• @Shadowq8@feddit.nl
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    172 days ago

    is there a way to prove content manipulation on a website ? Isn’t reddit already super pro democrat… why is this fediverse and others being drowned in this bullshit ? Fuck them both biden and trump and us politicians, they are just puppets. The real masters are the corporations . I thought this website you would see more posts like reviving occupy wall street.

    But the corporations they got the money…

  • @Novman@feddit.it
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    233 days ago

    As an european, what scares me , it is that Biden is the ACTUAL president. If he suffers from dementia, who is really in charge now. Who takes the decisions? Usa are involved in at least two major wars and dictate the policy to the europeans. Who is responsible of that? If biden cannot be a candidate , why it is an actual president?

  • acargitz
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    573 days ago

    RBG, Feinstein, now Biden. Selfish geriatric boomers should learn when to retire.

  • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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    1194 days ago

    This Biden protection is crazy. we need a candidate who actually stands a chance against Trump. this is insane. It’s 2016 all over again.

    • @AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      494 days ago

      I don’t even see why that matters. Even if the candidate was an actual real turnip, the choice would be obvious.

      I mean I don’t vote in your election but it seems quite clear to me.

      • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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        234 days ago

        I think part of our different view might be based on how our electoral system is.

        So to explain: Trump’s never won a popular election before. Even when he became president, most Americans voted for his opposition Hillary Clinton. We have a very gerrymandered and corrupt voting system to oversimplify. Because of that The main decider for presidential elections is voting turnout. If a lot of people come out to vote, the Democrats usually win. If they don’t the Republicans win. Voter turnout is higher when people want to vote for the Democratic nominee. No one really wants to vote for Biden. Most of us will vote against Trump myself included. That being said, if we run a very unlikable candidate against him like we did in 2016, he might win and that’s terrifying. This election is serious so we should take it seriously and run somebody likeable and not half way to being a turnip.

        God forbid if Biden stays in there, I hope he wins. I’ll even vote for him but I am not feeling good about his odds.

        • @Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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          124 days ago

          I think you missed their point. They, and many others, don’t know why anyone would vote for Trump to begin with. Of course, I said the same thing when he first started being presented as a candidate for 2016. Like, of all people, him? But, here we are today, wondering if he actually had a chance for another term.

          A different voting method may have avoided him getting this far, but he really shouldn’t have even gotten out of the joke candidate category to begin with.

          • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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            84 days ago

            My bad Thanks for letting me know.

            I totally get that sentiment. I don’t really understand it either. I have family members that votes for Trump. It’s like their brain is rotted. They constantly use words that they don’t have a definition for like woke or CRT. They think everyone is lying except for Trump. It’s terrifying honestly.

            I think that’s about 30% to 40% of Americans sadly.

            • @medgremlin@midwest.social
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              93 days ago

              In my experience, the people who vote Republican/conservative/Trump do so out of a certain amount of philosophical and emotional laziness and denial. Confronting the roots of our societal problems is difficult and uncomfortable, and takes a degree of empathy and emotional intelligence that many people simply do not have. To be clear; it is rarely their fault and frequently a result of the external influences and education during their formative years.

              The conservative viewpoint that has functionally become hereditary and contagious is that you are special and good, and the only people that are also special and good must have the same values, prejudices, advantages, and deficiencies that you do. This is why if you are nice and polite to conservatives they start spouting more and more bigoted bullshit. It’s because, in their mind, the only good people are the ones that agree with them, and they perceive you as “good” for extending basic decency to them.

              This cognitive shortcut is how I have succeeded in planting a lot of seeds of progressive values in the minds of my classmates at the conservative, religious school I accidentally ended up in. Each one of them is a single starfish, so to speak, but each individual moves the needle a little bit. Small progress is better than no progress.

              • @Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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                23 days ago

                This is why if you are nice and polite to conservatives they start spouting more and more bigoted bullshit

                I always interpret this as projecting their opinions. If you give the person nothing to suggest a specific political leaning and have a positive enough interaction it’s too easy for them to assume you hold the same values as you.

                I’ve honestly caught myself in the same, so I just try to stay apolitical in interactions at work until others reveal their opinions to me

              • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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                73 days ago

                I also attended a small private religious conservative school growing up. Happy to see someone like me out in the world with progressive politics. Good on you stranger. ☺️ I hope you’re living life to the fullest.

                That explanation makes sense to me. Good theory 👈😎

                • @SOB_Van_Owen@lemm.ee
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                  53 days ago

                  I compare my time in a similar situation to being exposed to some nasty disease. It was misery at the time but has provided some inoculation against authoritarianism and demagoguery since. Also let me know sadists are a thing.

          • @lennybird@lemmy.world
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            63 days ago

            Addendum point: The people we need to convince to win are not the people who see the obvious distinction between Joe and Trump, and if you haven’t convinced them yet, you probably aren’t going to – especially not after that debate performance (which is why they took the gamble to do that debate in the first place).

