John Fetterman says he'll 'never understand' progressives who refuse to support Joe Biden

NightGaunts@kbin.social to politics @lemmy.world – 480 points –
John Fetterman says he'll 'never understand' progressives who refuse to support Joe Biden
businessinsider.com

The Pennsylvania Democrat recalled his time serving as a Hillary Clinton surrogate in 2016, even after he supported Bernie Sanders in the primary.

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It's not that I don't support him, it's that I do not support anyone over the age of 65 being in any position of any power anywhere.

Yeah, but you're still going to vote for him, just like I'm going to have to...

We don't really have a choice.

But it's not enough for moderates to count on progressives voting for them in the general, that's not "supporting" to them anymore.

They want our unwavering support and complete refusal to criticize them before, during, and after assuming office.

They've been slowly creeping right for so long chasing conservative votes that they've got the same expectations of their voters that Republicans get.

I think more than a few of the party leadership truly wish Dem voters were more like Republican voters.

We don’t really have a choice.

This is the real problem. Not Biden's age or his actual policy goals and achievements. It's that we know what we're getting and we know we won't be enthusiastic about it.

But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, and unlike last time I'm in a swing state and can't cheekily write in my favorite candidate without ending the world.

Enthusiasm for Obama died down once reality hit too.

There wasn't ever enthusiasm for Biden, though.

Enthusiasm doesn’t lead to anything most of the time. Throughout history the greatest Presidents all had to make difficult decisions that either went against their ideals or were questionable if they had the right to do them. Anyone can run on grand ideas, but once you’re in the seat the unattended consequences are revealed to you, and unless your a monster who doesn’t care, they have to be dealt with.

An example that made me change my mind about some things under the Obama administration was watching documentary series on declassified CIA/FBI counterterrorism incidents. The number of plots they were stopping was overwhelming. And if those interviewed are to be believed those were only a small fraction of the situations they dealt with.

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You have plenty of choices. First of all you can vote for someone that isn't red or blue, second you can take action yourself and do politics on your own

First of all you can vote for someone that isn’t red or blue,

If I wanted to waste time I wouldn't stand in line to vote...

In our political system any vote besides R or D means the same as not voting. Thats just reality, it sucks but it is.

You want to change it? Great, me too. But we do that by being more invested in the current system and electing people willing to improve it.

Its more likely to matter in downticket races, where the total amount of votes is less than the margin for victory in most federal elections.

Sure, we're not going to see a third party president any time soon, but its more than feasible in state and local elections. People just tend to ignore them because they're not as in your face as federal elections. Even though they're often as important as federal elections.

Which has fuckall to do with the POTUS, which is what we're discussing.

No third party in the US has a workable platform and they don’t even try to make one. They do literally nothing. We can argue back and forth about why they are at a disadvantage or why they have no chance blah blah blah, but it doesn’t take any of that.

Don't feed on the propaganda. There's a shitty movie out every month or so who millions go to watch because they get blasted with ads. It really doesn't take much to teach people to vote for someone that isn't red and blue. Drop that mindset and tell everyone to vote for someone else

It really doesn’t take much to teach people to vote for someone that isn’t red and blue.

How do you think that's going right now?

I think it's going good, i may have illuminated someone in this thread plus everyone downvoting will soon realize how stupid and brainwashed they are being and switch their mindset in the future

plus everyone downvoting will soon realize how stupid and brainwashed they are being and switch their mindset in the future

Kanye logic...

I knew it was coming, have fun with that

What state do you live in, assuming it does not have FPTP voting?

I'm from a state that was once a monarchy until people decided to take action against that

So Hawaii..?

Which notably only has RCV for Democratic presidential primaries (where local politicians don't compete) and special elections (since a split vote once gave a seat to a Republican). It's very transparent where the local politicians were willing to draw the lines on pro-democracy initiatives.

We do have mail in ballots and are reliably blue though, so their personal third party vote won't take any effort or change any results.

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Politics is almost by definition something you don't do on your own.

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He's got dozens of aides and advisors. No one man's got all that power.

Why do you support someone that is corrupted, a liar and has his hands drenched in blood?

Because it's multiple choice, and he's less corrupt, more honest, and less blood-drenched than the alternative.

So if Hitler and Osama bin laden gets resurrected and run for elections you would vote for one of the two according to who killed less people?

Mate, yeah, I fucking have to, because we as Americans have a deeply imperfect electoral system at the federal level. Sorry, but one of those fuckers is gonna be the president and then I have to call my Senator and beg them to go for impeachment.

If those were the only two candidates, then Allahu Akbar my brothers, we're going Nazi hunting.

Yes, we all want someone with little experience work the most important job in the world.

Brother, that's what the 35 cutoff is for... A lot of people start losing facultiee 65+, so it is you who ends up supporting rule by toddlers in reality.

Not to say Joe Biden would be worse than Trump by any means. Pointing out one flaw in a candidate is in no way an endorsement of their opponent.

A lot of people, but not all people. There has been age differences in candidates before. In election terms, it doesn't matter.

I want someone in touch with the modern world, understands technology and climate change, and who will be around to feel the effects of the policies they’re enacting. Being old doesn’t rule out most of those qualifiers but a 70+ year old won’t be around to feel the effects of many policies enacted today, so they may be more willing to enact policies with short term benefits but long term detriments.

If a 70 yr old wants to work on climate change regulation and tech regulation, they need to understand at least the basics of both, and the majority of legislators cannot use technology and refuse to begin to understand how computers or the internet in general work, despite the internet existing for 30 years and being everywhere for 20. And computers have in workplaces as commonplace for 40 years

Al Gore was in his 60s when he won the Nobel for his work on environmental climate change. John Kerry, the current US Climate Envoy and the guy who got us back into the Paris Accords, is almost 80. They both know more than most on the issue.

Exceptions not the rule, the majority of baby boomers are actively working against climate change and technology

Perhaps in your imagination. We've passed the largest legislation for climate change ever, plus the CHIPS Act has brought high tech manufacturing and R&D back to the US.

That legislation is gonna accelerate climate change.

For sure...changing to a non carbon based society will accelerate climate change.,wait....

Let me know when we make that change

The bill provided the money for that change.

Problem is it provided more money for climate accelerating things. Like more road infrastructure. Hoping for EV's but americans are still trending to larger and larger gas guzzling trucks and SUVs.

Plus opening up new oil and gas extraction leases.

What you think is road infrastructure is actually stuff like the $100 million that they are going to spend on developing dependable chargers for EVs. With tax credits and manufacturers wanting to sell new product the EV market should thrive in a few years

As far as oil leases go, sometimes you have to give to get a vote. That's sausage making.

Ah sorry i was lumping in the previous infrastructure bill, i forgot there were two. It was $110 billion for road infrastructure.

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And there are/were younger, more energetic, and more knowledgeable options than both of them. The dinosaurs don't have unique skills, they're just names we've known for years. We have a country of 330M, there are plenty of talented and capable people to choose from.

They don't give Nobels to your more knowledgeable people do they?

They give Nobels to people whose names are known. It wasn't a recognition of brilliance, it was a recognition of impact. Put a younger, smarter, and more vibrant leader in place and they get it instead.

Correction. They don't give Nobles to people who don't do things. But, no skin off my nose. If you have a younger, smarter, and more vibrant leader put them up for election and quit screaming at the clouds about age.

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