- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
The former president and first lady threw their weight behind the presumptive Democratic nominee
Barack and Michelle Obama have endorsed Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president, sharing the news in a joint phone call.
A video released by the campaign suggests the former president and first lady called Harris on Thursday while the vice president was in Houston, where she addressed the American Federation of Teachers and received a briefing on recovery efforts following Hurricane Beryl.
“We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Barack Obama is heard telling Harris in a 55-second video of the call.
“This is going to be historic,” Michelle Obama tells Harris.
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Michelle: When they go low we go high.
Kamala: Let the meme trolling begin!
If we do end up descending into a Draconian hellhole of an autocratic dictatorship at least the election run-up is going to be exponentially more entertaining than it was going to be with Joe.
I say that dictatorship part because don’t think for a second that the GOP is gonna just roll over and die. Expect hard-line challenges to vote counts in every single swing state.
I say that dictatorship part because don’t think for a second that the GOP is gonna just roll over and die. Expect hard-line challenges to vote counts in every single swing state.
I’ve been saying this since Sunday. We just blew up the Death Star, but the Empire is still a threat. The fight ain’t over, yet.
How did we blow up the Death Star? No victories have been achieved yet.
This is more like Han hanging over the reigns of the Millenium Falcon to Lando in RotJ. The battle hasn’t even begun.
I disagree. Biden pulled a master political move that isn’t the Death Star blowing up, but it’s still a deft maneuver for the republic.
Consider that Trump was shot at and just two weeks later we aren’t talking about it. The RNC happened and it’s not in the news. The only thing in the news is Trump dropped out to run away from Kamala. It’s an insanely smart political move. The republicans are so upset they’re filing impeachment papers, yelling about democracy, and threatening with the law. They’re so scared that they’re scrambling to do anything.
And Trump being shot at didn’t get him anything in the polls. That’s how crazy this all is
Yeah for real. While I am happy to see such excitement around Harris, this is far from over. Too many people celebrating prematurely. Remember 2016???
No one was excited about Clinton.
That’s just not true. Maybe you weren’t, but this country is full of neo-libs.
Also, maybe you forget, but Kamala ran in the 2020 primary. A LOT fewer people were excited about her than they were about Clinton. By orders of magnitude. You can literally measure it if you wanted.
The current “excitement” is not due to the person, it’s due to the situation. The same fucking thing would be happening if Biden had chosen fucking Gabrielle Giffords (or literally anyone else under the age of 70 without an ‘R’ next to their name) way back then.
He could have chosen three Colombia University pro-Palestine protestors stacked up under a trenchcoat, and people would be “excited” right now about them taking Biden’s place.
The Death Star by that point had been blown up quite conclusively.
This is not the battle. This is some senate noise 1-2 years PBY nobody is going to remember after.
Well, I can’t wait to see who’s chosen to play Nien Nunb.
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And then it’ll turn out that the new Republic and Jedi Order that were set up after the fall of the Empire were so ineffectual that they might as well not have bothered. Thanks, Disney.
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There’s a “simple” solution to prevent their civil war plans. You got to crush them at the voting stations so hard that every question about foul play gets destroyed in its roots.
Donald Trump could very well roll over and die and I would be ok with that. The only downside is not getting to know that he is in prison being miserable
The Heritage Foundation and its plan to cement autocratic fascist rule in the US will survive Trump.
Which is why they got trump to pick Vance for VP, who is young and all in on project 2025, to be their chosen figurehead for the future. They don’t care about or like trump; they’re just using him as their vehicle to get in power and that’s it. After that they’re fine with/hoping for him to drop dead ASAP after the inauguration so they can usher in their full agenda. Meantime trump is only the symbolic figurehead and if by chance he doesn’t go along with their plans (unlikely), they can always use the 25th Amendment to get rid of him.
I can’t imagine a Vance presidency
Somehow he’d still have a voice in prison. Kinda like all those interviews with Ted Bundy and Charles Manson et al.
His biggest misery would be to be alive and completely silenced.
