It's too late. Now they're going to say they can't prosecute during an election or it'll unfairly affect the outcome, and then when he wins he gains immunity. They've had 4 years to get even a single conviction out of 91 charges, and they haven't even started a single trial. They're afraid of setting precedent of prosecuting politicians because they don't want to give up their own self-appointed immunity, so they let the SCOTUS decide, and SCOTUS is a partisan hack-job right now (and probably for the rest of our lives).
Can't Americans do something to change the way elections happen? I still think 81 is too old to run as a politician let alone a president. People say America is one of the greatest democracies but I'm really not seeing it.
Also no offence guys, I'm not into politics. Just a layman question.
The TL;DR of it is that the people with the power to change that are the same people who benefit from it the most and therefore whose best interests are to prevent it from changing.
And America is the greatest democracy in the same way that corporations find that they did nothing wrong upon investigating themselves.
America is one of the greatest democracies but I’m really not seeing it.
We're not a great democracy at all. We're a world power. Big difference. World Powers have this weird history of being shit governments. Ask Russia and China sometime
Or, as Republicans would remind you, we've never been a Democracy at all, but a Republic.
We aren't the greatest democracy. The only choice we have is some state ballots and representatives from a 2 party system. It takes decades to get things passed that 70% of Americans want. The largest predictor of something getting passed is if rich donors want it.
People say America is one of the greatest democracies but I’m really not seeing it.
As an American, I can tell you it's a shitty democracy. Politicians are openly bribed in the form of "lobbying" by corporate interests and the rich. Its a two party system thanks to having FPTP voting everywhere.
Any given legislation has a 30% chance of getting approved regardless of public support, unless said legislation is supported by the rich, then it's far closer to 100% chance.
America is is on the fence post with outright fascism on one side, and milquetoast flawed democracy on the other.
The louder and more often a politician proclaims some great quality, the less true it is.
America, with it's voting system designed by landowners to mathematically create a power duopoly, is at best straddling the boundary between Democracy and Dictatorship, which is why you end up with situations like this, were all there is two anti-choices ("vote me ´cause I ain't him"), somewhat better than what's going on in Russia but far from good enough.
All that harping about Greatest Democracy In The World TM is pure compensation.
It's the disproportionate electoral system. A serious third candidate would "spoil" the vote of one party, and then you just hand the win to the other side.
I really don't understand the age argument. One is 81 and the other 77. Like am to to european to understand the logic of freedomlanders in criticizing Biden for his age??
Yeah, you are. You can criticize a Democrat for anything. Republicans are above reproach.
Obama was criticized on national news for wearing a tan suit. Trump bragged about being able to kill someone on the streets of New York and not lose a vote - to zero criticism. The man has horny audio about being able to walk through the dressing rooms of minors at a competition he ran and anyone who criticizes him for that is seen as too "partisan".
So yeah. It's not about 4 years difference. Trump could be 90, and his side would still criticize Biden for being too old while running Trump for president.
He can't pardon himself from the State charges. He can however create a Constitutional Crisis for 4 years where nobody is quite sure if they can prosecute or jail him or not.
They don't mean anything if he loses either. I don't think Democrates will let Trump not be a Republican nominee, it would be harder for them to win elections if they have someone more sane as competition. This is why Hilary's campaign supported Trump and why Trump is there in the first place, so they can win more easily.
I like Biden and the Democrats because government is boring with them. Like, he's not gonna threaten to nuke a hurricane, or draw on a damn map with a sharpie.
I've experienced enough to know that boring government is the best we can hope for. And, honestly, it's what I'd really like at this point.
We shouldn't feel so easily defeated. We can make things better, being passive is what makes it easier for those in power to make it worse.
We can make things a lot better, we don't need to be ok with genocide so that some idiot that Democrates funded to be Republican candidate doesn't win.
I just kinda feel like their plan to make us submissive actually worked.
91 criminal charges don't mean shit when the government refuses to prosecute, and let's you slide right into the most powerful position in the country, where you'll receive complete immunity.
Did you not understand the point I was making? Leveling charges don't mean anything when they're not actually prosecuted. It has been 4 years. He's running for a position that will grant him complete immunity if he wins. None of those charges will mean anything at all if he becomes president again. He has faced effectively zero consequences for his blatant disregard of the law, his violations of the Constitution, his insurrection, and his treason.
Thats due process... we can argue about how long prosecution has taken given the overwhelming evidence for a trial, but I don't think there's much an arguement that the one with criminal charges wouldn't want to do away with due process, he's quite literally stated such.
You make a good point, though, that the process is already long, and that with enough money it seems it can dragged out even longer.
But the alternative, if we rushed through the prices and gave the conservatives the ability to do so every time in return, would be horrific.
That's what I got from your post and, if I read it right, I think it was spot-on. I'd let 100 Trumps free than let them kangaroo-convict everyone else forever.
