Why the fuck are these two the choices?!
Because the system is set up to prevent any real change for the benefit of the common people. So your choice is between the friendly, somewhat reasonable oligarchy stooge and the utterly deranged oligarchy stooge.
A somewhat less pessimistic take: the system is set up to be self-stable.
And it was also designed so that States would have most of the power, not the Federal government.
At various points in history the common people did get benefits. New Deal. Universal suffrage. Civil rights. Abolition.
But it always requires a critical mass of the population to support change.
Same reason every independent store and restaurant gets replaced by a chain.
People want what's familiar. Both these men won their primaries and have the most support out of anyone in their parties.
Your example works but it's more like because capitalism concentrates wealth and power and little guys have no chance
Look at the last handful of democratic presidential losses to see this in action:
Gore gets nominated due to familiarity. He has the charisma of a warm sponge. He loses (barely, and not the popular vote; by the way, FUCK the electoral college) to George W. "I'd have a beer with him and hey wasn't his dad president?" Bush.
Kerry somehow rises to the top of the next democratic primary, a fact that I will never understand, because he also has the charisma of a warm sponge. Bush is familiar and a wartime president. He is re-elected in defiance of God and nature.
Obama comes along and is a once in a generation political talent. Things are pretty good for a while.
Hillary enters the primary and wins mainly based on name recognition. She presents herself as having the charisma of a warm sponge, when we all know full well that she has the charisma of a wood chipper, and since we're pretty good at detecting artifice she loses.
In 2019 we've got a pretty good set of primary choices, but Biden gets into the ring and that's pretty much fucking it, because, again, he has name recognition, so he blows past some better, younger choices and manages to leverage his name and Trump's fuck-ups enough to win.
The pattern is that name recognition will get you a real long way, especially with low information voters, and that is a real goddamn problem when there are objectively better options who aren't as famous.
So anyway, I think we need a constitutional amendment forbidding members of one's immediate family from running for president after one has been president. No sons, daughters, husbands, wives, etc. Fuck dynasties. Fucking fundamentally un-American.
Because we're ruled by the billionaire class, and they like giving us two useful idiots to choose from.
Enshittification is not only in corporations
Because that’s all our owners will let us have. Thanks citizen United for hammering in that final nail in our collective coffin
Do you think it’s just that, or that maybe the fact that too many people don’t give a shit in-between election years might play a role as well? Because from what I’ve seen over the decades- is that a lot of SJWs enjoy rising up every four years to complain about shit- then disappear until the next election.
Without fail.
NO. The question is, if we had a viable (sane and cognizant) third choice fit for the job, why would it STILL be one of these two BOZOS getting elected in November?
What a tragedy.
Because not enough people give a shit in-between election years.
Why does the Superbowl only have two teams? It seems unfair since I don't know how the two teams were selected and I don't really care enough to pay attention / find out.
It worries me that people can listen to trump say "we have the most unsafe border in history when I was president we had the most safe border in history" and not question that statement in the slightest.
It's like when Trump ran campaign ads about police brutality and crimes going up in inner cities....that all happened under Trump with the tag, "This is Biden's America".
It is true what they say: truth has a liberal bias.
I dunno, man.
I'd say stop watching corporate media, because CNN is making a shit-ton of advertiser money off these charades, but people won't.
I turned on the radio in my car to tune into the debate. The first thing I heard was Trump saying "we had the most immaculate air, we had the most immaculate water".
I just shut the damn thing off.
John Stewart always finds the best way to express what I'm feeling.
Regardless of the outcome, this election will go down as a shit stain on history.
I just hope the outcome doesn't turn it into explosive diarrhea.
Damn, I guess I'm going to ignore years of evidence that Biden's admin can function just fine and go with my feelings on this one. I mean would you vote constructively if it meant getting over yourself? Of course not. We're Americans. We want a leader with a good jaw, not with good character or good ideas.
Nah but seriously though. Biden and Trump make me feel bad so I'm going to vote in a way that harms the country. That'll show us.
Yeah, I mean, nevermind all the pending criminal charges and evidence of incompetence from Trump's 4 years in office where we had weekly "infrastructure week" failures, a constant stream of garbage tweets parading as "official Presidential communications", and egregious power grabs by the Executive branch. Trump said all his same BS in a more convincing-sounding voice during last night's debate and the guy with a known stuttering issue just didn't have a strong-sounding voice, that's all the convincing I needed. Biden is just so old, I literally can't tell them apart <teeheehee>!
I mean, you'd think the total inability to hide Biden and Trumps' cognitive dysfunction, caught on camera many, many times over the last few years, and now live and in color, would be enough to get people to stop pretending that there's a good option here. Hell, Biden's handlers have been caught on camera making sure he doesn't wander off, like they had for Feinstein before she died.
But then again, Americans have watched the gradual, but now inevitable, slide into fascism over the last 40 years and managed to convince themselves that all is well, provided the guy enabling it is wearing their preferred jersey, so I guess we'll just chill and let Biden and Trumps' unelected handlers rule the country.
It's too bad you all didn't vote for Williamson in the primary. It's been clear neither of these two assholes are fit for a long time, just like it was clear Feinstein wasn't fit when she was falling asleep in hearings.
What I don't understand about the handlers thing is that when I watch other famous people walking and talking: I see their handlers steer them, give them signals, whisper names in their ear. And you know what? Celebrities in their prime look awkward all the time. People who have nothing to worry about but their craft and being famous screw up all the time.
Don't forget how:
"I'm NOT voting for an entire apparatus of executive government with thousands of employees, I'm ONLY voting for a charismatic messiah godking, because I'm still little more than a medieval peasant looking to be mesmerized.