So a stroke.
Well, he’s old as fuck and eats McDonald’s for most meals. I’m also not sure if anyone would notice, so there’s a good chance it would be a bad one.
The list of things “the Democrats want to take away” is going to be massive.
- guns
- freedom
profitablegood healthcare- freedom
- national security
- guns
white supremacyThe American Way- Your rights
if you count - christianity?
- freedom
transphobiafamily values- the cops’ ability to commit unchecked violence
- guns and freedom
- 1940s textbooks
All of these things are at risk.
They should really take your guns though…
So far their biggest whinge is plastic straws. Not the hill most voters are willing to die on
Brace yourself for a massive disinformation campaign against Harris as soon as they recover from the initial shock. Don’t buy into any crap you see about her going forward. Eat no for breakfast.
I already saw a photoshopped picture of her hugging Epstein. It was her hugging her husband with Epstein’s head
Took 1 google search to debunk. But morons on FB shared it anyway.
We should combat this by Photoshopping her head on Trump’s body with already well establish photos of trump/Epstein
I know reddit was full of ask-and-you-shall-receive requests like this, and I’m not expecting it here on Lemmy - but does anyone on Lemmy have the ability to manifest this??
We could tag it with “I’m Kamala Harris and this is a ridiculous message”
I hope there will be an investigation on how much foreign influence there is in this election. So much of the fake news and trash social media posts are Putin’s playbook. The attack on Ukraine isn’t the only war he’s trying to fight
My brother is ostensibly a liberal Democrat but he somehow believes that Ukraine is run by literal Nazis and that Putin (a “good guy”) was in the right to invade it. It’s literally just Russian propaganda but he accepts it as objective truth - he gets all of his political “information” from TikTok and podcasts. He also believes that all bad acts in the world are committed by the CIA and that Putin was installed by the CIA (which of course paradoxically means he’s a bad person), although he admitted he has no sources for that one.
It’s amazing how social media really allows the bullshit pipeline to be carefully tailored to each individual’s tastes, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all bullshit pipeline that traditional mass media was limited to.
Good luck, when the UK ran an investigation into russian influence on our elections they just never made the results public despite repeated promises too.
Ironic when you think about how many of Epstein’s friends were leaders of nations and well known academics.
Pretty weird considering we know a certain presidential candidate who was actually friends with him lol
Don’t buy into any crap you see about her going forward. Eat no for breakfast.
This is the exact attitude that led Republicans into being able to believe that Trump is an upright and moral citizen…
No one should write a blank check of virtue for any politician. Valid criticism is important, without it we’re just going to be led around by the nose by those who have access to power.
If we don’t hold liberal politicians to the same standards we utilize for conservatives, then we will end up with the same type of shit bags they have.
This is the exact attitude that led Republicans into being able to believe that Trump is an upright and moral citizen…
No, not even close to the same thing.
Maybe you’re too young to remember, but Trump has a very long history of being a massive, racist, piece of shit. He is literally the archetype of nearly every movie and cartoon villain in the 90s (not even kidding, Some More News did a whole video on it, it’s actually insane).
He was notorious for not paying his contractors, and instead telling them to sue him, knowing there was no way they could afford to win a case against him.
He was notorious for blatantly racist housing policies at his properties.
He was notorious for taking out a full page ad in the New York Times basically saying we should still kill the (recently found innocent) Central Park Five regardless of their guilt (guess their skin color).
You can’t even make this comparison, it’s absurd.
His first time making national news was when the Justice Department went after him in 1973 for violating the Fair Housing Act.
Black applicants for apartments in his buildings had the letter “C” (for “colored”) added to their applications and were denied based entirely on their race.
For over 50 years he’s demonstrated time and again that he’s a racist piece of shit.
Yes, and conservatives choose not to criticize him for being a shit head. My point is that it is the people’s job to hold their elected officials to a higher standard, and we do that with valid criticism.
They were talking about aggressive disinformation, not avoiding accountability.
