• magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    I think this is as strong as could reasonably be expected from Harris. It’s also brilliant politically. People who wouldn’t have voted for Biden because of Palestine may be willing to go with Harris.

    In addition to age, this makes two of Biden’s biggest drawbacks crushed in one week. I like it.

    • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Dems actually executed a plan shockingly well. Get the Republican anti-Biden propaganda machine to load up on specific issues, then swap Biden with someone that doesn’t have those issues. Now that the populace has been agitated on those issues, point out that Trump is the candidate who is old and fucks with Palestine. Classic bait and switch. Trump fell for the trap.

      Kamala isn’t perfect, but she seems to be running on prosecuting and cleaning up the Trump crime spree. I can get behind that. A relief to see the dems pull something like this off. Acting like they were completely blowing it was just so believable. Biden’s debate performance really sold it.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        I am at least 90% sure it wasn’t an act. They actually were just blowing it. You have to recognize Biden is the head of the party currently, even still as Harris is taking over. He spent his entire life gaining power. He didn’t want to give it up. He just had enough people around him tell him he wasn’t going to keep power no matter what and was just going to fuck over the party that he eventually listened. This wasn’t some genius play by the Democrats, rather just the Republicans fucking up in their strategy assuming Biden was the only possible opponent.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          He spent his entire life gaining power. He didn’t want to give it up.

          I’ve always been mystified by people that old wanting to cling to power. I’m a generation younger than Biden and I mainly just want a nap.

          • Zink@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            It makes me ponder how mentally ill I would have to be to be a rich 80-year old healthy enough to get around and do things with my grand kids, and not just have a job but dedicate my entire fucking life to it.

        • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          True, but the playing field surely influenced the decision of Biden to drop out at this point. This was a great move by him. His debate performance, intentionally bad or not, set this up. He stayed in through the joke of a primary to avoid divisiveness and in-fighting. He didn’t prepare for the debate because he’s too old to both campaign and govern properly. Unity in the party intact, and all Republican attacks focused on Joe The Man, Joe was easily pulled out from in front of the charging media machine with unity and the party intact to regroup against the overcommitted enemy.

          The replacement, hand picked by Biden 4 years ago, is a prosecutor ready to carry out the American Dream of locking up the “bad guys”. Most of the country agrees that there is a major corruption issue in our government. I hope Kamala has a clear plan for fixing it that goes beyond the standard punishment fetish of the criminal justice system of which she was an agent. To get systemic change, we need to change the system. I want to hear what upgrades she has in mind. We need a more sophisticated system of checks and balances.

          The stories of giving up power for the good of all is a solid subset of the good impacts this country has had in the world. We haven’t always done it. We have done and are doing a lot of bad in the world. But when we do good, the story of giving up or sharing power is an American classic.

      • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        I’m not even sure the debate was a performance. I thought they really were completely blowing it, but just recovered incredibly well. I never even considered your idea of an unusually organized Democratic Party! Organization is not something they’re typically known for.

        • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          He answered the Roe V Wade question by talking about migrant crime, and handed Trump an easy response/diversion on his hardest question. Total flag maneuver. He threw the debate and hammed it up. Let Trump’s head get big and let the Republicans overcommit and overspend against the straw man before saying psyche.

          A subversion of the “democratic” primary process, perhaps, but those have been a joke the past few cycles anyway. Not to mention “Superdelegates”. We need a constitutionally protected primarying and election process that isn’t run by the largest parties. I hope that it gets included in Kamala’s electoral reform package. Europe can hold snap elections, why can’t we? Europe has a sane system of parties that form alliances instead of an artificial binary choice. We need to upgrade our democracy to the 20th century advancements that we promoted elsewhere, and add further 21st century enhancements like ranked choice voting.

          I am not saying it was orchestrated as much as navigated well.