Then if fascists take over the nation (again) and the most vulnerable among me suffer from it (again and again and again), that's not MY problem. While (somehow) fancying myself as enlightened and special and pure. I'm at the center of my goddamned Universe!"
The Supreme Court, and how republicans effectively staged a coup of it in 2016 by turning their back on Merrick Garland, then packed it with corrupt right-wing zealots? "Not MY problem!"... until it is, but by then it's way too late.
ignore years of evidence that Biden’s admin can function
They're doing a real bang-up job, both at home and abroad.
I wish we went further left, but the reality is that Biden has been a steady hand at the wheel where we've come out of economic unknown of the covid shut downs pretty well. We still have a ways to go, but we're heading in the right direction, and the most glaring problem (namely inflation) was something baked in before he even came into office.
Abroad we actually have the respect of much of the world, and it feels like to our allies that we are actually a partner that can be trusted on. Keep in mind that if you told a republican of the 80s that a US president rally the west against an imperialistic russia invading Europe, without committing a single US or NATO troop, and exposed them for how weak they are, then they would have said he was the second coming of Reagan.
Do I disagree with a lot of what he has done? Yes. But it's been a steady ride. Compared to Trump's presidency, which was a bumpy ride throughout, handing off an economy that looked like it could just go completely into the shitter, and threatening our alliances across the world, he looks like straight up looks like one of the best.
John nailed it at the end. Fuck, this can't be real life.
First of all- I agree concerns about both their ages are very much valid here but hasn’t Biden had a stutter from a very young age and struggled with it most of his life? Surely we should cut the guy some slack here?
That said, of course there won’t be slack. Political debates (especially one of high stakes as this one) are cut throat and no one has room for error.
Brother don't lie to yourself, that was way more than a just a stutter. Nobody who watched that debate is under the impression that the problem was Joe Biden stuttered sometimes. I understand you're disappointed and trying to cope somehow but it's not healthy to just create a fantasy. It was a train wreck. It was real real bad. Just accept it and move on.
It was a disaster. Trump lied for 90 minutes straight, but he did it confidently, with a straight face, and without rambling. It was a vast improvement over his stump speeches. Biden mostly told the truth, but he meandered, stammered, got mixed up, and was obviously ill. That's just what happened.
I'm going to vote for Biden anyway, because the old man stands for policies that actually benefit me personally (and a second Trump term is a threat to the existence of the Republic). But the debate was bad for him, possibly catastrophic. His campaign desperately needs an October surprise, and at this point it's hard to guess what it might be.
@[email protected] My dude, go easy. I’m from the UK, I have no reason to create a fantasy, just making an observation. Please don’t make these kinda discussions a “shut up and listen here” kind of thing.
Edit: tagged user
One thing to remember is they didn't have notes, earpieces or teleprompters.
Trump just straight up rambled out a stream of bullshit, lies, and projection every time he had the mic. Biden was not only answering factually, but also had to counter bullshit. They were on the same stage but playing two completely different games.
And when the debate is analyzed down to "who was more truthful?", Biden slightly flubbing a fact/figure will be treated near equally to Trump straight up spewing out bullshit.
hasn’t Biden had a stutter from a very young age and struggled with it most of his life?
It hasn't apparently impacted his public speaking for most of his political career up until recently:
https://youtu.be/86Nrv5izaTs?si=bZ9WNXIEZNOaBV3T
And even when not speaking during tonight's debate, he often looked totally bewildered.
People have been saying this for quite a while now despite the excuses from the Democrat establishment, but tonight there was no hiding the fact that the dude just looks unable to last another four years as president.
And even when not speaking during tonight's debate, he often looked totally bewildered.
To be fair, my partner and I also looked totally bewildered by the things falling out of Trump's face. I don't know that he actually answered a single question, but rather spouted the same racist nonsense over and over.
In his first presidential primary in 1988, Biden was the front runner despite his youth because he was wildly regarded as one of the best public speakers in the country and he was (at the time) charismatic.
Then he started yelling at reporters about how high his IQ was after they found out he plagiarized speeches plagiarized work in law school, and lied about his grades and class standing.
Because he got over his childhood stutter. In childhood.
What's happening now isn't a stutter. It's 100% normal for an 82 year old.
That doesn't mean an 82 year old is fit to be president, just that Biden acts how an 82 year old is expected to act. Because he's 82 years old.
I'm surprised they didn't leash John Stewart. He must have a bad ass contract that let's him say what he wants.
That show has a proud tradition of talking shit about politicians. Been this way for 20 years.
Have you ever watched the Daily Show? What you describe has never been the practice there, they shit on everyone, it's great.
He's been down on Joe being ready for retirement for a while. I think everyone else is just tuning in to how bad it is.
Shit Show 2024 begins.
This whole night was so many layers of exhausting, but probably not for the reasons you think... No rational, serious person was expecting Biden to Willy Wonka front somersault into this debate? it was going to be what this was, the only true surprise was probably the volume of his voice (which they chalk up to a cold, okay fine, I guess) and actually how well he did quickly processing and responding to trump's gish gallop and unchecked stream of consciousness mistruth firehose with little help from the impotent moderators for the majority of the night.
The people in this country, in their immediate reaction to this debate, demonstrate that they just fundamentally lack the focus, empathv and frankly basic intelligence to process the substance of this or any debate. On average, we respond solely to voice pitch, tonality, body language and facial expressions, like a still developing toddler... Or a dog.
Other poster said it basically, but If Lemmy as a platform isn't disciplined enough to have a Megathead where a given major topic like this is discussed, then I'll form my original thought, and copy and paste it across the wallet disjointed conversations to get my point across to the relevant audience.
Uh huh, "receipts" man, you liked the pirates... You TOTALLY got me... truth to power, bud. Maybe just move on with your life next time?
Anything substantive to say about the actual point of the post or did you just need to be heard today?
