2024

?

No. That's the point. The democratic primary has been officially canceled as of now. Biden has been declared the candidate with no votes from the people

I think I mentioned this before, but the US is the only country I'm aware of that has any kind of voting at all before a general election (there may be others I'm unaware of) when it comes to parties choosing who the candidate will be. Political parties are private entities. They have no constitutional or legal obligation to hold primaries where the public chooses the party's candidate. They're more like a private company whose board of directors chooses a C.E.O. as opposed to letting employees, customers, or the general public choose who will run the company. Primaries as we now know them didn't start until the beginning of the 20'th century. Both major parties have shown that they'll do what they want to give their preferred candidates on a local to national level an advantage. Those who want to truly have an impact in how and which candidate a party chooses should join and be active in the party as opposed to just registering to vote or even registering with a specific party affiliation. If someone wants a say in how a private party/club is run, the best way to do that is from the inside. Since there's no obligation for parties to hold primary elections, there is no denial of anyone's right to vote because there is no right to vote in a primary. The democratic process and the right to vote apply to the general election only.

That's just an objective (imo) take on how the system "works" and the legalities. I think it'd be great if there primaries held in every state where people could vote on who they believe the party should run - but that ain't the way it's set up. There's any number of changes that could be made to improve how candidates and general election winners are chosen. I think a far greater problem where true election reform is needed is with the Electoral College system which makes it so that not everyone's vote is equal and possible for a candidate with fewer popular votes to win - which is why the GOP will never allow it to be reformed. An equally greater problem than the primary system is the impact of money which weeds out smaller candidates and allows Super PACs and mega-donors to have far too much influence. The electoral process is just a variety of stage shows (where we can participate to a small degree) to make things look more to the public like a professional sport season where primaries are the equivalent of regular season games than a market where moneyed interests buy influence through donations, Super PACs, lobbyists, etc. They used to be more open about decisions on who the candidate will be being made in smoke filled back rooms. Now they've given us the suggestion that we can decide, and though we can participate, the ultimate decision is still (just like it's always been) in the party's hands.

3 years ago traitorous domestic terrorist tried to over run our government and democratic process

Those assholes get less time or punishment than someone with a gram of blow in their pocket

2 for 20 is back at APPLEBEEEEES


This is why no one gives two shits

I mean there is way more to it obviously, but, yeah...Trump 2.0 is the immovable object that is an irresistible force that both are goin to steam roll democracy


To quote stu gotz

Collision course

Hear ya there amigo

Protect n love the ones we can, sit back, pour a drink n roll a doob

Sall we can do

It's gonna get worse before it gets better

I heard something on the NPR politics podcast this morning where one of the pundits suggested that only Trump could lose to Biden and anyone other than Trump has a better chance at beating Biden - recent polling shows Nikki Haley beating Biden by 17%. Conversely, the same applies to Trump - any candidate other than Biden is more likely to win against Trump and only Biden can lose against Trump.

It is crazy. They also mentioned (again) how the majority of voters don't want a rematch of 2020. But that's what it looks like voters are going to get.

Dems should be careful about kneecapping Trump too early. Keeping him off state ballots once he's the nominee is different than denying him the ability to win the GOP nomination. If the GOP is forced to go with a non-Trump Plan B candidate they might find it easier to win in November and pick up some independent sympathy votes who believe it was undemocratic to not let Trump even run and instead it should have been left up to the voters to decide. I'm guessing the Dem strategists would want to make him go the distance or as close to Election Day as possible as opposed to an early round knockout where the GOP can put in someone who will beat Biden with his already low approval numbers like he's an 80 year old boxer.

Instead of a Bugs Bunny v Road Runner election it's going to be more like watching Yosemite Sam and Wile E. Coyote shoot themselves in the foot and jump off cliffs.

The problem isn't cancelled/rigged primaries. It's that all of the potential candidates (Newsom, Whitmer, Buttigieg, et. al.) who rightly/wrongly are considered by the public as being serious contenders with a chance are also being party loyalists now and planning for '28 because they know how the party is run and that an unsuccessful challenge against Biden now would kill any support for a future run (running against and weakening the incumbent of his own party in '80 doomed Kennedy to the Senate/nobody wanted him in '84 or '88). Primaries or not, they're too smart (politically) to run against an incumbent president from their own party. I haven't heard any pundits suggesting that polling shows a non-party outsider like West or Williamson or the random Dem representative currently running against Biden whose name I can't remember could beat Trump.