What i dont get about Biden running again is that there seemed to be like no democratic race to the candidacy? Or did it just completely fall flat in international media? I know Trump went late to the Reps race and then dominated it, but there was already Cruz and some candidates that tried to win on a "Trump is best" kinda position.
But for the Dems there seemed to be not even a real discussion to send anyone but Biden.
How can people be fine with this? How can the "best" both parties have to offer be more or less mentally unstable men that are clearly too old to lead a country and have a realistic chance of dying in office? How come the Dems have not understood after 2016 and 2020 that they need to stop being a right wing neoliberal party that fucks over poor people just slightly slower than the Reps?
There were primaries for the democratic party, but typically the parties back their incumbent and nominate them. I don't actually remember or know of a time where a sitting president had a meaningful primary challenger.
Tbh, people want to hate on Biden for whatever reason but he's done so much to actually move the needle--and with the cluster fuck he was handed plus a completely divided Congress.
He's been exactly what we needed as a country and I will happily vote for him in November and not just because the alternative is racism...but because he's actually doing great things and I'd love to see him with a democratic Congress to back him.
How come the Dems have not understood after 2016 and 2020 that they need to stop being a right wing neoliberal party that fucks over poor people just slightly slower than the Reps?
That's exactly what they want to be. Politicians and billionares don't give a fuck about poor people, they are in for profits. As long as red and blue keep winning the elections they aren't going to change anything, why they should? They always win...
Going into this we was that it's best to just go with the incumbent. Then when we saw how weak and shitty the incumbent was doing we're being told it's too late and we already have a candidate.
The DNC is maybe one of the least democratic institutions in a western democracy. It's ridiculous to not consider primaries a fundamental part of the process, but then the apologists come out and defend them as private institutions that cand o whatever they want. They rat fucked Bernie, twice, and we just keep getting told we better vote right or else we get the hose again.
They out progressive policies on the platform but it's only lip service. They simply don't pursue them once elected. Even worse they take our donations and fund Republican candidates to further rat fuck progressives.
Running against Biden meant throwing out the biggest indicator for success against a "worst case scenario" opposition candidate. Incumbency is worth all the young guns waiting 4 years for their shot. Despite what you may have heard, nobody in DNC is more likely to win 2024 than Biden despite all the baggage and Republican hate.
Again, Biden is 81 years old. Talking about "young guns" seems a bit off, when the next generation is like in their 50s and 60s, which is more of the usual age for country running politicians.
It is perfectly expected for Biden to simply die of old age or become permanently disabled in office, because that is what people in their 80s do. One bad cold and it could be over for him. That is an insane risk to take for a nation like the US. And just because the republicans are insane fascists, the democrats shouldn't be trying to meet them in insanity.
Do you mean back in 2019 during those primaries? Biden absolutely had others he ran against, but the DNC did rig it for him in a way. There were two candidates that were seen as progressive, which were Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Warren tanked her chances when she started attacking Bernie and even hiring Hillary's old campaign manager. Everyone started calling her a snake. Bernie became the defacto progressive. On the moderate side, there were a bunch of candidates including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttegiege, and I'm sure others that I can't remember. Because the moderate vote was split between so many candidates, Bernie was wiping the floor with them. Then Biden had one good state in South Carolina. Suddenly (as if told to), all the other moderate candidates dropped from the race, and Biden became the front runner.
This time around, the DNC rigged the primaries as best they could to favor Biden. The biggest thing they did was make South Carolina the first official primary. Biden didn't have any real competition and easily won even in states where he wasn't on the ballot he won as a write-in.
On top of all this, the DNC also has "super delegates" that aren't chosen at all by the electorate and are specifically there to influence the primaries towards the candidate the DNC wants.
Warren tanked her chances when she started attacking Bernie
You mean when she was hit by months of Bernie-sourced "grassroots" attacks and took the high ground, only to have an actual conversation brought up by the media and Bernie outright denying it to the extent they managed to hot-mic her offense.
She didn't crash because she attacked Bernie. She crashed because she was a woman who was seen genuinely angry and offended by a much more capable dirty-fighting career politician. I HATE Bernie as a person and the way his ambition ruined the only real chance we had at a progressive White House, but after years I can admit he could have backstabbed his way into the White House if the winds had gone a little differently for him. She crashed because she's an honest policymaker, and they never make it to the Presidency.
Everyone started calling her a snake
And Pocahontas and a bunch of other shit. Nobody likes a smart women. We didn't deserve someone as good as Warren. So we got Biden. And since Trump is running again, we have no choice but to get Biden again.
I gotta ask the "I'm not a fan of Biden" crowd. Why? And not who he is, or what he hasn't done. What's something you don't like that he has done in this presidency, and then hasn't tried to correct?
