Thursday’s presidential debate debacle — widely regarded as a low point for President Joe Biden, who appeared feeble and sometimes confused — many Democratic elites and nonpartisan pundits are suggesting a break-the-glass-in-case-of-emergency move that resided on the margins of conventional political thought just a week ago: The incumbent president, they argue, should step aside in the interest of the country, and delegates should name his replacement at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
Any move to replace Biden just four months before the election carries considerable risk. The party can ill afford to pass over its sitting vice president, Kamala Harris, who represents a core Democratic constituency as a Black woman — but Harris consistently underperforms in polling. And allowing delegates to make such a momentous decision, negating the will of millions of primary voters and turning a nomination process that has been the norm for decades upside-down, is surely a recipe for division and rancor.
But it’s not like we haven’t been here before. On March 31, 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson stunned the nation when he announced that he was pulling out of that year’s presidential election. The Democratic National Convention that followed several months later devolved into chaos and violence and left the party’s eventual nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, hobbled at the start of the fall campaign season. He ultimately lost a painfully close election to Richard Nixon, in no small part because of the unruly convention in Chicago.
Someone remind me of what happened after Johnson was replaced and how that worked out for the Democrats…
I don’t like Biden. None of us here appear to like Biden. The problem is that no one can agree on who would be best to replace him with. Unless that can be resolved right away, we’re stuck with Biden whether or not that means failure. Honestly, at this point, I’m seeing Trump’s presidency as a horrific inevitability.
Yeah if we had somebody who was a consensus candidate sort of waiting in the wings, I would push harder. But we don’t. And as the article says, leapfrogging over Harris would be a terrible look.
This is the problem with the Dems. Worried about giving people “their turn” or whatever. That’s why Hillary got the nomination and why we will be stuck with Kamala. We are handing Trump the presidency on a silver platter. Running an incoherent 81 year old man with a VP nobody likes because he’s the incumbent. Jesus Christ we are doomed.
It’s not about “it’s their turn,” it’s that if she isn’t fit to be president then why is she fit to be vice president? Skipping over her creates even more messaging issues and such.
Unfortunately the presidential election is largely a popularity contest. Optics are incredibly important. And the optics on just kind of pretending she’s not there are terrible.
Being fit to be president and being a candidate with a good chance to win are very different things.
Right now, the Democrats need a candidate that can win. If this isn’t their top priority, then how can anyone take seriously their claim that Trump threatens democracy itself. They have to pick a candidate that people really want
It’s not about “it’s their turn,” it’s that if she isn’t fit to be president then why is she fit to be vice president? Skipping over her creates even more messaging issues and such.
Yeah, imagine the message it would send. “We’re willing to admit when we make a mistake and we listen to party membership.”
Completely off brand for the Democratic Party.
This is why, despite the fact that many of us also dislike Kamala, she should be the only name in the running, and he shouldn’t wait until the convection to step aside. He should resign now, let Kamala be president for a few months, and then she can run in the election as an incumbent with full party support. No one else can legally claim his delegates or even use the campaign’s money, only she can do that if he resigns. This would be the only real way to force the DCCC into not shitting the bed, which is their default setting. Any other approach, in my opinion, is a recipe for mayhem at the convention, and yeah, an inevitable Trump presidency.
I don’t think a black woman has much of a chance of being elected president in this climate, but even if that weren’t the case, it’s my understanding that she’s even more disliked than Biden.
I think a black woman with Obama’s gravitas would mop the floor with trump. She doesn’t have that, and she’s got a ton of baggage too.
she should be the only name in the running
I very much disagree
For her (or anyone) to have a chance, there has to be some semblance of competition (if not for voters, at least for delegates)
A spectacle at the convention would get news coverage, and competition between Biden replacements would be the best way to vet the candidates’ viability
The last thing anyone should want is for the DNC to simply anoint any one person without any outside input
These kinds of posts are actively harming our chances of avoiding a fascist take over. Can you not? The convicted felon was just listed even more times on the infamous pedophiles private docs, is there not an article about that you can post? gotta make sure everyone keeps talking about how an old man had an old man moment. An old man that’s helping the IRS go after the 1%, helping the EPA regulate carbon emissions, helping medicare lower drug prices, helping student loan borrowers reduce their burden, helping fucking Ukraine while it defends itself against the soft-launch of WWIII… I’m sure there’s more I’m missing.
