Democrats say Trump is an existential threat. They’re not acting like it.

If he's such an existential threat (and he is), why the fuck are they not forcing the geriatric incompetent running on their ticket to drop out? They're sleepwalking into fascism and it's terrifying.

My semi-secret conspiracy theory adjacent theory is it's intentional. That not all, but many, of the Democratic national party is in bed with the same big businesses paying off Republicans, and they're prepared to pull a Hindenburg and install the very fascists they claim to resist once they can no longer hide their betrayal.
- I also do think it's primarily a money issue. Some of it might be those donors wanting the two parties to do different things, by basically leading the democrats into their graves.
If he’s such an existential threat (and he is), why the fuck are they not forcing the geriatric incompetent running on their ticket to drop out?
Because their rank-and-file voters who voted in the primary voted for him. This primary and last primary. And if you want people to leave your party in a big exodus, invalidating their primary vote is how you do that. They learned that in Bernie's race. I voted for Biden, he wasn't the only person to run in the primary, I'll be damned if the "party elite" select some other candidate anyways, why even vote in the primaries at that point? May as well register for the R primary since they at least had more candidates and (so far) appear to respect their primary process so my vote would actually mean something.
One thing you'll notice is that the venn diagram for people who complain about only having "two choices" and the people who don't participate in primaries is nearly a perfect circle. You get an overwhelming amount of choices if you vote in every primary and every election.If you only vote once every 2 or 4 years and skip the primaries, yeah, you get two choices.
- No one considers this primary a real vote, or that a vote from four years ago indicates current preferences. If it did, 50% of Democrats who watched the debate wouldn't want him to step aside.
- I've voted in every primary and local election since the year 2000 and had a Kucinich for President bumper sticker and I still complain about the choices because my preferred candidate has never won. Ever.
Because the most popular alternative is Kamala Harris, but there is no evidence she would do better against Trump.
- I stand that Kamala's best chance is to hold the ship steady as is, and then ask Biden to resign in December or January.
  There's a lot of racists out there. I feel like if she's at the top of the ticket, she's gonna get dragged down. Biden truly is serving as an effective shield for her. Either way, Kamala is the implicit vote if anything wrong happens to Biden (which I admit is increasingly likely given his age).
  It makes no sense for Kamala to rush to the top of the ticket given her position.
- Most polls put her on par with Biden. Dataforprogress.org has her leading when “fitness” and “strength” are brought into question, but that’s the only poll I’ve seen where she has any lead at all.

Honestly you guys are fucked, Even if Biden scrapes a win these are going to be the stakes every 4 years until the US turns into a dictatorship. Fuck knows how that's going to affect the rest of us around the world in the long run.

One thing that might save us is if Trump dies without managing to get elected. A sizable chunk of the GOP's base are people who worship him specifically, and if he were gone it might splinter them. But it's hard to know how that would play out for sure. The situation is definitely very, very grim.
- They will just turn to DeSantis or whomever. If you can be sure of anything, be sure that Project 2025 has a list of contingency candidates.
- Trump is just the face of the problem. The real threats are the organs; much deeper inside and far more protected than the face.
- My friend... My poor confused friend.
  TRUMP IS NOT THE ENEMY, simply a symptom of a greater disease: the FEDERALIST SOCIETY in addition to our FASCIST OLIGARCHY.
  When Trump dies, none of this will go away. NONE OF IT.
- Maybe, but Trump unifies the left just as much. If Trump died, how many on the left would continue to hold their noses and vote Biden?
- the supreme court just confirmed that the castro, allende, etc. style assassinations are publicly legal so maybe biden should consider it. lol
  but i'm sure that another will take his place if trump fell.
It ain't just us pal, open your eyes and notice all of EU is falling to these same goddamn fascists.
- Not all of the EU. Some countries have managed to recover from a far-right party taking control even, like Poland's "new" coalition that took power back from the far-right PiS. I know it looks rough when you're looking at monsters like Le Pen making gains, but Europe still has a chance.
- Yes, but at least European countries have more than 2 parties, making them more resilient. It also makes it easier to kick the fascists out of power after they got in.
  Fascism is very much growing in Europe as well, but the situation is not as dire.
I disagree with this, I think the Republican Party is waning and they’re now in the sweet spot where they have a large enough base to enact a fascist takeover but not enough to win by appealing to the electorate. If they aren’t able to change the rules in their favor in the next couple cycles I think they become further marginalized and lose their chance.
That’s not to say we won’t face a similar problem again after we have a party realignment, but I do think the GOP specifically has a limited window in which to seize power.
- As long as corporate capture isn't addressed fascism is only going to get worse. We're angry that our politicians have sold us out. The dim ones will listen to the guy that blames their inability to have a decent life on immigrants, gays, trans,, taxes, regulations, ect.
- Yup, as the weak-willed establishment Republicans realize the insane people can't win anymore, they will turn tail and bail on them. Then the shitty people can go back under their rocks and moderate conservatives can come back into power. Hopefully the Democrat's constituents can get ranked choice voting through so this doesn't happen again. Then we can get critical thinking education spread and the lunatic fringe right-wing wond be able to live here anymore.
Yup, sorry my dudes.
where are you from friend? and I agree, we're fucked 🍻

Given the number of existential threats we have and are facing, the reaction tracks.

