2020 Presidential Election 3: We're Down To Old White Men...And Fucking Kanye.

[GreyhoundFan]

From the advisory board of the Lincoln Project (including George Conway and Rick Wilson): "We’ve never backed a Democrat for president. But Trump must be defeated."

Spoiler

This November, Americans will cast their most consequential votes since Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in 1864. We confront a constellation of crises: a public health emergency not seen in a century, an economic collapse set to rival the Great Depression, and a world where American leadership is absent and dangers rise in the vacuum.

Today, the United States is beset with a president who was unprepared for the burden of the presidency and who has made plain his deficits in leadership, management, intelligence and morality.

When we founded the Lincoln Project, we did so with a clear mission: to defeat President Trump in November. Publicly supporting a Democratic nominee for president is a first for all of us. We are in extraordinary times, and we have chosen to put country over party — and former vice president Joe Biden is the candidate who we believe will do the same.

Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee and he has our support. Biden has the experience, the attributes and the character to defeat Trump this fall. Unlike Trump, for whom the presidency is just one more opportunity to perfect his narcissism and self-aggrandizement, Biden sees public service as an opportunity to do right by the American people and a privilege to do so.

Biden is a reflection of the United States. Born into a middle-class family in coal-country Pennsylvania, he has known the hardship and heartbreak that so many Americans themselves know and that millions more are about to experience.

Biden’s personal tragedies and losses tested his strength, his faith and his determination. They were enough to crush most people’s spirit, but Biden emerged more compassionate toward the suffering of others and the burdens that life imposes on his fellow Americans.

Biden did what Americans have always done: picked himself up, dusted himself off and made the best of a bad situation. In the years since he first entered office, Biden has consistently demonstrated decency, empathy and humanity.

Biden’s life has been marked by triumphs that didn’t change the goodness in him, and he is a man for whom public service never went to his head. His long record of bipartisan friendship and cross-partisan legislative efforts commends him to this moment. He is an imperfect man, but a man who loves his country and its people with a broad smile and an open heart.

In this way, Trump is a photonegative of Joe Biden. While Trump has innumerable flaws and a lifetime of blaming others for them, Biden has long admitted his imperfections and in doing so has further illustrated his inherent goodness and his willingness to do the work necessary to help put the United States back on a path of health and prosperity.

Unlike Trump, Biden is not an international embarrassment, nor does he demonstrate malignant narcissism. A President Biden will steady the ship of state and begin binding up the wounds of a fractured country. We have faith that Biden will surround himself by advisers of competence, expertise and wisdom, not an endless parade of disposable lackeys.

For Trump, the presidency has been the biggest stage, under the hottest klieg lights in a reality show of his making. Every episode leaves the audience more shocked and divided. Trump’s only barometer is his own ego. The country, our values and its people do not factor into Trump’s equation.

Biden understands a tenet of leadership that far too few leaders today grasp: The presidency is a life-and-death business, that the consequences of elections have real-world effects on individual Americans, and that all of this — all of the struggle, toil and work — is not a zero-sum game.

The coronavirus crisis is a terrifying example of why real leadership looks outward. This crisis, the deaths and economic destruction are immeasurably worse because Trump and his administration were unwilling to do what was necessary to mitigate its worst effects and bring the country back as quickly as possible.

We asked ourselves: How would a Biden presidency handle this crisis? Would he spend weeks lying about the risk? Would he look to cable news, the stock market and his ratings before taking the steps to make us safer? The answer is obvious: Biden will be the superior leader during the crisis of our generation.

We’ve seen the damage three years of corruption and cultish amateurism can do. This country cannot afford to be torn apart for sport and profit for another term, as Trump will surely do. If Biden takes office next January, he won’t need on-the-job training.

We are in a transcendent and transformative period of American history. The nation cannot afford another four years of chaos, duplicity and Trump’s reality distortion. This country is crying out for a president with a spine stiffened by tragedy, a worldview shaped by experience and a heart whose compass points to decency.

It is our hope that when the next president takes the oath of office in January, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will be the president for a truly united America. The stakes are too high to do anything less.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I hope they listen:

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

14 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I hope they listen:

 

I accidentally listened to a little bit of Jimmy Dore the other day and there is a subset of Never Bidens out there who are furious and absolutely will not vote for Joe.

I absolutely get being disappointing that your agenda won't top the ticket, but I don't understand those who seem to have less of an issue with Trump than the moderates in their party.

