Biden launches re-election campaign

Getting a “seat at the table” is not the same as getting what we want. We get a voice, and i maintain it gets heard, but so do lots of other voices. The centrists dems have the loudest voice currently, but they are not the only voice. I am going to assume you are not disagreeing with the second part of that statement. They are not bothering to hide it anymore. And there are no “solid red states.” Dems have a presence in every state.

10 Likes

The duopoly system is not a conspiracy, it’s a broken artifact we have to deal with – preferably by keeping the party that scares non-fascists out of power.

The Dem establishment, perhaps. That’s not a permanent situation. Prominent names in the party like Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, and Porter all understand the dangers of economic inequality.

This is victim-blaming BS that’s just another version of the chin-stroking conservative narrative that “the librul elites have abandoned Real Americans™.” It’s an example of how easy it is for left-wing populists (especially white cis-het male ones) can find themselves enabling right-wing populists.

Yes, the Dem establishment has a history of being hapless and ineffective and complacent. That doesn’t mean they’re responsible for the rise of the fascist movement in the U.S.

15 Likes

This is like saying that Chamberlain was responsible for Hitler because Chamberlain didn’t stop Hitler.

The Republicans are fully responsible for the awful things that they do. Full stop.

15 Likes
9 Likes

It is also not at all effectual. That has never once worked.

Heidi Gardner Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live

9 Likes

We seem to remember the fascists movements where this happened, and then a war eventually ended it.

What are some historical examples of fascist movements that were stopped before they got that bad? (Honest question.)

3 Likes

“Maybe the Nazis would have stopped on their own if the Allies had just sat back and let the Holocaust finish running its course!” is the kind of sentiment I associate with a fascist sympathizer more than someone who actually opposes fascism in any meaningful way.

8 Likes

“Hitler would have been OK if he had just stayed within his own borders…” Damn, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

8 Likes

I’ve seen several pieces (did not click) in right-wing publications/sites and opinion areas of more center publications that love themselves a right wing op-ed talking about how Biden’s age is a big problem.

Schitts Creek Ok GIF by CBC

11 Likes

Yeah, and never one talking about what a heart attack waiting to happen Tromp’s neglect of himself is.

11 Likes

Anyone else dreading this on a visceral level, btw?

image

8 Likes

Totally agree.

Other than continuing to vote to keep them out of power - which could fail with one charismatic competent populist who suckers half the nation into voting for them - and direct street action which has local effects, how does one systemically fight fascism?

i.e. Was there a successful movement that quashed a fascist movement to the point that it is no longer a threat that could be modeled today? Or has it been more or less an ebb and flow of movements with the danger just under the surface?

1 Like

Which part? Biden running? A re-run of 2020? The discussion around Biden running?

5 Likes

Yes.

:face_with_head_bandage:

Trump running too. The election cycle in general. Just all of it really.

11 Likes

Similar over here in the UK. We have one of the most right wing Governments ever who have been in power for 13 years. they have a massive grip on the national broadcaster, most of the media in general and installed their friends and donors across public bodies.

Yet to hear them talk it’s trans people, the radical left and XR running the country into the ground even though none of them have any power.

And I get they’re trying to pass the buck. What I don’t get is why, after 13 years of some of the worst governance ever and 5 years of out and out provable lies and fraud people still believe them.

5 Likes

Nah, I feel like I can’t afford to get tired. I’m just focusing on local races for the upcoming primary (May 16th in PA), and looking forward to November. :woman_shrugging:t4: Gotta keep the fascists out of school boards, off the bench (judges are elected here), and out of state legislatures/state gubernatorial positions.

Dont Give Up Kamala Harris GIF by The Democrats

8 Likes

VA off-off year elections this Nov, potential huge impact on the general election. We cannot grow weary.

5 Likes

There’s this medical thingy “chronological age vs biological age” …

… but even just looking at and listening to these two guys, it’s not hard to see which one is the healthier person.

And I have my doubts about just how capable :tangerine: :clown_face: is re his ability to read and retain anything. I mean, apart from his many objectionable moral failings, can TFG actually do the work of an executive. reading briefs, making decisions based on facts [not grift], being entrusted with the nuke codes, etc.?

History has already answered.

Plus, Biden doesn’t slather his face with orange paint just to look healthy.

6 Likes

As an outsider to the USA your election process seems like it was created in a fever dream. Elections, primaries, electoral colleges, sentates, houses. I desperately tried to understand it last time and my brain just wouldn’t hold onto anything.

Then again, we have a guy called Rod with a big stick reenacting the boring bit of the Three Little Pigs… swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Do as you will, but a lot of us realize that voting that way is incredibly risky. So, to break that down I’ll use my situation, looking at what an all green ticket would have looked like for my area for some recent elections. I’ll lay out enough details to put some perspective on it. I’m a leftist parent of a trans kid in Ohio. Long breakdown ahead.

Summary

Municipal elections - Nominally non-partisan, but there has only been one person willing to admit to being a Republican holding a seat in the past couple of decades. Verdict: no way to vote Green.

Judicial elections - Too many to name nominally non-partisan no one affiliated with the Greens ran. Verdict: They don’t care.

School board local and state - All non-partisan, I met the candidates, no Greens. Verdict: They still don’t care.

County council - No Green ran, neither did any Republicans. The dude who won sucks.Verdict: no way to vote Green, but it would have been an improvement.

County executive - No Greens ran. The Dem won two thirds of the vote, even against a Republican who ran on shrinking the jail population. Verdict: They didn’t run and a vote for them would have been harmless, but not beneficial.

Ohio House of Reps - The Greens couldn’t be bothered to run, the Dem I wouldn’t have voted for introduced LGBT protections back when he was on city council in 2000 and spent the later chunk of the 20teens fighting to save our municipally owned hospital off for a property development scheme. Verdict: I would have wasted a vote that could have gone to a good candidate.

Ohio Senate - The Greens couldn’t be bothered to run. The race was between the state’s first openly lesbian member of the legislature and a Republican who ran on stopping liberal indoctrination in our schools. Verdict - It would be suicidally dangerous to support the Greens if they cared enough to run.

Ohio Governor - Greens couldn’t be bothered to run. You had a solid, but not ideal Dem versus a terrible Republican who is way less awful on trans rights than the rest of the state party. The race was clearly going to be a blowout from the beginning. Verdict - A vote for the Greens wouldn’t have been super harmful, because of the Republican margin of victory if they cared enough to run.

US House - It was a reasonably close (not razor thin, but nothing like the others on this list) race between the longest serving woman in congress, who votes basically party line and a Q-anon supporter who lied about his military record. Note, if we go back a few terms one of the candidates threatened to murder me. Greens didn’t run and the same candidates are running this year, with the Republican specifically running as anti-trans. Verdict: Voting Green in these races would be a declaration I hate my family.

US Senate - Another closer race with a kind of shitty Dem, who still managed to fly a trans pride flag during visibility week, versus a Republican pushing school censorship bills. Verdict: Another ludicrous place to vote Green.

President - Yeah, we all know the contours of this race. I don’t take chances at that scale. There’s a lot to like about Hawkins for someone like me, another electoral socialist, with a fondness for libertarian municipalism , and a former wobbly. But yeah, not in a close race when there’s an open fascist in play and the largest office the Green candidate has managed is an almost victory for city council.

There were a good half dozen unopposed races that the Greens didn’t even try for and I live in a place that is basically ideal for them. They can have some of my votes for high office when they show an interest in governance more than every half decade and for more than one office.

5 Likes