          • AutistoMephisto
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            33 days ago

            And before that, it was DEI for the pro-slavery States. Back before black people and even women could vote, whites didn’t have numbers enough to win many elections, so they created the Electoral College and made it so that black people counted as 3/5ths of a “person” and slave owners could vote in the names of their slaves.

        • @GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          63 days ago

          Yeah, this is where I’m at. I’m not an American, but I will feel the impact of your country’s decisions very quickly. I think the best option is to beg the non-voters to get out and vote however you can while building a new party, or rebuilding an existing one, from the local level on up until you have a realistic chance of putting a leader worth having in place.

          For what it’s worth, I think the Biden administration hasn’t done terribly. They could have done much better with the latest episode of the Israel-Gaza conflict, but we literally had Congress people advocating for a nuclear response. A lot of improvements in other areas were quietly made in the background that wasn’t really talked about. I can’t say if that’s because Biden picked the right people to get things done, he had the right vision, or he just had good handlers. I’m not sure I care because, whatever the answer is, the opponent certainly doesn’t have any of those.

      • @FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Because he has to be effective for four more years after the vote.

        Fuck its like you people think everything just closes up for the next four years and elections are just a one-day championship ceremony

        • @AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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          53 days ago

          After the ceremony, you plant the turnip in a flower pot and have the administration run things. There’s hundreds of other people, from ministers (or secretaries, over there) to all kinds of aides and attachés and whatnot. Just one guy missing wouldn’t really make much difference.

    • Queen HawlSera
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      233 days ago

      Hey it worked out well when they protected Hillary…

      Wait no it didn’t

    • @SuperCub@sh.itjust.works
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      274 days ago

      Agree, this astroturfing is insane. I can’t help but think it’s a coordinated campaign, because Biden was very clearly senile in that debate, if not something worse. Democrats can still win if they let Biden retire and choose someone who can rebut Donald Trump.

      • @lennybird@lemmy.world
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        Just look at my two recent submissions to c/politics that were immediately down-voted anonymously for highlighting FOCUS GROUPS of UNDECIDED SWING VOTERS.

        Not one substantive argument.

        And you know I can’t tell if it’s scared Dems, or astroturfing right-wing operatives trying to ensure we maintain course with this sinking ship.

        • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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          93 days ago

          Dude I’ve been wondering the same thing lately. I’ve been countering the same types. I’ve been referring to him as blue maga.

          • @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            13 days ago

            Try scared democrats who refuse to accept that anyone could disagree with them cause they are right and think by plugging their ears it will just work out.

        • @SuperCub@sh.itjust.works
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          23 days ago

          Are there any communities where we can look at that kind of data and commentary without being censored? Lmk, c/politics is insane.

          • @FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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            c/politics is a radical conservative liberal shithole. None of those people give one single fuck about this country or it’s people. They’re fucking brunch lemmings who round up their change at Whole Foods and think they’ve saved the world

            • @Cowbee@lemmy.ml
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              53 days ago

              To be fair, that’s just Lemmy.world in general at this point in time. It’s only gotten worse.

              • @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                13 days ago

                Rich people who are less and less connected with those they pretend to be on the same side of. There is also a lot of entitlement of thinking they know how everything works and they and only they have the right answers from most of the user base of Lemmy. That’s a curse from everyone that’s here thinking they are “smarter” for being here than traditional social media.

                • @Cowbee@lemmy.ml
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                  13 days ago

                  I don’t think many people here are rich or think they are smart just because they use Lemmy.

    • @Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      Bush was clearly the face man of an executive admin that he didn’t run, he was s figure head. Clinton, it was assumed by the press and a lot of the voter base wasn’t running his admin, the first term Hillary was said to be running things and a slew of technocrats was assumed his second term, Reagan, we now know historically, was experiencing Alzheimer’s all through out his presidency, much like Trump, he also had a strict schedule of not even pretending he showed up to work.

      There’s nothing wrong with electing the face of an administration you want in office, this is largely Obama’s admin still running the government, that’s what we all want. Unkie Joe can take all the naps he wants, it make no real difference.

    • @rbesfe@lemmy.ca
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      Any other candidate just wouldn’t have the name recognition. Millions of Americans just vote for the incumbent regardless of who it is

      • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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        264 days ago

        If Biden gets out of the way (of his own accord or not) and somebody else becomes the nominee, they will have name recognition immediately. I promise you.