[AmericanRose]

I'm disgusted by Never Biden's. Yes, he's problematic, yes I'm bored of this 'old white men leading the US' dynamic, yes he's not as progressive as I want... but we have a way better shot of getting progressive legislation passed with him at the helm than we do with Trump. And we have an even better chance of him not entirely fucking the country - Biden, at least, won't assume himself god and think he has no need of advisors, and surround himself with yes-men who actually know very little about whatever they've been given to oversee.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

2 minutes ago, AmericanRose said:

I'm disgusted by Never Biden's. Yes, he's problematic, yes I'm bored of this 'old white men leading the US' dynamic, yes he's not as progressive as I want... but we have a way better shot of getting progressive legislation passed with him at the helm than we do with Trump. And we have an even better chance of him not entirely fucking the country - Biden, at least, won't assume himself god and think he has no need of advisors, and surround himself with yes-men who actually know very little about whatever they've been given to oversee.

I agree - not my top pick by any stretch either, but as I read somewhere where they put it so succinctly.

Who do you want picking the replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg?  Trump or Biden?

[AmericanRose]

@HerNameIsBuffy Also that!

Plus I mean... we can have all the policy positions and whatever we want, but the reality of the office is much different. There's no reason a Democratic Congress with a Democratic President can't accomplish worthwhile things. The key is electing the right people.

And reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. We need it now more than ever, and it should be updated to include tech platforms as well, instead of letting them decide whether or not they'll allow false advertising - they're a business, they'll obviously do whatever will earn them more money.
If they're not going to abolish the EC, they should at least give us that!

[fraurosena]

Georgia Dem who endorsed Trump announces resignation a week later

Quote

Democratic Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones, who angered many of his colleagues by endorsing President Donald Trump earlier this year, abruptly resigned his seat on Wednesday.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Jones said he would not finish out his term, while also slamming people who criticized him for endorsing the president.

“Turn the lights off, I have left the plantation,” Jones said in a statement. “Someone else can occupy that suite. Therefore, I intend not to complete my term effective April 22, 2020.”

In an interview conducted on The Rashad Richey Morning Show shortly after announcing his resignation, Jones also insisted that he was staying in the Democratic Party despite his endorsement of the president.

“I don’t plan to leave the Democratic Party because somebody’s got to be in there to hold them accountable —hold them accountable to how they are treating black people [and] root out the bigotry,” he said.

Richey described Jones as a “clown” and he hung up on him during a contentious interview.

 

[fraurosena]

Oof. This hits the feels. 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

48 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Oof. This hits the feels. 

 

Politics completely aside, empathy is like a balm on my soul at this point.

[TuringMachine]

On 4/16/2020 at 12:45 PM, AmericanRose said:

I'm disgusted by Never Biden's. Yes, he's problematic, yes I'm bored of this 'old white men leading the US' dynamic, yes he's not as progressive as I want... but we have a way better shot of getting progressive legislation passed with him at the helm than we do with Trump. And we have an even better chance of him not entirely fucking the country - Biden, at least, won't assume himself god and think he has no need of advisors, and surround himself with yes-men who actually know very little about whatever they've been given to oversee.

Agree completely. As someone who likes Bernie, I can't comprehend going from Bernie to Trump. Or even not voting, which is almost the same thing. I just... how could you possibly support Bernie, but chose Trump over Biden? I can't wrap my brain around it.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

11 minutes ago, TuringMachine said:

Agree completely. As someone who likes Bernie, I can't comprehend going from Bernie to Trump. Or even not voting, which is almost the same thing. I just... how could you possibly support Bernie, but chose Trump over Biden? I can't wrap my brain around it.

I hate watched Jimmy Dore once and now my youtube recommends are filled with progressives who are Never Bidens and absolutely advocating for not voting at all.  Sitting it out until their voices are heard and represented.

I get it in theory, and even in practice if it were almost anyone else, but with the alternative being Trump?  I sincerely just want to understand that mindset.  Not being snarky as these people have deeply held beliefs, I just can't wrap my head around why handing another 4 years to Trump makes sense to them.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I hate watched Jimmy Dore once and now my youtube recommends are filled with progressives who are Never Bidens and absolutely advocating for not voting at all.  Sitting it out until their voices are heard and represented.

I get it in theory, and even in practice if it were almost anyone else, but with the alternative being Trump?  I sincerely just want to understand that mindset.  Not being snarky as these people have deeply held beliefs, I just can't wrap my head around why handing another 4 years to Trump makes sense to them.

They're all cutting off their nose to spite their face.

They think like short-sighted little children. You want me to vote for someone that I don't like, and it's not for the person I demanded? And if I don't vote it you'll be hurt? Well good, then I choose to hurt you! I'm not going to look at the fact that not voting also hurts me. All I care about is hurting you for trying to make me vote for someone who is not my preferred candidate. So there! Oh, and when I eventually find out that not voting actually hurts me too, I'll blame you. Because if you had done what I wanted in the first place, then nobody would have been hurt. 

