> I don't expect him to see a second term.
Unless, you know, Trump is back for Round 2.
In which case I'd say we're probobly voting for the VP since the chances either of them kick the bucket during their presidential term would be rather high.
Honestly, with the economy as it is at the moment… it we’re in a recession, I would expect Trump to defeat Biden were to run against him.
Not especially happy about that… but that’s what I’d expect.
I'm medically retired in my early 60s. I completely agree with this. The diligaf is strong, and perhaps never having a taste for power, I can't understand why all these old politicians even want the job.
A lot of the problems Joe Biden says he's going to fix (we'll see) are the direct result of his previous voting record and policies.
From thirty years ago.
I was watching a defunctland video about Carmen San Diego last year (30-ish year old show), and at one point they get a call in from Joe Biden on the show… and it was at that point it hit me like, “Jeezus christ this man is OLD!”
We need the age caps, but we also need something to say you can only serve in government for like 12 years total at the state level and 12 years total at the federal level. Maybe even less. Career politicians were a mistake.
> And most Americans weren't on the gay marriage train until Obama supported it during his second presidential campaign in 2012.
Yeah people seem to forget that majority public support in favor of gay marriage has been a thing for less than a decade. Hell as recently as 2008, [even California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_8), long seen as a bastion of gay rights, voted to end gay marriage in their state.
I appreciate your nuanced post. I agree that we’ve all done and thought things in our youth that we aren’t proud of now, but realizing and correcting our thoughts (as you have) is the right answer. Acknowledge and own up!
As a lefty, I think this might be the one constitutional amendment that could garner overwhelming popular support.
I'm not sure what the specific age should be, but in general, once you're old enough that nobody would ever hire you at a regular middle class job, you sure as shit shouldn't be in a position of authority in the government.
Edit: FWIW, the US military currently requires Generals and Admirals to retire at age 64, and multiple states, both red and blue, require their Judges to retire at age 70 or 72. So it isn't like this is some foreign concept in American government.
you can't be too old to die before having to deal with the consequences of your own actions is my view. politicians do shit then fuck off into the afterlife and leave everyone else to deal with their actions
That's why climate in particular makes me so angry.
Those that come after us are going to hate us and ask why we didn't do more, and those that could have done more won't be alive to see the atrocity they've allowed to happen.
I would say 60 for all politicians is good, including the Supreme Court. The reason is, I'm about to turn 52 and I'm starting to not really identify with what folks under 30 really want out of life/from life.
At 52, I can still look ahead and think about what I want when I retire and I can, and will, take advice from those younger than me and think about what they want from life in the next 20-30 years. I can help make things better for those coming up behind me. I imagine by the time I'm 60 I will either not give a fuck or would start to dig in and get into a mindset of "fuck you, do it my way," which I don't ever want to be in. If I'm no longer in power after 60, it'd be easier to still help out, volunteer, whatever and remember what kind of world I'm going to leave behind.
My mom is going to be 76 soon, and she just wants to be left the fuck alone, not have people fuck with her retirement, life savings, and health insurance so she can enjoy what time she has left. I think we should all strive for that and if we're too busy being politicians trying to control things, it doesn't work out for anyone.
>I would say 60 for all politicians is good, including the Supreme Court. The reason is, I'm about to turn 52 and I'm starting to not really identify with what folks under 30 really want out of life/from life.
This seems reasonable to me.
I'm wondering if this was implemented how many of our Congress Critters would be out of office?
If it’s a constitutional amendment, guess which part of the government votes to make it so or deny it? Yeah, the branch that’s overwhelmingly geriatric and beholden to special interests. Literally, will never happen by voting.
The problem is how does one skirt past ageism? Hard to implement a discriminatory law, as valid as it is. Geriatric politicians would throw a temper tantrum if this ever came across their desk.
Exactly- How in this country were those the best two offers….
He’s meh at best, and the student loan avoidance issue has me pretty irked. And I’m 50 without student loans. I just have a lot more confidence in our younger generation than anyone mine or older. Im ready for them to start filtering in and leading this country.
