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Biden at peace if he loses to Trump: "As long as I gave it my all" (www.axios.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Seriously, Joe, do you not know the stakes? "Sure, America fell to fascism, but I tried my best." For fucks sake, Trump has straight up said he was going to be a dictator, and the Supreme Court will back him all the way. It's unbelievable that all that stands between us and the fall of the republic is a man in his 80s who isn't fully cognizant of the situation.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (4 children)

From the transcript:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And if you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that's what this is about. Look, George. Think of it this way. You've heard me say this before. I think the United States and the world is at an inflection point when the things that happen in the next several years are gonna determine what the next six, seven decades are gonna be like.

And who's gonna be able to hold NATO together like me? Who's gonna be able to be in a position where I'm able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we're-- we're at least checkmating China now? Who's gonna-- who's gonna do that? Who has that reach? Who has-- who knows all these pe...? We're gonna have, I guess a good way to judge me, is you're gonna have now the NATO conference here in the United States next week. Come listen. See what they say.

Even the full quote doesn't fill me with confidence. Biden's approval rating is about 37%, which is where George H. W. Bush's was, and he didn't get re-elected. You'd have to go back to Truman to find a president that got re-elected with a similar approval percentage. At this point, I don't think the incumbent advantage will save us.

I really am absolutely terrified that my life might be riding on this election. Honestly, I'm at the point where I don't really care what it takes, the fascists must not be allowed to prevail. If that means moving on from Biden, fine. If it means guilting freaking Michelle Obama into running, fine. But if Biden is going to stay the nominee, he needs to recapture the American people's confidence somehow, and I'm not sure how he's going to do it.

also, here's where I got the approval ratings data from:

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/311825/presidential-job-approval-related-reelection-historically.aspx

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but we should also be aware of how this is shouldn't be the major discussion we are having. Whether Biden runs or not, it will be the same advisors, the same policies. We're allowing the media to run with the "Biden is old is somehow more of a concern" talking point.

There's many more reasons for Trump to be called on to drop out, yet everyone is focusing so hard on Biden it's overshadowing the story of Trump's Epstein activity among other things.

And while we are arguing about whether Biden should or shouldn't, Trump and his supporters are getting away with all manner of evil shit. Even if the Democrats picked another candidate I'm sure the media would then focus on how Biden dropping out somehow meant the Democrats were bad etc. not saying it shouldn't be discussed, just don't let it be the only discussion.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't want Trump to be replaced with a "better" Republican candidate that is more likely to win, because I don't want Republicans to win.

I want Biden to be replaced with a better Democrat candidate that is more likely to win, because I want Democrats to win.

There is also no world in which actual Republicans will demand Trump exit the race, so it's silly to think Democrats demanding that would mean anything.

[+] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

but which democrat candidate has a better chance?

Based on recent polling, potentially most of them could surpass him with even a little bit of national exposure. No clue if it's too late, or not, but better to try than just concede the election to Trump.

I think if there was a big frontrunner they would do this.

The DNC was pressuring other potential Democrat candidates not to run during the Primary (including the most prominent names now like Newsom, Whitmer, and Buttigieg) from the get-go, so I guarantee they're not about to do a 180. The DNC would rather lose to Trump than run a candidate they did not ordain. Remember in 2008 when they did literally everything they could to stop Obama winning against Clinton until they had no other choice? Or 2016, which was a whole mess of undemocratic bullshit (that article is wild, and it was written by Donna Brazile, the Chairperson of the DNC during the 2016 election).

But also even if they don’t replace Biden that doesn’t somehow make Trump a better choice... Spending so much time labouring this point

No one is talking about voting for Trump, what we're saying is that we don't think Biden is going to win against Trump. That's the reason this is worth spending so much time belaboring; to me, Biden is delivering us into Trump's hands.

If you believe Biden might win, then it's 'Chance of Winning with Biden' versus 'Chance of Winning with [Replacement]', and who really knows what their chances might be?

If you don't believe Biden might win, it's 'Assured Loss with Biden' versus 'Chance of Winning with [Replacement]', so obviously that would be the route to go.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

(Accidentally deletedy previous post, sorry) but you make very good points. I wasn't saying I thought he was the best candidate, it was more that's what I thought their reasoning was for still running.

