Michelle Obama says she’s terrified about potential outcome of 2024 election
“What’s going to happen in this next election? I’m terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted,” Obama told Jay Shetty on his podcast “On Purpose.”
“The fact that people think that government — ‘eh, does it really even do anything?’ — and I’m like ‘Oh my God, does government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted.’ And I worry sometimes that we do. Those are the things that keep me up,” she said.
“The bars are different for people in life. That I’ve learned,” she said.
Without naming Trump, she continued: “Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office. Black men can’t. You just learn to be good. And in the end, you benefit from that extra resilience.”
Me too and I'm not even American, dissolution of NATO, serving Ukaine on a platter to Russia, possibility of more war in Europe with Putin getting bolder.
No pressure Americans but your elections are kind of important for the future of the world.
There was a rider attached to one of the latest appropriations bills (which is now law) that restricts how future Presidents can pull the US out of NATO. It can't happen now unless Congress passes an act authorizing the President to do so, or with a 2/3 vote of the Senate (the same mechanism as ratifying a treaty).
So at least on this issue, we've put in some safeguards in case we elect an idiot again.
Because rules and laws stopped him before
Yes, they did. He’s not in office right now because of those rules and laws
They stopped some of his bullshit, but they also failed to stop a lot of it. If he's allowed to run for president again, that will be a huge example of rules not stopping him.
This is where states rights are again shown to be fucked. States rights to include insurrectionists on the ballot this time.
I may argue he's not in office because the coup attempt didn't succeed.
Though maybe that's just me.
He did a lot of illegal things that got overturned. But the problem is while it's being overturned it can still do a lot of damage.
Huh? How is that why he's not in office? I would say that, in spite of all those things, he still received the second highest vote count in presidential election history.
He just happened to lose to the person who got the highest.
Yeah but a bunch of white college kids who don't even know what Mer7aba means have decided that the way to serve the Palestinian cause is to let the guy who handed Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to Netenyahu back into office to teach the establishment a lesson so we're fucked.
I'm starting to think they're actually just right wingers who know that saying what they ACTUALLY want will get them dumped by all their cool allies club friends. Probably why they keep insisting on dumb fuck takes like "bErNiE wOuLd Be A cEnTrIsT iN pOlAnD!" and "AmErIcA hAs No LeFt!!!!!"
yeah, shame on them for opposing an active genocide.
So you all lost the 2016 general election all on your own then?
The absurdity of your perspective is that you believe there is a large group of voters who didn't show up for HRC while also apparently believing not one of them is sharing their reasons why in anonymous forums.
The absurdity of yours is that you're pretty obviously one of those people who thinks a millions of votes lead in the primary race is "the DNC establishment shoving her down our throats" and not "we have to be dragged kicking and screaming to even vote for the guy we supposedly support!"
I mean it's either that or "a bunch of selfish pieces of shit voted for Biden specifically to fuck over progressive or leftist efforts". You sound like the kind of person who would do just that.
If America pulls out of NATO, I wonder if NATO would disband and if the EU militarizes.
You made me wonder if Trump would pull out of NATO and ask a few NATO members to move to Russia-US alliance instead.
I think this is coming. Trump and Putin will invite the world to a Friendship Union. We can call it "FU World"....
I'll be voting, and getting as many people as I know to vote. If there was ever a time to vote, it's this one (at least since the civil war era).
You're spending too much time on Reddit and Lemmy. Republicans will always support Ukraine (they hate Russia too!). The issue isn't about support, it's about limits. We have to have checks and balances when financing a war, this isn't a free for all. The Republicans are just making sure the money is being spent how it's supposed too. All of a sudden, they're called "traitors" and "ass-kissers." Which is just ridiculous. How soon we forget Ukraine was once considered one of the most corrupt countries on Earth.
That's not what Trump's actions suggested the last time in office, I have no doubt republicans hate Russia, maybe even more than Democrats, it's Trump specifically I'm worried about.
Trump won't pull support for Ukraine, that's just a scare tactic from the Left. The entire government is united on the issue of stopping Russia, Trump alone can't do much about that. If anything, he'll just crack down harder on how/where the money is spent. Again, I hate this "just give them what they want!" mentality coming from the Left. There should always be questions, concerns, limits...etc...when giving billions of dollars to any country.
US meddling on the rest of the world only goes well if its white europeans. I'm not thrilled about the US being "strong".
Of course, cuz black Europeans are immune to bombs and bullets
I dunno how it is in europe, but if its anything like the places I know you wouldn't get as much attention thats for sure.
Imagine the worst outcome you can think of on the issue that's most important to you, and that's probably likely no matter who we elect. Both parties rule as conservatives, and conservatism in recent memory has meant a slow-burn of lost liberty.
Don't worry though. No matter who we elect they'll still run us further into debt in order to fund the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, because it's making our legislators and their backers obscenely wealthy. War is one of the shitty things for which there's always bipartisanship.
You’re part of the problem.
There is no ‘both sides are bad take’ here.
There’s Biden who at worse maintains the status quo and then there is Trump who will become a literal dictator.
