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The Pennsylvania Democrat recalled his time serving as a Hillary Clinton surrogate in 2016, even after he supported Bernie Sanders in the primary.

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[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 153 points 1 year ago

I don't like Joe Biden, but this isn't a presidential approval poll, it's an election, and he's clearly better than any of the alternatives. And when it comes down to it, he's been better than I expected. We could have just had an exclusively centrist presidency, and while there's been plenty of centrism, he has been persuadable to progressive action.

And frankly even if you can't bring yourself to express support Biden for some reason, it should be pretty easy to want anyone who willingly associates with Republicans to lose and lose badly, because they're way beyond stealth-mode fascism now. Even the most jaded "they're all neolibs" voter from earlier elections can't possibly ignore that the Republicans are just fash now. There's a real danger if they win that cities end up with federally tasked jackboots kidnapping protesters like Portland.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 49 points 1 year ago

When the vote is between someone (and a party) who says "climate change is more worrying than nuclear war" and "climate change is a hoax" the choice should be clear for any reasonable person. All the treason stuff aside (though very important, everyone should already be decided on that), climate change is the biggest issue for everyone I know. Probably for any average person under 50 if I had to guess.

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[-] randon31415@lemmy.world 77 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Support Joe Biden" - Yes.

"Support particular policies of Joe Biden" - No.

Democrats are not a cult of personality. We can disagree with particular things the president does without wanting to see him defeated.

[-] Speculater@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago

I think he's talking about the people who would rather let Trump win than support anyone right of Bernie.

[-] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

We need ranked choice voting.

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[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 year ago

He specifically said "get behind the policies of Joe Biden". If it's just voting I'm with Fetterman, but you don't need to recalibrate your policy supports because anything less than full agreement is treason.

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[-] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I feel like this is the new boogie man for the DNC. My close circle of friends all don't like Joe Biden, all voted for Bernie in the primary against Hilary. Still showed up to vote for both her and Biden.

There's plenty of people who didn't show up for Biden and Hilary that have similar views and I don't think it's as much malicious as it is apathetic. They don't do enough to give them a reason to show up. They don't "energize the base" well enough. The Democrats need to get people excited for their policies somehow.

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[-] foggy@lemmy.world 73 points 1 year ago

It's not that I don't support him, it's that I do not support anyone over the age of 65 being in any position of any power anywhere.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago

Yeah, but you're still going to vote for him, just like I'm going to have to...

We don't really have a choice.

But it's not enough for moderates to count on progressives voting for them in the general, that's not "supporting" to them anymore.

They want our unwavering support and complete refusal to criticize them before, during, and after assuming office.

They've been slowly creeping right for so long chasing conservative votes that they've got the same expectations of their voters that Republicans get.

I think more than a few of the party leadership truly wish Dem voters were more like Republican voters.

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 38 points 1 year ago

We don’t really have a choice.

This is the real problem. Not Biden's age or his actual policy goals and achievements. It's that we know what we're getting and we know we won't be enthusiastic about it.

But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, and unlike last time I'm in a swing state and can't cheekily write in my favorite candidate without ending the world.

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[-] notannpc@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago

His only redeeming quality is not being Donald Trump. He’s otherwise too fucking old and out of touch with the vast majority of the country like most of our government is.

[-] Zoidberg@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's almost midnight. You just got out of your job, a restaurant in a somewhat seedy location in old downtown. You leave through the backdoor into an alley and suddenly notice you're not alone. The metal door just closed shut behind you.

You look to your right. There's a guy with a knife. He's looking at you and smiling in a weird manner. He starts walking towards you menacingly.

You look to your left. There's a well known old drunk there. He smells bad and likes to hug people who are passing by. If you go that way, you will be hugged by him.

What do you do?

If you go right, you'll get stabbed and killed. If you do nothing and stay put, you'll get stabbed and killed. If you go left, you will be hugged by the stinky guy. It's disgusting and not ideal, but you'll not be stabbed and survive.

What do you choose?

I see people all the time with the dumbest arguments to not vote. "He's not progressive enough", or "he's part of the system", or even "he didn't do enough for X" (insert your favorite minority here).

It's all true. But the universe is not a perfect or ideal place. Not voting for the imperfect guy gets us a true horrible alternative. It's a choice between bad and awful.

Please vote bad and keep the awful away.

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[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I can think of a parallel. The Soviets and the West allied to defeat Hitler but neither wanted to live under the other's rules.