It seems a lot of people here are conflating any criticism with disinformation. If you mention the war in Palestine people automatically roll their eyes.
No. No no no.
I swear nobody remembers the days we all knew he was shit, watch back the future there is literally a parody of what everyone knew Trump was.
Everyone except people watching fox news…which is like half the country.
Oh good grief, don’t put words in my mouth. That’s not what I said and you know it. I said don’t buy the crap that we’re about to be flooded with. I never said you can’t criticize her. You can believe and criticize any valid reality-based you want to, but check the facts first.
Don’t buy into any crap you see about her going forward. Eat no for breakfast.
just be skeptical of any claims made by the lunatic contingent that hates women and democrats.
That’s fair, but people aren’t stopping there. Mention any criticism from a leftist perspective and you get the same treatment.
Brace yourself for a massive disinformation campaign
I’ve been braced since 1980.
They will do their silly ignorant memes, but they’ll also amplify the kind of valid criticism of her that left leaning voters raise themselves. That’s harder to handle, because there is a lot of valid criticism.
It’s still hugely important to vote against Christian fascists, but it doesn’t feel good to do when you don’t like the person you’re voting for. Conservatives will amplify that sentiment to get left leaning people to not vote or to vote 3rd party.
Republicans: > “We want change and Biden out”
Democrats: > “Great, vote for Harris” Republicans: > “noOoo noT like tHat!”That’s not allowed!!! Call the foul ref!!!
‘Stop counting!’, says the man who thinks math is what you burn and inhale if you are poor.
Republicans are so angry these days with Harris. First it was the Obama’s did not indorse her because she can’t win now they are just really angry. They know they are going to lose. I love it.
They know they are going to lose.
Never assume, fucking vote if you can people.
This is frustrating. She couldn’t handle a primary run 5 years ago. Now the entire Party is just lining up as if she’s unquestionably the greatest candidate the world has to offer.
Prior to this, the only Democrat less popular than her, was Biden.
Nobody knows what she’ll actually do in office because she’s only ever said or supported whatever will help her at the moment.
EDIT: Thank you all. I had a good time today debating, discussing, reading, even occasionally learning.
Some of you engaged well, I upvoted. Some of you didn’t. I rarely downvote though, and never did here.
I appreciate you all, and hope you all have a good one.
Even Kamala Harris. I hope to see her succeed beyond all our expectations. Even if mine are quite low.deleted by creator
Is that really the best we can hope for? Or ask for? Someone who’s better than Trump?
Is that really the best we can hope for?
Got any actual suggestions, or are you only here to complain that any candidate isn’t a 100% perfect match for everything you want in the world?
I’d be thrilled for someone who isn’t an obvious self centered opertunist. Someone with principals that aren’t power for its own sake. I thought that was Obama. Honestly I still believe he has that in him. I know it’s Bernie, and Yang. I’m sure there are more out there. But our system itself keeps them from getting to the top.
So, no.
Feel free to fund an entirely new party or even a new constitution, in the meantime you just need to take 2 hours off your massive, world changing project and vote for Kamala Harris.
If people are only ever given the choice between a terrible option and a mediocre option, they will start to question the system which gives them these choices.
Apparently not.
I’ve been donating monthly to the Forward Party since it started. I could work on a new constitution.
Great, please do.
I hear you, but it’s also fun to see how excited Democrats are right now. It’s partly shock and relief at Biden dropping out, but I think there’s also real excitement in the mix!
My wife and I have never been the biggest fans of Harris. We said the night Biden stepped down that she was the natural pick, but not the best pick.
She and her team have changed our minds. Harris actually attacking Trump and the right, embracing a younger crowd, along with some policies that she has mentioned, have us on board. Give her some time to lay out HER platform, not just Biden 2.0, and I think she’s going to surprise a lot of people. I am one of those excited.
If anything, it will be stuff from California that she has to worry about. Always been clouds around her but nothing specific i can recall.
That’s true. Even I’ve felt a couple times.