No I’m not exaggerating. You fucking centrist morons can’t see you’ll be on a train for the gas chambers if he is elected again and will be shocked when it happens.
LOL
I'm a Green.
Though you're partly right. It is the centrists who truly paved the way for fascism in this country. 40 years of lesser evils really added up.
Then I hope you’re voting for Biden if you are eligible to.
Centrists will be the death of all of us.
They're not the centrist though. They want someone to the left of Biden. You want someone to the left of Trump.
You're the centerist here. And yes you will be the death of the Democrat party and probably the entire country along with it.
I can’t vote for the American president.
But if I could I would still have to vote for Biden because of first past the post voting. Third way candidates are a wasted vote.
Would I want to vote for Biden? Of course not.
Do you live in the U.S.?
Did any of the 2 sides really pushed for actual healthcare? Or did anything substantial about any of the pervasive cost of living problems? Or yknow, stopped bombing other people around the planet? Or did anything about the growing nazi problem?
Its a good cop bad cop shtick, both sides are pretty bad. Not only in the US, mind you.
I’m fucking convinced you guys are going to vote that chud in again. Or let him be voted in again. There is nuance but it’s the same outcome.
The people who want to spite Biden's genocidal support by not voting for him don't realize that the alternative is a fascist dictator who actively relishes in the prospect of killing brown people. If you think Biden's treatment of the Gazan war is bad, wait til you see Trump.
Same with the Ukrainian war. If Biden is milquetoast, Trump will guarantee your toast is forever black and inedible.
It's because those people that think that don't actually care about brown people. Nobody who actually cares about Palestine is trying to vote Trump in. Not a single one. It's all a smoke screen. We've seen it before same thing happened in 2016. Same players same game.
Why don't democrats just play it safe and run just about anyone who isn't Biden?
The vast majority of conservatives will never vote for a democrat. The best democrats can do is try to retain support of independents who have no problem voting 3rd party or even conservative if they feel disenfranchised by the democratic party.
Why would they feel disenfranchised by Biden? Who are these hypothetical people that would piss away their vote on a 3rd party because Biden did all of the things he said he would do. Supporting Israel is literally part of being POTUS. Every single POTUS has been an Israel supporter.
I mean yes they have always had the support of the US government, they've also historically not been quite as openly genocidal.
I'm gonna ask my parents, both lifelong Republicans, if they'll vote Trump again. I'm pretty sure after Jan 6 they won't. Prior to that I would have agreed with you but I'm not sure now
They won't, because they have an entire presidential term in two vice presidential terms worth of relationship with him. They've got a lot invested in him and they're not about to just walk away from that.
Gods I wish they would. The DNC represents progressives like North Korea represents democracy
People like you want to have your cake and eat it too. During the primaries you swear up and down we should be okay with Biden winning the primaries because we can push him to the left. Then when that turns out not to be true you say we need to vote for him anyway.
You can't keep doing this. You're liars. You're gaslighters. You're enablers of the Republican party. You are the bad guys. You need to change.
By the time the election comes we might already be in WW3 😒
I hate all these articles, it's like people want that asshole again.
"Man, wouldn't it be CRAZY if this criminal won in 2024? He might ACTUALLY do it! It could happen! The courts might let it!"
Like bro, stop. Stop jinxing us. You are going to will it to happen. Stop giving him airtime. Don't give him mindshare. Treat him like any other criminal and then drop interest. Focus on corruption or feeding the poor, anything else.
Blame everyone who thinks the democrats should run Biden again.
No. How about you tell us why not voting for Biden (effectively a vote for Trump) is the way to go.
I'm not American but what's happening in the US and what will happen when/if Trump gets re-elected definitely worries me. It's difficult not to sound overly dramatic or hyperbolic about the situation but it really does feel like the US is uncomfortably close right now to a christofascist state. And if you just rolled your eyes at that word, take a look at who's currently second in line to the US presidency.
If Trump does win, I really fear for American democracy. Do you really think a man who encouraged an armed insurrection to support a subversion of an election will pause to think twice about removing the few rights large sections of America currently have? And if the process prevents him, do you think he'd think twice about dismantling the process? At gun point if necessary?
Hi, American here.
American domestic politics is absolutely fucked right now.
The Republican Party does not really even have any policy proposals for serious issues at the Federal level.
They spent years saying 'Obamacare bad', saying they could do healthcare better. Basically it is a decade later and they have no plan, not even a proposal.
Taxes? We still have morons like DeSantis basically saying 'I dunno, maybe a flat tax?' to applause during stump speeches and debates. The flat tax proposal is absolutely insane for a large number of reasons, but the Republican base eats it up.
Look, there are something like 50 million + Americans that believe in all or most of the QAnon conspiracy theories, that believe God himself appointed Trump as President.
Trump stacked the Supreme Court.
The Republicans have functionally made abortion illegal in about half the country.
Meanwhile the economy is /apparently/ recovering, though the prices of basically everything you need to routinely pay for have risen fairly dramatically while wages have remained basically stagnant. Wealth inequality has spiralled to obscene levels, rent has basically doubled in about half a decade.
