People. We, the French, pulled a left-wing coalition out of our asses in less than a week and managed to "win" an election. You have months. Hope is permitted.
It's very true. We've been brainwashed into a year long campaign mostly because it generates a lot of money for various parties but prior elections have proven it's mostly what happens in the last month that makes a difference.
Y'all are lucky you can make coalitions, though. This is more akin to your election if you only had centrists and far right running. Two party system and all that.
I think you'll start to see a lot more excitement in the next few weeks.
So we need a French immigrant to help fix the government?
Thanks for your support! And very happy to see your success in France.
You, the French, have not been the target of a 40 year war against public education by the right wing. Americans are on average significantly less capable of rational thought because of it. Source: I am an American raised in the crippled education system I mentioned before.
It’s a bit naive to think Western Europe hasn’t been under attack from the right wing at least as long as the US has. They’ve had wars over it that never really reached US shores, and it never really went away. All of the strategies that have been used in the US were piloted and honed in Europe – look up the activities there by Manafort, Stone, Bannon, etc. all the same names who have been implementing the shit you’re seeing in the US were active in Western and Eastern Europe years before this. It’s been going on there far longer.
It’s amazing to me that people in the US haven’t been paying attention to what’s gone on there and learning from their successes.
A "long" election campaign in the UK is 6 weeks. In 1992 they had one that was just 30 days.
Months is plenty of time, especially in the modern world. Maybe 250 years ago it was necessary to campaign for months on end so that the candidate could personally travel by train to every state. But, with modern media (both traditional and social), there's no real reason for campaigns to be as long as they are. The only reason they're this long is that the thought is that the earlier you start campaigning, the better. So, each side keeps starting earlier and earlier, making it effectively into a neverending campaign cycle.
Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race and give the place to someone else.
Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they're doing? Are you for real? They're doing EXACTLY what people have been asking for. They're doing EXACTLY what needs to be done if they want to win.
Fucking hell you guys, make up your fucking mind.
Sincerely,
A Canadian with severe anxiety over your next presidential election.
Well, to be fair, he should have stepped down a year ago, or at least 3 months ago. I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.
Anyway, I respect Biden. I honestly think he was a better president than Obama, Bush, Trump and Clinton. Perhaps the best since Carter or JFK.
I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.
You're correct, he did. Everyone forgot that for some reason. Note that this article is from 2019:
Another top Biden adviser put it this way: “He’s going into this thinking, ‘I want to find a running mate I can turn things over to after four years but if that’s not possible or doesn’t happen then I’ll run for reelection.’ But he’s not going to publicly make a one term pledge.”
That source does not say what you're claiming it says.
Which is ironic, because he picked Harris then used her as the bearer of bad news at every single opportunity.
So add those together and it implies he doesn't think Harris has the chops. But, to be fair, if that was actually the plan, they would've given her much more PR over the last 4 years.
If it weren't Trump running I think he would have stepped aside. He believed in 2019, and probably still believes now, that he has the best chance against Trump and that Trump is a singularly existential threat.
He very specifically did not say publicly that he would be a 1 term president. Talking through the idea with aides and someone leaking it does not equal a campaign promise.
This is a new decision, obviously. He is going to be a 1 term president. But he never promised it.
I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.
He specifically denied that when asked. To be fair he did say he was a "bridge to a new generation" or something, that's where I think a lot of people are getting this one term commitment thing from.
But there is no good option here. The good option would have been to run a good candidate over a year ago. That time has obviously long since passed.
The US "election cycle" is insane. You don't need to be running a candidate over a year before the election. 3 months is more than enough time to tell people who your candidate is and what they are running on, and you have more than 3 months.
Yes, it would have been better to announce earlier, but jesus christ he is too fucking old for this shit. Stepping back now is still better than pushing through.
The longer the cycle is made, the more people can be distracted from the actual politics and the more it matters who gets the most money.
Especially with how calcified the voting population is. Each candidate has something like a 44% floor of people who already know they're going to vote for "the Democratic candidate" and the only question is how many of them actually go to the polls and what the remaining randos decide. And only in a handful of swing states. Most of the system is already predetermined.
Bro, we start selling a Christmas decorations in July in the US. People need to be making money off this shit.
Many of the people involved in such agitation are not arguing in good faith. They simply want to attack the 'libs' at every opportunity, and reality be damned.
This was an astroturfing campaign covering our media and also via bots on social media.
I watched the debate and while he was slower, and mixed up words he actually was aware of US goals and challenges (despite what media tried to imply), trump was more energetic but he was constantly spewing nonsense, and while part of it was lying as usual, part of it was clear that he was actually getting lost.
I even wrote that in certain that if Biden steps down the same bots will start campaign how Democrats were cheated to discourage them from voting (like it was worth Bernie).
I'm definitively voting for Kamala now no matter what ridiculous bullshit they will come up on her on September-October (you can be sure there will be some scandal that will turnout to be nothing burger after election). I got fooled (like a lot of people) in 2016 to vote 3rd party and we got trump.
Republicans are actually a minority they can only win if they discourage enough people from voting. That's why they are against laws that that make voting easier.
I actually was hoping Biden would run as he has great experience with foreign leaders as well as very successful reaching compromises and passing bills that otherwise wouldn't fly.
As I say though I will 100% vote for Kamala (or whomever will be the democratic candidate), definitively not the fascist party and in fact anyone on Democrats side looks good.
I got fooled (like a lot of people) in 2016 to vote 3rd party and we got trump.
So rare to see someone actually say these words outside of pointing the finger at others. Kudos.
One thing I appreciate about Canadian elections is how quickly they happen. An election is called, campaigning is like a month or two and then we find out the new government just hours after casting our votes.
I’m excited AF… maybe the people you’re reading are republican plants that are just trying to make it feel like chaos.
The fact that this happened the weekend after the RNC makes me feel it was very well planned.
Not speaking for the rest of the thread, but...
Biden should have said he wasn't up for reelección since day 1
The Democratic Party hasn't known what to do since the 2016 election... at least.
I haven’t known what to do since the 2016 election. The “Fuck your feelings” bunch are clearly in their feels and ignoring documented events in what most of us call “reality “.
It's been chaos in the comments for a while now this is just catharsis for a lot of people and reaffirming for some of the naysayers.
You are gonna see a lot of takes from a lot of terminally online types.
Now just comes the actual work and it's gonna look chaotic for a while. I hope we get it together.
Lemmy posters are not a monolith.
I am.
Lemmy posters are not a monolith. They are many monoliths interacting with the internet via psychic emanations from atop lonely hillocks in places where mankind fears to tread.
Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down
Yes, some.
Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they’re doing
Yes, others.
Different people speak up on different days. This is especially true in social media where often people won't speak up if they know they're going to get jumped on.
Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race and give the place to someone else. ... Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they're doing?
Lol, you thought those people were arguing in good faith.
I mean many here openly support Putin too, what can you do
It's fun, Lemmy having an option for searching user comments. See a user make a suss comment? Search their comments for 'Ukraine'. If they're a fascist, there's a good chance they can't help themselves but start talking about "Russia's legitimate security concerns" or "2014 coup"
They're not the same people.
The fact the the DNC didn't have a contingency plan while running the oldest candidate ever is just insane.
The DNC has been fumbling for years and years now. Anyone else remember 2016?
All of this should have been done a couple years ago for presidential hopefuls to gather resources and prepare for the elections. The assumption that Biden was seeking a second term stalled a lot of minor steps needed to build a campaign. Biden stepping down a month before the DNC is gonna be a shit show. Who's gonna run for becoming a candidate? How are they gonna fundraise quickly enough to get the word out? This is a clusterfuck of poorly timed decisions and I only hope the new candidate can gather enough support to win the presidential election. Given the Democratic party's penchant of favoring people from their inner circle, I doubt they'll be well received by the general public to begin with.
Personally the best news I've heard in a while. I think there is a little bit of a knee jerk reaction happening because a lot is on the line and people are scared because it's such an unknown right now. When things settle more and the smoke clears I think everything will be more positive.
Americans aren't a monolith.
I personally just said last week that I believed only Biden was capable of beating Trump, so I’m feeling pretty sick right now. God, I hope I’m wrong.
We haaaaaavvvvvve to see this example and set a damn age limit for people to hold such high positions in our country. Old dude may have very well just sent us down an irreversible and utterly destructive path by seeking the office in the first place.
I know Bernie Sanders is old too, but damn I wish he had won the nomination. We wouldn’t be in this crisis right now. Still though, it’s a gamble electing people who are already waist deep in their grave.
Man
What a strange and historic month this has been. We’re all living in a very big moment in history right now, just, all the way around.