I would then ask, did you watch the entire State of the Union?
He keeps supplying Israel with weapons. He didn't challenge the government and fully cancel student loans. Marijuana isn't legalized yet. He hasn't changed tax cuts. He Essentially moved the whole democratic party right on the border and immigrants. He originally was suppose to be a one term president.
Why aren't you mad at Trump for militarily supporting Israel? Why aren't you upset at Obama? Why no anger for Bush? Was Clinton's sax solo THAT good? What about Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford? ALL of them, without exception, have supplied weapons to Israel.
He Essentially moved the whole democratic party right on the border and immigrants
While I agree, it is with regret I have to inform you that those of us who want immigration reform are a minority in the Democratic party at this time :-/
He originally was suppose to be a one term president.
In fairness, he would have been if it weren't for Trump running in 2024. I think EVERYONE was sure Trump would be forgotten in his jail cell by now with the combination of his blatent criminal activity alongside the fact the GOP really wanted to get rid of him anyway.
Lifelong blue-voter. Watched the SotU. He did a good job and certainly shut down the age argument a bit. I would still prefer to see younger candidates - I think Biden is out of touch.
My thoughts are that we just haven't made any progress on issues that affect the largest demographics of the population. A couple off the top of my head:
Corporate greed is driving inflation for food and homes while wages have stagnated.
College is prohibitively expensive and student loans are predatory (even federal loans). We are robbing our youth of a future.
Gun control progress is basically non existent despite more school shootings.
A lot of my feelings can be summed up as the middle class is being squeezed too hard. We need more money or less expenses (school, healthcare, childcare, mortgage, rent, food, etc). I don't see Biden doing anything here except ask nicely "pretty please snack companies stop gouging us" during the Superbowl. I also feel very gaslit because every day I see articles and press releases claiming how great the economy is, but my eyes and ears tell a very different story.
Maybe Biden can't fix these things without a functional Congress but I wish Dems wouldn't lie and instead give us a real plan to fix the country. It's really hard to get excited about voting blue when all we see is more aid for Israel and corporations instead of the people.
Unfortunately, with Republicans voting overwhelmingly even against bills they want with the goal of shutting down Democrats at every turn, there's no such thing as a plan to fix the country until the Republican manacles are removed.
But that's hard to say eloquently, especially with a trailer trash MTG in her MAGA hat screaming "boooooo" at you.
Because I'm tired and cynical. He's a career politician who's always saying what he needs to say to stay in office at the time, but often ages poorly given enough time, example two. He's being praised for his economic policy, but all that means to me is more consumption and pollution.
I'm also cynical that any politician could get elected on an effective climate change platform as that would be the voting public would have to give up too much shit they were brainwashed into believed that they deserve.
Did I watch the State of the Union? Have you seen the CO2 concentration levels? Speeches are theater.
just talked to a 20 yo dude about this who stumbled on a 'trump destroys cnn reporter' yt short and thought 'well when he talks like this he's not not that unlikable'.
Basically he drank the koolaid. biden is a pedophile bc he sniffs hair, he's old and senile, and like he said about the short, trump sometimes makes sense.
I was flabbergasted. He's from a conservative family, but falling for obvious cut together propaganda clips like that is just shameful. At least he's usually trying to form rational thoughts. However, I'm afraid that might be indicative of the social media news syndrome.
When the whole herd is thinking a certain way, hating a certain person, repeating the same arguments. That's a sure sign that they are under the control of a mob mentality and/or a propaganda campaign. Which is a good argument for swiftly nopeing in the opposite direction.
I tried the contrarian route for a while and found myself wrong the overwhelming majority of the time. I actually had panic attacks over it. Then I swapped to being contrarian to the contrarians and settled into a proper mental state. Which is to say… maybe don’t develop a paranoid god complex and assess the facts as they are and deal with them in the capacity that you’re able.
What he's saying is that he's seeing overwhelming evidence that Trump is a past, present and future danger. He's seeing tons of people agreeing with that evidence.
He's, in his infinite wisdom, come to the conclusion that he should ignore the evidence and vote directly against it.
They are supporting a genocide right now where thousand of kids got murdered already. They are no less of a criminal than any other presidents before him or any other red and blue colleague.
Can Joe Biden's cabinet please get the fuck off of Lemmy and go back to sharing pictures of this war criminal holding puppies and ice cream to Boomers in Facebook?
Maybe you should get off Lemmy and go back to consuming propaganda on Tik Tok.
Or get used to the fact that on platforms that aren't controlled by an authoritarian government there will be adults that have a more nuanced concept of international affairs than constant rage.
Irony in this comment.
A lot of people claiming all antiBiden sentiment is Russian propaganda and this guy is also mistaken thinking this is Biden cabinet supporting him and not just regular people who are falling for politicians PR.