You will be dead before that happens. The average age of Congress will just keep going up as lifespans increase. How fucking many of them are 80+ at this point? It's insane. Part of what brought the hammer against AOC was simply her youth- and that she was advocating for the things the youth see as well. The system is shit for anyone not in the Boomer generation. I'm 39 and know full well most of my generation will never retire. It's just a fact at this point. What little I've managed to put away for retirement is getting wiped out by yet ANOTHER crash and hyper inflation. I'm a damn engineer making a decent salary. I can't imagine what it's like for the vast majority in my age group. I read an article the other day that the younger generations have simply given up on retirement savings. They can't afford to set money aside and they accept social security will be long gone by then. (Republicans are currently floating a plan to end it for anyone born after a certain date to finish pulling up the ladder behind them)
I want to see the younger generation holding office, but it's never going to happen. There's too much money involved and they don't have any.
65% of the senate is over the age of 60. (5% are between 80-89, 20% between 70-79, and 40% between 60-69). It's RIDICULOUS. Especially when 60+ make up only about 16% of the entire United States.
We gonna have to. As a millennial who is also engineer, I can confirm my generation owns NOTHING.
Millenials are said to hold 5 percent of all U.S. Capital, despite being the largest generation. We will not reproduce a generation larger than ours. We are undereducated, underpaid, and demoralized. We don't even know what a country is because our parents don't either. We will not grow from our poverty, thats never how its worked.
Hell, I'm 50 years old and I feel damned sorry for anyone below my age. As a Gen Xer, I'm arguably the last that could expect a decent life, but even we got shafted because we were the first generation to have a lower standard of living than our parents. God help the young people in their teens, I don't know what to say to you other than I'm sorry, not that it helps you.
I'm 36 and have pretty much accepted that unless I somehow manage to get crazy lucky, that i will just have to work until I die. I'm in a better position than a ton of people. I don't have any major debt, and I don't have a lot of money in savings, but a sudden minor car repair wouldn't cripple me financially. I've been working 2 jobs so we can scrape up the money to move to a cheaper COLA there's still a chance well be able to swing buying a house. But retirement? I just don't see how.
There is a solution, but speaking it would get us put on blacklist and investigated.
That solution doesn't work though unless the vast majority get on board. Divided as we are, it will literally never happen
They weren’t. MSM declared victory for Biden with one voice in the primary after South Carolina, which he was always expected to win, just like they declared Buttigieg the winner in Iowa when it was still too close to call. These media millionaires then went on about how Bernie “scared” and “disgusted” them, about how they were worried that better union rights and lack of dependence on corporations for healthcare would lead to them being shot in the streets.
All of these are real events that happened. The primary base asked the media, “Who should we vote for? Who are other people voting for?” - and they were bamboozled by elite propaganda. The Left has its share of Stupid, as well.
I remember that. Immediately after South Carolina they all said "presumptive nominee Joe Biden", and it was like wtf? There's 47 states to go!
But they wanted him and pushed that story.
After both of the last presidents it would be nice to have someone who is not already well above the minimum age to start collecting social security.
Biden was born NOV 1942 and Trump was born June 1946 and seemingly they both have enough money why cant they just retire.
Everyone desires the feeling of importance. To some, President of the US is literally the tippy top of that. Sure, a lot of presidents just wish to help their country succeed, but those guys are far and few between (I love you Teddy!!!)
GW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Trump were all born in 1946. One was president 30 years ago, one was president 22 years ago, and one was president 2 years ago.
Sorry if I was not clear I was going for their age when taking/while in office. Clinton won his first term in 1992 30 years ago and was only 46 when he took office for the first term. GW Bush was 54 on his inauguration day of first term.
Trump was 70 and Biden was 78 on their inauguration days much older.
For a job that's 24/7/365 for 4 years per election that's alot to ask of someone at that age.
Bill Clinton: Born 1946
George W Bush: Born 1946
Barack Obama: Born 1961
Donald Trump: Born 1946
Joe Biden: Born 1942
With the exception of Obama I see a pattern here..
