• Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Everyone complains about Biden’s age, but this guy actually tries to primary him and it gets a collective yawn from everyone.

      I wish Biden weren’t super old, but throwing our weight behind anyone but the incumbent just seems like a bad idea to me.

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        Only republicans yell about Biden’s age. Everyone who’s not braindead repube cares more about democracy vs fascism than someone’s age.

        • Communist@lemmy.ml
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          I care a lot about bidens age, actually, I just care that he isn’t trump a lot more.

          • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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            Also, if Biden’s age is a factor, then Trump’s age has to be a factor too. Trump is 4 years younger than Biden. That’s nothing at their age. It would be like me saying that I’m 48 and a friend of mine is 50. All other things being equal, there would be little to no difference between us at our ages.

            Of course, all other things aren’t equal. Trump has demonstrated some worrying signs of cognitive decline. For example, claiming that he’s running against Obama or claiming that he beat Obama in 2016. Yet the media seems to keep dismissing that as “Trump says weird stuff all the time.” But if Biden has the tiniest slip-up, they’ll scream “DEMENTIA” for weeks.

            To me, there’s another factor too. Let’s say that either Trump or Biden, after winning in 2024, would have a major medical event and would be propped up Weekend At Bernie’s style. For whatever reason, they’ll still appear to be President, but the administration would actually run the show. Which administration would you want running things? Biden’s or Trump’s likely administration?

            It’s not even close in my book.

            • prole@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Seriously… Listen to Biden’s recent interview on Conan O’Brien’s podcast. He was surprisingly lucid, and I was very impressed by how he handled himself.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          Unfortunately, there are a lot of younger people on the left who have latched onto those Republican talking points.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            I mean, in 2016 they were Democratic talking points and used against the 75 year old Sanders.

            Progressives remember centrists’ endless hypocrisy.

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        It’s not just his age. I don’t like Biden as a candidate or as a president. I want to vote for someone more progressive, and I wish he were a stronger competitor who guaranteed a victory. He is supremely beatable in November.

        But hes the incumbent president, and there’s no other Democrat who would be a better choice. Unless he dies or is otherwise incapacitated, he will be the nominee, and he’s the best chance at keeping Trump, or any conservative, out of office.

        This guy in New Hampshire, I’ve already forgotten his name and it’s literally only a short scroll away, he isn’t a serious contender. I don’t care what he does because it is irrelevant.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          I don’t like him much, but he’s a better president than I thought he would be. He’s actually moved us down a more progressive path than I expected, especially considering he’s had to fight every step of the way. He just never promotes any of it for some reason. The Inflation Reduction Act was a pretty good start on rebuilding our infrastructure even if the climate change goals were torpedoed by Manchin and even though Biden couldn’t go as far as he wanted with his American Rescue Plan. He’s been filling the federal courts with left-wing judges. He’s done a huge amount to repair our international reputation after Trump threw it in the trash (although we’ll see if that’s still true considering Biden’s Israel stance). He allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which lowered the cost of insulin for millions of Americans. He got a ton of people’s student loans forgiven, although not nearly as many as he wanted.

          Do I wish we had an even better president? Absolutely. But he has been better than I expected and he has never had enough of congress on his side to get his agenda passed anywhere near the way he wanted it.

          • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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            Build Back Better is the single largest investment in green infrastructure by any nation anywhere.

            I want more, but I don’t know that a more progressive president could have done better in this environment.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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              Build Back Better was killed by centrist darling Joe Manchin.

              Do you mean some other piece of legislation?

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              it’s tax incentives for things those corporations were going to do anyhow.

              you can see where biden really is on climate, with his actions pertaining to oil. His presidency has seen more oil released from the national stockpile than all others combined, he took the positive action of personally authorizing the Willow Project in alaska (drilling on national lands); and he’s authorized increased production elsewhere.

              also “this environment” was democratic control of both houses of congress (albeit with really narrow margins)

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                it’s tax incentives for things those corporations were going to do anyhow.

                Absolutely not. I can only really say for sure about the one aspect I’m familiar with, but I can assure you that the “Build America, Buy America (BABA)” requirement included in the funding that was approved in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, would 100% not have happened otherwise.

