He’s the leftwing outsider who nearly became the Democrats’ candidate for president - twice. As his position on the Israel-Gaza war threatens to upset his support, the veteran senator says he’s tired but determined to fight the return of that ‘ bitter, humiliated man’
Is there a real plan to shore up our “democracy” if the Democrats win this election? What is Biden going to do next term that he didn’t do this term?
I feel like people are so fixated on Trump that they can’t see past him. Trump is a giant, clown-shaped piece of shit-- absolutely. How does the opposing party fail at politics so hard that someone like Trump ever even had a shot?
Well yeah, because if he wins there won’t be anything past him for much of the country.
OK? What if Biden wins, is my question. Is the Democrat value-proposition nothing more than “periodic intervals of slightly slower slide into total fascism”?
So, what’s your suggestion then?
Fuck man, I’ve got a lot I guess. Like the kind of shit the Repubs do, but the Dems claim powerlessness to do. Trump has shown that the rule of law only matters if there is some consequence to breaking it. So break the law. Wield the power. Especially if you genuinely feel like this will be the last ever election. Fucking declare an emergency, arrest Trump and everyone else involved in J6. Send the military to reassert power over the national border in Texas. Break up media monopolies, and nationalize telecoms. Why the fuck would you risk losing an election to a criminal gang who want to end democracy?
The supreme Court is slow-rolling determining whether or not a president is liable for criminal activity in office until after the election. If they determine now, then either trump gets held accountable, or Biden has immunity from crimes in office, and can plainly jail or order a hit on trump and a good chunk of Congress.
Obviously though, the president is not immune from the consequences of crimes committed while in the office.
All those possibilities pretty much went out the window when the Democrats nominated Biden. Even if Biden was as left as we would like him to be, he is a technocrat who sees the norms as vital to maintaining the legitimacy of government.
I don’t even necessarily disagree that maintaining legitimacy is vital, but I’d put representing the people over donors a notch higher than maintaining norms.
I don’t actually think they were ever possibilities. Even if Bernie had won, his own party would have trampled over the repubs in order to impeach him first lol.
I don’t think so. The more people actually hear Bernie speak, the more they like him. He wouldn’t be hiding from the public like Biden, he would be leading rallies on the Whitehouse lawn. If Bernie had access to the bully pulpit, impeaching him would be political suicide.
Your suggestions are very tempting, I must say. We don’t want to sleepwalk into fascism. It could be 1930s Germany all over again.
Trump and many of his gang were arrested already, though, and are facing trial. So far, the verdicts have shown that the justice system is still somewhat functional. I don’t think it makes sense to flip the table as long as the justice system continues to hold Trump and his ilk accountable. Taking it to the next level and declaring an emergency would accomplish what, exactly? He has already been charged, so would the point of the emergency declaration be to skip the trial phase and go straight to hanging? Essentially it means outlawing Trumpism, which means purging the GOP, which means civil war. No one wants civil war as long as there is a chance to beat Trump constitutionally.
We had a situation in Canada in the 90s where our second largest province had a very serious vote on whether to separate from Canada. It would have literally ended the country as we know it. It was certainly tempting to arrest the leaders for treason to save the country. However, that would certainly have led to either a civil war or the Quebecois equivalent of the IRA in Canada. So, we persevered through the vote and the remainers won by about 1%, as I recall. We saved the country by the skin of our teeth, but through legitimate democratic means, and so the result was respected.
Yes, that’s correct. Slower slide means more of a chance to fix it.
Fix it how? Like what’s the plan? Is there a plan?
No there is a lesser chance. The worse the conditions get for the more support fascism gets.
If Trump does not win this election, an even worse person will win the next one
But what can you really do? Not voting is beneficial to the open christo fascists, and the only person who has any real world shot at winning an election, for some mind melting reason Joe Biden. The same Joe Biden, who despite his kinda actually not terrible first term, is currently funding a genocide as the wold watches. It’s a shit choice, but this problem isnt going to be fixed this cycle. It’s like punching the clock.
Biden isn’t the only one who could win, and seems to be worse off than a generic dem in swing States, by a long shot. They’re choosing the candidate again, like they did with Hillary, from the ranks of the least popular people in the US. They’re shooting themselves and blaming the left and Muslims in MI already.
I agree that it’s frustrating that Democrats use shitty Republicans as an excuse to be just a tiny bit less shitty. However, it’s getting really annoying that you can’t criticize Trump without someone chiming in with “whadabout Biden?!” and you can’t criticize Biden without getting a “whadabout Trump?!”
They’re both fucking awful. It’s a waste of time criticizing Trump because everybody knows who he is, and the people that like him don’t give a fuck what he does. They aren’t listening to your criticism. I’m don’t think Dem leadership really wants to actually help working class people, but they definitely don’t have much reason to start when people keep voting for the most “conservative” ones out of fear from the monsters which have mysteriously found a way to represent the other half of voters.
As far as Democrats go, Biden is amazing. He’s supported Israel no more than Obama or Clinton did. He’s forgiven tens of billions in oppressive student loans. He enacted a funding bill that will finally establish a HSR network in parts of America. He rolled back disastrous Trump era policies on immigration. He fixed Trump’s disastrous COVID response. He re-established relations among NATO countries and was paramount in alerting the world that Russia was about to invade Ukraine when we all knew Trump was trying to weaken their military with his quid pro quo scheme.
In your opinion, how has Biden failed America?
The more he loses the less likely he’ll be to win, plus he’s old as hell and not aging gracefully. Rebuking Trumpism is shoring up democracy.
Didn’t we rebuke Trumpism last election? I’m asking why the fuck is Trumpism alternating as the most popular political position for the American electorate. This is an indictment of the political acumen of the Democratic party.
We did but facism will never go away. Before they slunk away but now fascists can connect with each other online. Instead of it being a few people that happen to meet up and connect now they can seek each other out. It’s the same reason that racism has made such a dramatic resurgence. It will literally require eternal vigilance.
Is this how it is in all countries? An eternal choice between “whole fascism” and “skim fascism”?
It’s further ahead in the US but coming elsewhere. Even in parliamentary countries fascism is coming back although since they are not first past the post not as pronounced. As long as the internet is around and there’s no repurcissions for belonging to those groups they will be around.
Because Trump is great for me fundraising and keeping party bigwigs at the trough
Sometimes in life there is such a thing that is called: “Maybe there is no Good Vs. Bad just assholes all around”. Good luck with that