As I write this, I believe that polls of Biden v Trump are still showing Trump ahead.
Even if Trump does not win, and even if the MAGA QAnon types do not do a bunch of terrorism (again), they still exist, and are hopelessly living in basically an alternate reality where anything that goes against their worldview is fake, a conspiracy, of the Devil.
It was about 3 years ago now that I told my friend group that the QAnon problem was so serious that we would need some kind of analogous concept to the de-Nazification program as was implemented after WW2 in West Germany to deal with it. They either laughed at or ignored me. None of those people are my friends any more.
We are fucked.
The only thing that motivates most Republican voters is hatred. Any politician who says Trans people bad, Critical Race Theory bad, Immigrants bad, Homeless People bad, anything like that receives applause from the audience.
And I write this /as a homeless person/ who will almost certainly not be able to vote in the upcoming election. I will be /lucky/ if I can even find and qualify for an actual apartment after basically a bunch of crimes that happened to me in the course of last year caused me serious physical injury and the loss of all of my possessions, ruined my credit score, placed my in incredible debt, lost me my job and my ability to do any other job until my physical injuries are healed, which I simply have to handle myself, while homeless, because the cost of engaging with American healthcare system to handle my problems now would be sufficient to outright purchase a modest home (outright) less than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, Trump has outright stated he would like to implement basically concentration camps for the homeless. He has stated he wants to eliminate the vermin leftists. He is very concerned with the purity of the blood of the nation, and has outright stated he will be a dictator.
And he is currently leading in the polls.
Again, this country is fucked. So, sorry Europeans, I would love to be able to assuage your fears, and become an activist or something.
Maybe send me some of your healthcare and I'll get right on it.
Or maybe I am extremely tired, have no hope for this broken country, and could use the services of someone who can smuggle me into Canada or something.
If you are homeless, reach out to a shelter to see if they would be okay with you declaring them as your residence for the purpose of mail/voter registration. You can obtain ID from the state and have it sent there, and then that enables you to register to vote. Or if you have a bit of cash, you can also register a PO box through USPS for your mail.
It may be too late for you to vote in the primary depending on where you live, but you've still got plenty of time for the general election in November.
I can only encourage you to keep trying, because disenfranchising the socially vulnerable means that the Republican strategy is working.
You honestly think someone as coherent as this person hasn’t thought of all the ‘easy’ solutions to their homelessness problem?
It’s insulting to their intelligence to suggest that they just contact the homeless shelter.
I swear people live so far up their own ass they have no fucking clue about the reality some people live.
You'd be surprised. Homelessness doesn't always look like what people imagine it to be. They may be employed but migratory. They may be dependent on a cycle of friends/family for shelter while being on perpetually temporary living conditions.
A lot of people who aren't "homeless" in the traditional sense don't consider themselves as needing the same level of support that they typically associate with homeless shelters. They assume their problems look different and don't apply. They may honestly just not know that homeless shelters are there to provide anything more than a roof. Or those who are sliding further into precarity may be in denial about their circumstances.
There are also numerous links to mental illness and rates of homeless, some of which might obstruct logical decisions that people might need to be reminded of from time to time. And sometimes it just helps to be reminded that you don't always have to shoulder all of your problems by yourself, such as with services that help with obtaining documentation.
Call it basic advice, but basic doesn't mean invalid. I don't see anyone else in this thread offering anything more than sympathies, at least.
All of the day + night shelters are full. Beyond full. Waiting lists for a year+ full.
The vast majority of shelters in America for single adult men are overnight only, and where I am now, having had to travel halfway across the country to find somewhere I can afford to stay that is /safe/, it will be about 5 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.
Almost none of the overnight shelters allow you to use them as an address. In my experience, they are also full of many fentanyl addicts, murderers and thieves.
I will continue staying in motels, with heating, comfortable beds and showers that allow my serious ligament, muscle and bone injuries to heal, as opposed to staying in an overnight shelter where I would be forced to wander around in freezing weather during the day, seriously injuring me further, even if it means I cannot vote.
Honestly, fuck you. I would rather be /alive/ and not in horrific pain than possibly have the ability to vote.
I would rather have privacy and security, though it be costly, than be at risk of literally causing my injuries to exacerbate so seriously that I would be permanently disabled at best, murdered or collapsed from a torn ligament in the freezing cold and dying at worst.
I do not care to follow your laughably inadequate advice to prioritize voting in a broken system over my current survival.
Maybe you could actually do something functionally useful to address homelessness in your area or something, instead.
Well if this is how you treat people who try to offer a shred of advice or compassion, then I hate to say it but maybe you deserve your circumstances. I can't help you more than this.
You know nothing about me, but you immediately come back with open hostility. I am only trying to offer the same advice that I would for the refugee and immigrant populations that the organization I work for supports.
Your priorities may not be the same as everyone else's, but there are people literally dying for their vote and it is just as awful to belittle that or say that they aren't prioritizing things that make a difference. Because it truly does to many people, and I would say it does now more than ever.
