Discussing the idea of Biden being forced out so the donors can get someone more conservative

 So, this has been going around in progressive circles lately, especially after AOC's live stream in which she divulged the details, and uh....I don't agree that's their primary motivation. If they seriously wanted Biden out because they were unhappy with him politically, they wouldn't be waiting until now to do it. They would've had an open primary forcing him to resign back then, and then pushing corporate candidates down everyone's throats.

So why are they trying to replace Biden and possibly bypass Kamala? Uh, because polling says they can't win. Biden is at a 13% chance, recovering from a 10% low post debate (he was at 24% when the debate happened), and Harris just went up to a 16% chance after being at 5% all year. These guys aren't winners. Some internal polling suggests someone more moderate can win, although public polling suggests anyone other than Biden or Harris would do even worse. 

At the same time, I do think that some donors are unhappy by the amount of progressives in Biden's administration. We saw this with the centrist version of project 2025, where the third way wants to purge progressives from Biden's administration and stack the democratic party with corporate democrats like it's 1992 again. And again, I've been saying this all year, but analyizing the policies of candidates like Biden, and Harris, they've kinda carved out their own lane in the democratic party where they try to shore up progressives by doing mildly progressive things (still watered down, but you know...) while still not going far enough to piss off the donors. And I do understand if Biden loses, the dems might refuse to do even that, going full on third way again. 

Which is one of the reasons progressives in congress are largely biden's staunchest defenders. Yeah the dems do wanna roll back whatever progress Biden has tried to do, erase that legacy, and claim we need to go back to the center or right.

Still, I won't say that they're forcing biden out BECAUSE he did such things. They can tolerate that stuff, it's just stuff around the edges for them, damage control to keep progressives in line, the thing is, Biden really did have a poor debate performance, and while I think the performance has been exaggerated a bit, and people dont focus on Trump being just as bad or worse for some reason (seriously post RNC I'm just gonna say it, Trump is a WORSE speaker these days), I do get why the donors are crapping their pants. It's like they knew they couldnt gaslight this crap any more so they're like ok, let's get Biden out. 

As for Kamala....im mixed on her. Policy wise, I do think she's one of the best choices of the choices the corporate dems find acceptable. She is the most progressive of the bunch. But her numbers have historically been worse than Biden's, and i generally perceive her to be a weak candidate as well.

As such would I support an open primary? Well, hold your horses, I'm mixed there too. The fact is, the people aren't going to have a say in ANY of this. We had no real primary. The DNC is just gonna nominate someone and tell us we have to vote for them. And the candidates they're putting in the running other than Harris and Biden are mostly corporate dems. Newsom might be progressive in the "biden-harris" sense, but even I'm not stupid enough to push him given the anti immigration attitude the country has right now. Whitmer's more centrist. Shapiro is more centrist. Mark Kelly is more centrist. Andy Beshear is more centrist. And a lot of these guys probably have no charisma or staying power either. Seriously, most of them arent well known. Theyre probably boring. We have only about a month post convention to get the public to warm up to them before early voting goes into effect. Im not sure we could get the numbers up. I mean, age is only one factor in Biden's poor performance. It affected him by 2 points. He's generally 2 points lower than he was when age wasnt seen as a huge factor. But he's down by 4.5. And he's down from his 2020 baseline by 6 on average (really, anywhere from 4-8). The dems have serious problems. And I'm going to fricking say it. 

THIS IS THE DONOR CLASS' FAULT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Seriously. Every fricking election with these people is them forcing some corporate politician down our throats who no one likes and no one wants to vote for, and they refuse to allow the party to change organically. Look at Trump and his populism. WE could've had that energy. If only we chose Bernie. But no. They didn't bernie. bernie threatened their interests. So instead they pushed to keep the party as corporate as possible even as the people are kinda rebelling against corporate rule.

Which is why people vote for Trump. He might be full of crap and be as corporate as they come, but he still does the "I'm self funded and no one owns me" kinda thing while at least PRETENDING to be economically progressive. And that's why he's gonna clean Biden's clock this time. I wanted the RNC. The RNC had a lot of issues with it. But that first night they were onto something with the populism. I dont trust the RNC with anything pro worker or pro corporate, as the GOP is even more pro corporate than the democrats are. But, at least they pretend like they aren't. And at least, when not in power at least, they can pretend to actually be for making peoples' lives better.

Our party is severely hamstrung in being able to do anything for the people, because of the influence of corporate rule in our politics. They dont govern directly, but if they are the king makers who determine who gets in and who doesn't, well, they might as well run everything. And they LOVE the third way. The third way is their thing. Do nothing for the people, run to the center on everything, compensate with slapping a rainbow on their logo once a year and pandering to identity politics. Everything runs smoothly as it is, no real change is accomplished, and everyone fights over stupid culture war bullcrap. 

And yeah. Thats why the democrats are so weak and feeble. They're forced into that model. And even Biden's changes havent been enough since he couldnt implement 95% of them in the first place. So he just looks weak and ineffective. And no one likes a weak and ineffective leader. Especially when they LOOK weak because they're in their 80s and can't talk properly any more. 

Really. Under normal times, I'd be willing to just go third party again, and again, and again. But we are in dangerous times. Trump and the modern GOP are fundamentally dangerous to our republic, they are frankenstein's monster running out of control. And they need to be stopped first. Still, just because i realize that threat doesnt mean the rest of the country does, which is why we're suffering like this. And now we're having to weekend at bernies an 82 year old in possible cognitive decline because the alternative, a 78 year old in possible cognitive decline, also has a dictator complex. 

Honestly, just...everyone pull your heads out of you know where. Let's get this done. I'd rather fight over this crap when we're not at the brink of fascism. Okay? Fricking beat the crazy religious nuts first, THEN we can worry about the corporate side of the democratic party. Just how I see it this year.

And for me, our best chance is sticking with joe, with our second best chance being running harris, and running anyone else leading to an even worse outcome, both in policies and in probability of winning.