I’m skeptical but giving her a chance. Apparently her voting record in the Senate wasnt that far off from Bernies general position (although not “statistically closest to Bernie” like this circulated meme was saying)
At least she seems like she’s got some good energy and getting people engaged to vote and participate.
In July, of an election year, in the US? Yes, that’s the best you get.
Make a time machine, convince Biden to drop out 8-12 months ago, then you can have your open primary season.
That’s a plan, I can get behind.
But I would go to 5 years ago.Why go 5 years when you could go back and ensure the convicted felon loses to Hilary.
That’s a good point. And a better plan.
I thought you were going to say:
“Is that really the best we can hope for? ‘Working on social and political causes to help see people and policies you like make it to the top’?”
And I was like “yeah, it is the best we can hope for”.
That is what I’m asking for. Everyone else seems content with backing a “winner”.
I don’t know if you understand. People are donating and volunteering, for Kamala Harris. You don’t want more participation, You just want people to support your personally chosen candidate (who remains nameless).
I haven’t seen one I like this cycle. Neither major party has nominated one I really liked in 40 years. The Dems came close a couple times.
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This sentiment is really impractical in a functional democracy of over 300 million people, if you can’t find anyone in 20 candidates that have run over the past 40 years from the two major parties you were willing to vote for.
Your perfect candidate that you hold out for isn’t going to be the perfect candidate for a lot of people. Part of the whole give and take is building consensus around most broadly acceptable candidates, rather than just taking your ball and going home when none of the viable candidates perfectly suite you.
It really is amazing how poor our choices are. There are many competent humans out there, but it’s not obvious from our options. Seems like a direct result of the 2 party winner-takes-all political system.
Is that really the best we can hope for?
I don’t expect the human world to meet my moral standards. That might sound sad, but it preserves my sanity.
It is sad, and it makes me depressed.
My moral standards are special because I hold myself to them, regardless of whether anyone else cares.
Biden couldn’t handle a primary run in 2008, but he killed in 2020.
Times change. Circumstances change. People change. And if the enthusiasm that has come out over the past week, both from her and from the party base, is any indication, Harris in 2024 is in a much better place than she was in 2020.
Biden didn’t kill it in 2020. Bernie won the first few states, so the DNC freaked out and pushed the other candidates to drop out and endorse Joe. After that, the media lined up to declare him the presumptive nominee. The DNC hates progressives.
Kamala was a better speaker than Joe in 2020. Her comments about being one of the black kids on the busses aimed at Biden was accurate and scathing. But she followed the party mandate and bowed out.
Why is everyone’s memory so short about these things?
She’s a far sight better than Trump or Biden.
Bernie won a couple states that never help determine the election. Then Biden won by a lot in swing states. If Bernie won swing states it would be different. He didn’t. His appeal isn’t and wasn’t as good in the specific places the Presidency is won.
It sucks because I picked him in both primaries. But the reality is Biden had broader appeal where it mattered. Any Dem candidate is going get 170 EC votes along the coasts. It’s between the coasts where the election is won. And Biden did better in all those places.
To my point, he was doing better until the others started to drop out. But that’s all academic now. My opinion hardly matters, but I stand by my belief that the DNC hates progressive politics and would rather lose than support a populist progressive.
Kamala is apparently more progressive than we knew, her voting record was pretty close to Bernie’s in the Senate. By being the vp and then Biden dropping out we seem to have gotten a more prog candidate than we could have otherwise?
Pete won Iowa, Bernie won New Hampshire and Nevada. Everyone (6 total candidates) was still in for South Carolina which Biden dominated. Pete and Amy dropped out at that point. But Bloomberg joined and Warren was still in. Gabbard was too but we all know was a joke candidate.
Biden was against 4 options going into Super Tuesday. Biden won 10 of the 15 primaries on Super Tuesday. Came in 2nd for the couple he didn’t win. After that is when Bloomberg got chased back out, and Warren dropped out realizing she was stripping votes from Bernie.