I’ll vote for a corpse over fucking fascism. Biden passing would mean a strong black woman gets put in charge, and however much I disagree with some of her positions, I would take almost any black woman over drumpf. 99% chance of them being 1000x better for working families than the convicted felon pedophile rapist.
That makes sense if you believe Biden is the only one who can beat Trump.
The all the polls say he won’t.
But even if Biden is the chosen one and beats Trump, he can’t run in 2028 while Trump surely will. What then? Biden was our only hope, and he’s not an option anymore.
No. This idea of Biden or bust is wrong. I’m sure lots of people could beat Trump. They’d just do it by embracing progressive populism against conservative populism. But the Democratic elite are very much against that.
That’s because, Progressive populism is very much against the ownership class, which both parties depend on. Conservative populism on the other hand, is largely a tool of the ownership class.
There’s also never a suggestion of a candidate that can pull off a win with a four month campaign in any of the articles calling for Biden to step down. It’s not constructive criticism. Without a proposed solution, it’s just condemnation.
It looks like Trump’s involvement with the Epstein docs has been completely blacklisted by the U.S.
This is where I found a story- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/before-marrying-melania-in-2005-what-new-documents-claim-about-trump-epstein/articleshow/111465121.cms
Trump is likely going to win, the sooner you accept that the sooner you stop whining that people are engaging in civil discussion over a massive fucking mistake waiting to happen: running a feeble old guy who is likely to pop his clogs soon, who voters will avoid because of his poor performance in front of millions of people.
We’re not having discussion for discussion’s sake. We want a new candidate so that Trump’s win isn’t actually an eventuality.
Indeed. If a candidate cannot stand up to some online scrutiny, I can’t see there being much hope.
I’m so sick of hearing about Biden. How about point out any of the dozens of disgusting remarks and wants of the wanna-be dictator, cheetoh mcgee? It’s almost as if all media companies are owned by right wing capitalist wankers.
Wait, that can’t possibly be the case. *checks notes*
Oh shit.
Because Lemmy is flooded with Russian influence, and most of the news and comments are directed to Biden topics instead of Trump topics to keep the heat on the “right person”
Lemmy is flooded with Russian influence
What do you mean by that? That people use “Russian” talking points or that there are literally bots/agitators directly from Russia trying to shape the narrative here?
It probably real people.
Why would anyone pay someone to post on Lemmy? Not the biggest expense/exposure ratio, surely?
It’s not so much about posting, but influencing the direction of the conversation. Which can involve posting. There are plenty of groups who get paid to just talk shit online. I would be surprised if the US didn’t have a group too.
Yeah but on Lemmy? Of all places?
Lemmy’s developers are actual tankies. The original and a still large instance is Lemmy.ml. The ML meaning Marxist Leninist. The mods there are ridiculously ban heavy around questioning anything to do with BRICS nations. They even preemptively ban accounts who post outside of their instance if you say truthful things like NATO is a defensive alliance, Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, or China is being imperialist themselves in SE Asia.
Removed by mod
Yeah I’m sure Putin’s top priority is infiltrating the Linux nerds and Trekkies in their natural habitat. Facebook? Nah. Reddit? Nyet. We need to go where the real action is.
Removed by mod
Like so.
Wanting a President that can string two coherent sentences together doesn’t make you a Russian bot.
That’s true, and so far none of the people running can.
Hence the reason for why people are calling for one to be replaced as it’s not a deal breaker for the other party
This is 100% accurate.
I think we can Weekend at Bernie’s him until he passes. Then we get Kamala, which is not bad.
I think a lot of the federal government can run on its own as long as there are competent people in the cabinet.
Kamala is bad. Not as bad as trump. But bad.
Why?
ACAB
Looked up the answer myself. I suppose yours is a good summation once someone has some knowledge.
Btw, the reason I asked is because we need to stop assuming everyone knows everything, especially about politics. Let’s take the few seconds necessary to explain for those that don’t know. The impact that will have is hard to measure, though it would likely be quite positive.
So it has happened before, and we already know what happened last time. Doesn’t seem a very convincing argument for Biden to step down.
