are single issue queens and will refuse to turn out if they don't get their way on certain issues, and a lot of them are drawing lines in the sand over Israel/Palestine right now. In case anybody hasn't be paying attention, let me assure you, Trump will not end the war in the middle east. If anything, he will accelerate it. If you're unhappy about Biden supporting Israel but calling for an end to hostilities, boy are you going to be upset if Trump takes the White House and endorses full-on genocide of Muslims in the west bank and complete Russian supremacy in Ukraine.
The centrists are much happier than the leftists with Biden, I've seen more voter apathy among leftists who are tired of voting for center-right candidates while right wing extremists get to vote for fascists that openly support them.
I wasn't exactly an enthusiastic Biden voter last go-around, I thought he was probably past his prime even in the primaries and think his VP is pathetic, BUT there's not even a choice going into 2024. You've got one guy who already staged one insurrection attempt, is openly planning to turn the US into a fascist dictatorship, fumbled the US's pandemic response, gave US secrets away rival countries, is likely beholden to one of our biggest global adversaries, had almost no actual accomplishments to speak of during his term, and consistently breaks the law on a daily/weekly basis. And then you've got a middle-of-the-road, generic politician who has actually racked up some achievements in the past four years, but has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth from time to time. The Israel-Palestine thing is essentially a continuation of US policy for the past few dozen years, yeah it sucks and wish we could do something more than giving them more weapons and just limply saying, "Could you please kill civilians maybe not so fast, just ease up a little bit?" But yeah, Trump would likely give them the ok to just start nuking Gaza/West Bank and might even offer US nukes for the job. Trying to pressure Democrats to change course on Israel by essentially handing the election over to Trump will not help the Palestinian cause any, the same way that being pissed off about Bernie Sanders and sitting out 2016 basically handed Trump and the GOP a SCOTUS majority (note: I supported Sanders in the 2016 primary).
I don't see it as a vote for Biden, rather a vote against Trump
Funny enough, there's research demonstrates that people vote against the voters of a party, and it turns out that people don't like being called idiots for disagreeing politically with someone, and that they'll go so far as to vote against the party of voters calling them idiots.
Maybe just something to think about.
Interesting premise, have a link to the research?
It's party specific though. Republican voters get shit on constantly and never waiver at the vote. It's people in the center and to the left that will just not show up if they've been slighted.
I say this way to often, but I'm ex Republican and we used to joke about how much the lefts bickering handed us elections. The only way to fix this country is to show up and vote dem because you can be damn sure Republicans are going to show up regardless of the candidate they choose.
Isn't one of the parties' voters calling people baby killers, groomers/pedophiles, deranged/insane for disagreeing with them politically?
This mentality of picking between worst options isn't very appealing. Better y'all vote for some third party (even if they don't win as whole)
I hope you are just young and haven't gotten to social studies subject in school yet.
We have a system that guarantees a stalemate between two parties.
If we had Ranked Choice Voting, we could actually have third, fourth, fifth etc parties that actually have a chance.
In our reality today a third party vote is like not showing up at all. It wont do a thing.
Appealing? No.
Necessary? Depends what the issues are and how they impact you.
It comes down to game theory. Voting against the lesser evil is advantageous to you because if they win, things will be slightly less bad. If you throw your hands up and say it doesn't matter, you're not giving any disadvantage to the greater evil.
My question is who are they asking for these poles?
People who are willing to answer a call from an unknown number then answer questions for 15 minutes.
So, basically nobody under the age of about 40.
Worse: people who answer the call on their land line.
But those are the people who vote as long as they have a pulse. Don't get complacent. That's one of the reasons we had a Trump administration in the first place.
Damn, dude. Why you gotta do my like that? I grew up on (dial up) internet, dammit.
methodology shall be listed with the polls themselves.
Democrat leadership has a severe communications problem. I'm not sure why they refuse to fix the disconnect.
Donor$
Because it's not a communication problem any more than the GOP had a messaging problem some years ago.
You can't communicate your way out of shit governance. Democrats just keep getting further and further out of touch with working class Americans.