                In fact, it’s going to be a massive pain in the ass undertaking to get contractors to comply with it in general. There is zero chance that they would have done so otherwise.

                Also, most (if not all, I’m not sure) of the money from the BIL for infrastructure projects will go into contracts that pay prevailing wage to workers. If you’re not familiar with prevailing wage, it’s pretty fucking high. Much higher than a contractor would ever choose to pay a (non-union) worker.

                • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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                  Contractor pay has nothing to do with the environmental aspects of their legislation. The environmental things are all basically subsidizing companies for things there already doing or going to.

                  Further, even the act itself recognizes it’s all going to corpo pockets:

                  (7) by incentivizing domestic manufacturing, domestic content procurement preferences reinvest tax dollars in companies and processes using the highest labor and environmental standards in the world;

                  Ignore the bit about “highest labor and enviro standards”, it’s bald faced bullshit. BABA is subsidizing corporations.

                  Yes, that translates into American job, however… do you really think these corporations are going to be paying most of this subsidy into wages?

                  It’s like how Teslas were 50-60k cars and subsidized with tax. Tesla to buy it, but then suddenly dropped to 40k when people couldn’t afford it anyhow. Or federal school loans directly subsidizing the high cost of tuition.

                  It’s all just corpo pork. Pure and simple.

        • ashok36@lemmy.world
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          The best way to get more left leaning candidates is to move the Overton window left by destroying the repubs at the polls time after time.

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            Right. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. One of the most frustrating things I’ve seen progressives do is not get everything they want and then rage quit politics without realizing that this is even worse than only getting some of what you want.

            In one respect, I wish progressives could be more like Republicans. After Roe v Wade, Republicans didn’t rage quit politics. They pushed for abortion bans, lost, tried again, lost, and repeated until they got some small concession. Then they used that to slowly, over 50 years, build until they overturned Roe.

            Now, obviously, I disagree with their goals. However, I can admire the long term effort put into this. If progressives could do this (with much better goals, of course), we might be able to do some amazing things. Yes, it would be slow at first and that can be frustrating, but imagine if we could have a country 30-50 years from now as far to the left as the Republicans are to the right (but much more sane).

        • I don’t like his position on Israel, but I believe any other position would be political suicide, and with fascist traitors waiting in the wings for a second try, he can’t afford to rock that boat. He’s doing pretty well, considering how divided the country is, and the hand he was dealt.

          Something has to give; our democracy is fraying. If not Orange Stalin, we are in serious danger that the next Republican will be someone more clever, but just as amoral. God forbid we see another Nixon.

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            You’re not wrong, but I think that says more about his ability as a leader than it does about the populace. If he were stronger, had better convictions, made better arguments, he probably would not be backed into so many corners.

            But I also don’t think he has strong opinions. I think he’s an octogenarian politician who just wants to ride out the wave of circumstance into the history books. He was the right guy in the right place at the right time, offending the fewest and opposing the worst of humanity.

            • You know, I think you’re right. If it were Obama, he could afford to be stronger. Heck, if it were Bill, I wouldn’t worry as much about Cheeto Hitler. Clinton was even more centrist, and also not my favorite, but he was a charismatic fucker. And Obama was just bulletproof.

              You’re right; Biden’s a good statesman, but he just hasn’t been able to motivate people. He won only because of the two-party system, and b/c the majority were done with Drumpf, not through any great leadership.

        • Keith@lemmy.zip
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          Except that Biden himself says 50 other Democrats could beat Trump.

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          That’s because you fuckers want Biden and aren’t even willing to try and get someone better.

          You guys are all so scared of what will happen when you fail that you don’t give yourselves a chance to succeed

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            I mean, if we had a young, progressive leader with the backing of the DNC, I’d support that candidate. Is Johnny Milquetoast that candidate? This isn’t a wide open primary where there is no incumbent.

            And yes we’re scared of failure. Biden is hardly the leader we need, but Trump attempted a violent coup and sold state secrets to foreign governments. He is a racist, xenophobic fascist who has said in court that he can assassinate his political rivals with immunity from prosecution, and that fucker put 3 justices on the supreme court.