Every single one of you assholes who wouldn't shut up about him stepping down since the dude missed the toilet bowl fifty years ago after a particularly wild night out better sure as fuck step up now that Old Joe has stepped down.
A sitting god damned President of the United States has stepped aside less than half a year before reelection. Make no mistake: The man swallowed his pride and ego HARD to make this decision. Let's honor that by creating a wall of votes so god. damned. thick. Riley Reid would gasp.
Am one of those "assholes". Kamala was far from my favorite candidate in 2020, but I just donated a hefty (for me) chunk of change and will be volunteering. I didn't need perfection, just a feasible path to victory in November and now we have it. I'm so pumped right now, project 2025 no longer looks like an inevitability. LFG!
Side note, maybe we can have Riley Reid for the candidate?
Unironically better candidate.
Younger, healthier, charismatic, great on camera, focused in stressful situations. Also, she'll be great at dealing with congress because she is so experienced with dicks and assholes.
It took pretty much the entire Democratic party calling for him to step down before he would.
He came out and said multiple times that he wasn't going anywhere. He was forced out.
He came out and said multiple times that he wasn’t going anywhere
This was always going to be one of those things where "despite saying 8 hours ago that he was committed to the election and was not going to drop out, he has now dropped out". You're never going to see someone in these situations say "eh might drop out, not sure"
Wouldn't surprise me if that's what sealed the deal for him.
I mean the deadlines are closing and having to fight to even stay in the race while president of the U.S. and recovering from an illness is not something anyone looks forward to.
Frankly I hope he can catch a break for a bit, and enjoy a pension after all this is over.
I know people will say this is bad, a new campaign will be rushed, etc. But I think we all know Biden was an excuse for many not to vote, or worse, to vote for Trump. Withdrawing will be his legacy when we win, not his failing.
Thank you President Biden. You are a hero.
Biden absolutely did the right thing and, perhaps, the most courageous thing.
Democrats would have coalesced around him if decided to keep going but we've been begging him to step aside. This is a key difference between Trump "fans" and Biden voters. We're not drawn to him as a personality.
Once a candidate is selected, I don't care who it is, we must support them because not doing so is voting for an end to democracy.
The fact that we're here is a travesty.
People have done more with less campaign time and he will go down as having listened and done what was requested of the people and party I honestly think this says a lot of good stuff about the democratic party and Biden once we get the spin right.
It won't be hard. Kamala is going to be able to put a bullseye on Trump and republican politics like Biden simply wasn't ever able to do. She's going to be able to hyper focus on the deeply unpopular beliefs of the base and it will be hard for Trump or others to really deny it without losing their core supporters.
Further, because she's relatively unknown there's really not the same baggage as there was with Hillary. Most people don't know who she is and I think that really plays to her favor.
Let’s be honest here, Trump will never lose his core supporters. He could literally turn out to be the devil incarnate, and his supporters will say it’s their god’s will. He’s a 34-count convicted felon and they see that as something to boast about.
The issue in this country is that the less educated are following those with a playbook of getting the less educated to vote, to vote for them, and in areas that games the electoral college system.
We were a hair’s breadth from another Trump term in 2020 by 11,000 votes in GA. Not to mention his coup attempt.
It cannot be that close again. It must be decisive. I hope Harris, if she is the nominee, can achieve that.
It'll be great to have a woman talking about abortion and making this election a referendum on national abortion access.
Americans love to vote for something rather than against something.
Nobody who would consider voting for Trump is going to vote for whoever replaces Biden. Nobody. This is about getting apathetic voters off their butt. Which I hope works, but every part of my being is telling me they're going to pick someone who apathetic voters wouldn't vote for anyway.
I'm so thankful I live in a country where 4 months is (still) believed to be a ridiculously long amount of time to campaign.
Good luck America! Please show the rest of the world you're still capable of making sane choices.
Except for the bank of those who are just Russian agents who will undoubtedly find some new “excuse” why the Democrat candidate is not fit to run.
Expect lots of "cop" comments in regards to Harris from Russians totally real leftists.
She was a cop. She called herself the "top cop". I fucking hate the police and she's got my vote over a literal pedophile felonious fascist.
I'm no fan of cops, but I think this actually plays very well with the political environment. Recent elections saw rebukes of progressive Police policies in the Pacific North West. As much as I wish it were otherwise, that message isn't resonating with voters even in considerably progressive areas.
Having a traditional prosecutor may be an advantage in that regard. And it may provide us a new avenue to look at how we can have better policing that more people will support.
The biggest hot-topic issue this election should have been abortion (and by extension, SCOTUS). But the discussion got side-tracked by all this talk of old age. The debate just reinforced the narrative and concern with Biden. They would have hammered him over and over, with Trump bragging about how quickly he recovered from an injury.
Now, we have:
A sittingVP with actual Whitehouse experience, who can take credit for all the economic policies under Biden. Also, a former Senator.
A prosecutor and former Attorney General vs a convicted felon.
The age issue disappears (in fact, it now becomes a liability against Trump).
A woman vs the guy who bragged about killing Roe v. Wade.
Future of SCOTUS.
If she just keeps talking about those topics non-stop, she'll do fine.
The only thing better would have been if Biden had resigned to let people see her in the actual role, but this works. She picks a mid-westerner as VP who can stand up to Vance and it's a whole new ballgame.
I'm actually stoked about this race again.
Unfortunately we also have:
A non-white candidate
A non-male candidate
A very sexist and racist electorate, who basically voted Trump in because they were so upset by the election of Barack Hussein Obama
It remains to be seen if the racists and sexists will prevail.
Having said that, this might energize women who are on the fence and want to see the first female president. It might energize black voters. It will almost certainly energize Indian voters, possibly even all South-Asian voters. It will definitely energize voters who were worried about the age of the candidates. And now, suddenly, Trump has to go on the defensive about his age.
As long as all the democrats fall in line and push for Kamala, it might go really well. If Hillary Clinton goes out and works for Kamala, it could energize the people who are still angry about her loss, and can now channel that into the new option for a first female president. If Biden campaigns for her, it could reassure all the people who just wanted some stability.
OTOH, if there is infighting, and people trying to take her down so that they can become the nominee, then that could be trouble too.
The racists, as OP mentioned, would have voted for Trump regardless. The Dems need to convince the moderate, undecided voters
Not at all. The Nazis would have voted for Trump regardless. But, there are a lot of biased people out there who wouldn't even think of themselves as racist or sexist, they'll just "have doubts".
Unconscious bias is a major issue.
Anybody right now who is undecided is not moderate. The moderates are all already voting against Trump. Anybody undecided is either a very-low-information voter, who mostly gets their news from TikTok or conspiracy forums, or they're a very right-wing voter who hates the democrats with a passion, but are having trouble getting over their dislike of Trump too.
I don't disagree with you, but let's not forget apathetic voters... people that were just disenchanted with both of the old guys and wouldn't vote for either.
How many people, realistically, would vote for a white male Democrat but NOT a non-white female?
People are talking about this, but I don't know who this voter is. The hard line racists and sexists were not moderates, they're all already Republican.
There are far more democrats that were against Biden because of his age than would be against Harris as a woman. This is a net gain. Fuck the people who won't vote for her along gender or racial lines. I don't want to try and appease them.
Give people something to vote FOR rather than vote against.
How many people, realistically, would vote for a white male Democrat but NOT a non-white female?
Far too many. It doesn't mean they're going to admit, even to themselves, that the reason they're making that choice is that they hate women. But, unconscious bias is a helluva thing.
The only thing better would have been if Biden had resigned to let people see her in the actual role, but this works.
I used to be an advocate for this, until I realized that in this political environment, whoever President Harris picks for VP would need both House and Senate approval, and this House will take a page from Mitch's book and simply not bother. So you would have your first female and mixed-race President, in a country full of armed bigots, and if they get to her, Mike Johnson becomes President and can start Project 2025 early.
Fortunately she could just order his assassination, call it an official act (“he was obstructing the confirmation of my vice president”), and get off scot-free.
Yes I realize this would never work because
Harris would never do that, and democrats would never allow it, and
the Supreme Court would immediately rule this is not an official act for “reasons”.
Well guys... Have you seen Trump's mental decline since he last ran?! How old is he now?
Surely nobody would be dumb enough to vote someone that old into office now... That is... What we have been saying? Right guys?
Yeah, but they don't care. They don't want a competent and coherent president. They want Trump, because he hates the same people they hate, and he's not afraid to say so.
The teams don't play by the same rules and never have.
It's not those people we have to worry about. It's the ones in the middle who sway one way or another. They care enough that Trump lost last time.
That’s why I’m never gonna cancel my USA subscription. Your shows always have a crazy twist right before the season finale.
