The backlash I keep seeing from mainstream democrats over Jon Stewart's return is laughable, but also concerning. Seriously, for a lot of us anti establishment lefties, it was like a spell had been broken. I feel like since 2016, we haven't had legitimate political discourse in this country. Everything has been basically John Adam's "greatest evil" under the constitution in which America is divided under the banner of two parties voting for lesser evils, than for greater goods. People aren't honest about politics any more. Nuance isn't appreciated. We seem to forget that democracy belongs to the voters, the voters aren't beholden to the parties. I've been trying to keep this intellectual tradition alive through these dark times on this blog, while also being a bit fair to the situation we are in. So before I go further, yes, Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy. BUT, that doesn't mean we should just mindlessly support "dear leader" within the democratic party. I've been saying it for years. Neoliberal democrats ARENT POPULAR. MIlquetoast centrism turns EVERYONE off. Sure, like 30% are ride or die on this guy, but most aren't. And even if I feel the circumstances call for even me to back Joe Biden in this critical election, doesn't mean we should try to erode freedom of speech and press to "preserve democracy", as surely, our democracy will fall even faster without those things.
The fact is, much like 2016 and 2020, the democrats are selling a turd. Biden might only be the half of bowl of crap compared to the full bowl that is trump (although at this point I'd be inclined to downgrade Biden to a 1/4 bowl of crap), but that doesnt mean that he isn't milquetoast.
I mean, I've seen the numbers. They're horrible. Biden literally only has a 9% chance of winning the election according to last month's poll numbers. And while I haven't updated them yet, since I want to only do that once a month at this point, he hasn't improved. Donald Trump getting a criminal conviction would shift the point 7 points in Biden's favor, but that ONLY has him breaking water with his 2020 results, meaning that while that SHOULD be a gg, Biden is down so much it only gets him a fighting chance and mild advantage. And let's face it, polls are regularly off by a couple of points compared to the final result. And simply getting back to a 1-2 point advantage isn't enough. We saw how that worked out for Hillary in 2016.
I admit, not all criticism of Biden is legitimate. A lot of the naysayers would be praising the same circumstances if their orange god king were currently in office instead. And of course, immigration is a made up issue mostly, and when Biden addresses it, the republicans suddenly dont wanna do anything with it, since it would hurt their own electability.
But at the same time, a lot IS. We HAVE had a lot of inflation with many households not recovering. Despite biden bros trying to gish gallop massive "accomplishment" lists, much like an actual gish gallop most of those accomplishments are weak and didnt do much of anything in practice. people aren't FEELING the change. Like, I just took a survey asking me about how build back better affected my community. I cant even say how it did. The poll tried to guide me, telling me it allowed this and that, but honestly, most voters dont feel that. This is why I dont like milquetoast democratic policy. THings can happen, but they're so disconnected from the modern citizenry that they're not gonna notice. It's not gonna benefit them personally in any tangible way. This is why I keep saying, the best way to help people is with cash, like a UBI. And we had the child tax credit but because of congress, specifically Joe Manchin, now we don't.
What people notice is their grocery bills increasing but their own circumstances aren't going up to match. What people notice are homeless people flooding the streets of san francisco and crapping all over the place in their tent cities. Republicans hit democrats on issues that people FEEL. Democrats tout accomplishments that people DONT feel. See the disconnect?
But that wasn't even what Stewart hit on. His criticisms were a lot less sophisticated, and hit something a lot more salient: Biden's age. Ya know, I was actually discussing how much more open politics was in the 2000s compared to now, and I got to showing him old JibJab videos. Like this one from 2008. Look at how they treated McCain there. Dude was a FULL DECADE younger than Biden, but they were ripping him for having skin cancer and a swollen gland while in a hiospital gown. The 2000s had no chill when criticizing candidates. They went after EVERYONE, and the process was intended to make the result stronger. We wanted the BEST candidate for the job. The one who WITHSTOOD criticism best. Now it's like "no no, don't criticize our geriatric 81 year old president who ALSO is prone to skin cancer because it might make him look bad." WTF?! Btw, I was a conservative in 2008. And McCain's numbers were literally about as bad as Biden's are now. Do you not see the warning signs of putting this guy up? Like holy crap. Im sick and tired of pretending everything is fine and we keep rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic as it's sinking.
And let's face it, I also know replacing Biden is no guarantee of a better outcome. If the dems DO put up Harris, she WILL do worse. But why not just give fricking Dean Phillips a chance? He might not be the best they got, but he's the one who showed up regarless of Biden's lock on the position. ANd it's early enough in the process that Biden could choose not to seek reelection tomorrow and just endorse Dean, and Dean would have the delegate count to win. The fact that the dems aren't doing this is quite frankly, evil and irresponsible of them.
And back to Biden's age. Stewart actually did kinda change my mind on Biden's mental competence and how this dude basically botched his own "I'm totally not senile" conference. And to be fair I'm not saying Trump is any better, but neither did he. It seems like everyone is on the same page as far as Trump's age too...other than, you know, the 30% of the country who are ride and die on HIM.
The fact is, elections are like this: you got 30% of the country who will always stick by their guy, 30% who will always stick by the other guy, around 10-15% each have softer partisans who will almost definitely stick by their guy but CAN switch, and then like 10% who really swing things. And that 10%....doesnt want Biden. They either want Trump, or RFK Jr. And I'm not saying either of those are good candidates, quite frankly, they're not. But that's where people are leaning.
You also gotta keep in mind the enthusiasm gap. When one side is fired up and the other side is demotivated, you get the results going where the energy is. And it's NOT with Biden.
Rather than admit this, democrats are trying to suppress any criticism of their guy, to try to keep voter motivation, but you know what? That aint right either. The democrats need to stop doing this crap. Every fricking election is a lesser evil crapfest, and voters dont have the discipline to keep voting blue every time. Nor should they, necessarily. A democracy in which voters are beholden to the party rather than the party being beholden to the voters is one where it's going in the direction of being a sham. RIght now our democracy is on life support. people arent happy with either option, and quite frankly, that's how we got Mango Mussolini in the first place!
I would love to castigate the voters to some extent. I mean, let's face it, your median voter isnt very intelligent or informed. And as a Biden supporter, I think a lot of the takes the median voter has this time around are just bad. BUT, that's what democracy is, and it's still the least bad of all systems. We cant just support oligarchy instead because people are too stupid to make good decisions, that just makes our system MORE corrupt. And trying to silence people for daring to speak the truth of how they feel? Well that's just anti democratic and against our values of freedom in general.
It's wild, I feel like before 2016 the democrats WERE the defenders of free speech. Now they're not. They just want everyone to follow dear leader. They want to cancel people for being offensive. THey want to silence people for not showing a clear preference for their side. The ethos of this modern era is sick, and points to our democracy being sick. And we might lose it if we're not careful.
And in that sense I will kindly ask anyone to consider voting for the 81 year old who is a skin cancer risk and who doesnt seem to remember what he had for breakfast this morning. Despite questions of mental competence, his administration has been relatively effective, and while not amazing, I'd rather not take the risk of the 76 year old who is ALSO showing signs of dementia in my humble opinion and is a much more salient threat to democracy.
Of course, if you cant vote for either of these guys and want to vote for someone "not evil", I understand too. There are third party candidates out there. If I was voting third party I'd endorse Cornel West or Jill Stein. Although I would still risk Biden over them this time due to my own inclinations. Just for the love of god don't vote for orange man. Seriously. Dude wants to overthrow democracy itself. I might hate the democrats for their affronts to democracy, but they got nothing on the orange man this time.
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