 

[Marmion]

On 4/14/2020 at 5:52 PM, fraurosena said:

How much did they pay him? Or, what are they blackmailing him with?

 

Quoted from the article . 

Quote

When you look at the unemployment rates among black Americans before the pandemic, they were at historic lows. That’s just a fact.”

I looked it up , and here's what I found out .  

Quote

Black unemployment fell to a record low in August, helped by a jump in the number of black women on the job.

The unemployment rate for black workers fell to 5.5% from 6%, according to the Labor Department data. The previous record low of 5.9% was set in May 2018.

The unemployment rate for black women fell to a record 4.4% from 5.2% in July. The unemployment rate for black men crept up to 5.9% from 5.8%. But the previous month's rate was a record, so the rate is still near its historic low.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/economy/black-unemployment-rate/index.html  But with that being said , unemployment numbers can be misleading .  https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2018/05/05/sure-unemployment-went-down-because-the-number-of-people-working-did/?fbclid=IwAR07U3PuT5xzsxtqJDgwzsRdotILC1xolVwH6vquQKLci8XQq_h2bQOeLd0#469b9981408b     

Spoiler

 

But supposedly there is a Democrats for Trump group .  https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/475399-trump-campaign-launches-democrats-for-trump   

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

We'll have to see if the Lincoln Project helps to offset this phenomenon . 

[fraurosena]

Well isn't this the ultimate irony? Using Reagan's own words to show why you should vote blue.

 

[milkteeth]

On 4/22/2020 at 10:13 AM, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I hate watched Jimmy Dore once and now my youtube recommends are filled with progressives who are Never Bidens and absolutely advocating for not voting at all.  Sitting it out until their voices are heard and represented.

I get it in theory, and even in practice if it were almost anyone else, but with the alternative being Trump?  I sincerely just want to understand that mindset.  Not being snarky as these people have deeply held beliefs, I just can't wrap my head around why handing another 4 years to Trump makes sense to them.

 

I want to preface this by saying that I think people should vote for Biden, especially if they live in swing states, as a form of harm reduction…. so please no downvotes. I volunteered for Bernie’s campaign both in my state and to a smaller degree in the national campaign. I consider myself to be a democratic socialist, and so I have heard what folks in the Never Biden camp are saying. In my experience there are two groups of people who are saying they’ll never vote for Biden people; those who won’t out of a political strategy and those who won’t do so out of despair.

For many on the left, and especially those in the in never Biden camp, they don’t view Trump’s election as an improbable event that will be righted once he’s voted out of office. They believe that Trump is a symptom, and the disease is the rightward march of both political parties in this country for the past 40 years. For them, having things “go back to normal” and electing Biden is only furthering the problem that gave us Trump and will give us someone worse in the future.

They also believe that power (in this case the establishment Democratic Party) never concedes anything without demand. If you show the party that you will be obedient and they have your votes no matter what…why would they ever show you the time of day?

To quote Lawrence O’Donnell from the documentary An Unreasonable Man.

“If you want to pull the major party that is closest to the way you’re thinking to what you’re thinking, you must show them that you’re capable of not voting for them. If you don’t show them that you’re capable of not voting for them they don’t have to listen to you, I promise you that. I worked within the Democratic Party. I didn’t listen, or have to listen to anything on the Left while I was working in the Democratic Party because the left had no where to go.”

The party can move further to the right, continue to create policies that mainly benefit their corporate donors while ordinary people continue to fall further behind. In the meantime the Republicans will also be given cover to move further and further to the right as well, to the point where they are growing more and more openly fascist by the day. Trump is a disaster yes, but what replaces him within the Republican Party will be even worse.

The second, and I think probably larger group are people who are so disillusioned with the political process and so despairing of their circumstances that they wonder what the point of it all is. They are people drowning in student loan debt, medical debt all while their paychecks and chances of a better life grow smaller and smaller. Bernie was someone who at least acknowledged their pain and said that he would fight for them. Right now their thinking is, "If the nominee and the establishment Democrats won’t even see people me or the challenges I face.. then why should I go stand in line for 8+ hours to vote for them like some kind of sucker? All they can promise while campaigning is a return to a status quo that was miserable to begin with then I shouldn’t waste my limited time or energy even caring about politics at all." I wish I had the answers for what we can all do to bring these people back into the fold but I’m working on this for several people that I know myself.

