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Voters said they didn't want a Biden-Trump rematch. Now they're facing longest general election ever. (abcnews.go.com)

submitted 9 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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"It's almost a cruel joke on the electorate that the longest presidential election potentially ever might also be the one that they're least excited about," said one Democratic pollster, speaking anonymously to candidly discuss the race.

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[-] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 53 points 9 months ago

Well, here's your problem.

Republicans, by and large, want Trump.

Democratic voters, by and large, want to make sure that Trump loses (much like the person he is), and would like any candidate that can offer a high probability of that happening. Biden has already beat Trump once, and has, overall, been a pretty decent president. (Yes, the Israel thing is a mess, I know. From the river to the sea, etc.) Dems might prefer a younger candidate that's better at ramming legislation through--which no Dem could do right now, not with Republicans controlling the House--but preventing a Republican victory is more important.

So that's how we've arrived here.

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago

Bernie would be better. But we already know what the old establishment dems think of him.

[-] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Sanders, while I love the guy, is a more polarizing figure than Biden.

Biden was pretty much always going to be the nominee in 2020 for that reason: he was never anybody's favorite, but he was the one face in that field with the important distinction that while nobody really super liked him, nobody really hated him either. Cast a wide net, big tent, and all that.

While the people who like Sanders really like him, there are also a lot of people who would vote Biden to block Trump for whom being asked to vote for Sanders would be a bridge too far. Not that they'd vote for Trump instead...but they just wouldn't cast a vote for either main party candidate.

...which of course also segues neatly to the fact that Sanders isn't a Democrat, and asking the DNC to nominate someone who's not even a party member is a big ask anyway.

[-] hark@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

If Sanders is a polarizing figure, it's because democrats (and republicans, obviously) paint him that way because his policies diaagree with their donors. In reality, Sanders' policies align with the vast majority of Americans, but there's no way that'll be allowed through our bought-out election system.

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[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 40 points 9 months ago

Biden has advanced a lot of helpful policies for millions of people in his first term, really progressive civil rights policies and good economic and foreign policies.

trump rapes people, lies about it, and repeatedly commits election fraud.

The only way you can pretend these two are remotely similar is if you ignore the real world because you're too cynical to learn anything.

Lazy article, lazy thesis.

[-] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago

The only thing similar about them is that the electorate doesn't want them. Oh, and they're both older than former president Bill Clinton, who has been out of office for 25 years now.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I want Biden. And he won The New Hampshire primary without even being on the ballot.

I think this "the electorate doesn't want him" shit is made up or refers only to people who don't understand or know about the positive consequences of Biden administration policies, repeating vapid, empty headlines

It's repeated too often with zero evidence outside of ludicrous polls to be given any merit.

[-] MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago

The anti Biden noise is basically leftist idealists who would rather spend their time fighting other leftists than the alt right, and Russian bots.

[-] Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Come on, are we really going to pretend that being in your 80s is ideal for a president? At age 81 the probability of dying in any given year is more than 7 percent, reaching more than 10 percent at the end of his presidency at age 85. Let’s not even mention the risk of mental decline. What do we do exactly, if Biden goes the way of Feinstein (incapacitated but unwilling to leave office)?

He’s miles better than the alternative, but it remains a very risky choice. I fear what will happen if Dems need to use the 14th amendment to remove him from office.

[-] TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

These are good points. Problem is that he's basically the only other choice and arguing about whether or not to vote for him only helps Trump right now. I would absolutely vote for someone other than Biden if I thought it would do any good, but it won't. Like it or not we have a two party system in the US so it's Biden or Trump right now.

[-] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

This is why the primary shouldn't have been rigged for him to be the nominee, and one reason he should have stepped aside. Biden currently polls worse than Trump, but do you know who polls higher than Trump? Undeclared Democrat. Biden filled his role and did his job well, but it's time for him to move on. It's a lot like how RBG should have retired and moved on when the timing was right instead of letting her legacy get completely undone.

