Yes, yes, Biden sucks. We all know this, yet most of us voted for him anyway because…
…given the realities of our political system today, a vote for anybody else is effectively a vote for Trump. But if you’re fine with that, then clearly you’re in a position of privilege.
Then clearly you’re not paying attention, or you’re blind to your privilege.
I don’t think you get it – even this kind of supposed regression is a massive improvement over where we were in the 4 years since Trump got elected. Most of us here on BB would have absolutely loved someone other than Biden to win the primary and eventually the presidency. I would have happily voted for Warren or Sanders – even Harris or Klobuchar would have been a preferred pick for me over Biden, but that’s not the choice we ended up with. We can’t afford to let perfect be the enemy of good – the stakes are too just damn high.
This is nonsense. Influential people on the left were screaming as loud as they could well before the 2016 election that Trump needed to be taken seriously. That Clinton was making major strategic blunders. That the traditionally blue rust belt was going to be the decider in this election. That misogyny would play a huge factor.
For instance, Michael Moore published this essay in July, 2016:
https://michaelmoore.com/trumpwillwin/
Say what you want about Moore, but he was 100% right with everything he said here – and he wasn’t the only one beating this drum. Many others largely wrote this off. There was no way Trump could win, right? Clinton is so far ahead in the polls. Trump is clearly a blithering idiot who can’t win. Republicans can’t be that dumb. We elected a Black president so we’re clearly an enlightened country now!
Yet, we all know what happened.
As far as independent voters go, maybe if some independent voters in tight races didn’t throw away their votes we could have seen a different outcome. Maybe not. In general, independent voters just aren’t a very important bloc in the United States today.
If you’re a so-called issues based voter and you see so little difference between 4 years under Trump versus Biden (or Clinton) and would rather choose neither knowing full well that your vote will be meaningless then that tells me you’re irresponsible enough with your vote that you can’t be reached anyway.
Finally, it would be intellectually dishonest to think that there wasn’t a hell of a lot of soul searching and post-mortem analysis done by those in power in the Democratic party after Clinton lost.
Ok, things are starting to be come clear here. But first, let me state emphatically that THIS IS COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT. Democratic positions certainly are no panacea but Democrats aren’t the ones largely spewing anti-union (unless it’s police union of course), anti-labor, anti-healthcare, anti-choice, anti-poor, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-human rights nonsense every chance they get. I’ll fully admit that the D record on any of these things is far from perfect.
As the saying goes, Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. Although, I don’t doubt that many voted for Trump because they genuinely liked what he was saying.
Republicans have no platform beyond “pwn the so-called ‘libs’”, “so-called socialism = bad (but don’t touch my Social Security!)”, “taxes = bad (for corporations and the rich)”, and “grow our power at any cost”. Given their unification and expertise at messaging (helped by Reagan-era deregulation that allowed them the unchecked ability to saturate mainstream media with their propaganda), the low information voters say, “please sir I want some more” not realizing they are just hurting themselves.
Unlike Republicans who have a dizzying capacity to immediately unify Voltron style around whatever awful stance du jour it is they want to concentrate on, Democrats are more of a coalition of competing ideas. The media loves to spin this as in-fighting and discord rather than “we really want to help make peoples lives better, but we just can’t agree on how best to do it”.
And, yes, sometimes shitty policies get enacted as a result – like the 1994 Crime Bill which by the way Biden (and Bill Clinton) have both later said they were wrong about it. That’s another difference – Democrats can own their mistakes, Republicans can only double down on them.
As far as Iraq goes a whole lot of people in both parties got fleeced by this (or were too scared to go against the grain). Very few in power were brave enough to speak out against Iraq I or II, or Afghanistan, or the PATRIOT act. Those that voted for these things were wrong, full stop.
That doesn’t mean I’d rather see Trump running things because Biden isn’t perfect.
Assuming he ran on the same racist, anti-immigration, pro-religion, anti-choice isolationist platform he ran on as an R? C’mon. Say he kept using his carnie talker showmanship to insult those on the right but instead flipped all his positions 180 degrees, I’d imagine most would see through it because by and large we want a fucking professional who knows what they are doing running things, not a wannabe pro wrestler who’s never been in public service.
Clearly you have such a low opinion of Democrat voters that you think we’re all sheep who kiss the ground Biden walks on while you’re the enlightened savior who feels it’s better to vote for the perfect third party Jesus candidate who has zero chance in winning because it makes you feel good.
Alternatively, you’re just an agitator who’s trying to rile up the commentariat here by invoking the same damn tired tropes, straw men, and Fox News talking points under the guise of being an enlightened leftist.
So, you do you. I’m done here.