What do you personally do the the face of existential threats? Get ice cream and watch a movie.

There’s nothing that can be done about SCOTUS at the moment. Republicans have House majority, so impeachment and resizing votes will fail.
Something could be done if everyone voted blue in the fall and we had Democratic majority in Congress.
- The odds of anything turning blue in November other than maybe the Whitehouse seems slim. I have no numbers or proof and I am completely stating my opinion, but it seems the dems have targeted defective Republicans and centrists and not people on the left. I'd imagine Republicans that can't stomach Trump are still going to vote red everywhere but the Whitehouse. While the voters further to the left than both our conservative parties will just stay home.
- the democrats had majority control and they still fucked it up by pretending they couldn't change the filibuster rules and they'll find some other way to fuck it up again if we do vote for them.
- There's plenty that can be done about the Court. Just tell them no. They made a massive precedent-defying power grab overruling Chevron. If the climate is an existential problem, a constitutional crisis is warranted.
- Biden could nominate three new justices to the court today if he wanted to.
My point was what do YOU do? Not what should one do.
Most people get ice cream and ignore the situation.

Treating an existential threat as existential requires the one thing that the Democratic coalition has increasingly struggled to do: prioritization. It means putting aside personal feelings, individual ambition, and subjective preferences in favor of a single goal: success. Otherwise, it’s just empty rhetoric.

As New York Timescolumnist Ezra Klein, who has been pushing the possibility of an open convention to replace Biden, said on his podcast after Thursday’s debate: “If the fate of American democracy is hinging on this election — as Democrats are always telling me it is and as I think there is a chance that it is — then you should do everything you can to win it.” That a strategy, any strategy, might make people or groups uncomfortable cannot be a reason not to pursue it in the face of an existential threat. Not if you believe what you’re saying.

Over a dozen paragraphs and no name brought up to replace Biden if he leaves. (Kamala? Kamala is team Biden)
Glad to see that the prioritization is to attack Biden before you even have a replacement lined up. Good job media, you're whipping the dumbasses into a frenzy and taking unnecessary risks.
Lets just say Biden is out. Start listing names. Serious contenders. If Kamala (effectively on Biden's team anyway) is your best shot, then it doesn't matter if she's VP or Top of the Ticket, if the plan is for Biden to resign after November anyway.

They sure aren't. IMO, If Biden doesn't attempt to exercise his new presidential powers, the Dems will be partially responsible for the fascism that follows.

Seems you forget that an extreme court gets to decide things now. He doesn't have the powers unless the court says he does.
- So why weren't the courts getting stacked years ago?
  Stop pretending like his hands are tied. The SCOTUS ruling yesterday shows that is bullshit.
- I was wondering how his hands would be tied this time.
- Better to act first than wonder if you have permission. Take the action necessary, let the courts hash it out months later after the election is over. As long as it's an official action, there should be no problem.

The never do. Despite the system constantly being corrupted in the opposition’s favor, they just roll over and talke it. IMO it’s a money problem. The big donors want the ROI, and big businesses are dictatorships. Those dictatorships align more with fascist/conservative policies more than they do liberal so democrats don’t want to upset the big business donors by inconveniencing their profit stream.

He's only a threat in so much as they can turn it into political donations. The rest of us, on the other hand, see an absolute menace ready to implement fascism. But Dems are ok with just having scary news articles and no real action.

Biden's speech was infuriating. Just came out and basically said "This is bad. I'm not going to do anything about it. This is just the way it is now so I hope we always have good presidents from here unto eternity. Good bye." and then doddered off stage.

When it comes to the Democrats and* the left* — from the Biden campaign on down to the activists

What's with calling out the left on this, when the closest they get to a leftist organization they take issue with is a climate advocacy group. The left has been pretty clear that Biden is not the man for the moment since the go, and for our troubles, we've been called everything from stupid and naïve, to privileged white people who don't care about insert minority group here (and ignore that not all leftists are rich, white people, there are plenty of POC active in leftist politics, though critics, often privileged white people themselves, do love to erase their existence in the same breath they claim to be looking out for them), to either useful idiots or fully cognizant agitators working on behalf of enemy states. Centrist Democrats and liberals have been the ones trying to tell anyone who will listen that the same old play will not just be good enough, but is actually our only option to win, and they're trying to leave the left to take the fall for their mistake, yet again.

Some of it is political calculation. If the president steps aside, the logical candidate is Vice-President Kamala Harris, but Harris has struggled in office and her poor poll ratings mirror those of Biden. If the Democratic Party tries to sideline Harris and open the door to other candidates through an open convention, they risk alienating her and her supporters and opening up further wounds in the Democratic coalition.