I overall also think someone else should run, that wasn't my point. More that we should be focusing on how awful a candidate Trump is (and all his crimes, victims, his horrible plans for office) - and while these are all excellent points, that the Democrat candidate is almost insignificant in comparison. The Democrats establishment should be on the attack, on the defense. (Being super general). Make that the motivation to vote Democrat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

American elections, in a nutshell, come down to this. Turnout. Motivate your voters to go to the polls en masse, and you win. There just isn't that many swing voters, especially in an election like this where both candidates have been President. The reason this has been catastrophic for Biden is that appearing to be old and out of touch tends to depress enthusiasm. Combine that with the short memories of the voters and you'll have people not bothering to vote because "both options are bad". As we get further and further from Trump's presidency, people's memories start to fade, they think to themselves, "oh, he wasn't THAT bad, we had more money back then." There's also lots of people who haven't heard about Project 2025, aren't paying attention to Trump saying that he'll be a dictator on the first day, etc. They will naively think to themselves that it can't happen here, that the U.S. is somehow special. Biden's margin of victory in some of the swing states was minuscule, and that was at the height of Anything But Trump sentiment. We absolutely cannot afford to have anyone stay home. Maybe some of the post Roe effect will help spur turnout. I don't know. But presidential elections are unfortunately just a popularity contest. I really do think we need to see if there's someone charismatic that we can roll the dice on. Because "Not Trump" won't be enough, and that's pretty much all Biden ever had going for him.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I do agree with that. Trump should 100% drop out. Unfortunately, his base loves the evil shit, and he might still feel that getting elected will keep himself out of jail, so there's no way he's going to.

But, yeah, the media is absolutely screwing us here. They deserve all the condemnation we can give them. We understand that we're voting for an administration, and not just one man, but does the country as a whole realize that? I doubt it. Civics education in the U.S. is abysmal.

I also kinda cynically think that maybe if we subbed in someone with high name recognition and at least decent favorability, that the media and the Russian disinformation engine won't have enough time to hack together a hitjob on them. I don't know, I'm just spitballing and huffing copium here, I think. Need to keep my hopes up somehow.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

We are voting for a King in this election.

Your civics books need to be updated.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit

The press is being chicken little, and writing hundreds of articles about Biden sounding hoarse and none about the lies Trump spewed or the fascism that he's promising.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

He really said goodest? Or is that transcript satire? Too much sarcastic cleverness in this thread for me to follow.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Biden's approval rating is about 37%, which is where George H. W. Bush's was, and he didn't get re-elected.

I wouldn't say that I particularly "approve" of Biden, so I'm probably counted in the 63 percent. But I'm still going to vote for him.

Sure, I'd be more excited to vote for Michelle Obama or Josh Shapiro, but I'll still vote for Joe Biden if he's the nominee.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Again, political polling is notoriously meaningless outside of exit polling.

This election the media is doing the same thing they do to make our bullshit exploitative economy seem like it's healthy. They focus on measures that mean fuck all as if they were representative of something significant.

It's smoke and mirrors.

Want to make sure we don't get a fascist? Get poor people to vote. If the poor turn out to the polls, we can literally flip every single state.

Trying to talk the DNC into an absolutely bonkers gamble will not win the election. Mobilizing voters will

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This is anecdotal, but the vibes I'm getting in offline conversations make me think that his low approval rating is accurate. There's a lot of "Biden is too old, and hasn't done much(which isn't entirely true), but I'll vote against Trump." That's great and all, but I live in a deep blue city(Seattle) and, honestly, I am deeply concerned about people who are more moderate, who aren't as vehemently anti-Trump. I think the disconnect here is that we differ greatly in our faith that the Dems will turn out. They responded well in 2020 to kick Trump out, but I don't know how much that fire still burns in the voting populace. Some people respond better to carrots than sticks, and while the threat of Trump is a hell of a stick, Biden is not much of a carrot. Not to say that Biden hasn't done some good things, but I feel that the media and Russia have hammered Biden enough that I think the damage is done.

That being said, however, I'm going to disengage here, and try to refrain from advocating that Biden step down going forward. Posting this thread was a mistake on my part, and I'll take full responsibility for it. Anything that dampens enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee should be avoided at all costs, and by posting this thread and suggesting that Biden should be replaced, I was simply doing Russia's job for them, and for that, I'm sorry. It's not like we have any power over the situation to begin with. The party will decide whether to stick with Biden or not, and it's our job to help make sure they defeat the fascists.