Gross. Nobody deserves to be homeless, even if they're being a dick.
c/iamatotalpieceofshit
Your advice is ludicrous for any single adult male anywhere in America right now, so your organization must not be very competent.
Suggesting that a single adult male, right now, in America, who already told you that they have serious injuries, should go seek a dangerous shelter which in all likelihood /will not shelter them/, which one either has to do on foot, or by wasting hours and hours searching the internet, for the aim of being able to vote, is absurd.
What should obviously be prioritized is the physical safety and security of the individual.
And I know this /because I used to work for a non profit helping the homeless/.
Telling an injured person to prioritize unsafe options that will waste their time, nearly certainly actually not result in acquiring shelter, for the purposes of being able to vote, that this priority is more important than /actually being alive/ is perfectly indicative of the attitude that many liberals have toward the homeless.
Which is basically: Do literally anything other than remedy the actual issue, you know, homelessness, which causes injuries, trauma, starvation. And then, if any of them give you any lip about this, tell them they deserve their predicament.
You are a ridiculous person. You are exactly like many of the people I used to at first work with, and then became reliant on until I realized hey could not help me: Wasting the time of the homeless with absurd hoops to jump through that can literally result in their death if your suggestions prove inadequate, and also they trust you and diligently follow their advice.
All I had to do was tell you that your advice was laughable, and be angry about how bad and useless this advice was, and you have now decided that I am rude and offensive to everyone trying to help and that I deserve my situation.
I am not in fact rude to everyone trying to help me.
I am rude to people who suggest I do things that /will endanger my health and safety/.
You are an awful human being.
If you do really work to aid the unhoused, you and your organization are morons. Your advice would be even /more/ ridiculous for immigrants and refugees who often cannot speak English well or at all.
Apologies if there was confusion, I just ask that you please read what I wrote again. I was not advocating staying at a shelter per se; if you have better accommodations, as a lot of unhoused residents do, then that's great. You are better off not staying in a shelter if you don't need it.
I was speaking more to the fact that organizations which run homeless shelters will typically offer additional levels of support when it comes to mail and ID procurement. They may be able to assist with getting you documentation directly, or may be able to help put you in contact with another organization that can.
But based on your responses so far, I'm guessing that's not something you'd be willing to do, so I'll just leave it here. You seem to know what's best for you, so good luck.
I’d put you up, man, but I’m moving in with my parents so I can pay off debt and maybe, MAYBE save enough to buy my own house someday.
I appreciate the sentiment, and I completely understand your situation.
By basically dumb luck, I managed to wander past a shoddy low rent motel ... that offers monthly leases.
Its got a comfy bed, a fridge, a microwave, a working toilet and tub, and most importantly, I can afford it.
Knowing that there is /somewhere/ I can afford to stay at, and will not have to figure out some new place to stay every few weeks is a massive improvement.
The near constant state of mortal panic is now lowering. All I have to do is basically not talk to anyone else who stays at this place.
/Now/ I can finally start to figure out how to replace my Drivers License and other important identifying documents, as most of those got stolen from me months ago at a shelter in another state.
I am very glad to hear that. Living space anxiety is the absolute worst.
It truly seems that nearly no one who has not been homeless can understand what being homeless does to you.
Oh well, at least if I survive this long term I can actually justifiably laugh until I pass out from people who have nervous breakdowns over the most unimportant first world problems imaginable.
I'm so confused about where this hostility came from. They were just trying to be helpful, you could have easily left it at "your idea is terrible and here's why", but then you decided to attack them directly as well. Why?
Because they were giving useless advice that they should have known would be useless, and even worse than that, it would have endangered me and likely led to my death, again, they should have known this if they actually read what I wrote.
Would you be angry if someone seriously suggested to you that while in an injured state, what you should do is injure yourself further with a plan that has next to no chance of success?
Further, if you were starving, exhausted, traumatized from recently being beaten, mugged and losing all your possessions, would you be angry if someone told you that /actually/ you should prioritize registering to vote right now, that that is the most important thing?
You have obviously never been homeless.
Perhaps you should read it again if you are confused.
My aching torn ligaments only permit me to type so much, so often.
This is what you sound like: ‘This person experiencing homelessness isn’t a ray of sunshine because they’ve realised the systematic changes that would be required to actually address the problem. Also, they have the audacity to be angry about it!’
Seriously? You are an asshole if you can’t empathise with someone who might be a bit prickly if they just wrote out an essay which was cogent and then told ‘well you wouldn’t be homeless if you just used homelessness services!’
If those services had adequate resourcing would people be experiencing homelessness?
Put yourself in their shoes; sleep rough a couple of nights and see how bright, cheery and willing to hear such sage advice from comfortable, housed and warm Lemmings you’d be.
I wouldn't expect them to be nice and jolly about it. But you don't have to be a ray of sunshine to avoid being an ass. I sympathize with them, but the person they responded to was genuinely trying to be helpful.
As for everything else you said, maybe you should re-read Stovetop's comment? Nothing was said about using homelessness services to avoid being homeless. It was literally just an idea as to how they might be able to vote despite their unfortunate situation.