What, risk all four of her supporters? Oh, darn, there go the chances of winning ever again.

Democrats are not going to win with a staid campaign by the usual corporate boot-licking line of candidates they've relied on up until now. The sooner they accept that and get behind a candidate who is pushing for systemic changes on issues that actually resonate with your average Americans and the problems they face in their daily lives, as opposed what matters only to their donors, the better for them this time around. Heck, if they actually follow through and make some of those changes, even better.

there are plenty of POC active in leftist politics, though critics, often privileged white people themselves, do love to erase their existence in the same breath they claim to be looking out for them
you must be a 1st generation american, poor, brown, gay man because you're clearly me since i had the same thought 1/2 the time i engage w a liberal on the lemmyverse. lol
the other 1/2 the time i spend trying to think up of a comeback when they imply that i'm a chinese or russian bot or shill.

Not a fan of the article throwing leftists and activists under the same bus with the Democratic party. Also rich how the author claims activists aren't acting like it is an existential threat but they are dumb for not endorsing Biden.

A reminder that Trumpy candidates to run against is what some Democrats wanted:

https://www.axios.com/2022/06/28/democrats-colorado-primary-ron-hanks-joe-odea

I'll admit it. I was one of the people who loved it when Trump started rising in the polls. I'm far from a Democrat but I believed that he would be the easiest Republican to defeat. I was so very wrong and my whole view of my country has changed since 2016.
I mean this strategy is how we got Trump in the first place. Zero lessons learned.

I think the immunity ruling of yesterday ended the U.S.'s checks and balances against a King, Monarch, or in more modern terms, the Unitary Executive. Overturning Roe Vs. Wade was the Judicial Branch warning shot.

I predict that in the future the U.S. will have a new revolution, but it'll probably be at least a century away. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

just imagine this with other existential threats. "a meteor the size of the moon will crash into the earth in 5 months if we don't do anything. so please vote for the meteor kindly changing course. btw current polls show that the meteor has higher approval rating than I do so please stop that too"

There's another theory why this is: calling Trump an existential threat is just a dishonest way to try to make people care about voting. They want to win for reasons that have nothing to do with how much in danger democracy is.

It's almost as if they are leveraging and exaggerating fear for their own gain.
- This is how morons talked in 2016 , leading to the Trump presidency in the first place.

It's on purpose. Democrats whole platform is "other side is evil and you'll go along with anything we do." If you mention this on Lemmy, people put their tin foil hats on and call you a Trump supporter. Now we have two fascist parties that we "have" to vote for.

But thank God those people who call me a Trump supporter are also trolling users (of most likely Asian descent) about how evil China is and they should like Biden better than whatever Winnie the Pooh's real name is.

Edit: I just reliazed that Winnie the Pooh reference is more than about the shape of his face. I'm sorry I just reliazed that ,I never put two and two together till just now. I am very sorry about using that.

The Winnie the Pooh reference was because of his overall shape, not just his face. Specifically it was about a picture of him and Obama where the proportions of both leaders were fairly similar to a picture of Pooh and Tigger walking together.
The dictator's real name is Xi Xinping
- Winnie the Pooh is also Xi Xinping's nickname on Chinese bloggers. It was a way to avoid Chinese Censors and still talk about him without explicitly getting disappeared by the Chinese secret police. It worked for a while, but the jig is up and everyone knows that Pooh is codeword for Xi now.
  Its a nickname embraced by Chinese specifically. Its not racist at all but instead its us Americans trolling Xi Xinping by taking an codeword/insult used by the internal Chinese dissenters.
- @dragontamer@lemmy.world
  That's very funny. As I brushed my teeth before heading to the office for a few hours, a thought hit's me, "has this meme been racist this whole time?" Thank you both for the explanation. I was over thinking this.

Biden was talking about golfing with the guy...THAT was his big fuck up that night.

More that he spectacularly failed to even land the words, and gave Trump the high road position. Millions of people saw Trump tell Biden that they should be adults.

Joe can do it!

Sure, just watch the debate and see whose cognitive function is still intact. Clearly, it's not Biden. That was the most embarrassing debate I've ever seen.

I don't know how anyone can hear a single sentence out of Trump's mouth and think he's cognitively in tact.
- Trump doesn't have to be cogent to win his supporters over, he just has to be violent.
  Just like how Biden doesn't have to be lucid to keep the loyalty of his supporters, he just has to not be Trump.
- Biden can't even put together a single sentence and this is the guy you want running as president? Bro can't debate past 9PM.
Biden gave answers that made sense, Trump lied and said we abort already-born babies. Jesus fucking christ, you must be braindead.
- Solid, sensible answers such as
  making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the with the Covid, excuse me, with, um, dealing with everything we have to do with, uh, look, if…we finally beat Medicare.
  and
  Look, there's so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just murdered and he went to the funeral. And the idea that she was murdered by a by by an immigrant coming in to. They talk about that.