"Not GOP" is the best choice, but I'd like to see a different "not GOP" than the current one. Or even better, a system that doesn't boil it down to two choices and an all or nothing vote.

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[-] hark@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago

Is it already the time of year to bash progressives in case democrats lose so that they can be blamed for it? The extent of support Joe Biden will get is a vote against the republican party. As a candidate himself, he sucks as does the "democratic" party in general.

[-] robbotlove@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

to be fair, he's done a lot more with his term than I had ever expected.

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[-] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In the primaries, I supported progressive candidates like Sanders and Warren because I think their policy prescriptions would make for a better America. In the general, I voted for Biden. That was a harm-reduction vote.

What I don't like to hear, in the primary, is the 'you have to vote for the candidate who can win' line of argument, which begs the question it pretends to answer- if everyone who says "I'd vote for x but x can't possibly win" just voted for x, x would actually win. This gives whoever tells you that "x can't possibly win" the power to get you to give up on voting for what you want, which seems to wag the dog.

In the general, between dem and gop control, it's not a close contest for me; it's between a party afraid to do progressive things the voters want and a party that will do whatever the fuck it wants no matter that nobody wants that.

Yes, our electoral system of first-past-the-post demands that we hedge our bets and compromise in order to avoid the calamity of electing a fascist in this election cycle, but it's hard to support with evidence the idea that what makes a progressive candidate "risky" isn't just a self-fulfilling misperception that causes the party to spend (or not-spend) money to prevent progressives from becoming party nominees. After all, research consistently shows that politicians of both parties routinely overestimate the conservatism of the voters.

I'm glad to see the Biden admin embracing the progressive changes it has been able to get to, but I'm also sooo tired of being told 'we can't nominate a progressive, they'll be called a communist' when no matter who we nominate they'll be called a communist and decades of voting a harm-reduction ticket has rolled back much of the New Deal

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[-] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

Fetterman is 100% right.

He's basically calling out progressives for essentially not wanting power. Those progressives rather sit on the sidelines and complain about everything than ever gaining even a morsel of political power to where they could actually do something.

Falling in-line is what has led conservatives to gain enough control of the government to throw out what most considered a done deal. RvW is gone (as well as any hope for reasonable gun restrictions, as well as a host of other no nonsense laws) because Republicans know about playing the long game and know that collectively they can accomplish far more things.

It's funny that progressives love to push the idea of collective bargaining when it comes to labor relations and yet they can't figure out that collectively if they fell behind the leader of the Democrats, their voices would be much better heard.

[-] phillaholic@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

Shit that’s a good comparison that frankly I’m embarrassed I hadn’t thought of. 👍

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[-] AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

After falling in line, we are always ignored when they get into power

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[-] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

Ah yes everything is progressives fault and not establishment dinosaurs pandering to their corporate donors .

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[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't get it, either. Unless and until we have something like ranked choice voting, purity ponies that lodge "protest votes" only help the fascists. And these purity ponies seem to revel in creating more division within the left (and create more Republicans in the process), wanting to excommunicate each other over ivory tower orthodoxy, with the Oppression Olympics being one of the more egregious versions of that...

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[-] maporita@unilem.org 28 points 1 year ago

The key to getting progression policies passed is voting for Congress. Having a democratic President, whether it's Biden or someone else, doesn't matter if we only have a razor-thin majority. We just get held hostage by people like Manchin. We need solid majorities in both House and Senate to achieve anything.

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[-] archiotterpup@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Look, I get the Dems are our only vehicle for Progressive policies becoming reality because I know we're never going to move away from FPTP voting any time soon. I just don't like having to go along with the same corporate greed. It feels very two steps forward, one step back.

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[-] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Cause he's a fuckin mummy John. We are tired of electing boomers that don't understand fuckin computers.

Selling us a tube TV in the year of flat screens.

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[-] jhulten@infosec.pub 18 points 1 year ago

Primaries are for ideas and ideals. General elections are for harm reduction.

[-] blazera@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Oh, because i support progressive people, not union busters

[-] rz2000@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

This president made an empty promise about continuing to work for paid sick leave after preventing a strike by railworkers at the end of 2022. Except, that it actually worked. Almost every union did get paid sick leave for its members within six months aided by continued pressure from the White House.

He's a pretty lousy union buster.

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[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Rave Acts of the 90's. Joe is only swimming because his opponents are literal Neanderthals.

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[-] DTFpanda@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Then he's not listening

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this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
487 points (92.8% liked)

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