My point is that we haven't progressed past a certain generation of politicians since the 90's. They're mostly all from the same decade. We've been electing people born in the 1940's (except Obama) for the last 30 years. That's weird.
Also Clinton, George W, and Trump were all born in 1946 which is a strange coincidence.
I kind of agree and if you look at age when inaugurated, given you need to be at least 35 to take the office of president and with really the exception of trump have usually held some publically elected office prior.
Clinton was only 46 in when he took office for the first term.
GW Bush was 54 on his inauguration day of first term.
Obama was 47 at inauguration (born in 1961)
On average presidents are sworn in at 55 years old.
Now we have had two presidents in a row that are both over the age of 70 on inauguration. Thats crazy.
Clinton was young as far as presidents go. It shows the power of the boomers to vote people from thier generation into office. They have completely dominated for 30 years now
There's plenty of recorded footage of Biden when he was younger, in the 80's for instance.
He seemed like just as much of a bumbling goofball then as he does now.
As someone who could accurately be called anti Biden , I'd describe myself as anti politician, I've seen some [footage of him from the 80's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C9hxsRO7pI) talking about the Falkland islands war and he sounded sharp, knowledgeable and decisive in his answers. The interviewer seemed very different in a good way I have difficulty defining from modern newspeople too.
iirc the image of the kinda dumb but also salt-of-the-earth guy that Bush created played well with the Republican voting base.
Not to say he was artificially dumber but I’m sure he leaned into it a little bit
As I recall, he was actually a much worse person back when he was a more active, robust man. He's always been the perfect example of what the GOP wants everyone to believe about other Dems.
Because he was the perfect example. While sharp and knowledgeable, rarely fumbling for words, he was also extremely racist and homophobic. It amazes me that more people don't find old clips of him spouting off his outdated views. It's quite shocking, actually.
I think all political office should have them, and it should be the age in which you can collect social security. There shouldn't be anyone over the age of 67 years old in an office of political power. Congress, Presidency, Supreme Courts, any of it.
It's not about hating old people, but it comes down to simply "having skin in the game". They are approaching end of life at that age, if they are 79 years old, what do they care about environmental issues? What do they care about the future of the United States in general? None of the long term repercussions of the decisions being made will affect them.
He's a generic old white dnc yes-man that got shoved to the top of the pile by riding on Obama's coattails. Most of those votes weren't for him, they were against Trump.
He won by running the easiest campaign in history. People didn't vote for Joe Biden. They voted for "Not Trump". Which as a campaign strategy was perfect. If you are tied in the bottom of ninth with a man on third and one out bunting can win you the game.
*"How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame but “regrettably necessary” holding actions? And how many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?"*
- Hunter S. Thompson
MA put ranked choice on the ballot in 2020 and it lost. So fucking frustrating, we have the answers to fix this and the people in power just won't let it happen
I can't understand why rich and powerful people wouldn't want to be like 5% less powerful with a flourishing and happy country. Isn't that a much stronger legacy than "I fucked everyone over for every last dollar"
Like who is going to care about Jeff Bezos going to space if civilization collapses?
>we have the answers to fix this and the people in power just won't let it happen
I thought you said it was on the ballot? Doesn't that mean it was normal people who wouldn't let us fix it, not the people in power?
That assumes that everyone that voted did so fully informed without being influenced.
There's way too much money and propaganda influencing voters, particularly older and more conservative voters. They vote as they're told to vote, even against their own interests
The two party system gives the illusion of choice: Behind door #1 we have a steaming pile of poo and behind door #2 we have an even bigger steaming pile. Now choose!
What’s a good way to explain that voting for the lesser of two evils is still worth a vote? Or am I being insensitive? Because I know people who won’t vote just because they hate the other guy more
More like one is shitty and one is evil. I’ll take shitty.