        • @rbesfe@lemmy.ca
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          They really won’t. I think as someone on Lemmy you’re probably overestimating how much the average person pays attention to politics

          • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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            24 days ago

            I hope you find a way to be happy one day stranger. It’s got to be miserable being that angry all the time. 🫂 I don’t think you find the release you need being rude to strangers online but where ever it actually is I hope you find it.☺️

      • @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        13 days ago

        Is this the new liberal bible prayer each night? Keep telling yourself god is real and he loves you Biden will win because he’s a “good” choice for the idiots who don’t know better?

    • GratefullyGodless
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      12 days ago

      I think it’s more insane to say that Biden doesn’t have a chance against Trump when he’s already beaten Trump once, which is why he’s President Biden.

      • @nednobbins@lemm.ee
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        123 days ago

        Biden seems to misunderstand why he won.

        He seems to think that people were really impressed with him as a candidate and that since he’s so much more impressive than all the other potential Democratic nominees, he’s the only logical choice to try to beat Trump.

        He certainly enjoyed the support of many people who believe that but he relied heavily on the support of several other cohorts to push him over the edge. Those cohorts didn’t like him. They didn’t like him at all. They just hated Trump more, held their noses, and voted for Not Trump.

        Biden has been telling several of those cohorts that their priorities don’t matter. He had tenuous support from those groups and he took that support for granted. Many of those groups are now thinking, “You failed to deliver on the one thing we wanted from you. I no longer see you as a significant improvement over Trump.”

        Claiming that they’re just throwing a tantrum over a raspy voice further trivializes their concerns and pushes them farther away.

        A clever MAGA troll would make exactly this kind of post. All it does alienate critical voters from Democrats.

        • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          53 days ago

          It’s important to remember Bernie was set to have the lead after Super Tuesday.

          Then within like 24 hours of Super Tuesday, pretty much every other candidate dropped out and endorsed Biden.

          It was too late notice for Bernie to campaign in all the states, or for voters to decide. They just followed their candidates advice and voted Biden.

          Biden never had a mandate, and 2020 came down to a handful of states by like 10k votes each.

          Mainstream media has been calling him “the next fdr” for so long I think he legitimately believes. He has no idea how unpopular he is with the average voter, because he doesn’t interact with the average voter. His campaign is tailored to getting donations from the wealthy, so Biden just gets handshakes from the famous and wealthy that tell him he’s perfect.

          He’s insulated from real feedback and believe his yes men.

            • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              23 days ago

              The first primary was marred by controversy, as technical issues with vote reporting resulted in a three-day delay in vote counting in the Iowa caucus, as well as subsequent recounts. The certified results of the caucus eventually showed Mayor Pete Buttigieg winning the most delegates, while Senator Bernie Sanders won the popular vote in the state. Sanders then won the New Hampshire primary in a narrow victory over Buttigieg before handily winning the Nevada caucus, solidifying Sanders’ status as the front-runner for the nomination.[6][7]

              Biden, whose campaign fortunes had suffered from losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, made a comeback by overwhelmingly winning the South Carolina primary, motivated by strong support from African American voters, an endorsement from South Carolina U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn, as well as Democratic establishment concerns about nominating Sanders.[8] After Biden won South Carolina, and one day before the Super Tuesday primaries, several candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden in what was viewed as a consolidation of the party’s moderate wing. Prior to the announcement, polling saw Sanders leading with a plurality in most Super Tuesday states.[9] Biden then won 10 out of 15 contests on Super Tuesday, beating back challenges from Sanders, Warren, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, solidifying his lead.[9]

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries

                • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  23 days ago

                  and one day before the Super Tuesday primaries, several candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden in what was viewed as a consolidation of the party’s moderate wing. Prior to the announcement, polling saw Sanders leading with a plurality in most Super Tuesday states

                  Biden won because every other candidate besides Bernie coalesced around him to stop Bernie from winning as projected.

      • @StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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        114 days ago

        Did you see the debate last night? That ain’t the dude who ran in 2020. Also I think the political pressure pot of 2020 was unique because people were trapped inside and forced to watch the news even more. People would have voted for anyone but Trump then. There’s still a lot of people that feel that way myself included. But not everyone who felt that way in 2020 feels that way in 2024. That’s just the reality. I really don’t think Biden has it this time.

      • @SuperCub@sh.itjust.works
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        84 days ago

        Biden literally hung his mouth open like a brain dead zombie. He lost his train of thought multiple times… He said “we beat Medicare” ffs. Wtf does that mean?? I want to defeat Trump, but Biden is not going to accomplish that. Change the Democratic candidate before it’s too late.

  • @Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
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    453 days ago

    We should all be screaming at the top of our lungs for Biden to drop out now. Fast. Throw in Newsom or Whitmer. I’ll vote for either, doesn’t matter.

    This is a no brainer, and no loss. Either they do it which would be great, or we’re stuck with biden anyway, who now looks to be much worse off against trump.

    Everyone should be telling biden to drop out. Everyone everyone everyone. And loudly.