Bernie was ahead for all of 3 weeks. And at that point only 3 states were in. What truly happened in that time is a lot of media spin. Because they had nothing much to report on and kept belaboring over almost nothing of consequence. By the time my chance landed here in Illinois it was obvious Biden had it in the bag. Bernie dropped out himself only a couple weeks after.
It’s interesting to see the consequences of a two-party system so clearly here. Only focusing on the voters in the middle because the others are secure, it’s exactly what the maths predict.
Honestly, after his failed 1987 primary challenge, I’m surprised he ever got back on his feet in terms of politics at all.
He plagiarized a speech by a British politician and got caught, he was involved in a scandal involving his law school grades and he lied about his participation in the civil rights movement (or at least greatly exaggerated it).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_1988_presidential_campaign#Summer_1987
On top of that, after dropping out, he had two brain aneurysms.
It’s pretty amazing he got elected president in 2020.
It’s pretty amazing he got elected president in 2020.
America is a country where some areas have such high rates of diabetes, people fully expect to lose limbs due to circulation issues.
It seems that you can simply train many people to expect their options to limited.
Oh. Look. It’s the exact message we all knew was coming. “Good thing we got rid of Biden, but now we have another terrible candidate.”
Yes! Exactly!
All the Democrats seem capable of, are terrible presidential candates. Obama seemed like a great candate for a … Change. But turned out to be quite mid.You know, obviously I disagree with you. But I respect you for not deleting your comments and for continuing to engage earnestly with people who were upset by it. I understand your disappointment with not ever getting a president who really moves the ball forward.
Until a progressive candidate can get elected in the swing states or there is a massive shift in the Overton window, I don’t think you’re going to get what you want. I’d like the world to be a better place, too. Shit, depending on the next 4 years, it’s likely I won’t live to see a liberal Supreme Court again, let alone tear down the corporate capture of our government.
Kamala has proven she can inspire people and that she can win. And I said before Biden even stepped down, if he goes, it has to be her or we risk losing black voters whom we can’t win without. Now she’s bringing them in droves. And the more registered Democrats, the greater our chances of really moving the country left in a meaningful way. She’s the right choice, whether she’s the best choice or not.
Anyway, be well.
she was in a primary with biden in the center and about 15 other progressives on the left. she was always popular; it’s just bernie occupied the left flank of the primary and everyone else was crumbs.
She was in the Senate. She has a voting record. Go look at it.
You know she was a Senator, right? You know those votes are public record, right?
You know who else couldn’t handle a primary run (twice) before they were elected president? Joe Biden.
Yah. I don’t know why anyone thought he was a good option either.
And yet he won despite you not knowing why.
Is winning the only hurdle? That’s so depressing.
When it comes to stopping Project 2025? Yes, that is the only hurdle. Work on the rest after that.
That’s not something we’ll ever “stop”. That’s an ongoing eternal fight. And you don’t win by only playing defense. You need to try to score also.
We will never stop a specific agenda that has been laid out in great detail in a plan Americans are souring to the more they hear about it?
The sounds like what some people told me about Biden in 2020. Why vote for him? He’s the same as Trump.
Except he isn’t. By most measures.
It is very depressing, yes. But a candidate that is 10/10 on every possible good measure that loses to Trump due to Democratic infighting, will be a worse outcome to someone that is mediocre in some respects but can win. It is the most important hurdle, and at the very least I can say the Democrats have some semblance of a strategy now that they didn’t have before, and that’s reason for hope.
I’d be happy for 5/10
I’d be happy
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Then vote for that candidate
Biden was in several primaries. Only recently did he get enough traction. Just Obama was more popular. That’s actually a common pattern, that eventual Presidents had to lose a few primaries to get where they are today.
Alright. Here’s your chance:
Who would you choose?
Be prepared to defend your answer.
No idea.
The party never presented any real chance to compare options. That’s the problem. We could’ve had a dozen debates with anyone polling over 0.1%. Like the Republicans. But that never happened.If we had, maybe it’d be clear she’s the best choice.
