• lennybird@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I suppose you’ve heard that old adage of, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” After all, we sort of utilized that during WWII to fight the nazis,

    So he hasn’t moved his policies whatsoever for Haley voters; he’s only appealing to never-Trump voters in order to ensure the real fascist doesn’t get elected. You following?

    • Jentu
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      8 months ago

      Sleep with dogs, wake up with fleas. We could likely go on with these in perpetuity. Also, a lot of Nazis were friends of the US considering Operation Paperclip happened.

      Also, why would Biden need to move his policies if he’s pretty conservative to begin with? More oil drilling than when trump was president. Horrible border policy. Strike busting. No protections against all the bigoted state level laws. No Supreme Court packing. No nominations for an attorney general who would actually prevent trump from rising to power again (likely because trump is probably the only person Biden even has a chance of beating in an election). Green energy initiatives that are so poorly thought out that it now costs more to install solar than before. Wanting to sign a bill to remove a competing social media platform under the supervision of Musk and Zuckerberg. Bypassing congress to send arms to Israel to support a genocide purely to acquire land to compete with china’s new trade route.

      Biden is willing to become a hawkish republican to win on the democrat ticket and to be seen as “strong” to would-be republican voters because he knows he’s lost the left. If you’re okay with the US continually walking right with every democrat and running right with every republican, just keep doing what you’re doing.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        And yet, you act as though the better alternative was not sleeping with the dogs and letting the Nazis win?

        Which outcome would you have preferred? Think ahead here, my friend.

        Also, why would Biden need to move his policies if he’s pretty conservative to begin with?

        I’m simply responding to the notion that Biden is “moving right” by appealing to Haley voters. I’ve still yet to see any evidence whatsoever of this claim. Inviting Haley voters into a preestablished structure isn’t “moving right.” Saying Biden is conservative to begin with != “moving right.” One is a present state; the other is a transitioning state that has yet to be evidenced in any capacity.

        • Jentu
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          8 months ago

          When we allied with the Soviet Union and china, we weren’t welcoming them into our country and into our political influence. We were working with them for a common cause of defeating the nazis. Biden is welcoming Haley Voters into his campaign and they will remain there even after (if) Biden wins the election. The room is full of conservatives, so it should make plenty of sense why leftists and progressives would rather leave the room than stick around people who want them dead.

          If Biden moved any more right, he’d be trump. The only thing Biden has left that’s vaguely progressive is not wanting to kill people who are queer. If pinkwashed fascism is enough for you, that’s fine, but you have to understand that other people have higher standards.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I seriously doubt Haley voters will be permanently welcomed in, or rather, I doubt they’ll stay themselves. I think they’ll dip the second another Romney-esque corporate Republican comes about – and Biden is just too left of Romney for them to stay for long.

            Either way, they’re a useful tool to ensure Trump doesn’t get elected. Like you said, we are working with Haley voters for “a common cause of defeating the nazis” in November. Let’s not put the cart before the horse. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Let’s worry about make-up of the party after we defeat the literal nazis in November, yes?

            I don’t see evidence to support the claim that Biden moving “any” more right and he’d be Trump. He’d have to transition quite a few ticks before achieving that; nevertheless, we should always embrace “less Trump” than Trump himself, so I’ll take it. The thing is, I still haven’t seen any evidence presented whatsoever that Biden as “moved right” to appeal to Haley voters. Until you can provide a modicum of evidence to this, I think your claim is dead in the water.

            • Jentu
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              8 months ago

              I’m sure nazis/stormfront/proud boys are also a useful tool for trump to get re-elected and he definitely didn’t start changing his policy to appease them… We aren’t going to agree on this, obviously. You can’t change your base without changing your policy eventually. And if Biden were to suddenly grow a spine and decide to be more progressive, the Nikki Haley voters will suddenly flip to being trump voters (or any reactionary equivalent to him) because they feel lied to. At best, Nikki Haley voters means Biden will be stuck politically, not able to move left even an inch. And at worst, he is free to move as far right as he wants due to liberals being generally okay with voting for him regardless of his support of genocide.

              Like I said, we aren’t going to agree on this.

              • lennybird@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Biden could suddenly appeal to nazis/stormfront/proud boys if he wanted to earn their votes, too, but he clearly doesn’t. And therein lies the difference: Haley voters vs. Stormfront/proud boys. If you think there is minimal distance between these two groups then I don’t know what to say. The mere point that we can’t agree on this is exemplary as to why Biden must make concessions with the electorate in the first place in order to ensure the far-worse poison doesn’t get into the White House in November.

                Until you can provide an alternative solution to rally voters to put Biden over the 270 electoral votes, this is pie-in-the-sky dreaming in my view. Nevertheless, I appreciate the cordial discussion.

                • Jentu
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                  8 months ago

                  Honestly (and this is the point I thought you were going to make) there are more Nikki Haley voters than leftists in this country. I think nazis/stormfront/proud boys are too many, but not enough to influence an election.

                  The issue I’m seeing with Biden not giving concessions to leftists and progressives is that they’re mainly the ones who have boots on the ground helping Biden get elected. Without politically active people who believe they can influence Biden helping him win, I’m not seeing any hope for his chances. The secondary effect is that once you lose leftists and progressives, they’re VERY vocal online about why they aren’t happy, which also hurts Biden’s chances. So leftists and progressives might not be as numerous as Nikki Haley voters, but they still have influence over how people perceive this administration. I’m not sure if that effect is even quantifiable, or what matters more between the Nikki haley voters who choose to vote for him or the progressives/leftists who inadvertently cause apathy. Who knows. But if he cares about winning (which is still debatable as far as I’m concerned), he’d start giving concessions fast.

                  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    I see your concerns and find many of your points reasonable here. If you could be more explicit about what concessions to progressives he could give that he hasn’t already and wouldn’t otherwise jeopardizing another key voting-bloc in swing-states with swing-votes nonetheless, I’d be really interested to know. In that respect – even among long-time progressives – Biden has been one of the more progressive Presidents we’ve had. Even Bernie, AOC , Warren agree.

                    What I’m saying is I think it’s clear that Bernie sat down with Biden in order to receive his endorsement, put Bernie in a leading budgetary role, and Biden pivoted left relative to where he was, say, 10-years-ago.

                    Circling back to my comment before: How far can he capitulate before it backfires with another voting bloc and again risks the literal nazi winning in just 8 months time?