  • OBJECTION!
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    824 days ago

    raspy voice

    The gaslighting will continue until morale improves.

    • @nexguy@lemmy.world
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      294 days ago

      Alternative is 4 years of more maga federal judges causing multiple generations of damage. It doesn’t matter at all about Bidens health. He has advisors. He has a vice president. No one would be filling federal benches in sewage. That it all that matters.

      • OBJECTION!
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        4 days ago

        What does that have to do with anything? Did you reply to the wrong comment?

          • OBJECTION!
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            104 days ago

            Yes, which it is. What does that have to do with anything you said?

            • @nexguy@lemmy.world
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              114 days ago

              Because his voice/health has absolutely nothing to do with the election and shouldn’t change any vote from Biden since his health is of no consequence whatsoever.

              • @Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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                since his health is of no consequence whatsoever.

                Uhm yes? That is the entire point. It is a stressfull job and you need to be at full mental and sufficient physical capacity to handle it. Biden showed that he is not up to it anymore. Trump also is starting to show signs of decline, but he is further ahead of the curve than Biden is.

                Either candidate is unfit for office, but for Biden health is the crucial issue. And old age is not something you can recover from. Just statistically it is entirely reasonable to expect either one of them to die in office.

                • @nexguy@lemmy.world
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                  In the unique situation that the country finds itself in with an authoritarian destructive candidate is that any mid alternative is golden. In any other election then less important things like the health of the leader of one of the parties(pres candidate) does matter.

                  In our situation if the mid party leader dies then he is replaced by another mid. The identity of the mid is of no consequence at all.

              • OBJECTION!
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                94 days ago

                We weren’t talking about the election or who to vote for, we were talking about his health. You can say that his health isn’t relevant to the question of who you should vote for, but you’re the one who brought that up in the first place. I’m just responding to a lie.

                It’s literally just whataboutism, or a non sequitur. If a Trump supporter says something objectively false and I correct them, it would not a valid response for them to bring up problems with Biden in response to that. In the same way, if a Biden supporter says something objectively false and I correct them, then it is not valid to respond to that by talking about problems with Trump.

                I’m allowed to keep you people honest, even if acknowledging reality is inconvenient for your narratives or goals.

          • OBJECTION!
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            84 days ago

            Ok then, here’s my response:

            There are strong ethical and practical arguments for going vegan, including reducing animal suffering and carbon emissions and reducing the risk of food contamination.

            If you question how that relates to the conversation and isn’t just a complete non sequitor, then you can’t keep up and I don’t know what to tell you.

    • Lad
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      124 days ago

      Debates are little more than performances and Joe completely shit the bed.

      • @Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        This. Debates mattered 20+ years ago, when Candidates had just a few opportunities to talk about who they are, what they’ve done, what they want to do, and why those qualities make them the best choice for President.

        Now, we have a near inescapable connection to politics. The content of the message is known, and the only reason for debate is confrontation, and delivery is all that matters.

        • tbf, debates have the potential to cut through the bubbles people put themselves in. You’re not seeing a manacured presentation of potential policy, you’re seeing it actively challenged…

          At least, that’s the idea

  • @Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    I don’t like Joe Biden, I’ll never forget the Neoliberal bullshit he did with the Republicans in the 90s we are still suffering from further eviscerating the safetynet to the draconian war on people suffering addiction. He’s one of the OG former opposition party members the Reagan Revolution convinced to take the bigger bribe checks from Wall Street than Unions could ever match, today’s neoliberal(D) party.

    That said, I voted for him in the last election, and I will again out of harm reduction. He has improved on policy, but l even if he didn’t, the American people do not get a vote on whether or not to elect a senile President this cycle.

    You can have any President you like, as long as he’s senile. If you vote, we’ll get a senile President. If you don’t, we’ll get a senile President.

    The question is whether you want senile and gleefully cruel®, or just senile(D). I’ll take just senile.

    • OBJECTION!
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      224 days ago

      the American people do not get a vote on whether or not to elect a senile President this cycle

      I feel like I’ve somehow become trapped in some kind of simulation or thought experiment where the purpose of it is to make lesser evilism seem as ridiculous as conceivably possible, and every time I think it’s peaked with just comical levels of absurdity, it somehow manages to escalate.

    • @HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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      Or vote third-party, and you’ll probably get a senile President, but maybe not.

      And more importantly, you’re helping to break the Duopoly and normalize voting third-party.

      If a minor party manages to get 5% of the vote, they qualify for federal funding in the next election, and that might lead to real change.

      Cornel West is polling at about 3% (and after Biden’s performance, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cornel picks up a couple more percent). We could be close.

      Edit: Or just keep on thinking you have to settle for the lesser of two evils. (How’s that working out for you?)