I did read it and vexikron’s reply about how voting isn’t their priority because they are injured and homeless.
Which is why it’s kind of irrelevant until the homelessness episode ends; you can’t focus on other aspects of your life.
Vexikron isn’t being an ass, they’re being a regular human who is having a shit time of it and responding to lemmings who are telling them to just go to a shelter and vote their way out of it.
That solution to their problem is tone deaf and insulting.
It's not like they pulled the voting comment out of their ass as a solution to homelessness. It was a response to Vexikron saying they wouldn't be able to vote in their comment.
I wish I could, I really do.
I appreciate the kind words.
Also American here. Vexikron is 100% correct. I will take my payment in Wegovy please.
Even if Trump dies tomorrow, the problem still exists. Trump is the worm in the apple, but half the apple is rotten.
That is true, no disagreement here. That's the truly scary thing about the man - he clearly does represent a lot of people.
But right now, he is the immediate danger.
I’m not sure anymore. He got so elevated by some people but they hate so much. Idk if anyone could just slide into his place. I think they could be lost enough with the infighting that would try to fill in that hole. As in, that confusion could give us the gap to secure our processes and/or elect reasonable people.
The problem wit this reasoning is that it does not understand what Trump actually did.
It is /worse/ than being a charismatic maniac.
It is that by being a charismatic maniac... he revealed the entirety of the American society and political system to be a cruel joke.
He essentially normalized extreme hatred and bigotry to the point that nearly every single other Republican had to either emulate him, or at least shift heavily toward his positions and rhetoric.
Infighting is and will continue to happen, yes. But Trump transformed the Republican party into what is essentially fascist in all but name now.
And the problem with this is that electoralism alone cannot defeat a rising fascist movement which shows no signs of slowing down.
We, with history as a guide, /cannot/ defeat this only via voting.
As much as it pains me to agree with Tim Pool on anything, to any degree: A civil war of sorts, or at least massive social unrest something akin to the Pre-Bellum American society is already happening.
The core voters of the Republican Party are now driven by QAnon style insano-anti-thinking. There is no known cure for this, and it is very easy for any random dumbass that wants to be a politician to appeal to these kinds of people, /so there will be more and more of them/.
I wonder what would happen if he wins the primaries and then keels over dead during one of his campaign rallies?
I'm hoping he pulls an Elvis and dies taking a shit.
I'm worried if he doesn't die in public they'll try to claim assassination or some shit
I live in Japan and I'm sure Kim literally considered nuking my country during that dick measurement contest Trump held.
I was in China and the time and there were a scary number of people who were saying they hoped that would happen. East Asia is still so contentious, last thing we need is Emperor Cheeto making it even worse.
I feel bad for those brainwashed to their core by the CCP (and they actually hate the party).
Anyway, I have no idea whether Japan can retaliate against nuclear attacks, due to our naive pacifist constitution.
You can rest assured that if NK starts lobbing missiles at Japan or SK, there won't be much of NK left at the end of that day. Japan's involvement won't even be necessary.
To add to this: while it may sound hyperbolic to some folks, for plenty of us we've seen this brewing for decades. White evangelicals and right-wing politics unified in the 1980s in a way that was a clear danger to democracy, and they've only solidified their power since, given how mainstream their views are now.
IMHO Frank Zappa said it best in 1986: he got called out as being hyperbolic, but he clearly saw the writing on the wall. He's of course not the most scholarly source, but damn it Jim I'm a biologist, not a historian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlePLLlfH4Q
Another American here, currently stuck living in the great state of Ohio. I keep a bag under my bed with a change of clothes, a few cans of food, a wad of cash, a pistol, and a passport. I may be fucked, but I've got some friends in Quebec that might be able to save my ass.
I feel like this is so understated in this context it is almost physically painful:
Stop talking about trump like he's just another bad candidate. Jesus Christ.
If they acknowledge the depth of his depravity then they go too far in tarnishing the office. They desperately want to maintain prestige so they'll never go as far as they ought to.
If you talk about it in the way that you should, you will sound alarmist.
As much as I share the same concern with Michelle, I would selfishly respond to her that if she just fucking ran for president she would win in a landslide and put an end to fucking Trump. Barack can spend the entire 4 years ridiculing the orange bezoar as first man.
Apologies for my ignorance, but just why hasn't she run for office?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/michelle-obama-reveals-why-she-wont-be-running-president-1100511/
Thanks! I appreciate the information, and I apologize. I guess I could've looked it up.
I can't blame her, but damn. Is it too cliche to say that's why she'd be a great candidate?
Michelle would not win in a landslide.
Every election that is just an extension of the Clinton lineage is a bad play for democrats.
Unfortunately to Trump supporters this is a grandiose endorsement and exactly what they want.
The true trump idiots fucking love it. They are salivating for it. She's black, a woman, and liberal which is the exact opposite of the people they care about. It represents everything they hate
If the democrats ran just about anybody but Joe, they'd be a shoe-in.
