I submit that all positive progress made in the history of the United States was accomplished under, and often despite, imperfect political leaders. Letting “greater evil” win the day because you can’t bring yourself to vote for the “lesser evil” is nonproductive and childish.
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Well, there’s nothing that says he has to stick with the same choice this time round, and sitting presidents have been known to run with another VP before. I always think an interesting alternative history is that one where Henry Wallace wasn’t replaced with Truman for FDR’s final term- that could have changed 20th century history quite a bit.
As for this particular time around, I remember that I was calling for a more progressive VP pick before the 2020 election, and I haven’t heard much to change my mind since then. Actually, I haven’t heard much full stop, which is if anything more concerning.
No, but why change is my question? Despite the BS fox news talking points, she seems a fine VP.
Such as?
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I can see that, and I apologize for not making myself clear up front. It just seemed to me that some people were criticizing the person on the grounds that they didn’t vote strategically, but according to their… conviction? It’s not their fault a third party candidate cannot be President, right?
When a VP has been involved in a major scandal like Spiro Agnew or had an extremely contentious relationship with the President like John Calhoun, sure. When everyone seems to be on the same page, not so much.
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So many Americans have this weird idea that “lesser evil voting failed them” as if they ever bothered trying it a couple elections in a row.
Things have in fact gotten better sometimes. Who do you think was put in power at the time?
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Warren, Abrams, Duckworth? That’s just off the top of my head from likely candidates at the time.
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He’s been far more progressive than I expected him to be, but yes, I would love someone more progressive. Lots of leaders that are more progressive really. In all the branches. The world has changed dramatically in my lifetime and I’m not much over 50. Heck, when I grew up, segregation was still happening but perhaps not quite as obviously, women were very much a distant and barely thought of second class, and the closest they’d come to talking about anything outside of a man/woman relationship was mentioning that Paul Lynde had a “live in hairstylist”.
Anyone 65+ should be retiring and enjoying themselves. Maybe a handful can stay around and provide some guidance, but right now the average age in the Senate is 65! And that includes the current youngest senator at 36. The House isn’t that much better at 59.
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In case you missed what pissed people off - it wasn’t that they advocated for voting for a 3rd party:
It was SPECIFICALLY this part of the comment:
Come on party loyalists, tell me I owe you my vote and I’m an idiot for not seeing it.
THAT was the problem.
And I will say that a ton of people did not whinge about Bernie Sanders and AOC making the choice to run as Democrats. 
That seems to be a more effective strategy for changing politics right now - working within the 2 party system to change the parties. That is precisely what happened with the far right and the GOP. It was literally the strategy of white supremacist groups, colonize the party and look how fucking successful they’ve been at it… It’s by no means a perfect strategy, but that is what will work in our current environment.
Sure, but again, what’s the reason for changing now… And I love Abrams, but she is more center of the road, honestly.
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So you are OK with another fascist administration, so long as you maintain some illusory purity? In a system where the difference between fascism and at least not-fascism is razor thin, purity voting is a very privileged option. It says that you are not at risk of the consequences of the fascist party taking power. You are not BIPoC, LGBTQ+, a woman, someone with a disability or chronic illness, etc, etc, etc. In a perfect world, yes, voting your conscience would be the preference, indeed the duty, of any informed citizen. This is not that perfect world. Allowing any of those fascist dirtballs to assume power is allowing far too many of our brothers and sisters to be herded into camps so that we can be pure and righteous. Nah. No can do. I will vote to keep those asshats as far from office as I can, whenever I can. President, Senator, Schoolboard or Dogcatcher. I do not care, they must be defeated at every level.
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Before anyone said shit to him, he made assumptions about the community… THAT was what set people off here. Period.
And they won with that combination last time… Unless there is an overwhelming reason to change one of the candidates in mid-stream, they usually don’t.
Which is pretty typical of American VPs, actually. Most of them do not get a ton of press attention, because they’re the face of decision making. Rather they are often doing things that the president needs to delegate. She’s flown all over the world on a diverse set of issues representing the administration. Just because you don’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening…
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If voting for the lesser evil (and by 2020 standards, this was not a close call) you are preventing the greater evil from taking us into a fascist dystopia, then yes, that is measurably better. As a secondary question, what separates a “lesser evil” from a “greater good” candidate? There are areas where Biden did better than I thought he would. There are areas where he did not. There are absolutely no areas where I think we would have been better off with Trump. None. Until we have a system that allows a viable multiparty system, we have a duopoly. On one side, we get a seat at the table. On the other, we get a barracks in the camps. Seems like a pretty simple choice to me.
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Yeah with the exception of Dick Cheney (the evil mastermind who practically ran the GWB administration) most VPs only end up in the news when they’ve done something embarrassing. Like when Dan Quayle misspelled “potato” during a spelling bee or when Al Gore was reported as having taken credit for something he didn’t do or Joe Biden dropped an F bomb on camera when speaking to Obama.
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Or when Quayle complained about Murphy Brown…
But I can’t help but feel that once again, a Black woman is being held to a greater standard than all the other bog-standard white dudes who served in the role, many with little to no distinction other than (as you note) fuck ups.
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Unless something has changed it’s going to Harris.
Where did you hear he was considering a new VP?
Quayle did provide a lot of gems in the “embarrassing moments in the history of the Vice Presidency” category…
I’m trying to remember but can’t find anything on Google… wasn’t there a mini-scandal when Quayle went on a goodwill trip to Mexico and supposedly had some Secret Service guys covertly purchase a sexually explicit novelty figurine on his behalf? I think during the late 80s?
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Hmmm… isn’t ringing any bells? Did you check wikipedia?
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Ooh, found it. I was slightly misremembering, it was actually a trip to Chile rather than Mexico. I remember it was a brief topic of ridicule among American humorists.
Stopping at a souvenir stand in Valparaiso, Chile, Quayle picked up a lasciviously grinning statuette. It was made in two parts, and when the vice president lifted the head and upper torso, the wooden carving–a fertility symbol of sorts–opened up, leaving no doubt as to its gender. As art, it was worthy of an X-rating.
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There was the whole spelling bee potato international incident.
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I remember those salty conservative tears. Biden said “this is a big fucking deal” when the ACA was signed and OMG, he cursed on live TV! The pearl clutching was insane.
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