      • @Wilzax@lemmy.world
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        784 days ago

        If you’re in a state that will certainly be blue or red and has 0% chance of swinging unless a huge proportion of the population changes their party affiliation (California, New York, Mississippi, Alabama, to name a few) then vote 3rd party, sure.

        If your state was within 10% of flipping colors in any of the past 3 presidential elections, DO NOT vote 3rd party. Your vote matters too much to risk it.

        • @HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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          Yeah, that’s the conventional wisdom. When Ross Perot ran, most of his support came from states that weren’t swing states.

          (Despite often being called a “spoiler”, he probably had little impact on the result of the election because of that.)

          But! Later polls showed that 35% of voters would have voted for Perot if they thought he could win. And if all those people had voted for Perot, he would have won!

          Just something to think about.

          • @Wilzax@lemmy.world
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            154 days ago

            If we could somehow ensure that our actual desires were reflected by our votes without simultaneously risking our vote being wasted by splitting support between similar candidates, we could have actual representative democracy. But we all have a duty to prevent the worst to the best of our ability, even at the sacrifice of our support of what we think would be best, but unlikely.

            Vote for ranked choice voting however you can. This paradox is intentional design, not an unforeseen consequence. We need to rework the voting system before things have any chance to get better without violent revolution.

            • It’s actually been mathematically proven that ranked-choice voting does not eliminate the so-called spoiler effect. It’s called Arrow’s Impossibity Theorem.

              As people who live in a country with FPTP voting, we’re all intimately familiar with the drawbacks of FPTP voting. But all voting systems have their drawbacks.

              (I’ve actually been a volunteer election worker in a country with ranked ballots and proportional representation, and the experience actually soured me on ranked ballots and proportional representation.)

              Countries like Canada and the UK manage to have four or five parties with FPTP voting.

              Stop waiting for the perfect voting system, because there is no perfect system.

              • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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                44 days ago

                Countries like Canada and the UK manage to have four or five parties with FPTP voting.

                And they both are dominated by 2 parties. Hardly a defense of FPTP.

                Stop waiting for the perfect voting system, because there is no perfect system.

                There may be no perfect system, but there are certainly systems that utterly fail to capture the will of the people, and FPTP (especially the US’s implementation of it) is one such system. People aren’t going to magically all change their centuries long behavior of voting for 1 of two parties. This is a systematic problem, and the solution is election reform.

                • @HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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                  And they both are dominated by 2 parties. Hardly a defense of FPTP.

                  Justin Trudeau’s current government is a minority government being propped up by a minor party (the NDP). That minor party were able to get the government to pass a Pharmacare bill in exchange for their support.

                  With just 24 seats in parliament, the NDP were able to deliver on an election promise to their voters. I’d say that’s pretty good.

              • @slickgoat@lemmy.world
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                34 days ago

                I disagree. I too have been involved in elections in my country (Australia) and preferential voting system is pretty popular. As candidates get eliminated your vote keeps moving to your next choice. What could possibly be fairer?

                • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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                  24 days ago

                  What could possibly be fairer?

                  Approval or STAR voting, since they are more heavily utilized by all citizens instead of just white people, they are purely additive unlike ranked, which allows for easy auditing and making sharing the results possible in real time.

                  They’re also far easier to explain, which makes voting more inclusive, and the results more straightforward to follow.

                  RCV is definitely better than what we have now, but if we’re gonna have election reform we should go for the best possible system, not a half measure like RCV.

                • And yet minor parties fair pretty poorly in Australian elections, and always have. Minor parties currently have 6 seats in Australia’s House of Representatives (up from 3 in the previous parliament).

                  In Canada, third-parties (Greens, Bloc Quebecois, and NDP) have 56 seats between them.

                  In the UK, there are 11 third-parties represented in the House of Commons, with 84 seats between them.

          • yyyesss?
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            94 days ago

            and he still would have lost. he got nearly 20% of the popular vote and exactly 0 electoral votes. until we change the system, they cannot win. sorry. please vote against fascism

                • Yes, but he would have won if everyone had voted how their heart desired.

                  Both major parties want you to believe that voting third-party is “throwing your vote away”, but it isn’t true. Simply expressing your heart’s desire and having it counted on the public record makes voting worthwhile, even if your candidate doesn’t win. (And in the case of Ross Perot, he would have won.)

                  You might as well say that voting for anyone except the candidate who is leading in the polls is throwing your vote away if that’s how you see it.

                  A woman from a formerly Communist Eastern European country once told me a story. After their country had democratized, there was an election held on the day of a horrible blizzard. Her mother and father wanted to vote for one candidate, and her brother and sister wanted to vote for the rival candidate.

                  “Why don’t we all just stay home, since our votes will cancel each other out anyway”, someone said. And so her mother and sister decided to stay home. But her father and brother went out into the blizzard to vote, knowing that their votes would cancel each other out.