It's a good thing Republicans are better for the working class then. GTFO of here with this argument. Our federal gov has 2 ellectible parties, vote for the one that sucks less in the general. Anything else is voting for the Republican candidate.
I'm not a shill either, I fucking hate the democratic party, but I'm also not dumb enough to trash them to a point that I don't fully support them in the election.
Maybe their strategy for getting votes could be something better than "the other guy is worse".
That's pretty much all they have.
Nobody has ever really been excited about Biden, and there isn't a clear heir for the Dems either. Bernie is ancient, and while there's a lot of love for AOC from the base, she's perceived as too far to the left for the swing voters.
The Republicans are REALLY good at identifying potential threats early and attacking them. They did it with Hilary for decades, and they've already started with AOC's generation. The only one they really missed since the 90s was Obama, but he pretty much came out of nowhere.
That's absolutely not true. Dems and Biden administration have a lot of good ideas, and they do a lot of good shit, genuinely good, important shit. The thing is, they are terrible at advertising it, and their good shit is not enough because the country deep in trouble, so probably they could do more, and they definitely need to do more. But to say that they don't have anything is not only untrue, but also very dangerous
That’s pretty much all they have.
Except for all the good things biden has done. https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatBidenHasDone/comments/11lohnc/what_biden_has_done_year_three_year_one_two_are/
Sadly I think this country is so right wing, that they will literally vote for Adolf Hitler before letting a woman be in charge.
Ok so it starts with you. Volunteer with your local voting rights groups and get people registered to vote. Work their social media teams. Go to high schools and go register those turning 18. Voting rights groups are well known for this useful work.
I really appreciate your call to do something. I personally don't think we can vote our way out of this, but we all need to do something. Anything. Whatever we can and feel called to do. This isn't the dress rehearsal.
Well, maybe. If everyone hadn't voted though in the last midterms etc. or even the most recent races, we'd be doing a lot worse now.
i wonder sometimes what it would be like to cut my intestines with a pair of scissors
The government would work a lot better if all the old fucks stopped trying to make everything a petty competition with winners and losers.
So, what are they doing to energize the base?
Democrat Base: "Hey, can we... uh... fix... you know..." gestures broadly at fucking everything
Biden: "You got it, champ, unlimited funding for Israel's war effort."
Just give me fireside chats reassuring us that it's not just Biden's rich friends and the sister he forced to help a nanny for his kids that will be ok would be really nice right now.
Man, they intentionally picked the most frail looking photo of Biden they could find, didn't they?
Wait... Are you talking about the image at the top where he's got his fingers on his chin?
How does that look frail? Lol. The dude looks healthy, he's not pallor, his eyes aren't glazed over, he's just old lmfao.
To who? The convicted felon? Or maybe it's that Florida governor who is pissed off the largest Media company in the world?
There is nothing in the rules that says a Felon can't play basketball! I mean be president.
A question to American Lemmy users: from what I can tell you are Democrats for the vast majority : would you consider voting for a Republican president if you aligned with his ideas, or if the Democrat candidate was an unredeemable piece of shit? The two party system makes zero sense to me because it doesn't seem, at first glance, that they're a huge overlap, people are not willing to go to the other side often, it seems. .. what's the point of having debates and stuff then?
Before the Tea Party movement in the Republican party, yes I definitely could have been convinced to vote for a Republican candidate. I was actually intending to vote for John McCain for president because at that time in history, both parties really did still have their crazy branches, but the relatively rational adults who knew how to compromise for the good of the country still ran the show, and I was genuinely concerned that Obama didn't have enough political experience to be president.
Then McCain nominated Sarah Palin for his Vice President. That was such a pandering, cowardly, caving to the will of the utterly ignorant, insane extremists in the Republican party move that I voted for Obama. And then the entire Republican party got so mad that a black guy was president that they collectively lost their whole fucking minds.
Republicans no longer want to govern. They want to break things and stay in power and that's it. That's their entire platform. There's nothing to debate because they literally aren't even trying to DO anything useful. Their entire political position right now is "do the opposite of what Democrats want." They have nothing to vote FOR. People who vote Republican right now are doing so only because they're voting against the bogeymen in their own heads.