Jokes aside: Not a single person who even considers voting for Trump is worth any hassle. Their vote is a coin flip on fucking acid. The dems should try to animate the lazy nonvoting pricks.
Don't disparage acid like that, every psychedelic user I know is left wing
Your assessment is spot on. I am forever shocked that people seem to think there are voters on the fence between trump and anyone else
Jesus, I hope they can piece a campaign together in the few remaining months
It would be an awful lot easier than trying to salvage Biden’s image as it stands. If they do it right this should be super easy, but if they drag their heels on the changes necessary then it might be a lot harder.
This is BIG opportunity to rebrand and show what really matters to the party.
This is the perfect opportunity to do that! But I have absolutely zero faith in them actually doing that.
But maybe I’ve become jaded in my age with politics. Maybe they won’t just choose the worst possible option.
Maybe they won’t just choose the worst possible option.
Her turn 2.0 watch out yall here comes Hillary! /$
If, and that’s a big if, they choose to field a moderately likeable replacement, there’s a chance they can actually re-energize the campaign and voters and get a big boost with a fresh face. That’s a big if though.
Yes they can. This is the right choice. Democrats will be more energized than ever now. Hopeful they keep it open to the delegates to vote at the convention after a few people step forward.
Other countries have pulled out elections in two weeks. The us may not have that experience though. The campaign however had been directed at his opponent's well known incompetence and malice. That may be the advantage of divisive politics.
Other countries have whole campaign seasons that are shorter. We’ve just gotten used to multi-year campaigns and never-ending reelection efforts. It wasn’t always like this, and I don’t think it’s good for us long-term.
They have the media bomb of "no incumbent" leading the headlines. This is one of the only media maneuvers that would change the conversation from "That Trump overcame assassination and adversity!" At this point a major shift was needed.
The year and a half back log of memes against Biden that right wing contractors have saved up are now worthless. The right will have 3 months to make a cohesive media smear campaign (which they can do against the right candidate) but it will require lots of downtime as the high paid think tanks make astroturf.
The fact that Republican troll farms have to now spend time coming up with new material puts a small smile on my face.
They will move swiftly though, while the Democrats are used to being sluggish, so vigilance is in order.
Plenty of other countries' electoral campaigns advance far faster than Americans expect theirs to move, and US media is talking about politics all the damn time. If the Dems don't do a massive screw up somehow, I think they'll find out that switching the candidate will be far easier than they were expecting.
Biden was going to lose to Trump and was dragging other Democrats down with him in the polls. What more did you need?
Walk me through this. Who replaces Joe with only 4 months left until the elections? It’s going to be vote blue no matter who again. Oh, would you look at that. Biden just endorsed Kamala Harris.
Not for nothing but four months should be plenty to do an election in. 24 hour news media has convinced you that it's got to be a 2-year endeavor. In all honesty 2 months should be plenty. Four is fine. Our entire country would be much better off if election seasons were shorter.
The UK Labour Party won a landslide election on 6 weeks notice
I don’t see it that way at all. This seems like a great way to increase their votes. It’s not like they are going to lose voters who were going to vote Biden to begin with.
Plus whatever strategy repubs were going to use to smear Biden is up in smoke.
It’s never about those that were going to vote for Biden anyways. It’s always been about the undecided voters. Don’t get me wrong, I hope you’re right.
It’s never about those that were going to vote for Biden anyways. It’s always been about the undecided voters.
They've 100% thought through this. Harris takes over the Biden / Harris campaign war chest, and if Biden drops out now, the party can go into the align around Harris before the convention. And now we have 3+ months to get people hyped about not voting for an old white dude.
For all of y'all anxiety-pilled people: this is great news. Biden was stuck in negative momentum because his health issues had been exposed and were not going to stop resulting in terrible headlines, which is a problem whoever comes next is not going to have, unless the delegates are somehow stupid enough to pull another dinosaur from below the rug.
More interestingly: now that Biden has pulled out because he's patently too old, as it was a concern for plenty of voters, this is a golden opportunity to put the focus on the other candidate whose age is a somewhat less obvious but still noticeable issue.
If 34 felonies, rape, insurrection, etc. Didn't sway people Im not sure age is the thing that'll turn them around.
Yeah, but just think of all the clips we can show of Faux News talking heads saying someone in their 80s is too old for President, and do the ol' switcharoo
Exactly! We now have a much younger, well-spoken, and intelligent candidate who can square off against someone who probably can't remember the last time they wiped their own ass. Let's go, Kamala!
Oh boy, I can't wait for armchair pundits who were calling for Joe to step down to now turn around and start to nitpick Harris as if that wasn't going to be the obvious successor.
I'm 100% behind Harris or anyone who gets the Dem nom. Trump must be stopped.
This is still a battle for America's soul. Are we going to accept the first female president or the first convicted felon president? I sure hope the left turns out for this one, even if they aren't super stoked about it, because we might never recover from another Trump disaster.
I don’t prefer Harris, but am 100% fine with her. Any D 2024. Fuck the republican traitor filth.
I'm not super stoked about her, and I'll crawl across 5 states filled with broken glass to get back home and vote for her.
She's a very bland candidate, but at least she's not 80 and fading.
Whether that's enough to get people up off their arses and into voting booths, I don't know.
You really need somebody that's going to invigorate the centre and left, the way Trump excites the right. Dyed in the wool Dems don't care who the candidate is, they'd have been happy with Biden's corpse. The issue is there's not a lot of time left for experimentation in finding one.
A female candidate can put Roe v Wade in the limelight the entire campaign, and that's a really easy winning message (based on all the special elections since it was overturned)
The Roe v. Wade issue is a strong strategy, and I look forward to her bringing it up continuously.
It's not just pundits, Nancy Pelosi wants Harris off the ticket. I already donated to her campaign and called my reps to let them know that's a bad idea.
Bad for the orange one, because the other side will get the whole media attention now.
We can hope. If the media attention is "Democrats are in shambles 3 months before the election" it might not go so well. And Trump will definitely be making a lot of noise about that.
I feel like the Democrats appeared more in shambles with him refusing to drop out. The party was all over the place on their support for him and he was just being a stubborn old man. Now they'll hopefully all be able to come together and rally behind a single candidate.
This decision really raises my opinion of Biden so much. God damn do I love that man, he is truly a great person who dedicated his life to serve his country, literally. He honestly had a great term given the circumstances, and the only thing he probably should have done differently is to not run for reelection to begin with. But he seemed to genuinely believe he could win and stave off Trump. Now that that seemed impossible, he makes a very courageous decision that a lot of people probably wouldn't have made and puts the country ahead of his ego. Lots of respect from me, and I hope this reinvigorates the democratic base and makes the future brighter for all of us.
President Biden is doing what Justice Ginsburg couldn't do and look what that accomplished.
I respect the decision and it means he goes out on top. It must have been a difficult decision, but he was one of the better presidents (I see an historian pol ranking him 14th best) and I believe history will remember him even better. I wish Joe Biden all the best in retirement.
Now comes the hard part. How do we avoid him having to say “I told you so”? How do we avoid repeating the disaster of the worst ranked President in history?
Yeah I think Joe Biden is basically the Clement Attlee of US Presidents.
Who's Clement Attlee? Some random guy that defeated Winston Churchill in the election just after Germany was defeated in WWII. "A modest man that has a great deal to be modest about." Such a nobody that his own party wanted to remove him immediately after he was elected.
If you want to see his photo you can enter "best prime minister in uk history" into your preferred search engine.
This whole Biden stepping down vs Trump saga is a metaphor for the American baby boomer generation's approaches to their own reckoning of their old age and their reluctance to pass down the torch to another generation.
Oh God yes, and it is reflected in my own family members who are all in their 70s. They strongly believe that a 70 or 80 year old is in "the prime of their life" and that "I have never been of sharper mind and more capable than at the age of 74."
I feel really bad for Biden. There's more that he wants to do. But he's gotten too old to be able to do those things. But he's accepted it, and he should be respected for that.
He will still have enormous influence when the Dems keep the White House for the next presidential term. And that's a good position for him to be in, he has great experience, knowledge, vision, and insight.
Exactly. Too bad he had to perform so badly at the debate to get to this point (instead of graciously acknowledging it earlier and by himself) but his body language in the past few months indicated that he should become more of a consultant/advisor once his term ends
Because that is the talking point that the foreign propaganda machine has been pumping out for the last few months. You'll notice there were no comparisons to Hillary a year ago. Now it's all "Harris is a cop," and "Harris is Hillary 2.0". Ignore all of that bullshit. It's foreign trolls doing their job and muddying the waters.