                  They just wanted to participate in democracy. They wanted to express themselves and be counted, even if it didn’t change anything.

      • @PunnyName@lemmy.world
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        334 days ago

        Once First Past the Post voting is gone, and ranked choice is in, third party will be viable.

        But right now, that’s not the reality we live in.

          • @AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip
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            44 days ago

            Well it’s certainly not going to happen if you ignore the realities of first past the post voting systems, vote third party, and let the party that depends on tactics to subvert democratic will win an election they shouldn’t have. Do that, and you may just not get to vote at all anymore.

            • Well it’s certainly not going to happen if you ignore the realities of first past the post voting systems,

              If you’ve got a large popular mandate that reliably shows support for a policy (say, a large plurality willing to change FPTP to STB or Approval voting or whatever) then you can affect the change.

              But even more than FPTP, we have a supermajority mandate to make changes to the electoral system on that scale.

              Easier to win 50%+1 on an issue of policy than 67% on an issue of electoral function.

              Do that, and you may just not get to vote at all anymore.

              Civil Rights and Women’s Lib had to be achieved outside the electoral system, because these groups were deliberately disenfranchised.

      • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Or vote third-party, and you’ll probably get a senile President, but maybe not.

        Vote third party and we are guaranteed to get a senile president. It’s a two party FPTP system.

        Edit: Or just keep on thinking you have to settle for the lesser of two evils. (How’s that working out for you?)

        Better than telling people to throw away their vote. How’s that working for you? How many 3rd party presidents have you gotten elected with your strategy? How many fascist policies has your strategy avoided us?

        • Hyphlosion
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          34 days ago

          I’ve long fantasized of people being so fed up with both parties, that along would come a third party at the right time and enough people would flock to them that and vote them into office.

          But it’s just that: A fantasy.

          And anyways, there’s always the chance that said third party would be way way worse and maybe there’s a good reason why they weren’t more prominent to begin with.

              • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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                23 days ago

                Not necessarily. The MAGA crowd took over the GOP. The same could be done for the DNC, but with actual leftists and election reformists.

                • OBJECTION!
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                  13 days ago

                  There are several reasons why the MAGA crowd were allowed to take over the GOP. First, because they weren’t pushovers, if the party had tried shenanigans to stop them there was a real possibility of people defecting from the party en masse, and even of violence at the convention. Second, because the things they wanted weren’t really all that contrary to what the rich donors wanted.

                  The Democratic base is much more weak willed and willing to go along with whatever to stop the right. We don’t have enough of that Karen energy, that “my way or the highway” attitude. And election reform is directly contrary to the interests of the establishment, and the aim of prioritizing ordinary people over the rich goes against the interests of the doners. They’ll crush any internal movement in that direction, and people will still vote for them because of “vote blue no matter who” and lesser evilist ideology.

      • @bolexforsoup
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        4 days ago

        If every single person on Lemmy voted third-party I guarantee you they wouldn’t carry a single state. In a two party dominated FPTP/winner takes all system voting third-party for president is irresponsible

          • @JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
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            34 days ago

            Most of these people can’t be reasoned with. We’re at the point where there’s no excuses for them not to vote to keep Trump from taking over.

            The gloves are off.

            • AbsentBird
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              4 days ago

              Okay, but swinging at third party people does nothing to sway them, tends to do the opposite, and tires you out. It’s like punching your own dick instead of your opponent in a boxing match.

    • @Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      Except you do get to vote for no senility. That is what the primaries were for. Trump was actually struggling quite a bit against a young woman.

      As was Biden for a hot second against a younger candidate. That was short lived. Biden was also getting a bit of a slap by a few people who were not on board for having Biden run the party again.

      This is why you don’t sleep through the primaries and complain you only get the only one vote on parties.

    • @index@sh.itjust.works
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      94 days ago

      You can have any President you like, as long as he’s senile. If you vote, we’ll get a senile President. If you don’t, we’ll get a senile President.

      there are other candidates you can vote for

      • @nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 days ago

        You’re still going to get a senile president.

        Harm reduction dictates voting for the least harmful outcome, period.

            • @RyeBread@feddit.de
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              4 days ago

              The same reality that thinking voting for Biden in a rural deep conservative state is going to swing the vote. You can convince every person in the cities to vote democratic and still lose to the country side that state. Voting doesn’t work the same for every state, don’t shame people for voting their conscious. It’s always okay to shame voting for Trump, but don’t shame people for voting third party.

              • @papertowels@lemmy.one
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                Afaik, that’s simply not true. Take a look at the margins that Biden won by in 2020 in a few key states.

                You’ll notice that the third party votes could’ve easily swung the state outcome either way.

                Finally, you’ll notice how far behind third party votes are. The conclusion I’m drawing is that the possibility of third party votes influencing the outcome between the two candidates is greater than the possibility of a third party candidate winning.