[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Or edgy 14 year olds just trolling

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Agree, and conservative trolls who want to spread whatever dissent they can since they have no leg to stand on and no viable candidate

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[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago

I'm gonna be honest, this shit is too noisy. I am exhausted by all of this. On top of it all, these fucks make more money in 5 minutes than I will slaving my life away. I hate politics. I hate bribery codified into law. I know it would be worse for everyone if this whole thing imploded but sometimes it feels like that would be a win. Because then maybe some of these fucks that don't realize or care we all have to share the same pie would be forced to take what has been alloted to me all these years. Am I saying I'd rather us all be in the dregs like rats? Probably not, but I think a healthy thing for a society to do is to not allow people to indirectly harm others by claiming a far bigger piece of the global pie than them and their ilk could ever remotely finish.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The problem with implosion is that it’s people like you and I that get hurt, and implosion doesn’t guarantee a sane outcome. To the contrary, countries that have major upheavals generally end up with authoritarians and dictators in power rather than easing into a stable democracy. The rich guys that remain take even more power and wealth. They’re even more untouchable.

The only kind of major upset that would effect real change would literally be to kill off the rich and powerful, especially the extremists. Otherwise it’s a long, difficult slog to possibly, if you’re lucky, change the system via democratic means.

[-] Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

So an oligarchicide? That has a nice ring to it 🍴

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[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

This election started in November 2022, because the media wants to milk as much money as possible from both rage bait and fear mongering.

[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

And yet, democracy itself is on the ballot. I don’t want Joe Biden to be my nominee, but I also realize that Trump is the absolute collapse of America. It’s letting our basest instincts and lesser demons overcome the promise of what we could be.

I don’t care that he’s old and moderate and held dumbass positions in the past. Biden is what is standing between order and chaos. Stability and collapse.

One candidate openly supports lawlessness and fascism for his own personal gain. The other is an old yellow dog Democrat who governs from the center right. It sucks, but the right thing is showing up for Biden IF you vote in a swing state.

If you don’t vote in a swing state, vote hard down ballot, then do whatever for president. It doesn’t really matter.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Biden has not governed from the center right, at least during his presidency.

He's advanced concrete LGBTQ rights more than probably any other president.

People talk about him like they have not been paying any attention to the three years of policy and legislation he's pushed through that advancing civil rights, and it's probably because they aren't paying attention and it's easier to complain then comprehensively analyze the candidates.

trump is a rapist who doesn't care about hurting people for his own gain, so it's pretty easy to analyze him, but these two candidates couldn't be farther apart. In terms of domestic and foreign policy, civil rights, economic policy, it's just they're nothing like at all.

Lazy equivocative articles like this are useless or worse because they're spreading misinformation that Biden, who has actively helped tens of millions of people with his policies, is as bad as Trump, who has actively hurt untold millions with his policies.

[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Biden is an establishment Democrat, and the Democratic party has been a center right party since Bill Clinton.

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[-] Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The trick is to make up your mind on him before he gets sworn in, then it's easy to dismiss any progress as "not far enough" or "just doing it to get re-elected"

[-] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Got no horse in this race, but wouldn't "doing it to get re-elected" be a good thing? Isn't that how democracies are supposed to work?

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[-] spider@lemmy.nz 11 points 9 months ago

They also want a cease-fire in Gaza, but once again, The Big Club doesn't care.

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[-] xc2215x@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

The lack of a good candidate not named those two.

[-] dragontamer@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Nikki Haley is still running. Good grief people... There are 48 primaries left to go. If Republicans want someone else they can still choose Haley.

[-] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago

Yeah, but they won't and you know it

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[-] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago

She is not going to win a single state. Her shot was NH. She is getting buried in the state where she won the governor's race; after she loses there, I can't imagine she'll keep getting funded.

The republican party will split before they abandon Trump.

[-] DannyMac@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Regardless of the outcome, I fear this election will kill me.

[-] LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Because Democrats are assholes and refuse to see how fucking good Biden has been. Perfect is the enemy of good and they keep pushing left and don't have the numbers.

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Do you have a list? Aside from trying student loan forgiveness, empowering unions (after kicking the rail union in the dick), and pushing Ukraine aid, I haven't seen anything spectacular, though I may have missed it.

Abortion still needs addressed federally, corps are killing us with prices and blaming inflation or covid, congress is still insider trading, and right now they're all collectively sucking Israel's dick.

I'll still vote biden but I'm gonna fucking complain about it.

[-] irreticent@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

Do you have a list?

Why yes, I do:

What has Biden done?

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Awesome, thanks!

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[-] Bwaz@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I dunno. These articles strike me as right wing misinfo. I'm VERY excited that Trump NOT get elected again. That wouldn't matter even if he were running against Homer Simpson.

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this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024

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