I do also know several women, many of them sexual assault survivors, who are disgusted by the fact that they are being told to vote for a nominee who has had accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault from former female subordinates. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

20 minutes ago, milkteeth said:

 

I want to preface this by saying that I think people should vote for Biden, especially if they live in swing states, as a form of harm reduction…. so please no downvotes. I volunteered for Bernie’s campaign both in my state and to a smaller degree in the national campaign. I consider myself to be a democratic socialist, and so I have heard what folks in the Never Biden camp are saying. In my experience there are two groups of people who are saying they’ll never vote for Biden people; those who won’t out of a political strategy and those who won’t do so out of despair.

For many on the left, and especially those in the in never Biden camp, they don’t view Trump’s election as an improbable event that will be righted once he’s voted out of office. They believe that Trump is a symptom, and the disease is the rightward march of both political parties in this country for the past 40 years. For them, having things “go back to normal” and electing Biden is only furthering the problem that gave us Trump and will give us someone worse in the future.

They also believe that power (in this case the establishment Democratic Party) never concedes anything without demand. If you show the party that you will be obedient and they have your votes no matter what…why would they ever show you the time of day?

To quote Lawrence O’Donnell from the documentary An Unreasonable Man.

“If you want to pull the major party that is closest to the way you’re thinking to what you’re thinking, you must show them that you’re capable of not voting for them. If you don’t show them that you’re capable of not voting for them they don’t have to listen to you, I promise you that. I worked within the Democratic Party. I didn’t listen, or have to listen to anything on the Left while I was working in the Democratic Party because the left had no where to go.”

The party can move further to the right, continue to create policies that mainly benefit their corporate donors while ordinary people continue to fall further behind. In the meantime the Republicans will also be given cover to move further and further to the right as well, to the point where they are growing more and more openly fascist by the day. Trump is a disaster yes, but what replaces him within the Republican Party will be even worse.

The second, and I think probably larger group are people who are so disillusioned with the political process and so despairing of their circumstances that they wonder what the point of it all is. They are people drowning in student loan debt, medical debt all while their paychecks and chances of a better life grow smaller and smaller. Bernie was someone who at least acknowledged their pain and said that he would fight for them. Right now their thinking is, "If the nominee and the establishment Democrats won’t even see people me or the challenges I face.. then why should I go stand in line for 8+ hours to vote for them like some kind of sucker? All they can promise while campaigning is a return to a status quo that was miserable to begin with then I shouldn’t waste my limited time or energy even caring about politics at all." I wish I had the answers for what we can all do to bring these people back into the fold but I’m working on this for several people that I know myself.

I do also know several women, many of them sexual assault survivors, who are disgusted by the fact that they are being told to vote for a nominee who has had accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault from former female subordinates. 

 

I really appreciate this post.  You've answered some questions I had and beyond that given me a lot to think about.  Thank you.

 

[CatFriend]

1 hour ago, milkteeth said:

The second, and I think probably larger group are people who are so disillusioned with the political process and so despairing of their circumstances that they wonder what the point of it all is. They are people drowning in student loan debt, medical debt all while their paychecks and chances of a better life grow smaller and smaller. Bernie was someone who at least acknowledged their pain and said that he would fight for them. Right now their thinking is, "If the nominee and the establishment Democrats won’t even see people me or the challenges I face.. then why should I go stand in line for 8+ hours to vote for them like some kind of sucker? All they can promise while campaigning is a return to a status quo that was miserable to begin with then I shouldn’t waste my limited time or energy even caring about politics at all." I wish I had the answers for what we can all do to bring these people back into the fold but I’m working on this for several people that I know myself.

I have a lot of acquaintances that fall into the same boat as the group you described. I have been trying to encourage them to vote (I live in Pennsylvania, so it's extra important since we are a swing state) by also telling them that they should find other people down ticket who do speak to their concerns and support them as well. I have also been trying to push them to see increased participation in politics as a sign that it could be politically inconvenient to ignore this group of people, especially since the people I talk to are all about college aged. 

There are some things about Biden that are definitely icky (I am mostly talking about the sexual assault allegations) that I can understand people having concerns about but I have also framed it as being a choice of who replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg since I have much more faith in Biden compared to Trump. 

[Marmion]

3 hours ago, milkteeth said:

They also believe that power (in this case the establishment Democratic Party) never concedes anything without demand. If you show the party that you will be obedient and they have your votes no matter what…why would they ever show you the time of day?