                • @RyeBread@feddit.de
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                  24 days ago

                  I think we both agree that there are locations and states where it does truly matter. I think where I’d disagree is that it’s not applicable for every state. Sometimes it’s already decided on where you live. It’s better not to shame third party voters in situations like that. The only way to get a third party one day is by starting in locations like that. Though coming from a situation like that, I also understand it’s a less stressful election than one that you have a chance of winning. Just not worth shaming others who don’t have the option of winning and vote third party for president for their conscious. Still voting blue for everything else though.

      • @Resonosity@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        It’s up to the DNC as to which candidate takes the running ballot. I’m betting there are a lot of conversations right now about who will be that person.

        You are half right and half wrong because that decision will come down to whether establishment Democrats or populist Democrats win.

        And to be quiet frank, I don’t even think the DNC gets a say. Since Biden is the incumbent, unless he bows out voluntarily, I don’t think we the people or the DNC get to choose.

        Our hands are really tied when it comes to the presidential frontrunner, unfortunately.

        • It’s always telling when some one insists that a statement is true when they themselves know that it isn’t.

          It’s 💯 the case the Biden isn’t the nominee today. I’m not arguing if it’s going to be a progressive or a insider that replaces him. Frankly, I could give a shit because either will be doing instantly better than Biden.

          Biden is replaceable and there is a cult of personality that has developed that believes this isn’t the case. They’re wrong. There as delusional as the right wing MAGA crowd and their doing MAGAs work for them as the useful idiots that they are.

          It’s important to keep it clear that I’m not arguing that some how magically were going to replace Biden with a progressive. I’m arguing that needs to, and will be, replaced. That’s what Thursday showed us, and I know for a fact that the Beltway heard this.

          The party that needs to be convinced is Harris. And I think she can be. All of these machinations are happening this weekend, as we speak.

          My called shot: Biden steps down as early as Monday, as late as two weeks from Monday. I’m going to be making some calls and seeing what tea I can find spilled.

          • @Resonosity@lemmy.world
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            13 days ago

            I never refuted your claim in certainty, rebutting with my own truth statements. In my comment, I pointed to the variables in effect leading to whether Biden stays in the race or bows out. Realistically, it’s uncertain at this moment.

            I will say that if and once donors dry up, I do think that the DNC will take action. What action that is will depend.

            It’s going to be an exciting few days/weeks.

  • Jo Miran
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    1824 days ago

    I am not going to vote for Joe Biden. I am going to vote for the Biden Administration. They can “Weekend at Bernie’s” the old man for all I care.

    • @PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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      Biden could drop dead on January 21st and we’ll still get to call this mission accomplished, VP Jeffries ain’t a half bad outcome personally, although Kamala having her eyes on that incumbent effect is gonna make me groan come 28

      • @crusa187@lemmy.ml
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        84 days ago

        Jeffries is literally one of the most corrupt neolibs in Congress in terms of taking bribe money.

    • @psmgx@lemmy.world
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      214 days ago

      That’s been the standard US Presidential SOP since Nixon developed a serious drinking problem and Kissinger demanded all orders go through him first (so as to avoid WW3).

      They had an old, dementia ridden actor, and the dumb-ass Bush son for that reason, too. HW Bush could handle his shit but he raised taxes and puked on the Japanese PM so that’s a pass. Trump is just another stooge to be kept in line so that his doners get what they want.

  • @LadyAutumn
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    3 days ago

    He needs to withdraw. He has to. The man looks like he’s dying. It’s time to stop playing pretend. This is fucking stupid. He’s literally not physically capable of being president. He doesn’t just have a raspy voice, he rambles incoherently, he can barely seem to register what’s going on at any moment. He nods off in public. He’s ancient. He should be no where near a political office.

    If he runs he’s handing Trump the presidency. And I don’t even fully believe he cares. If he cared he would never have run in the first place. He also chose to hammer home on his unending support for Israeli colonialism and crimes against humanity. Just to further aleniate the progressives and moderates who want him to stand up for human rights.

    I have no faith in him to drive a car let alone handle the political office of the presidency. He could be a literal corpse and he’d still get my vote over Trump. But you’re asking people to vote for someone who is openly incapable of doing the job he’s campaigning for. He HAS to step down. He CANNOT defeat fascism. He is not capable of it and he is so chronically neoliberal that he cannot even create a strong opposition to fascism.

    We’re all freaking the fuck out because this is the worst scenario. The one we ALL SAID WAS COMING. We were all told not to talk about how old he is Trump is old too and all that. And Trump absolutely is old but he’s a fascist for one and fascists vote differently than anyone else does. But much worse he always rambles incoherently so standing next to Joe he looked as he normally does and Biden was the one who had visibly aged.

    Enough is enough is enough he has to go. Where is the real political effort to have him withdraw. The clock is ticking until November and he HAS TO GO.