Brace yourselves for Trump 2.0, everyone. The Clinton lineage must go on!
It’s never going to be that easy. I’m sure each of us can find a candidate we like better but a successful run is more than that:
While I think the President is doing a great job, I’d prefer someone more progressive. However that might alienate more voters than it would attract. I will not risk another trumptastrophe by insisting on more Progressiveness over electable, “progressive enough” and not insane
The age thing does bother me, but I can only dream of doing that well at that age.
We should focus on VP. We want someone in the wings and we want them to build name recognition, and that hasn’t worked for the current VP
So after this, if trump loses and runs again, you'll be ok with continuing to support candidates you don't fully align with just to stop the boogie man? What about once trump is gone and the Republicans have some new piece of shit boogieman in the running? What will it take for you to be comfortable voting with the people that you most closely align with?
I never understood this absolutism. I’ll vote for the candidate closest to my views every time, and have voted for third party candidates in the past. But it’s ridiculous to vote based on only one issue
What other choice do some of us have? I would love a centrait president. Like actual centrist. I know going further left that that is impossible at this current point, but even centrist is a super long shot to even win the primary. Bernie can't even get enough people who support him to vote for him.
So let's say Project 2025 becomes P2029. P2033. P2037. As a gay man, I need to keep pushing that back. If not, me and my community get even more fucked than we are. That's when things like genocide start to happen. I don't get the choice of risking a republican being elected. The only hope I have is either as younger people start getting to voting ages, and older people die out, and religion starts to disappear, that maybe things will change.
It's either that or I leave. Granted, me and my boyfriend are highly considering it, for multiple reasons. But it won't be something we can consider. It's something we will need to do.
Bernie was robbed of the nomination by a last second rule change on the floor of the convention where the votes weren't even accurately represented in the final decision.
The left keeps moving to the right to try to appeal to voters, while aligning independents. They could stop, and move the far right further left. But dems are too concerned with appealing to the wrong people.
The best you can do is arm yourself and participate in your local elections and communities. At the end of the day you can only completely rely on yourself and those around you.
I don't disagree, but it also only works out so well for many, many people. Like depending on where someone lives, their community is largely the people they needed to be protected from. I'm lucky in that I live in Portland. A fairly progressive, if not at least performative prgressives, but at least we won't be the first to go. But since I have sympathy and empathy for people, I would rather it not come to that. Accelerationsm is just sacrificing marginalized communities. And I get you're not much of an ally, and that's fine. I'll take people who don't care but are willing to let us live our lives. But for the rest of us, I can't get behind the mentality of just throwing people in the fire and saying "Well I'm just gonna watch over myself." That's a part of how things like dictators happen. And once that happens, participating locally won't be enough, because things like local elections wont be a thing anymore.
I don't disagree with your logic in general, but Trump isn't a boogeyman. A boogeyman isn't real. A boogeyman can't hurt you. We all saw how Trump ran things. It's not an imagined threat.
What would it take to be comfortable voting FOR someone and not AGAINST the other one? Easy: ranked choice voting.
I fully support ranked choice and we have mountains to climb in many states before its enacted
He was popular enough to beat Trump the 1st go round, why would people not vote for him now when the alternative is 4 more years of god knows what fresh hell?
3 years of propaganda, most of their base complaints against Biden arent true, but perception is reality.
Trump is hard lining who he's going to hurt. They love that
The Dems will still vote dem other than hating Bidens Gaza stance, because they see Trump as awful.
But gerrymandering and shenanigans being what they are, the fight isn't fair and the GOPs thumb is heavily on the scale.
Because Trump's approval numbers are higher than Biden's.
To be clear, I don't support Trump at all but we have to look at cold hard facts. Biden does not look like a great candidate right now at a macro scale. Democrats have a real problem of loving to self-hate, and they end up skewering their own candidate. The prevailing opinion amongst my friends is "well Biden didn't do anything". Personally I find that to be untrue, but that's the narrative.
The real key is that Democrats lose when voter turnout falls. Biden is not an exciting candidate, and for some people it is an ordeal to vote, and they may not do it for Biden. A lot of people forget this... It's not that Trump would get more votes, it's that Biden will get less.
Democrats are formulating a perfect way to fumble this to Trump, and I'm terrified.
The campaign hasn't started yet. Right now, it's a one sided conversation. And the polls are all based on people who answer unknown numbers and land lines. It's a built in selection bias.
Every single election both large and small since 2020 has been heavily skewed to the left. I'm not saying don't worry, but dont despair. And work on convincing your friends. That's the single best thing you could possibly do.
I think you're selling the polls a little short. The good ones have corrected a lot of that kind of bias, though nothing is perfect. And bad polls are always bad polls.
The scary reason is that we need a campaign or conversation to get people away from Trump. The dude sucks. Any president of the past 40 years should have a higher approval rating than Trump.
Though I secretly have a theory that the Supreme Court is going to rule against Trump and kick him off. It'll give Republicans the exit that they need from him, but they can blame the courts and capture all his followers. All the candidates will run on pardoning him, and they'll keep that radical part of the party but just redirect them.