That was John McCain's single greatest mistake. Actually I'd bet it was the national GOP party that forced it. In any case, I really thought that they believed they found the magic sauce and could get both the Tea Party yahoos and the establishment as well.
Before 2016 I was definitely in the camp of looking at both major parties as well as any third parties. I was voting for who I thought was the best despite whatever party they were in.
However, 2016 really opened my eyes to what the Republican party is. They are a party that isn't allowed to have different ideas. You follow the party line and do what you are told or you will be kicked out. Even republicans I thought might have cared for this country would have taken a stance but they didn't. They tucked their tails and bent the knee.
I will never ever vote for a Republican. I can see clear as day what they are now and it isn't good. They aren't able to hide who they are anymore.
You can have debates in the Republican party. You can in the democratic party. Which unfortunately makes the Dems a weaker party because it isn't a cult you are allowed to have a different opinion. The democratic party is basically all the sane adults that are left. It's not just the "left" anymore it's those in the center or those who didn't go far right with the Republicans. The Dems will spend the next year attacking each other and fighting within the party because they aren't unified and told what to think by one leader. So not all Dems will turn out.
It seems voter like to dismiss everything the democratic party does if they don't line up with them completely on every issue. The voters find one reason to vote for Republicans and ignore the rest of party line.
They aren’t able to hide who they are anymore.
It used to be all back room whispers and dog whistles from the top brass running the party until one guy shows up and says all the quiet parts out loud, and now the mask has fallen completely off
Yeah 2016 changed me from Green Party to Democrat, and literally the Green Party turned out to be taking bribes from oligarchs to cut votes. But that just makes me bitter. I dont have someone i want to vote for i just have a party i have to try and vote against.
It's a miserable existence trying to compromise on everything you care about and let parties of rich assholes do whatever they want because you have no other choices other than stagnation or damnation.
The governing systems are so broken I almost just wish them to break entirely to get people who so comfortably ignore it to care but instead it will just hurt lots of people who apparently half of them desire it anyways as long as it hurts someone they think deserves it. Yay, we live in the middle ground of new mafias and shit conditions and crumbling society in a boiling planet. What a fucking joke.
American politics didn't used to be the polarized team sport it is now.
We're seeing the ultimate culmination of the Southern Strategy: Get with the preachers who run those "god says hate the blacks" churches that the South is full of, pay them to say "God says vote the Republicans in so we can use the government to take it out on the blacks." Fast forward 60 years, and take a look around.
It was certainly that, but people kept the nasty stuff quiet and pretended to be dignified. Now nobody hides that nonsense.
Within the Democratic party, there's debate about how to handle climate change. There are people who advocate for slow, cautious changes and still see fossil fuels having a small role to play in the future. There are others within the Democratic party that want more drastic action, and make a huge government spending program to try to rapidly move the US energy to renewables (even naming it after one of the biggest US government programs made during the depression). That's normal politics. And it's all within the Democratic party.
The GOP mostly deny climate change exists. A few GOP members suggest that climate change is happening, but is a natural event not caused by man.
The recent house drama from the speakership battle was caused because 10 nutjobs didn't want to fund any social programs and wouldn't approve the budget. Most GOP compromised and made a TEMPORARY budget proposal that the Democratic reps would vote for. This caused the hardliners to remove the speaker. Because he had the audacity to compromise on a TEMPORARY budget.
Removing policy aside and just looking at behavior, many GOP members do not believe in compromising to get things done. There's attempts to not hold elected officials accountable (unless they are from the other party). It's very little cooperation and more retaliation.
A single GOP senator didn't like that the US military would reimburse a servicemember's travel for medical care if they lived in a state where some reproductive treatments weren't available. This one senator has single-handedly denied 360 military promotions and nominations to military positions. The Senate has historically tried to make it where being the minority party still had some power, so the rules let this happen (the other GOP senators on this committee weren't blocking, just the one guy).
The Democratic senators became so fed up they decided to change the rules to prevent a single committee member from blocking promotions. While most GOP senators publicly condemn this guy, many said this rule change was too much. So it looks like the rule change vote will be along party lines, although the #1 GOP senator has said it might be necessary to vote through to get the military back on track.