I do not like Hillary and I do not like Harris. I don't however agree with harris being a Hilary repeat, I think she has a way better shot than Biden did
Have you actually listened to her on the issues or do you just know what the media has been spouting? I was surprised to hear her very articulate and reasonable stances from her directly rather than through a progressive media filter. There's a mismatch.
Well, the Trump team has been panicking in anticipation of this happening. They have already started launching law suits trying to stop it. The biggest scare they had was Biden's age and that may have just vaporised?
If nothing else, this should be a sign that Biden stepping aside was the right move.
It looks good that the democrat is willing to give up power. People do notice that sort of stuff.
Now that Biden doesn't care about reelection, what kind of "Official acts" might he do?
Now they have a new excuse of not doing anything important or interesting so they don't "taint" Harris.
The best kind
I'm not gonna pretend that I love Harris, but this does make me energized enough to try and convince others to vote for her.
I think the hard part is going to be getting Trump to agree to debate her, but she should be able to kick his ass and hit him hard on the issues that matter for this election, as opposed to doddling on a stage arguing about golf.
I just looked up some of her positions and she does seem a bit more progressive than Biden was. She cosponsored Bernie's medicare for all bill a few years ago and supports marijuana legalization.
I think this whole mess could actually be a net positive for democrats as it reinvigorates enthusiasm ("hope and change", version 2024)
It's really a good move. At this point any person under 70 could mop the floor with trump, he's still the worst possible candidate from any position, and the GOP has had zero time to poison whoever gets the nomination.
Yup. Kamala is also not a bad pick because republicans are almost certainly going to start with racism/sexism as their first attacks "Oh, she's DEI". Given trump has been trying to court the black/Latino vote, this will play against him.
Further, Kamala will be able to excellently push him on abortion. Biden really sucked at advocating for women's rights even though that's been a winner pretty much every time it's been the focus of a campaign (there's a reason Rs have backed away from mentioning it).
It'll still be close and there's still a lot of unknowns. However, I for one think this is the right move.
Unrelated but Metamucil is actually pretty awesome. I love spicy food but my stomach isn't so good at it, but if I take fiber beforehand I'm usually okay. Although since it's just fiber you can usually just get the store brand to do the same thing.
It was like pulling teeth for awhile, but Joe Biden deserves to be recognized for his humility. That's not common in politicians at that level.
I got the email at work this afternoon, and boy did I let out a sigh, not so much in relief, but in hope. Good for you for finishing your presidency on top, Biden. I hope he, Harris, and their staff are seeing the (general) commendation in communities like this. I really hope we can rally people to get behind Harris; I think it will be so much less of an uphill battle now to get the indifferent and the disillusioned and the "but they're both old" voters out there with confidence.
I was holding back on donating, but I want to pitch in now. Does anyone know if you can donate as an employee of a federal contractor (i.e. I don't hold the contract or a subcontract, I get paid by the contractor like any other employee, but my badge does say "contractor"). I can't find a confirmatory answer online, and I don't want to make a compromising donation since "not a federal contractor" is a requirement in the ActBlue fine print.
I'm nervous. Biden was a flawed candidate, but he already beat Trump once and had the incumbent advantage. Harris was a very unpopular candidate in 2020, and it's unknown if any other candidate will do better against Trump. But since Biden chose to do this, there's no doubt he made the right decision for him.
As far as I can tell based on articles I've read, he really wanted to run, but the party was getting divided over calls for him to step down. He must have figured that the infighting would take away his incumbent advantage
They were losing donors. Unfortunately, without money, forget it.
Wait wait, let me guess, now all of the sudden we're not literally fascists for thinking that it would be best if Biden stepped down. A sincere fuck you too everyone who commented accordingly for the last month.
lemmy is the only social media worth anything goddamn
Bro I went below Bidens twitter post and it was so bad. How can anyone seriously clown on Biden. I highly think of his decision and think that this really is what it means to serve the country. Better late than never!
Biden did several classy things during some real fuckin difficult times. I can't imagine how tough this decision was. I really hope we as a country can galvanize solid opposition and keep Trump/Vance's asses out. Let's be grateful for the good Biden has done, and if Kamala is the next up that gets the nomination, support the hell out of her.
Spend some more time with the family, Joe. Thanks for grabbing the wheel, there. We'll take it from here.
So well played!....let them spend millions and millions on a campaign against Joe, then as soon as Dumbnald was picked, Joe bugs out and in his place....first black woman multiracial presidential candidate. Vs. crazy rapist felon, who would win?
C'mon republicans! Your move! 😉. Maybe bring back the girl who can see Alaska from her house because she lives in Alaska and not ruzzia.
I kind of expected them to announce another candidate, not just that their only candidate wouldn't be. Do they have to elect a candidate now? For how long will only one party have a candidate?
Edit: Just read that they'll choose the candidate in late August. So for a whole month there will be only Republican campaigning in the media, unless the Democrats can make their process interesting enough to catch the media's attention.
Another edit: Seems they're moving much quicker than that after all.
Biden has already endorsed Harris, at least on Twitter. I think that part is over. They already have to nominate someone early due to some deadlines, so the actual nomination will happen in the next week or two. It's Harris. We should all accept it.
Goddamn this timeline sucks hairy balls (not to be confused with me cuz ain't nobody sucking me). I didn't like her as a VP pick and I don't like the idea of her as President but she's still 1000 times better than Cheetodick.
I'd love to see them nominate Bernie or AOC for VP. That's how they'll get the 18-24 year olds to come out to vote.
Biden is our democratic palisade to the January 6th coup on the United States of America.
Whatever else Biden did, Biden stopped the flood. That is the Biden legacy to me.
I was not turning out for Joe. Even if its Harris im voting now. Id prefer it not be Harris, but a much younger president, starting a first term of hopefully 2, we're definitely taking back some Court seats.
I would have turned out for Joe, no question. Any day. I'll also turn out for Harris or any of the other Democratic frontrunners. The alternative is Trump.
Yep, I'll pokemon go to the polls now. Harris would not be my first pick, but it would be dumb for me to demand that biden step down and still not vote when my demand is met.
Democrats have listened to their voters and they deserve to be rewarded for that.
It has to be Kamala and anyone thinking otherwise is dumb.
And I don't know if Kamala can win. I don't know if she could do better than Joe would do. But I know she'll do better than what would happen if Joe had a second debate like the first debate.
If nothing else, this keeps it close.
This feels very energizing. I think you'll see democrats get a lot more excited about the election now. They'll have a great time watching the talking heads arguing over who should be VP. The contrast between team hold-onto-power-no-matter-what and team democrat will not be missed on low information voters.
Now watch all the “I’m a leftist” people using Genocide Joe pivot over to some other talking point as soon as Putin gives them marching orders via Fox News.
Just FYI so you don't get 'gotchaed', Trump isn't the oldest nominee ever. Neither was Biden.
Record is still held by Peter Cooper from the reconstruction era who was 84 when nominated.
People. We, the French, pulled a left-wing coalition out of our asses in less than a week and managed to "win" an election. You have months. Hope is permitted.
It's very true. We've been brainwashed into a year long campaign mostly because it generates a lot of money for various parties but prior elections have proven it's mostly what happens in the last month that makes a difference.
Y'all are lucky you can make coalitions, though. This is more akin to your election if you only had centrists and far right running. Two party system and all that.
I think you'll start to see a lot more excitement in the next few weeks.
So we need a French immigrant to help fix the government?
"Hope and change" is back in it to win it.
Motherfucking Obama at it again.
Can someone find the "hope is kindled" gif from LoTR Return of the King? When Pipin lights the beacon of Minas Tirith. I can't find it.
https://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/42700000/Gandalf-ian-mckellen-42765123-300-209.gif
Thanks for your support! And very happy to see your success in France.
You, the French, have not been the target of a 40 year war against public education by the right wing. Americans are on average significantly less capable of rational thought because of it. Source: I am an American raised in the crippled education system I mentioned before.
It’s a bit naive to think Western Europe hasn’t been under attack from the right wing at least as long as the US has. They’ve had wars over it that never really reached US shores, and it never really went away. All of the strategies that have been used in the US were piloted and honed in Europe – look up the activities there by Manafort, Stone, Bannon, etc. all the same names who have been implementing the shit you’re seeing in the US were active in Western and Eastern Europe years before this. It’s been going on there far longer.
It’s amazing to me that people in the US haven’t been paying attention to what’s gone on there and learning from their successes.
A "long" election campaign in the UK is 6 weeks. In 1992 they had one that was just 30 days.
