***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[IATT]

 

[aepps20]

I will say that each day that we don’t switch up or unite around Joe is a problem. July is still early but if donors are truly cutting off funds and will do so for the remainder of the election it is a problem. My biggest concern is this is starting to look like dems snatching defeat from the jaws of victory through purity tests, agendas and the typical nonsense that gets us every time . Trump is literally helping us win with crazy policies not including Project 2025 and the courts have proved that they will enable any illegal thing he wants to do, but we are too divided, self interested, disinterested or just plain stupid to see it.

 

[aepps20]

What happens if Biden steps aside and his poll numbers skyrocket while his replacement's plummet?

My hope would be that this would be offset by the GOTV efforts and the hyper partisan environment where we are truly a 51-49 race no matter what polling says which I suspect is true.

 

[elpablo21]

 

[IATT]

 

[osh kosh bosh]

I will say that each day that we don’t switch up or unite around Joe is a problem. July is still early but if donors are truly cutting off funds and will do so for the remainder of the election it is a problem. My biggest concern is this is starting to look like dems snatching defeat from the jaws of victory through purity tests, agendas and the typical nonsense that gets us every time . Trump is literally helping us win with crazy policies not including Project 2025 and the courts have proved that they will enable any illegal thing he wants to do, but we are too divided, self interested, disinterested or just plain stupid to see it.

the only person snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is Joe Biden.

 

[lovehateself]

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[Wargames]

Polls are all trash

 

[aepps20]

the only person snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is Joe Biden.

If only it were that simple. No matter what happens if this isn’t handled properly and quickly just enough of our voters might stay home or do something foolish like writing in Joe’s name if he’s replaced, not voting if he isn’t replaced or worse say they will vote for the ticket but spend the next 4 months bashing the ticket to potential swing voters. There is an entire world outside of NT and in my phone banking experience this week (I’m not saying my phone banking is definitive evidence) of the voters I spoke with it was pretty much evenly split. About 51% wanted Joe to stay and the remainder wanted Kamala to take over but everyone said they wanted this to end yesterday to get back to work.

For the first time in a long time I am concerned that we won’t be able to unite in time. I’m just hopeful that this issue will get settled in the next week or so and that we get back to GOTV efforts which have been difficult this week. Trump won’t keep letting us hang around if we don’t smarten up. I am all for beating Trump and that is all that matters.

 

[gry60]

There are numerous examples of how things can, easily very easily, go wrong in a whole lot of ways

But was meaning the French healthy appetite to protest and make that elite political/economic class uncomfortable from time to time

I see.

The advantage European democracies have over ours is that the actual plurality of their legislative bodies in addition to the ease of access to their assembly/parliament via a very open electoral process. This is what allows direct action to be way more effective than here. A dissatisfied people doesn't get captured by a political party because there's always a second best option, unlike here where the effective choice is binary (I don't acknowledge third parties because they never get their candidates in Congress).

 

[gry60]

The Biden buying in part is a lot easier said than done. Nobody who actually needs their keys taken away believes they need their keys taken away

I know, hence why I said "people close to him."

That's why the take the keys away decision is almost always made after an event acutely demonstrating just how bad the decline has become

We're talking about a whole organization here, with surrogates who are gleefully galloping from mic to mic to let us know about how they knew about Biden's age for a long time. Surely, someone should have drafted a succession plan in case he couldn't make it. That's what I would expect from a well-run organization, especially since we're hearing about people noticing things early.

Six months ago losing the advantage of incumbency would have been idiotic. If the reporting is accurate and a more rapid deterioration has been happening within the last 6 months it's hard to imagine getting to this point much sooner

It's not hard. It takes planning. Contingency plans are for "what if" situations, and it's apparent that there isn't one. The part that is being neglected is that if the transition isn't smooth (and it doesn't appear to be), you create an environment where the party as a whole appears incompetent. That also hurts candidates down ballot. By using the media as their bully pulpit, those who want Biden gone don't seem to understand that they can increase that perception of mess among the unaware public, which can also drive down the turnout.

Finally, we still have the 25th amendment. We still have a process to replace Biden if he can't make it past 4 years of governance. Most importantly, his VP is one of the replacement choices, so it's not like there won't be continuation if he kicks the bucket or loses it.