The last GOP senator really known for being reasonable and wanting to work collaboratively (McCain) died. He was respected by both parties until Trump came along, and now the GOP don't really hold his legacy in high regard.
Sorry, a lot longer than I intended, but it's a pattern showing no desire to try to govern effectively. Putting all issues of policy aside, I think it's a bad idea to vote for the GOP.
The only issue with that summary is that the people who voted to remove the representative willing to compromise were the GOP nutjobs AND the entirety of the 208 DNC representatives that were present. While I'm sure they had some political reason (aside from the popcorn moments), they showed that they, too, weren't going to help someone willing to compromise.
Let me put it this way, anyone who still identifies as a Republican is not worth voting for. If you can look past the fascists, racists, nazis, misogynists, fanatical religious nut jobs and still go "yeah, I'll associate with these people", then there is something irredeemably fucked up about you, and I'm not going to vote for you. Sure, democrats aren't perfect, but they tend to throw out their trash, instead of giving it a megaphone and a fancy committee seat.
There IS some degree of factionalism within the two party system. It is much more pronounced in the Democratic Party. Ever since Reagan in 1980, the Republican Party's factionalism became severely diminished. The Libertarians are kind of their most loosely held affiliation.
The primary system is largely designed help direct and influence the political platforms of the two parties. The two parties have made some significant pivots and switches over its history.
But far more importantly however: What has really happened is the Citizens United and lesser known Speechnow decisions by the US Supreme Court effectively legalized corporate buyout of the American electoral system.
And now we got fascists.
I've done it before. Aka ditched the GOP when they started worshiping a spray tan.
I'm registered NPA. I think, generally, everyone should be represented. I have voted Democrat, Republican and independent. Although the past couple elections I have voted straight Democrat because the Republican party has seriously taken a fascist turn.
As a gay person, let me rephrase your question:
Would you consider voting for the party of people who have always dedicated themselves to hating you and making you suffer as much as they can get away with legally?
The answer, unequivocally, is "Abso-fucking-lutely." But, you phrased the question wrong because you assume that people that vote Democratic are Democrats. They are not. Something like 20-30% of people who vote exclusively or near exclusively Democratic consider themselves Democrats, whereas Republican voters are around 50-60% for their respective categorization.
This isn't particularly strange if you think about the authoritarian vs anarchical political dichotomy these two voter bases lean to for more than a second. The real problem with that is that Republicans, as a general rule, would never align with socialist values. So, while technically they could, anyone that claims to be a Republican with my values is almost entirely likely to be lying.
But, you missed a big thing in American politics: The moderate voter. We have a large group of people who consider themselves moderate, for reasons that all range within the realms of apathetic ignorance to willful ignorance. These people have either no moral quandaries with either particular side, are general unaffected by politics in a way perceivable to them, or are people who lean one way but do have moral quandaries with that side. Debates between parties are for them, which is why it's about presentation, media sound bites, and moderate views.
Anyway, hopefully that answers your question!
People who go online on sites like Lemmy to discuss politics are usually strongly in favor of one party over the other. However, not everyone who votes in elections is like that. There are many moderate or swing voters. Presidential elections in particular are decided by a few key swing states. There is also an expectation that the Congress and the Courts could be a check on each other and on the President, so sometimes people vote for a candidate that they don't fully agree with. Debates aren't always about which candidate or party has a more agreeable stance on the issues, but rather which issues are the most important.
There are no real moderates and swing voters are those who don't pay enough attention to what's going on to have an opinion on it. In reality, swing voters are ignorant.
Right now? Absolutely fucking not. In the past? No, probably not.
One thing to note is for all our partisan noise, the USA is a nation of centrists. If either party would put up a candidate that didn't pander to the extremes of their party they'd win in a landslide, but that doesn't make for very good down ticket fundraising and that's what it's all about.
No Democrat or Republican gives any shit about the actual country. All they're interested in doing is making themselves rich.