Months is plenty of time, especially in the modern world. Maybe 250 years ago it was necessary to campaign for months on end so that the candidate could personally travel by train to every state. But, with modern media (both traditional and social), there's no real reason for campaigns to be as long as they are. The only reason they're this long is that the thought is that the earlier you start campaigning, the better. So, each side keeps starting earlier and earlier, making it effectively into a neverending campaign cycle.
Thank you, French. You're awesome. I was losing hope, and yet a miracle happened.
Good job.
Props to the French voters for shutting out the Rally.
Most of the French voters.
Damn good job in the second round.
Thank you
I don't understand you people in this thread.
Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race and give the place to someone else.
Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they're doing? Are you for real? They're doing EXACTLY what people have been asking for. They're doing EXACTLY what needs to be done if they want to win.
Fucking hell you guys, make up your fucking mind.
Sincerely,
A Canadian with severe anxiety over your next presidential election.
Well, to be fair, he should have stepped down a year ago, or at least 3 months ago. I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.
Anyway, I respect Biden. I honestly think he was a better president than Obama, Bush, Trump and Clinton. Perhaps the best since Carter or JFK.
You're correct, he did. Everyone forgot that for some reason. Note that this article is from 2019:
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/biden-single-term-082129
That source does not say what you're claiming it says.
Which is ironic, because he picked Harris then used her as the bearer of bad news at every single opportunity.
So add those together and it implies he doesn't think Harris has the chops. But, to be fair, if that was actually the plan, they would've given her much more PR over the last 4 years.
If it weren't Trump running I think he would have stepped aside. He believed in 2019, and probably still believes now, that he has the best chance against Trump and that Trump is a singularly existential threat.
He very specifically did not say publicly that he would be a 1 term president. Talking through the idea with aides and someone leaking it does not equal a campaign promise.
This is a new decision, obviously. He is going to be a 1 term president. But he never promised it.
He specifically denied that when asked. To be fair he did say he was a "bridge to a new generation" or something, that's where I think a lot of people are getting this one term commitment thing from.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/joe-biden-denies-mulling-term-pledge-elected-president/story?id=67662497
Those are not necessarily the same people.
But there is no good option here. The good option would have been to run a good candidate over a year ago. That time has obviously long since passed.
The US "election cycle" is insane. You don't need to be running a candidate over a year before the election. 3 months is more than enough time to tell people who your candidate is and what they are running on, and you have more than 3 months.
Yes, it would have been better to announce earlier, but jesus christ he is too fucking old for this shit. Stepping back now is still better than pushing through.
The longer the cycle is made, the more people can be distracted from the actual politics and the more it matters who gets the most money.
Especially with how calcified the voting population is. Each candidate has something like a 44% floor of people who already know they're going to vote for "the Democratic candidate" and the only question is how many of them actually go to the polls and what the remaining randos decide. And only in a handful of swing states. Most of the system is already predetermined.
Bro, we start selling a Christmas decorations in July in the US. People need to be making money off this shit.
"Eight years ago" is indeed "over a year ago."
dead horse pummeling sounds
Many of the people involved in such agitation are not arguing in good faith. They simply want to attack the 'libs' at every opportunity, and reality be damned.
This was an astroturfing campaign covering our media and also via bots on social media.
I watched the debate and while he was slower, and mixed up words he actually was aware of US goals and challenges (despite what media tried to imply), trump was more energetic but he was constantly spewing nonsense, and while part of it was lying as usual, part of it was clear that he was actually getting lost.
I even wrote that in certain that if Biden steps down the same bots will start campaign how Democrats were cheated to discourage them from voting (like it was worth Bernie).
I'm definitively voting for Kamala now no matter what ridiculous bullshit they will come up on her on September-October (you can be sure there will be some scandal that will turnout to be nothing burger after election). I got fooled (like a lot of people) in 2016 to vote 3rd party and we got trump.
Republicans are actually a minority they can only win if they discourage enough people from voting. That's why they are against laws that that make voting easier.
I actually was hoping Biden would run as he has great experience with foreign leaders as well as very successful reaching compromises and passing bills that otherwise wouldn't fly.
As I say though I will 100% vote for Kamala (or whomever will be the democratic candidate), definitively not the fascist party and in fact anyone on Democrats side looks good.
So rare to see someone actually say these words outside of pointing the finger at others. Kudos.
One thing I appreciate about Canadian elections is how quickly they happen. An election is called, campaigning is like a month or two and then we find out the new government just hours after casting our votes.
I’m excited AF… maybe the people you’re reading are republican plants that are just trying to make it feel like chaos.
The fact that this happened the weekend after the RNC makes me feel it was very well planned.
Not speaking for the rest of the thread, but...
I haven’t known what to do since the 2016 election. The “Fuck your feelings” bunch are clearly in their feels and ignoring documented events in what most of us call “reality “.
It's been chaos in the comments for a while now this is just catharsis for a lot of people and reaffirming for some of the naysayers.
You are gonna see a lot of takes from a lot of terminally online types.
Now just comes the actual work and it's gonna look chaotic for a while. I hope we get it together.
Lemmy posters are not a monolith.
I am.
Lemmy posters are not a monolith. They are many monoliths interacting with the internet via psychic emanations from atop lonely hillocks in places where mankind fears to tread.
Yes, some.
Yes, others.
Different people speak up on different days. This is especially true in social media where often people won't speak up if they know they're going to get jumped on.
You're seeing the people who either didn't agree he should step down or agreed but didn't think they'd actually do it.
Lol, you thought those people were arguing in good faith.
I mean many here openly support Putin too, what can you do
It's fun, Lemmy having an option for searching user comments. See a user make a suss comment? Search their comments for 'Ukraine'. If they're a fascist, there's a good chance they can't help themselves but start talking about "Russia's legitimate security concerns" or "2014 coup"
They're not the same people.
The fact the the DNC didn't have a contingency plan while running the oldest candidate ever is just insane.
The DNC has been fumbling for years and years now. Anyone else remember 2016?
All of this should have been done a couple years ago for presidential hopefuls to gather resources and prepare for the elections. The assumption that Biden was seeking a second term stalled a lot of minor steps needed to build a campaign. Biden stepping down a month before the DNC is gonna be a shit show. Who's gonna run for becoming a candidate? How are they gonna fundraise quickly enough to get the word out? This is a clusterfuck of poorly timed decisions and I only hope the new candidate can gather enough support to win the presidential election. Given the Democratic party's penchant of favoring people from their inner circle, I doubt they'll be well received by the general public to begin with.
Personally the best news I've heard in a while. I think there is a little bit of a knee jerk reaction happening because a lot is on the line and people are scared because it's such an unknown right now. When things settle more and the smoke clears I think everything will be more positive.
Americans aren't a monolith.
I personally just said last week that I believed only Biden was capable of beating Trump, so I’m feeling pretty sick right now. God, I hope I’m wrong.
We haaaaaavvvvvve to see this example and set a damn age limit for people to hold such high positions in our country. Old dude may have very well just sent us down an irreversible and utterly destructive path by seeking the office in the first place.
I know Bernie Sanders is old too, but damn I wish he had won the nomination. We wouldn’t be in this crisis right now. Still though, it’s a gamble electing people who are already waist deep in their grave.
Man
What a strange and historic month this has been. We’re all living in a very big moment in history right now, just, all the way around.
I'll say just one thing:
Every single one of you assholes who wouldn't shut up about him stepping down since the dude missed the toilet bowl fifty years ago after a particularly wild night out better sure as fuck step up now that Old Joe has stepped down.
A sitting god damned President of the United States has stepped aside less than half a year before reelection. Make no mistake: The man swallowed his pride and ego HARD to make this decision. Let's honor that by creating a wall of votes so god. damned. thick. Riley Reid would gasp.
Am one of those "assholes". Kamala was far from my favorite candidate in 2020, but I just donated a hefty (for me) chunk of change and will be volunteering. I didn't need perfection, just a feasible path to victory in November and now we have it. I'm so pumped right now, project 2025 no longer looks like an inevitability. LFG!
Riley Reid: Oh god you're going to make me vote
I'll be there in November!
Side note, maybe we can have Riley Reid for the candidate?
Unironically better candidate.
Younger, healthier, charismatic, great on camera, focused in stressful situations. Also, she'll be great at dealing with congress because she is so experienced with dicks and assholes.
I respect Biden, but who cares he swallowed his pride? He's a public servant, his job is literally to do what's best for the public.
People are now saying Trump is winning because Joe step down. Like the fuck you guys want lmao
It took pretty much the entire Democratic party calling for him to step down before he would.
He came out and said multiple times that he wasn't going anywhere. He was forced out.
This was always going to be one of those things where "despite saying 8 hours ago that he was committed to the election and was not going to drop out, he has now dropped out". You're never going to see someone in these situations say "eh might drop out, not sure"
Didn't he also get Covid last week?