            This is not a fuck around and find out situation.

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              Sounds like you guys should really run a good candidate instead of bypass congress twice to give weapons to israel to kill brown children.

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                Sounds like you’re not interested in countering their point, you just want to climb up on a soapbox and rant about “you guys” this and “you guys” that all day. Lemmy is for discussion, you’re looking for a blog.

              • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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                Ah, so the penny drops. You hate Biden for his support of Israel. I get that. Israel is engaged in a genocide, and I wish we had a president, or a populace, with the political will to stop it. Are any of the democratic primary challengers running on that?

                Israel should be stopped. The people of Gaza deserve the same human rights as every other human on the planet.

                But universal human rights aren’t on the table. We’re not going to stop supporting Israel. Trump won’t stop supporting Israel. Well, actually, he might if someone pays him enough, but guaranteed the resulting clusterfuck would be a disaster of at least equal proportion. And the damage Trump would do in every other aspect of human life makes that a nonstarter.

                • Zaktor
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                  Are any of the democratic primary challengers running on that?

                  I’d be pretty surprised if Marianne Williamson was pro-war.

      • Darorad@lemmy.world
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        I mean, I don’t want biden, but Phillips is basically just biden except young, basically every policy he has the same or worse position as biden.

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        he’s basically a younger version of biden. keep in mind, most democrats are not complaining about his age, rather… literally everything else. though also his age is a concern in the implications. (He’s been a senator longer than I’ve been alive… he’s literally partly responsible for how we got into this mess.)

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    “Government Repair Truck Coffee Conversations”

    WTF does that even mean? Maybe that’s part of the problem?

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    Here’s his platform if anybody wants to read it. I took a brief look and he doesn’t look materially different from Biden. And Biden at least knows to cancel an event when it’s 20 degrees and the roads are still being plowed. I hope.

    I think the big problem in America is that we don’t know what better even looks like anymore. Yeah, I could work and fight and donate and call and text for Dean Philips and I’ll get more of the same. Or we might get worse, because Trump can at least draw flies.

    The system is broken, and we all feel it.

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    It was literally like the first really cold day after the first decent snow storm this winter in New England, and it’s a weekday. I wouldn’t have gone even if I knew who the hell he is.

    The primary candidate has already been chosen for the Democrats. Biden is probably the only candidate that stands a chance against Trump which is pretty fucking sad.

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      He’s the only one who stands a chance because he’s effectively demanding the nomination (not an unusual stance from the party’s incumbent). Any prominent Democrat could beat Trump, and probably more reliably than Biden given the polling and his unfavorables, but no one of stature will challenge Biden and risk splitting the party. Biden is not our best chance, but he’s the only chance we’re going to get.

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      Democrats really need better candidates. Andy Beshear hopefully takes the reins in 2028

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      First of all, I love that name and am sad he didn’t finish the third one.

      Second of all, Biden only wins if we give up on running someone better.

      If the democrats run Biden and lose, we deserve what we get for settling for half measures

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        Biden only wins if we get off our asses and Vote which is not helped by infighting over a futile attempt to unset the incumbent.

        • tpihkal@lemmy.world
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          It might sound like conspiracy theory, but the Democratic incumbent is already rigged as the candidate unless something happens to Biden.

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            rigged is a stupid choice to describe “not stupid enough to throw away the incumbent advantage”

      • tpihkal@lemmy.world
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        I didn’t know there was a third in the works. Source? More interestingly, was there a title?

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              I strongly believe that the US Native rule is imperative to US Sovereignty so I would never agree to revoking it. You want to lead the country, you have to have a life long investment it.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                I am honestly neutral on this subject. I don’t think it would affect my vote, but the constitution says that you have to be native born, so that’s kind of it.

                • Zaktor
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                  Same. It’ll maybe exclude some people with just as much investment in America as a native born citizen, but we’re a country of 300M+, we shouldn’t have trouble finding scores of equally talented candidates. And yet we’re getting a rematch of two extremely old men who are both disliked by most Americans. Our problem isn’t the presidential qualification requirements.

    • pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world
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      Dean Phillips is literally just a younger Joe Biden, he is running on “I’m not old”. Williamson is running on Bernie’s platform and is actually running on a platform of reform, regardless if you like her or not she is actually something different imo.

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        They were local nobody’s showing up to do an underpaid job. I have personal connections with people that work this type of media coverage and I’m only glad that they enjoy their career over the things that they used to do that sometimes paid more.

        • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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          They were local nobody’s showing up to do an underpaid job.

          Right? It’s not like CNN’s sending out Anderson Cooper to cover this bozo’s little “campaign” event. It’s embarrassing how clueless people on social media are about how the media operates. It’d be hilarious except these same people come to every single damn comment section trying to criticize journalistic practices as if they’re experts rather than discussing the actual article.

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          It is indeed much easier to object to statements no one made than to address someone’s comment.

          And it isn’t a conspiracy it is simply corpos doing what is best for their interests regardless of the damage caused. (see, that is called addressing what was stated rather than making things up and pretending.)

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            You said that they were only covering this because they were desperate to make up a bogus headline.

            Please reread my comment and explain what yours has to do with it.

            • TigrisMorte@kbin.social
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              No, I did not. You assumed I intended that. The headline is written by entirely different people than the story, most often, and it shall reflect marketing’s instructions for click bait as passed down from the board that are only interested in making a “sporting event” style share because no one read the story. In fact the marketing dept. shall often trial multiple different click bait headlines and as per instructions from on high all shall be some variant on “how this is bad for Biden” or “Dems in disarray” or similar. And the editor shall edit the story to reduce length and attempt to support the predetermined PR headline’s premise. No conspiracy, just business standard in modern “journalism”.

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    Everyone is shitting on him but I’d like a Democrat alternative to Biden. I don’t think Biden does a good job selling his accomplishments over the last few years, and while normally I like that mentality, he has to run against somebody that lies loudly to list his accomplishments.

    As long as the primary isn’t tearing the other guy down, what’s the issue here?

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    It’s a shame that this guy, who isn’t wrong that Biden vs. Trump really shouldn’t be our only option is being portrayed as a joke by the media rather than the story being a sad commentary on how disengaged we are as a citizenry.

    • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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      Get off Lemmy, Dean.

      But seriously this is utter nonsense. His failure to garner any interest isn’t indicative of the citizenry being disengaged. All it tells us is that nobody on the national stage gives a shit about a guy whose only job experience is inheriting the family distillery before serving one term in the house of reps and deciding to launch a long shot presidential primary challenge to get himself some attention.

      Maybe, just maybe, this should be a clue that the answer to Trump isn’t a Democratic Trump.

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        I don’t know this guy from Adam, I have no idea what his merits or weaknesses are as a candidate.

        What’s sad is that our options are what they are.

        It’s a clear vote for Biden over Trump for anyone rational, but it’s time we wake up as citizens and fucking vote, every time, every election and always for someone who wants to get money out and get better democratic systems like ranked choice voting in.

        We shouldn’t be piling on someone who took a shot, pointing and saying “see? only the establishment can mint our candidates.” We need new blood.

        That’s all I have to say.

        • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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          I don’t know this guy from Adam, I have no idea what his merits or weaknesses are as a candidate.

          We shouldn’t be piling on someone who took a shot, pointing and saying “see? only the establishment can mint our candidates.” We need new blood.

          I am not going to blindly celebrate a candidate simply for existing but you can do so if you like.

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      I get what you’re saying, but the type of commentary similar to “well the election shouldn’t be this way but here we are” really gives cause to people to be disengaged.

      Even if you really don’t like Biden, look to your House and Senate candidates that may be on the ballot. Support in primaries the ones you agree with most. We have Rep. Tlaib, Rep. Cortez, Rep. Sanders who are extremely vocal about issues and that has sway across the whole party and influences the President as well, no matter who. Get new, passionate faces in government and have them make the process accountable to their constituents.

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        As if what politicans say actually matters in reality. What matters is whom they serve with the laws the pass. And who they pretend to serve with the laws they pass.