I used to completely agree with this .  I even voted for Jill Stein , the Green Party candidate , in the last presidential election , and I live in a swing state too .  But now of days , unless a Democratic candidate proves to be inept , or even downright  corrupt , I will consistently vote blue no matter who .  The primary is the time to have a voice , and influence the direction of the party , and by the way , for what it's worth , I voted for Warren .  But the general election is the time when we must come together , and unite in common cause against Trump , and all that he represents .  The flip side of the argument quoted above is that if you show the Democratic party that your going to be petulant , if you don't get your way all the way , why should they give you the time of day , as you have rendered yourself unreliable , and irrelevant .   Now is not the time to be particular , but rather to come togetogether , and rock the vote .  

Spoiler

 

https://www.rockthevote.org/echosmith-lead-singer-sydney/  

Edited April 24, 2020 by Marmion

[fraurosena]

The Lincoln Project's latest:

 

[fraurosena]

11 hours ago, milkteeth said:

They also believe that power (in this case the establishment Democratic Party) never concedes anything without demand. If you show the party that you will be obedient and they have your votes no matter what…why would they ever show you the time of day

 

11 hours ago, milkteeth said:

The party can move further to the right, continue to create policies that mainly benefit their corporate donors while ordinary people continue to fall further behind. In the meantime the Republicans will also be given cover to move further and further to the right as well, to the point where they are growing more and more openly fascist by the day.

The thing about all this that I don't understand is this: Bernie was an Independent. Not a Democrat. I don't get how he could even be in the running for the nomination for the Democratic Party -- or why he would want to be one. Why didn't he run as an Independent? 

In 2016, he chose (rightly, in my opinion) that the Democratic Party wasn't a good fit anymore because the party wasn't as far to the left as his ideals are. So why on earth try and be the candidate for the party which you already know is not close to your political ideas? That is setting yourself up to fail. That is promising your followers something you know the party won't deliver. And I honestly think that then turning around and pointing at the 'establishment' of the party is rather hypocritical -- he left the party because of it, remember.

So, what was his point, exactly? To show the Democratic Party wasn't left enough? But everyone knew that already. To try and drag the majority of the party over to the left? But what incentive would they have to do that?

To be clear, if I were an American, I would almost certainly lean extremely far to your political left. It's not the ideals themselves I have a problem with. I do have a problem with Bernie's attempts to force a party to move in a direction it's clearly not ready for; whilst he had already acknowledged that the party wasn't ready for it by leaving it in the first place.

Should his followers and the ideals of the left be ignored then? Of course not. But they should realise that in the current situation, it's a choice between authoritarian rule, or going back (somewhat, I don't think politics can fully go back) to the way it was. Although the previous situation was far from ideal, it has to be conceded that it is a far better state to be in than a far-right dictatorship. That is the point of these elections. Because if (when) Biden wins, and things revert back a bit, at least there is a chance for the political left to begin to (gradually) change things -- an impossibility under authoritarian rule. 

What it boils down to for them, I would say, is taking the chance for change, or giving it up completely. Not voting is giving up the chance of ever reaching your ideals. Why would anyone want to do that?

[AmericanRose]

I have to admit, it did kind of rub me the wrong way that an Independent was running for the Democratic nomination. Other countries have more than 2 political parties, I don't understand why we can't!

My hope is that the GOP implodes on itself and becomes a centrist party, whilst the Democrats move further left.

But for now, this is where we are. ?

[Alisamer]

20 hours ago, milkteeth said:

I do also know several women, many of them sexual assault survivors, who are disgusted by the fact that they are being told to vote for a nominee who has had accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault from former female subordinates. 

I get this. I do.

But my immediate gut response was "So they'd rather have TRUMP??!?!?! The one who has had accusations of raping a 13-year-old, admitted committing sexual assault on tape, was buddies with Epstein, etc?"

Ideally, credible accusations of such a thing would be investigated and if found true, a disqualifier for running for office. But if someone is more disgusted by Biden than Trump to the point they'll risk leaving Trump in the Oval Office, I don't even know where to start with that.

16 hours ago, Marmion said:

unless a Democratic candidate proves to be inept , or even downright  corrupt , I will consistently vote blue no matter who .  The primary is the time to have a voice , and influence the direction of the party , and by the way , for what it's worth , I voted for Warren .  But the general election is the time when we must come together , and unite in common cause against Trump , and all that he represents . 

This. So much this.

If this is the way Trump "governs" when he knows he's facing an election, how much worse will it be when he is in a second term? He no longer has to pander to anyone, and will probably put his full efforts into keeping himself in power indefinitely. He's already  seen that the republicans won't do anything but roll over and grovel at his feet, so if he is re-elected he's going to assume he's invincible.

[fraurosena]

 

[fraurosena]

Someone has shown him the ads...