Wouldn't surprise me if that's what sealed the deal for him.
I mean the deadlines are closing and having to fight to even stay in the race while president of the U.S. and recovering from an illness is not something anyone looks forward to.
Frankly I hope he can catch a break for a bit, and enjoy a pension after all this is over.
So what.
The point is, it's time to unite behind a candidate and look like we want to win.
I know people will say this is bad, a new campaign will be rushed, etc. But I think we all know Biden was an excuse for many not to vote, or worse, to vote for Trump. Withdrawing will be his legacy when we win, not his failing.
Thank you President Biden. You are a hero.
Biden absolutely did the right thing and, perhaps, the most courageous thing.
Democrats would have coalesced around him if decided to keep going but we've been begging him to step aside. This is a key difference between Trump "fans" and Biden voters. We're not drawn to him as a personality.
Once a candidate is selected, I don't care who it is, we must support them because not doing so is voting for an end to democracy.
The fact that we're here is a travesty.
People have done more with less campaign time and he will go down as having listened and done what was requested of the people and party I honestly think this says a lot of good stuff about the democratic party and Biden once we get the spin right.
It won't be hard. Kamala is going to be able to put a bullseye on Trump and republican politics like Biden simply wasn't ever able to do. She's going to be able to hyper focus on the deeply unpopular beliefs of the base and it will be hard for Trump or others to really deny it without losing their core supporters.
Further, because she's relatively unknown there's really not the same baggage as there was with Hillary. Most people don't know who she is and I think that really plays to her favor.
Let’s be honest here, Trump will never lose his core supporters. He could literally turn out to be the devil incarnate, and his supporters will say it’s their god’s will. He’s a 34-count convicted felon and they see that as something to boast about.
The issue in this country is that the less educated are following those with a playbook of getting the less educated to vote, to vote for them, and in areas that games the electoral college system.
We were a hair’s breadth from another Trump term in 2020 by 11,000 votes in GA. Not to mention his coup attempt.
It cannot be that close again. It must be decisive. I hope Harris, if she is the nominee, can achieve that.
It'll be great to have a woman talking about abortion and making this election a referendum on national abortion access.
Americans love to vote for something rather than against something.
Nobody who would consider voting for Trump is going to vote for whoever replaces Biden. Nobody. This is about getting apathetic voters off their butt. Which I hope works, but every part of my being is telling me they're going to pick someone who apathetic voters wouldn't vote for anyway.
I'm so thankful I live in a country where 4 months is (still) believed to be a ridiculously long amount of time to campaign.
Good luck America! Please show the rest of the world you're still capable of making sane choices.
Except for the bank of those who are just Russian agents who will undoubtedly find some new “excuse” why the Democrat candidate is not fit to run.
Expect lots of "cop" comments in regards to Harris from
Russianstotally real leftists.She was a cop. She called herself the "top cop". I fucking hate the police and she's got my vote over a literal pedophile felonious fascist.
I'm no fan of cops, but I think this actually plays very well with the political environment. Recent elections saw rebukes of progressive Police policies in the Pacific North West. As much as I wish it were otherwise, that message isn't resonating with voters even in considerably progressive areas.
Having a traditional prosecutor may be an advantage in that regard. And it may provide us a new avenue to look at how we can have better policing that more people will support.
The biggest hot-topic issue this election should have been abortion (and by extension, SCOTUS). But the discussion got side-tracked by all this talk of old age. The debate just reinforced the narrative and concern with Biden. They would have hammered him over and over, with Trump bragging about how quickly he recovered from an injury.
Now, we have:
If she just keeps talking about those topics non-stop, she'll do fine.
The only thing better would have been if Biden had resigned to let people see her in the actual role, but this works. She picks a mid-westerner as VP who can stand up to Vance and it's a whole new ballgame.
I'm actually stoked about this race again.
Unfortunately we also have:
It remains to be seen if the racists and sexists will prevail.
Having said that, this might energize women who are on the fence and want to see the first female president. It might energize black voters. It will almost certainly energize Indian voters, possibly even all South-Asian voters. It will definitely energize voters who were worried about the age of the candidates. And now, suddenly, Trump has to go on the defensive about his age.
As long as all the democrats fall in line and push for Kamala, it might go really well. If Hillary Clinton goes out and works for Kamala, it could energize the people who are still angry about her loss, and can now channel that into the new option for a first female president. If Biden campaigns for her, it could reassure all the people who just wanted some stability.
OTOH, if there is infighting, and people trying to take her down so that they can become the nominee, then that could be trouble too.
The racists, as OP mentioned, would have voted for Trump regardless. The Dems need to convince the moderate, undecided voters
Not at all. The Nazis would have voted for Trump regardless. But, there are a lot of biased people out there who wouldn't even think of themselves as racist or sexist, they'll just "have doubts".
Unconscious bias is a major issue.
Anybody right now who is undecided is not moderate. The moderates are all already voting against Trump. Anybody undecided is either a very-low-information voter, who mostly gets their news from TikTok or conspiracy forums, or they're a very right-wing voter who hates the democrats with a passion, but are having trouble getting over their dislike of Trump too.
I don't disagree with you, but let's not forget apathetic voters... people that were just disenchanted with both of the old guys and wouldn't vote for either.
Surely Kamala will get some traction with women.
How many people, realistically, would vote for a white male Democrat but NOT a non-white female?
People are talking about this, but I don't know who this voter is. The hard line racists and sexists were not moderates, they're all already Republican.
There are far more democrats that were against Biden because of his age than would be against Harris as a woman. This is a net gain. Fuck the people who won't vote for her along gender or racial lines. I don't want to try and appease them.
Give people something to vote FOR rather than vote against.
Far too many. It doesn't mean they're going to admit, even to themselves, that the reason they're making that choice is that they hate women. But, unconscious bias is a helluva thing.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/hidden-sexism/
Would you rather appease them and win, or not appease them and lose?
Both a black guy and a woman have won the popular vote before.
I used to be an advocate for this, until I realized that in this political environment, whoever President Harris picks for VP would need both House and Senate approval, and this House will take a page from Mitch's book and simply not bother. So you would have your first female and mixed-race President, in a country full of armed bigots, and if they get to her, Mike Johnson becomes President and can start Project 2025 early.
Fortunately she could just order his assassination, call it an official act (“he was obstructing the confirmation of my vice president”), and get off scot-free.
Yes I realize this would never work because
Well guys... Have you seen Trump's mental decline since he last ran?! How old is he now?
Surely nobody would be dumb enough to vote someone that old into office now... That is... What we have been saying? Right guys?
Yeah, but they don't care. They don't want a competent and coherent president. They want Trump, because he hates the same people they hate, and he's not afraid to say so.
The teams don't play by the same rules and never have.
It's not those people we have to worry about. It's the ones in the middle who sway one way or another. They care enough that Trump lost last time.
Can't mentally decline if you were never sound of mind in the first place!
That’s why I’m never gonna cancel my USA subscription. Your shows always have a crazy twist right before the season finale.
Jokes aside: Not a single person who even considers voting for Trump is worth any hassle. Their vote is a coin flip on fucking acid. The dems should try to animate the lazy nonvoting pricks.
Don't disparage acid like that, every psychedelic user I know is left wing
Your assessment is spot on. I am forever shocked that people seem to think there are voters on the fence between trump and anyone else
Jesus, I hope they can piece a campaign together in the few remaining months
It would be an awful lot easier than trying to salvage Biden’s image as it stands. If they do it right this should be super easy, but if they drag their heels on the changes necessary then it might be a lot harder.
This is BIG opportunity to rebrand and show what really matters to the party.
This is the perfect opportunity to do that! But I have absolutely zero faith in them actually doing that.
But maybe I’ve become jaded in my age with politics. Maybe they won’t just choose the worst possible option.
Her turn 2.0 watch out yall here comes Hillary! /$
But this is the DNC...
Booo the DNC just made an unprecedented pivot which the people actually wanted.
If, and that’s a big if, they choose to field a moderately likeable replacement, there’s a chance they can actually re-energize the campaign and voters and get a big boost with a fresh face. That’s a big if though.
Yes they can. This is the right choice. Democrats will be more energized than ever now. Hopeful they keep it open to the delegates to vote at the convention after a few people step forward.
Other countries have pulled out elections in two weeks. The us may not have that experience though. The campaign however had been directed at his opponent's well known incompetence and malice. That may be the advantage of divisive politics.
Other countries have whole campaign seasons that are shorter. We’ve just gotten used to multi-year campaigns and never-ending reelection efforts. It wasn’t always like this, and I don’t think it’s good for us long-term.