Anyone who votes like that really doesn’t understand the difference between the two at all.
Like who?
So Biden is a Clinton now? Is everything you don't like a Clinton?
I'd be concerned whatever the outcome.
You reckon Jan 6th was a one off?
yes, if the next leader doesn't sell conspiracy as hard as maga.
Can she run for VP and we just swap her out instead of Kamala Harris? Hell, they could go back to reusing old Obama/Biden signs from the 2008/2012 campaigns. Otherwise Harris is just deadweight for this campaign, she's been absolutely useless the past 4 years (though that's probably been the traditional role of VPs anyways).
I'm terrified of the outcome no matter who wins... Our system is seriously broken if these are the best candidates we, the supposed bastion of freedom and democracy, can come up with.
The Dems need a candidate who will annihilate Trump.
We all are. There is no good outcome, only one that is less bad than the other.
Michelle said a thing
It seems like most Americans are gonna vote for trump and he might win. Democrat voters have to blame their side if trump wins. They've run such a dog shit pr campaign. Biden has done good on the policy front but you'd never know because the media doesn't cover it and the right-wing media only covers his mistakes.
Most Americans didn't vote for Trump in the previous two elections.
The problem is the electoral college. We have dipshits, but not enough of them will vote for Trump for him to win the popular vote.
This is true every time. Not disagreeing with you. When Dems win nationally it's usually in spite of all the ways they tried to fuck it up.
Yeah it wasn’t even close in the end. They even lost fucking Arizona and Georgia I never thought I’d see the day…
I don’t understand why you think that. The last election wasn’t even close and Trump had the post office in shambles.
Oh brother...her and her elite inner circle will be fine. When I say BOTH sides are guilty of using scare tactics to get votes, this is what I'm talking about. Democrats and the Left want to scare people into thinking the world will end if a Republican becomes President. They all said the same thing when Trump became President in 2017.
"Both sides" is a tired old argument that doesn't hold water. If you haven't seen the damage Republicans have done in the past 8 years on the Federal and State level, you need to look harder, my dude. The Democrats aren't amazing, but they aren't actively stripping people's rights away and trying to erase minority groups from existence. There is no Democratic "Plan 2025".
It's a balance. I don't agree with everything that the Republicans do, just like I don't agree with everything the Democrats do. However, both parties are flawed and both parties are doing things in the interests of different groups.
"government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted." Government is not the same as democracy... Democracy is what D's and R's try to sufficate so the government can continue to be run by private companies. There is a word for this...
We ShOuLd LiStEn To hEr GuYs, ShE iS a MaN aFtEr aLL
You're being downvoted, not because you did a bad job mocking morons on the right, but because it was unnecessary and doesn't add anything to the discourse.
Im gonna be real with y'all. Fascism in the US is already here and it's only getting worse. Whether you vote Democrat or Republican you are voting to maintain a system that actively harms and kills millions. These days voting Democrat only means minorities in the US get a little more rights if they're nice while everything else stays the same or gets worse and honestly I can't tell if it was ever any better. It makes me genuinely sick that I have choose between two of the worst people I've ever had the displeasure of observing and any consideration of an alternative is met with active hostility or dismissal. I cannot fathom how people can accept being forced to choose between two genuine evils
My vote will accomplish nothing because there is no one to represent me
This sounds an awful lot like a the old ‘both sides’ boogaloo.
Fuck that.
America under the democrats is a vile bully that pokes its nose in where it doesn’t belong and causes a great deal of suffering across the planet.
I grant you that, but America under MAGA unleashes the true evil in the hearts of men. The malady caused by four years under Trump lingers on in so many aspects of life.
Comparing the two is a massive mistake.
I'll give you that republicans are genuinely worse yes. I do not doubt it. However, there is not a single Democrat president in my lifetime I would not also deem to be a war criminal
That's because basically every president we've had is a war criminal to one extent or another.
Eh, the problem is that people think they're making progress with establishment democrats in office.
The lesser-evil is still evil. A slow loss is still a loss.
The word forced is right there in your sentence, what's hard to fathom? A third party vote is effectively a vote for Trump. I'm not going to argue with you if you still feel morally compelled to vote third party - but let's not pretend otherwise.
I understand that. Neither option is 'good'. But one of the options will (in my opinion) have a bloody good go at removing your ability to have the option at all in the future.
So one of the options is objectively good, then. Maybe stfu and stop pretending this is a difficult choice.
In this case, people accepting being force to choose between two genuine evils is because one of the two evils plans to make it so there is no chance at change and would likely turn to slaughtering people who don't fall in line with the regime
What makes this time in America’s history so terrifying is that the difference between Democrat and Republican has only been greater one other time and it resulted in a civil war. You can’t say “both sides are evil” because it’s not even close. Democrats haven’t really changed and that’s not the progress they claim to represent. However Republicans have abandoned the concept of the US as a whole and are actively attempting to corrupt our voting and end democracy state by state. Republicans are so close to crossing a line that cannot be uncrossed and it will result, at best, in states operating as independent nations. In other words, a fucking disaster.