When people say they don't want Biden I don't interpret that as being they prefer West/Williamson - at least that's what the polls show. I don't think increased exposure, participation in debates, etc. would change their polling numbers much because it hasn't on the GOP side of things where Trump's opponents haven't made a dent. And Trump is as (un)popular as Biden. I think it's probably more accurate to say those not thrilled with Biden would prefer a candidate like Newsom, Whitmer, or any of the other "serious" Dem candidates who may run in '08. I think people look at West/Williamson not as serious candidates, but as people who may be serious in other things and are looking to boost their profile and/or ego by running for President (Williamson/no-name Dem rep.) and/or running to the left of Biden as a protest (West). As people who have no history of working for the party they'd probably be better served running (or maybe just more accurately described if they ran as) third party or Independent as opposed to trying to muscle their way into the party as an outsider - though that worked for Trump who saw GOP opposition collapse once it was clear he brought out a huge base, something I don't see either Williamson or West being able to do. Does anybody think Williamson or West can hold big rallies, sell massive amounts of trucker caps, introduce their version of the word MAGA into the national lexicon, and motivate formerly non-voters to come out and rabidly participate to the same degree Trump did? Primaries or not, neither would get more than a small amount of fringe support and ultimately would weaken the Dem nominee in the process. It's logical for the Dem party to protect their already weak incumbent.

The GOP seems to value winning and power over anything. They'll run a clown if think he'll win; they did and he won. The Dems seem to value party loyalty and participation. They'll run a loyal and dedicated clown who'll lose instead of a better candidate who's a guaranteed winner if they're not an insider. Trump has his base, Biden has his - S. Carolina saved his ass in the '20 primary. Neither base is going to ditch their candidate for West/Williamson/Christie/Ramaswamy and neither party can win without their base. The best those candidates can do is chip away at the eventual candidates support like if West took away Muslim voters in Michigan who'd normally vote for Biden. If you're not part of the base - pick your poison and live with the choice you made.

Something, something, something about "In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve."

"It is crazy. They also mentioned (again) how the majority of voters don't want a rematch of 2020. But that's what it looks like voters are going to get."


...but this is a democracy! lolllll nah more like a corporatocracy.

I think the key is to accept that it's always been like that to some degree or another and not get upset because "it's not fair." But I remember saying that to my dad when I was a kid and his reply was always "who told you life was fair?" Pour another drink, roll another doob, do what you gotta do to get by in the corporatocracy run by idiots and assholes.

I don't think it matters if anyone can articulate a good argument or not. What matters is that for whatever reasons, rightly or wrongly, he's (currently) not popular with a large segment of people who normally vote Democrat. I can see how that would be frustrating, how it doesn't make sense, but the logic of his successes in his first term won't win over people who don't want to vote for him because of their feelings about him. It's kind of like the concept of love. Everyone tells you you're crazy for being with or wanting to be with somebody and they have all sorts of good, logical sounding reasons for saying so, but the heart wants what the heart wants and people will turn away a perfectly good potential partner for one who is a complete disaster no matter the logic.

One thought is that people are expressing their dissatisfaction with Biden to pollsters now, but when it comes time to cast their ballot will look at things more as the typical 'lesser of two evils' choice they're already used to making and vote against having Trump in the WH again. Biden seems to be banking on that to get him through.

For me it's Biden's age which makes it a decision where people have to think how they feel about potentially having an ailing president followed by a (perhaps less popular than Biden) Harris presidency, his foreign policy which looks Bush like neocon pro military industrial complex, the Afghanistan pullout debacle, his blasé attitude when it comes to his political opponents, and only running on but not fighting for progressive values. But I don't expect to get everything I want under the tree for Christmas, accept that you take what you can get, and figure 4 more years of Biden would be much better than 4 more years of Trump.