Review @DukeTrout’s assessment above. He has been far from perfect, but to claim there is no evidence of improvement is a bit of a stretch.
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No, I’m saying we’re in the mess we’re in with the far right taking over one of the major political parties, to the point of becoming a full-on fascist party, because they embraced white supremacy dog-whistling as a strategy way on back with Nixon and with a vengeance under Reagan. That’s not on the Democrats, whatever their flaws. They are a normal political party in a two-party system. Voting against the Democrats just because they are what most normal political parties isn’t helpful and will empower the fascists running the GOP. We are very likely looking at the end of an actual democratic system, moving back to a white supremacist ethno-republic instead, like we were before the civil rights acts of the 60s. That’s not acceptable. If you’re willing to sacrifice the rights (and, frankly, the LIVES) of large swaths of the country to teach the Democrats “a lesson” then you’re not helping anyone BUT the fascists…
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That’s not fair. Brick’s daddy didn’t get him his job.
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Uh, no, it’s the Republicans fault for doing that. Not sure why that is confusing?
How is voting for the best cantdidate on offer in the general election, and phone banking for and voting for the best candidate on offer in the primary ‘doing nothing’?
This election (and the last one) are existential crises because the Repubs have become Nazis. This is not due to Dems not getting their act together, it’s because the Repubs are Nazis. (And a sadly predictable chunk of the populace is OK with that) The Dems, if anything, have moved a smidge left vs the Clinton days.
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You are definitely making a strawman logical fallacy here. No where have I recommended voting against Democrats and elect Republicans to ‘teach Dems a lesson’. Please stay on topic.
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(shrug) There are plenty of younger candidates and fresh blood. The GOP works tireless to try and beat them down before they gain too much respect (see: how they treat AOC). Doesn’t matter, because guess who the Democratic voters did NOT choose in the primaries in 2020? Yeah, those folks. They wanted someone they knew and trusted.
Meanwhile, this same party you think isn’t doing enough to promote younger candidates voted for Obama twice.
Biden is an old man. He comes across poorly on television. But I have FAR more faith he can put together good cabinets of advisors than any GOP candidate ever would. I have far more faith he’ll LISTEN to those advisors when the time comes. I’ve seen he’s done in a little over 3 years, and he’s been surprisingly more leftist than I thought, with few stumbles.
So, yeah, he’s old. So fucking what? Doesn’t mean he’s not doing a great job, even if you don’t want to admit it. There’s FAR more to being president than looking good on camera.
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Not really no… your first comment…
And such narratives do very much ignore what good that he’s been able to do in the past few years (as highlighted by @DukeTrout), and to make it seem like it’s normal times happening out there. We really are in emergency mode, and I’m kind of sick of people pretending like that’s not the case…
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Its the Republicans who are obstructionists, attacking rule of law and defending felons in office.
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Don’t forget the gerrymandering to prevent those new rising stars from ever getting to office.
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Wanting the Dems to deepen their bench of new leadership is NOT somehow a ‘call to arms’ to elect GOP leaders. So, unfortunately, I do think you have strayed from the point.
We can’t even have a discussion on policy, because the only thing that comes out of the GOP mouth’s anymore is culture war bullshit… And whatever weaknesses the Democrats have, they are the only bulwark against the extremists the GOP has become. We can hope the courts will deal with Trump and the MAGA movement for what they’ve tried to do to their country, but if they don’t, we really all need to band together and do the hard work of getting these bastards out of office and saving ourselves.
They have. Again, refer to @DukeTrout’s excellent points of the good work they’ve done, despite the GOP working hard to gum up the works.
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It’s confusing me, in the context of when you wrote
We would be less likely to have elections that were existential crises if the Dems would get their act together.
which sounds very much like victim-blaming.
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Hell, Democrats in swing states have already worked to save the country, so, I really don’t know what “act” the party needs to get together?
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And faith isn’t needed. We have a history that we all know.
The Biden Administration wasn’t just “not Trump”; they achieved some truly great things.
Sure, they fucked up big time on some big things. Like Gaza. But nothing the other guy wouldn’t have done.
We should stop damning them with faint praise - the best administration in decades on a lot of important matters. Push them on their failures. But don’t accept your opponents messaging.
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Jinx!
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Or honestly worse… Trump would be ALL in on Palestinian ethnic cleansing and genocide. It’d be far worse under a Trump administration, as bad as it is now (and it’s awful now).
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Exactly. I have plenty of criticisms of the Dem establishment and the duopoly system. But the threat from the other duopoly party is here and now, and all the whinging in the world won’t make Biden* younger, or the DNC less hapless, or put ranked choice voting** in place before November. We have to focus on defeating fascism on the battlefield we’re stuck with, not on the one we wish we had.
Whatever one’s criticisms of Biden, he hasn’t taken away a fundamental right (as TFG did via his SCOTUS appointments), he’s not going to kow-tow to Putin, and he doesn’t have something like Project 2025 waiting for after his election.
[* who’s been a pleasant surprise on many policy fronts, a reminder of what it’s like to have a grownup back in office.]
[** Not that the current alternatives to the duopoly parties are that compelling outside anti-vaxxers and Libertarian woo peddlers and people who think Joe Manchin is a paragon of good faith.]
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Maybe it’s a lack of vision that allows people to miss what seems obvious: that our pathway to a much better, more equal society is not going to be accomplished in one step but rather in thousands of tiny increments. We need to make things a little better before they can get much better. Dems right now aren’t the leaders we need in ten years or twenty or 50. But the vast majority really do work to make things a little better for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we push for that next increment. The next day, we push for more, etc etc etc. We have a lot of ground to make up to overcome the regression of T****’s term in office. But to think we can jump ahead overnight is naive to the point of childishness.
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