There is only one “evil” side right now.
I mean, we're still caging children at the border and a genocide is happening right now and we have given the ally who is perpetuating that genocide more weapons. Both sides are evil.
You are correct of course. As has played out historically, the liberals have been utterly ineffective at combating the rise of fascism.
It was not until what, about 12 to 6 ish months ago that finally, you could actually tell a liberal that Trump and the Republicans /are fascists/ without a bunch of hoity toity himming and hawing about tone policing and catastrophizing accusations.
A sad, sad joke.
We are a historically ignorant country, still high on our own supply of American Exceptionalism, unable to grasp that It Can In Fact Happen Here.
We ruled by geriatric politicians who have not been able to connect with the actual politics or material concerns of anyone under the age of 40 in a way that would effectively improve their lives. The mechanics of our political system are ossified and incapable of being changed to even /allow/ for changing into a system that would allow for more effective representation of the many, many poor. We will never have ranked choice voting on a large scale, nor reform to the electoral college, nothing like that. Not that those things would even work in a society where over 50% of possible voters have the literacy level of 7th graders.
We are ruled by corporate overlords who do not give a functional damn about any social justice issues and only feign it as a brand and marketing strategy to lull those who might otherwise actually do something useful to address those issues in society into inaction, as they can pay for the conspicuous consumption of media and more animal friendly foods or eco friendly cars or whatever to allow them to /feel/ like they are helping to solve the problem, when in reality they are just continuing to fund it.
I hope I am wrong and some actual good change will happen. But I do not think it likely at this point.
Well you only think Biden is one of the worst people ever because you got tricked. He's actually not that bad.
Biden is a career politician who has backed a lot of shitty decisions in his time. He's cutting blank checks to Israel while they are commiting a genocide.
Despite all this, he is unequivocally better than trump right now. It's not even close. That's how fucked up it is. I would abstain from voting if literally the fate of LGBTQ, non-Christians, Migrants and women were not hanging in the balance on this election.
You also need to remember no one agrees exactly so every politician will have done decisions you disagree with …..
So, you’re saying you disagree with one foreign policy decision (that is supported by politicians and popular vote) and you’re balancing that against literal human rights for citizens?
in that case you have to vote to at least make sure that you get a dog instead of a wolf
I shouldn't have to choose between evil and slightly less evil. My vote is already useless in the state I live in because it's been gerrymandered into dysfunction so it's hard to even find a reason to bother
What should be and what is are not the same thing, and if you spend all day crying about how it shouldn't be like this, you'll never change how it is.
It is not possible to change the system through voting. Not to the extent it needs to be changed
And who cares how much worse you make it because you wont even try to make it better? The system sucks, so lets burn it down! I can't wait until we get the handmaiden's tale because the system isn't changeable enough.
You think I am not trying to make it better? I do and I am, just not through voting. The most direct way you can affect the world around you is through volunteer work and organization. Voting is the least efficient way to change people's lives
It's also how you make sure you get the dog not the wolf in the short term. A lot of your other action is going to get a lot harder if Trump takes the whitehouse and never leaves.
That's good to hear, but please, do not pretend that ignoring the presidency wouldn't set back the good you're working towards at the local level.
You're only correct in the positive direction. The relationship is inverted for negativity, and not voting is the most efficient way of making lives materially worse, given the shitheads that end up in office when you let those with an authoritarian bent control who holds national office.
Gerrymandering does not affect Senate and Presidential elections.
I am aware of this and probably shouldn't have mentioned it considering the topic is primarily the presidential election. The electoral college is more of a factor in this case. Regardless I live in the most red state possible
Gerrymandered districts elect state governments, and state governments get to make their own election laws.
At the very least, your vote lends credence to gerrymandering or electoral college reform, if it is part of popular vote showing different results from actual vote
I think voting, while important, is ineffective for fixing a political system. One man having the correct idea can't change anything by one vote.
I'm climbing my career ladder and starting to control good portion of company resources. At least, it has more potential than a single stupid vote. How to make use of that power I need to figure out, but as nobody knows the solution, the only route is to think while trying.
In terrified that these people support Genocide.
Which people?
Better question, which not?
Answer the damn question and don't waste our time playing childish games trying to turn shit around on others.
Genocide Joe and Orange Man both support Genocide. Read my statement again.
So in other words, you don't have an answer. Figured as much
Russian troll fuck. One called for a Christofascist task force today. Not the same, you tiny prick
The dumb nickname thing is straight out of the right-wing playboook.
If you're not a troll you're getting played like a fiddle.
No right wingers call him J*w Biden.
Genocide Joe is a nickname given to Biden by leftists that actually oppose genocide.
The only one getting played is you.
Fuck off with that shit. Every single US president, including Trump and Obama, has been vocal in their support for Israel.
Yeah that's a great fact so maybe stop voting for those guys
"Well, well, of it isn't the consequences of my actions."
Oh, finally Big Mike chimes in!
Your sexism and misogyny is showing.
Lol, Americans....
Wow you guys are still doing the segregation thing?! 😂