They have the media bomb of "no incumbent" leading the headlines. This is one of the only media maneuvers that would change the conversation from "That Trump overcame assassination and adversity!" At this point a major shift was needed.
The year and a half back log of memes against Biden that right wing contractors have saved up are now worthless. The right will have 3 months to make a cohesive media smear campaign (which they can do against the right candidate) but it will require lots of downtime as the high paid think tanks make astroturf.
The fact that Republican troll farms have to now spend time coming up with new material puts a small smile on my face.
They will move swiftly though, while the Democrats are used to being sluggish, so vigilance is in order.
Plenty of other countries' electoral campaigns advance far faster than Americans expect theirs to move, and US media is talking about politics all the damn time. If the Dems don't do a massive screw up somehow, I think they'll find out that switching the candidate will be far easier than they were expecting.
I don’t think they’ve thought this through.
Biden was going to lose to Trump and was dragging other Democrats down with him in the polls. What more did you need?
Walk me through this. Who replaces Joe with only 4 months left until the elections? It’s going to be vote blue no matter who again. Oh, would you look at that. Biden just endorsed Kamala Harris.
Not for nothing but four months should be plenty to do an election in. 24 hour news media has convinced you that it's got to be a 2-year endeavor. In all honesty 2 months should be plenty. Four is fine. Our entire country would be much better off if election seasons were shorter.
The UK Labour Party won a landslide election on 6 weeks notice
Just FYI, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez warned people that elite donors have been wanting Harris and Biden both off the ticket.. You are free to hold skepticism about Harris' viability as presidential nominee, but do note that it is in line with the donor class' rhetoric.
I voted for President Not Trump twice, I’m very much motivated to vote for President Not Trump a third time.
So the same thing that's been said to get people to vote for Biden in the first place?
If the Biden campaign was mostly running on "Not Trump," anyone they replace him with will also not be Trump.
I don’t see it that way at all. This seems like a great way to increase their votes. It’s not like they are going to lose voters who were going to vote Biden to begin with.
Plus whatever strategy repubs were going to use to smear Biden is up in smoke.
It’s never about those that were going to vote for Biden anyways. It’s always been about the undecided voters. Don’t get me wrong, I hope you’re right.
Right. That’s obviously the whole point.
They've 100% thought through this. Harris takes over the Biden / Harris campaign war chest, and if Biden drops out now, the party can go into the align around Harris before the convention. And now we have 3+ months to get people hyped about not voting for an old white dude.
For all of y'all anxiety-pilled people: this is great news. Biden was stuck in negative momentum because his health issues had been exposed and were not going to stop resulting in terrible headlines, which is a problem whoever comes next is not going to have, unless the delegates are somehow stupid enough to pull another dinosaur from below the rug.
More interestingly: now that Biden has pulled out because he's patently too old, as it was a concern for plenty of voters, this is a golden opportunity to put the focus on the other candidate whose age is a somewhat less obvious but still noticeable issue.
If 34 felonies, rape, insurrection, etc. Didn't sway people Im not sure age is the thing that'll turn them around.
Yeah, but just think of all the clips we can show of Faux News talking heads saying someone in their 80s is too old for President, and do the ol' switcharoo
Yup. It had nothing to do with his age.
Exactly! We now have a much younger, well-spoken, and intelligent candidate who can square off against someone who probably can't remember the last time they wiped their own ass. Let's go, Kamala!
Oh boy, I can't wait for armchair pundits who were calling for Joe to step down to now turn around and start to nitpick Harris as if that wasn't going to be the obvious successor.
I'm 100% behind Harris or anyone who gets the Dem nom. Trump must be stopped.
This is still a battle for America's soul. Are we going to accept the first female president or the first convicted felon president? I sure hope the left turns out for this one, even if they aren't super stoked about it, because we might never recover from another Trump disaster.
I don’t prefer Harris, but am 100% fine with her. Any D 2024. Fuck the republican traitor filth.
I'm not super stoked about her, and I'll crawl across 5 states filled with broken glass to get back home and vote for her.
She's a very bland candidate, but at least she's not 80 and fading.
Whether that's enough to get people up off their arses and into voting booths, I don't know.
You really need somebody that's going to invigorate the centre and left, the way Trump excites the right. Dyed in the wool Dems don't care who the candidate is, they'd have been happy with Biden's corpse. The issue is there's not a lot of time left for experimentation in finding one.
A female candidate can put Roe v Wade in the limelight the entire campaign, and that's a really easy winning message (based on all the special elections since it was overturned)
The Roe v. Wade issue is a strong strategy, and I look forward to her bringing it up continuously.
There’s a shitload of time. We’ve been conditioned to think it takes 2 years to run a presidential campaign. Nonsense.
It's not just pundits, Nancy Pelosi wants Harris off the ticket. I already donated to her campaign and called my reps to let them know that's a bad idea.
She's an improvement and is sufficient to beat Trump.
I'm not going to discourage party leadership when they're actually listening for once.
FINALLY...
Bad for the orange one, because the other side will get the whole media attention now.
We can hope. If the media attention is "Democrats are in shambles 3 months before the election" it might not go so well. And Trump will definitely be making a lot of noise about that.
I feel like the Democrats appeared more in shambles with him refusing to drop out. The party was all over the place on their support for him and he was just being a stubborn old man. Now they'll hopefully all be able to come together and rally behind a single candidate.
This decision really raises my opinion of Biden so much. God damn do I love that man, he is truly a great person who dedicated his life to serve his country, literally. He honestly had a great term given the circumstances, and the only thing he probably should have done differently is to not run for reelection to begin with. But he seemed to genuinely believe he could win and stave off Trump. Now that that seemed impossible, he makes a very courageous decision that a lot of people probably wouldn't have made and puts the country ahead of his ego. Lots of respect from me, and I hope this reinvigorates the democratic base and makes the future brighter for all of us.
President Biden is doing what Justice Ginsburg couldn't do and look what that accomplished.
I hope the Dems know what they're doing.
Morgan Freeman: "They do not"
Biden wasn't doing what needed to be done to come back from the debate. This wasn't a move out of desperation. It was out of necessity.
I hope they have a plan too.
He's 81 and has COVID
Let's fucking do this. Let's smash these fascist fuckwits.
I respect the decision and it means he goes out on top. It must have been a difficult decision, but he was one of the better presidents (I see an historian pol ranking him 14th best) and I believe history will remember him even better. I wish Joe Biden all the best in retirement.
Now comes the hard part. How do we avoid him having to say “I told you so”? How do we avoid repeating the disaster of the worst ranked President in history?
Yeah I think Joe Biden is basically the Clement Attlee of US Presidents.
Who's Clement Attlee? Some random guy that defeated Winston Churchill in the election just after Germany was defeated in WWII. "A modest man that has a great deal to be modest about." Such a nobody that his own party wanted to remove him immediately after he was elected.
If you want to see his photo you can enter "best prime minister in uk history" into your preferred search engine.
This whole Biden stepping down vs Trump saga is a metaphor for the American baby boomer generation's approaches to their own reckoning of their old age and their reluctance to pass down the torch to another generation.
Oh God yes, and it is reflected in my own family members who are all in their 70s. They strongly believe that a 70 or 80 year old is in "the prime of their life" and that "I have never been of sharper mind and more capable than at the age of 74."
Just totally delusional. "Me" generation indeed.
Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking.
I feel really bad for Biden. There's more that he wants to do. But he's gotten too old to be able to do those things. But he's accepted it, and he should be respected for that.
He will still have enormous influence when the Dems keep the White House for the next presidential term. And that's a good position for him to be in, he has great experience, knowledge, vision, and insight.
Exactly. Too bad he had to perform so badly at the debate to get to this point (instead of graciously acknowledging it earlier and by himself) but his body language in the past few months indicated that he should become more of a consultant/advisor once his term ends
My money is still on Harris to be the final candidate. Get ready.
I am all for a women president, but Harris is just a Hilary repeat ... Please dont.
AOC would be amazing but I know shes "too progressive"for the boomers... What ever the fuck that means
Why is she Hillary repeat?
The thought is that her years as a prosecutor will come back to bite her. Plus a lot of people seem to have a problem with her personality.
I haven't watched her enough to form an opinion but those are the takes I've heard most often.
Because that is the talking point that the foreign propaganda machine has been pumping out for the last few months. You'll notice there were no comparisons to Hillary a year ago. Now it's all "Harris is a cop," and "Harris is Hillary 2.0". Ignore all of that bullshit. It's foreign trolls doing their job and muddying the waters.
They don't know. Watch... they won't have specific factual reasons, only vague generalizations. Betcha.