You know these things about Harris and yet can’t supply us with a single potential alternative? Now I am aware you’re likely no expert. Though to have a fair opinion one must be able to account at least somewhat for both sides of the equation.
Please stop dismissing Harris if you can’t make even the smallest argument for why someone else may be better. It’s potentially damaging and right now, as much as I wish we could debate about it for hours, we need to stop fascism first.
edit: By the way, thank you for admitting you don’t know. That alone is something we should all respect.
Who dismissed Harris?
Is Fascism the one where leaders are chosen by an elite few, without the input of the public?
Edit: Thank you. I do try to be a honest as I can. Even when I know my ideas are very… Uncommon I guess.
You should read the essay “Ur-fascism” by Umberto Eco. It’s an 8 or 9 page PDF, and it does a really good job explaining fascism (including it’s seemingly inability to be defined - which to them is a feature).
This should be a PDF of it so you don’t even need to Google. Everyone should read this
If you’ve ever heard of the 14 defining features of fascism, they come from this essay. And he does an excellent job explaining them all and relating them to his life growing up in fascist Italy.
Fascism exists to first justify and in the endgame solidify the tyrannical desire of the elite. Choosing to displace our fears and concerns by undermining, even indirectly, the person we ultimately must support, we do damage to that cause. So while we are not a true Democracy, we have in our laps a chance to stop a slide into something worse.
I feel strongly that despite the many differences we all have, and the discourse those differences often bring, we should seek to put them aside for now. Not forever. Just for now, to work for a better country and a government that exists more for us all. It is optimistic, though I know deep down that those of us not worshipping Trump want for a better life and outnumber the brainwashed and poorly educated red masses by a magnitude. We just have to come together.
Harris is not the country’s leader yet. She is likely to be selected as the candidate by the Democratic party, but ultimately the party is a private organization that can do basically whatever it wants to select that candidate. That’s not fascism. That’s freedom of association. In the end, nobody has to vote for the Democrats nor the Republicans. Anybody can be on the ballot with enough popular support, no party needed.
Parties hold primaries because, ultimately, they need votes to win an election and primaries help gauge the people who will be voting. At the time of the primaries, the voters still overwhelmingly selected Biden. But in the time since, polls show large majorities of those voters support both Biden’s departure and Harris as the replacement. So this is still likely the right move if the party is trying to appeal to the public.
All of that is entirely true.
And ultimately entirely undemocratic.
And that’s the biggest problem I have with the party at the moment.The Republicans, who are sooo shitty in most every other respect, held an actual primary process. While they’re exactly the same kind private company the Democrats are, and could’ve simply gone with Trump.
All for debate, but maybe don’t go around devaluing the term fascism for fake internet points?
You mean all those points I’m losing with every comment?
Just because you’re bad at it doesn’t mean you’re not doing it.
Nobody knows what she’ll actually do in office
I don’t have any reason to believe Harris would do anything radically different than what Biden would have done. That makes her far from ideal, in my opinion, but nonetheless still much better than Trump. That’s the only thing the Democrats really have going for them at this point: they remain better than the only other viable political alternative. Admittedly, that is a LOW bar, in my opinion, but that’s where we are in America right now. I have given up trying to make America the way I want to be, and am instead focused primarily on harm reduction.
Agreed. Just kind of more of the same seems likely. I just think we could use and deserve better.
Other than his stance on Palestine, I think Joe (and his administration) did an excellent job under the circumstances. He was the right man at the right time
His domestic work was acceptable. My only gripe there is not pushing harder on the minimum wage. He could’ve replace the parliamentarian.
Prior to this, the only Democrat less popular than her, was Biden.
Well at least she’s more popular than Biden then.
Yes. That’s our great hope. Someone slightly better than the worst option.
I mean, it is what it is, sadly. It’s basically impossible to get good candidates in a flawed first past the post system where there are only two realistic parties and both are controlled by the corporate elite that benefit from the status quo. Good candidates get squashed.
Well, that’s surprising. /s