I would absolutely vote Republican if they were just a bit to the left on abortions, education, and unions. Actually unions and teamsters would totally support Republicans if they weren't openly hostile to them.
Right now they're just different flavors of big government endlessly growing and I really think some libertarians need some wins to shake them up.
The two party system makes zero sense to me because it doesn’t seem
That's because you haven't seen it for what it is - a glorified "good cop/bad cop" routine.
My problem is that since the first time I've been able to vote, the Democratic party has shown they don't care about who the people may want. They will actively suppress whoever isn't their chosen one. And there are cases where they fund ads for their crazy opposition instead of building a meaningful case for their candidate. I voted for Biden originally, and I will not vote for Trump now, but I need more than "vote for me because I'm not the other guy", especially the second time around. If Trump wins, it's because the Democratic party shot themselves in the foot. Party cohesion is made by leaders who listen to their constituents.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
And while he's downplayed the role his advanced age could have on his ability to lead, polling's revealed that more than three-fourths of US adults think he's simply too old for another four years in the White House.
The publication said that some of those around the president have advocated for him to walk shorter distances and ditch his dress shoes for more comfortable ones, sometimes sneakers, to lower the risk of him falling.
A poll released in early November by the New York Times and Siena College also showed Trump leading the Democratic president in five of six battleground states.
If he can regain the trust and support of his 2020 electorate, especially the young voters who voted for him in droves but hate how he's handled the conflict in the Middle East, he's got more than a fair shot at winning reelection.
Additionally, Trump, the party's leading candidate by a wide margin, is currently fighting a mountain of legal battles after getting charged with 91 felonies by grand juries across the country throughout 2023.
The Supreme Court's decision in 2022 to overturn decades of precedent for abortion access has also led to Democratic voters turning out in record numbers, especially when abortion-related referendums are on the ballot like in Ohio and Kansas.
The original article contains 718 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Oo I'm so scared!!!!
GTFO. Democrats losing the white house and the senate in 2024 is a fuck around and find out moment.
Americans. We've been fucking around for a very long time.
unemployment rate is the lowest it has ever been in your entire life. CHiPs act, infrastructure improvements, PACT act...
fuck around? Biden has actually been fulfilling Trump's promise to Make America Great Again...
Trump had a multi-TRILLION dollar budget deficit in his term, worse than every president other than Ford, another republican
stop looking for a scapegoat. maybe your life is hard because of your choices and actions.
Unemployment being low is very tone deaf when employers don't have to pay a living wage.
I'm not scapegoating I'm stating the fact. Republicans are looking to burn this place down and for what ever reason no one has done a damn thing to stop them. That's the fuck around part. The find out part is if we let Trump win and he is not bound by having to run a second term or even having enough healthy years to give a shit about the cell he will end up in.
Well past time for one of those historical shifts to a third party.
....and their policies would be?
"Normal" and not a military empire would be a start.
Well, senate. We've know we were loosing the senate for 6 years, since these are the people elected in 2018 right when people started to come to terms that Trump wasn't competent.
The white house will be decided by three groups of 12 people and the delegates at the RNC when Trump can't accept the nomination in person due to being in jail. "What if all three find him innocent?" Then like the petulant man-child he is, he will do something right after the 3rd acquittal to celebrate being un-jail-able that will cause his immediate arrest.
*losing
Of course they could lose them. They are senile and old. They probably lose all sorts of shit
Why would the Dems care? They know who it is that will protect their privilege and power for them when the working-class no longer buys their "centrist" bullshit - that's why they spend so much time "reaching across the aisle" to naked fascism.
I get that people dont like that argument of Democrats also being bad especially when one party is very clearly in full support of fascism or dictatorship akin to kings put in power not by Divine Right but by Corporate Right.
But fuck me if they willfully ignore the fact that the Democrat party is now essentially the Republican party of years ago with their policy being, "Dont do anything". So we sit still while they are in power to then roll backwards with the Republicans.
"But they try" i already hear the shouts. No. Some try. The party does not. Honestly i am pretty tired of upper class white people saying it's better if we stay Democrat leadership because they are ok with stagnation as long as they are still comfortably higher up the ladder from drowning. I'd rather us all be miserable so maybe people can get their heads out of their ass, live in reality and realize that things really need fixing. Their bubble of checkmarks means nothing, and I'm tired of pandering to narcissist who insist the world is still about them instead of larger issues.