I do not like Hillary and I do not like Harris. I don't however agree with harris being a Hilary repeat, I think she has a way better shot than Biden did
Have you actually listened to her on the issues or do you just know what the media has been spouting? I was surprised to hear her very articulate and reasonable stances from her directly rather than through a progressive media filter. There's a mismatch.
Having the first US woman president would be cool and have a
firstwoman vice-president as well, why not?E: Whoops, you already had a first vp, Sorry, Americans.
yeah it would be cool but we're talking about the American voter
Haven't you just had the first woman vice-president?
Well, the Trump team has been panicking in anticipation of this happening. They have already started launching law suits trying to stop it. The biggest scare they had was Biden's age and that may have just vaporised?
If nothing else, this should be a sign that Biden stepping aside was the right move.
It looks good that the democrat is willing to give up power. People do notice that sort of stuff.
Now that Biden doesn't care about reelection, what kind of "Official acts" might he do?
Now they have a new excuse of not doing anything important or interesting so they don't "taint" Harris.
The best kind
I'm not gonna pretend that I love Harris, but this does make me energized enough to try and convince others to vote for her.
I think the hard part is going to be getting Trump to agree to debate her, but she should be able to kick his ass and hit him hard on the issues that matter for this election, as opposed to doddling on a stage arguing about golf.
I just looked up some of her positions and she does seem a bit more progressive than Biden was. She cosponsored Bernie's medicare for all bill a few years ago and supports marijuana legalization.
I think this whole mess could actually be a net positive for democrats as it reinvigorates enthusiasm ("hope and change", version 2024)
Fuck.
It's really a good move. At this point any person under 70 could mop the floor with trump, he's still the worst possible candidate from any position, and the GOP has had zero time to poison whoever gets the nomination.
Yup. Kamala is also not a bad pick because republicans are almost certainly going to start with racism/sexism as their first attacks "Oh, she's DEI". Given trump has been trying to court the black/Latino vote, this will play against him.
Further, Kamala will be able to excellently push him on abortion. Biden really sucked at advocating for women's rights even though that's been a winner pretty much every time it's been the focus of a campaign (there's a reason Rs have backed away from mentioning it).
It'll still be close and there's still a lot of unknowns. However, I for one think this is the right move.
Yeah, fuck. I just lost $60 on a bet over this
$60 well lost for a better candidate.
I'll match that donation
FUCK YES!!! Finally the stubborn old man did what we knew he needed to do all along.
Trump gets attention for nearly getting assassinated.
Biden: Hold my Metamucil
My aunt was laughing at Biden and how old he is. I reminded her that Trump is only 2 years younger and shits his diapers regularly
Unrelated but Metamucil is actually pretty awesome. I love spicy food but my stomach isn't so good at it, but if I take fiber beforehand I'm usually okay. Although since it's just fiber you can usually just get the store brand to do the same thing.
It was like pulling teeth for awhile, but Joe Biden deserves to be recognized for his humility. That's not common in politicians at that level.
I got the email at work this afternoon, and boy did I let out a sigh, not so much in relief, but in hope. Good for you for finishing your presidency on top, Biden. I hope he, Harris, and their staff are seeing the (general) commendation in communities like this. I really hope we can rally people to get behind Harris; I think it will be so much less of an uphill battle now to get the indifferent and the disillusioned and the "but they're both old" voters out there with confidence.
I was holding back on donating, but I want to pitch in now. Does anyone know if you can donate as an employee of a federal contractor (i.e. I don't hold the contract or a subcontract, I get paid by the contractor like any other employee, but my badge does say "contractor"). I can't find a confirmatory answer online, and I don't want to make a compromising donation since "not a federal contractor" is a requirement in the ActBlue fine print.
I'm nervous. Biden was a flawed candidate, but he already beat Trump once and had the incumbent advantage. Harris was a very unpopular candidate in 2020, and it's unknown if any other candidate will do better against Trump. But since Biden chose to do this, there's no doubt he made the right decision for him.
As far as I can tell based on articles I've read, he really wanted to run, but the party was getting divided over calls for him to step down. He must have figured that the infighting would take away his incumbent advantage
They were losing donors. Unfortunately, without money, forget it.
Wait wait, let me guess, now all of the sudden we're not literally fascists for thinking that it would be best if Biden stepped down. A sincere fuck you too everyone who commented accordingly for the last month.
lemmy is the only social media worth anything goddamn
Bro I went below Bidens twitter post and it was so bad. How can anyone seriously clown on Biden. I highly think of his decision and think that this really is what it means to serve the country. Better late than never!
Biden did several classy things during some real fuckin difficult times. I can't imagine how tough this decision was. I really hope we as a country can galvanize solid opposition and keep Trump/Vance's asses out. Let's be grateful for the good Biden has done, and if Kamala is the next up that gets the nomination, support the hell out of her.
for everyone sake: phew. i feel sorry for him, he obviously lacks energy and needs to not be trying to run america and fight trump.
Spend some more time with the family, Joe. Thanks for grabbing the wheel, there. We'll take it from here.
So well played!....let them spend millions and millions on a campaign against Joe, then as soon as Dumbnald was picked, Joe bugs out and in his place....first black woman multiracial presidential candidate. Vs. crazy rapist felon, who would win?
C'mon republicans! Your move! 😉. Maybe bring back the girl who can see Alaska from her house because she lives in Alaska and not ruzzia.
Definitely should have happened 6 months ago, but better late than never - something about planting a tree.
This also robs the GOP of the hE's ToO oLd argument, which is one of their only effective attacks.
I kind of expected them to announce another candidate, not just that their only candidate wouldn't be. Do they have to elect a candidate now? For how long will only one party have a candidate?
Edit: Just read that they'll choose the candidate in late August. So for a whole month there will be only Republican campaigning in the media, unless the Democrats can make their process interesting enough to catch the media's attention.
Another edit: Seems they're moving much quicker than that after all.
Biden has already endorsed Harris, at least on Twitter. I think that part is over. They already have to nominate someone early due to some deadlines, so the actual nomination will happen in the next week or two. It's Harris. We should all accept it.
Goddamn this timeline sucks hairy balls (not to be confused with me cuz ain't nobody sucking me). I didn't like her as a VP pick and I don't like the idea of her as President but she's still 1000 times better than Cheetodick.
I'd love to see them nominate Bernie or AOC for VP. That's how they'll get the 18-24 year olds to come out to vote.
Kamala 2024! Let's go!
The campaign to pressure Harris to step aside starts now.
I'm joking, I think. I can't tell any more.
Biden is our democratic palisade to the January 6th coup on the United States of America.
Whatever else Biden did, Biden stopped the flood. That is the Biden legacy to me.
I was not turning out for Joe. Even if its Harris im voting now. Id prefer it not be Harris, but a much younger president, starting a first term of hopefully 2, we're definitely taking back some Court seats.
I would have turned out for Joe, no question. Any day. I'll also turn out for Harris or any of the other Democratic frontrunners. The alternative is Trump.
Yep, I'll pokemon go to the polls now. Harris would not be my first pick, but it would be dumb for me to demand that biden step down and still not vote when my demand is met.
Democrats have listened to their voters and they deserve to be rewarded for that.
After the Schumer leak, this had to happen.
It has to be Kamala and anyone thinking otherwise is dumb.
And I don't know if Kamala can win. I don't know if she could do better than Joe would do. But I know she'll do better than what would happen if Joe had a second debate like the first debate.
If nothing else, this keeps it close.
This feels very energizing. I think you'll see democrats get a lot more excited about the election now. They'll have a great time watching the talking heads arguing over who should be VP. The contrast between team hold-onto-power-no-matter-what and team democrat will not be missed on low information voters.
Netanyahu will try to fuck things up in Gaza as much as possible because he 100% prefers Trump to Harris.
But now Biden is president and not running. Dark Brandon might just be unleashed like never before.
Now watch all the “I’m a leftist” people using Genocide Joe pivot over to some other talking point as soon as Putin gives them marching orders via Fox News.
He’s just endorsed Harris.
Holy shit.
honestly you have a chance to do better here now
Dems now have a non-zero chance of winning 2024.
IT'S JOEVER
Byeden
I respect him for this decision. Hopefully this will work out.
...whatever. What's done is done.
What's the best option going forward, and how do the common rabble like myself best support the newest not-Trump?
Jon Stewart / Katie Porter ticket would get my vote 1000%
The DNC NEVER listens to what the People Want so I don't know how to Feel about this.
Just FYI so you don't get 'gotchaed', Trump isn't the oldest nominee ever. Neither was Biden. Record is still held by Peter Cooper from the reconstruction era who was 84 when nominated.
Amazing news! Now find someone good with a pulse!
I hope for a next president who understands that they shouldn’t use twitter.