Yah, the moment I heard Biden was making this announcement, as a gut reaction I just yelled at the TV, "Oh, come on!"
Biden is not only about the least progressive, most corporate-grubbing, most DNC-beloved candidate I can think of, but he seems most likely to win the Democratic nomination and will likely win the general election. Which seems like it should be great since no more Trump, right?
Only, through tribalism, his policies can never be conservative enough to shake Republican accusations of socialism, and they won’t be progressive enough to get anything useful done for the country.
So basically we’re signing on for several more years of gentler slide into chaos, growing public dissatisfaction, and increased accusations of ineffectual Democratic policy. Which should set us up nicely for another conservative tyrant to make a bid another 4 years later.
It’s from Irish history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale. Beyond the pale was considered lawless, wild, Irish, as opposed to the English-dominated settlement within the Pale.
Ah. That addresses the question I was about to ask:
Might Biden be the most acceptable candidate for waivering Republicans considering voting Democrat to get rid of Trump?
If it’s a choice between putting forward a ‘safe’ candidate with appeal broad enough to beat Trump, or a progressive one with narrower appeal, I really don’t know which way I’d go.
Given the intensity of the political polarization in this day and age, how many of those people do you practically think there are? More than the number of people who simply don’t vote because everyone is far to the right of their position?
In my mind a progressive candidate has some increased chance of failure, but the options are:
A progressive candidate gets the Democratic nomination and wins the general election. They try like anything to push forward policies which will help everyone. Maybe some of these policies actually get through. Infrastructure jobs might win over a few folks. Loan forgiveness seems like maybe a winner.
A progressive candidate gets the Democratic nomination and fails in the general. If Trump wins it will be hell for sure. But also the crap that happens afterward is on his head and further along will ultimately make folks more hungry for progressives as an alternative.
A less-progressive candidate gets the Democratic nomination and wins against Trump. They change very little. Trying to please everyone, no one is pleased. Things improve but not much. This foments vast resentments within the population at large that the Democrats have failed to set things right yet again and it’s time for a real change of pace. Enter something worse.
Serious question. I think a lot of us here on this page lean pretty far left. And we tend to believe that is the correct thing and good for the country and so Biden as a centrist/right leaning democrat is really unappealing… but I worry that that’s exactly what a large percentage of registered democrats want. Do we think he’s polling so well for that reason or is it really just name recognition?
The sandman is not gonna get there telling people The Boston Bomber’s right to vote is a platform-worthy opinion. Even if the purpose is compassion it’s not going to win anyone who wasn’t already voting for him. I’ll bet anyone here $100 he has to roll over for Hillary again at some point before 2020.
Name recognition. At this point in the game, that’s largely all there is. There will be increasing position statements put out from here on in, but right now it’s name recognition and “feel goods” left over from the Obama years.
I predict SNL will be doing sketches like, “Voice Mails on Obama’s phone left by Joe Biden.”
beep you have -7- unheard messages. First message:
“Hey, man, it’s me, Joe. I, uh, wanted to make sure you got my other messages about getting an endorsement speech or two. I haven’t heard back from you so I thought maybe I didn’t do it right or something. Hey we sure had a fun 8 years, right? Good times, good times. Well, hope to hear back soon. Say hi to the wife and kids from Uncle Joe!”