  • @Weirdfish@lemmy.world
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    1204 days ago

    So the man has a stutter, and he’s old, what ever. All I can do is cast my single vote. Last time, I voted against Trump, and honestly, even after the debate, I’ll cast my vote this time for Biden.

    I’d much rather cast my vote for Hakeem Jeffries, or Shift, or Bernie, or a dozen other people who aren’t an option.

    Thing is, I’m going to cast my vote in Cook county IL, so it literally won’t matter. IL is going blue no matter what, and I feel like my participation is merely token.

    I wish I could do more, I want to scream at clouds about what is happening to the country, and it doesn’t matter.

    Saw a stat that says Trump is 65% to win, and want to physically grab people and shake them, but what would it matter?

    Had I walked into that debate blind, not knowing who those people are, what the “facts” and the facts are, I’d have thought, that Biden guy seems weak and befuddled, and boy that Trump is sure a confident leader. It made me feel sick.

    As I told my mother today, I don’t have kids, I live in the midwest, have a good job with a big stable company, truth is, even a second Trump term won’t effect me that much. I can just sit back, enjoy my 30 so years left, and watch the world burn, but damn it, I have empathy for others, and there are many, many people whose lives and livelihood are going to be seriously impacted, and that bothers me.

    • @yrmp@lemmy.world
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      114 days ago

      I’ll also be casting my vote in Cook county. I have hispanic kids. My wife is Salvadoran. She is a US citizen born and raised in the US. I’m a white atheist and a dual citizen of the EU who has had the audacity to previously speak poorly about my corporate overlords. I grew up in the south. I don’t trust these project 2025 fucks to stop at illegal immigrants. Biden sucks, but I’ll vote for him anyway because the system literally gives me no other option. Until the system changes or fails, this is what we must do.

      If you value the supreme court, lower court appointments, social security, healthcare, childcare, the environment, action on climate change, a competent CDC for the pandemics we’re going to experience more frequently, etc., vote Biden. Yes he’s old. Yes he sucks. Unfortunately he’s the lesser of two evils. And by a wide margin.

      • @Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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        23 days ago

        If your district is definitely going blue then you could safely vote 3rd party… Think of it as a vote to change the fptp system. There is no way the system will ever change if we don’t start forcing it to.

  • @pyre@lemmy.world
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    554 days ago

    most important thing is that he can still use his arm to sign legislation. that’s all you need him for. the actual deal is the cabinet. that’s what you’re voting for.

    too bad most people don’t think about that, and fuck the dnc for putting the country in this situation.

    • @Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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      53 days ago

      This is a terrible sentiment. You need a team and you need someone to lead that team. Having the leader just be a puppet is terrible.

      You’ll get a dysfunctional cabinet this way, you will get grifting, taking advantage of the puppet showing his face to bad ideas and you will get foreign influence prying on the weak puppet president.

      And even if the president is not a puppet and “only weak”. We have a government falling apart and in deadlock because of our chancellor being a weak leader in Germany. The only thing holding them together at this point is the fear of them losing power sooner in an early election. All it does is give even further rise to the fascists.

      You need a competent leader at the head of the cabinet. And that starts with her or him having their mental capacity.

      • @VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Biden has been president for almost 4 years and we haven’t seen any of those things. That’s how I know all this FUD is overblown. The things you are describing were rampant under Trump, not Biden.

      • @pyre@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        oh you’re right. voting for biden may give rise to fascists… so we should let the actual fascists win instead. how have i never thought of this before‽

        • @Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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          13 days ago

          You let the Democrats gaslighting work on you. Since half a year they make us think, that the only two options are Trump and Biden, when in fact they could have allowed for proper primaries. They could have worked to prop up other candidates as viable alternatives. But they wanted the puppet they can control.

          It is not too late to acknowledge Biden to be unfit and put up a different candidate. I have been advocating for this here since months. But instead of acknowledging that there is more real options, the DNC propaganda worked and works hard to limit our thinking to “its either one of them, no looking past the fishbowl”.

          Biden was never voted because he was Biden. He was voted because he wasn’t Trump. Any halfway decent candidate that does not shares Bidens dogmatic support for genocide in Gaza and abusing immigrants can fill this role a hundred times better. Any such candidate could win the election in a landslide.

          Pull the emergency brake on the Biden train. The Biden train is going into the abyss.

  • Queen HawlSera
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    3 days ago

    I have no faith in the future and only pray death is swift and merciful. I will vote Biden in hopes of delaying the inevitable another four years.

    I was hoping that the Right’s march into fascism was going to be the call to action that Americans needed to abandon them and push the country into being a proper developed nation…

    Instead, people go along with it to own the libs, and the privileged who know better have the resources to stamp their foot and wait for a savior they should know will never come.