We need a third party, but we cant have that. So we need a change of power. Which wont be allowed either. So instead we rot and people say
"well it could be worse."
Fuck you. It could be better.
Thank God.
Trumps been polling ahead for 2 months. Reminds me of 2016 again. Democrats are doing their best to lose in 2024.
81 year old dinosaur won't step aside. 2 new wars and focus on identity politics
Who will win the battle for Corpmurica's soul?
The racist, willfully ignorant fascists being paid off by the owner class to keep the economy rigged against you as they burn the world for private profit, or the indolent neoliberals being paid off by the owner class to keep the economy rigged against you as they burn the world for private profit?
Find out next November... on... 🔥 King of the Ashes! 🔥
I'm not voting for biden again. I don't care what you say.
He is simply a more skilled fascist than trump. He cut a check to Israel so fast with a smile on his face.
people voting for dems again: have fun spewing the same circular logic about how I have to vote for the lesser of two super evils dude, EVERY SINGLE election.
Y'all are more dangerous to democracy than trump supporters.
If the choices are Biden and Trump, and your single issue is Israel... well... you don't really HAVE a choice, do you? You'd have to not vote at all.
Or maybe... just maybe... find a different issue to vote on:
If the choices are Biden and Trump, and your single issue is Israel
I'm not a single issue voter. But I will not support the genocide with my vote.
I'm also burned when biden completely failed to get student loans support passed.
well... you don't really HAVE a choice
Exactly that's why I'm not participateing!
You're a fool to keep playing a rigged game simply because it the only one in the cabinet.
how I have to vote for the lesser of two super evils dude, EVERY SINGLE election.
Every single election is biased towards a two party system. It's not circular logic, it is an inherent bias/flaw of our election system.
Until we get election reform we're stuck voting for the lesser of two evils, which is Biden. Biden is bad, but Trump is worse AND criminal.
Y’all are more dangerous to democracy than trump supporters.
Last I checked, Biden voters never tried to overthrow an election.
Every single election is biased towards a two party system. It's not circular logic, it is an inherent bias/flaw of our election system.
And the solution is too keep doing the same thing we do every election cycle? You realize this is the circular logic in was reffering too.
Last I checked, Biden voters never tried to overthrow an election.
No they just support a genocide supplier and act like its the moral high ground.
The most biden and the dems will ever do is the smallest incremental change that they can advertise to chumps like you.
And while they do this they openly support war crimes around the world.
You can vote anyway you like, but the fact of the matter is that our fptp voting system is naturally going to trend towards two parties, and so we're stuck with a certain game theory.
If you want to change the system, that happens at the grassroot level, where then you work up to change the system. Trying to start with the president is just ridiculously naive.
And thinking that people who recognize the threat of trump and also understand how the system works are actually the bigger threat than the people actively attempting to elect a fascist...well, fuck, dude. I don't even know what to say to such stupidity.
This is all the same shit they said in 2016.
You are a stupid for falling into the same trap 7 years later.
The game is rigged. There are no good candidates. Stop voting for them.
If you want to change the system,
You're telling me how to change the system because you know for a fact that the dems are worthless. Lmao.
I don't even know what to say to such stupidity.
so what's your solution?
not voting at all and just indirectly let trump win?
because his supporters are going to vote anyways
not voting at all and just indirectly let trump win?
2016 called they want their democrat guilt trip back.
Roe v wade was over turned when dems were in office.
At their best they are worthless, at their worst, they are the same crypto-fasicts as the right with better PR.
I will vote for a candidate that has a platform I can support. If there are none I will not vote.
When their entire campaign was based on 'we are not Trump' then turned out they were exactly like Trump and his policies, they deserve to lose.
WARNING. This person is being disingenuous and is arguing in bad faith.
Their purpose here is to get you to engage so they have more space to spread their propaganda. Don't fall for it.
Demonstrate how they are exactly like Trump.