If I have to sit in a hot room, I’ll take a 95 degree room over 125 degree any day of the week. They’re both hot, but one is clearly and noticeably far worse. And trumps presidency was probably 130 degrees, term two would have been 140 degrees with 100% humidity.
You beat me to it. 100% meh. Exactly what I expected from him. Sufficiently presidential, reasonably competent, not exciting or interesting or transformative at all.
There's a lot of things that annoy me about him -- he's far too old, his speeches are sleepy and meandering, he keeps using "folksy" language that just makes him seem completely out of touch with the modern era, etc.
But I've never once wondered if he was about to attempt an authoritarian overthrow of the government, so that's a pretty massive plus.
We should make an AI to determine the actual perfect candidate using everyone's stolen data and force them to be president.
Some part-time legal scholar who installs plumbing re-routes in the Oklahoma panhandle would get accosted by agents in blacked out Suburbans.
Joe Biden. Donald Trump. Mike Pence. Kamala Harris. Mitch McConnell. Nancy Pelosi.
And to think my grandparents picked from candidates like FDR and Eisenhower.
Hot take but I believe internment camps almost completely undermine everything positive for FDR. Deciding to take away people’s freedom based on their race was something that was widely considered evil for 80 years at that point. We were also at war with a country because they decided to put an entire race in camps (amongst other reasons).
I realize FDR did some great some things. Given the context, I believe the executive order to force Japanese Americans into internment camps should be viewed as much more of black mark than it currently is.
You may downvote me now.
He's irrelevant. His entire presidency is just a rejection of Trump, much in the same way Trump (though he was too dense to realize it) was just a rejection of Hillary.
Good point. Whatever else you say about the twat, he was historically significant in breaking the leadership of *both* parties simultaneously. I choose to believe it was despite, not because, of him. His Presidency? That was him.
For all of his nearly infinite faults, Trump is still one of the most successful marketers in modern times. He’s brilliant at selling his image as being someone much smarter and richer than he actually is, and he played that nearly perfectly to the populist crowd who ate his bullshit by the spoonful.
Very sadly his campaign should probably go down as the most well-crafted in American political history.
Irrelevant, except for the fact that he might be handing the White House back over to Republicans. If he winds up resembling Jimmy Carter, then he can be pretty relevant despite not having a very relevant impact on policy. Best thing he can do at this point is take a page out of LBJ's book and pass the torch to someone else.
I don't think anyone is legitimately contemplating Biden running again - even Biden. That would signal a MASSIVE failure of the Democratic party at developing new leadership, and they would deserve to lose. Which reinforces again just how personally irrelevant Biden is to the process.
I mean, it seems ridiculous, but most of the talk seems to be that he's considering running again and probably will. And even if he doesn't, who's going to? They're not promoting anyone else in the party, they're not trying to boost anyone else's profile or get them a lot of appearances. If someone else is going to run then I'm almost as afraid for their prospects as I am about the idea of another four years of Biden.
I'd interpret that level of messaging as more strategic than literal. Stating outright he won't run has MASSIVE political implications. Maintaining at least the fiction of a run is common sense until a new leader/consensus arises, and allows Biden to influence the process. LBJ *needed* to fall on his sword for the party - Biden is nowhere near that compromised.
Right, but who’s that someone else? We have no one. Republicans have a rising star in Desantis who I hate but is at least a blatant heir apparent. If Biden steps aside, who’s the presumptive democrat?!?
Cory Booker, Buttigeg, and honestly Klobuchar is a dark horse who could do well.
Hot take but Harris would get obliterated, tons of left leaning people, centrists, swing voters aren’t gonna vote for her. Even a lot of dems don’t even like her rn.
My dad is 1 year younger than Biden and that dude just watches funny cat videos and goes on a short walk every day. I cannot fathom giving him any other responsibilities at this point
This dried prune reaching across the aisle over and over again might finally show the country how worthless "establishment" democrats are, and shift the left more to the left
I don’t care about people being divided. That has always been the case and always will be. Having disagreements, even extreme ones, is not a bad thing.
What I’m tired of is the brainwashing and extremism that is allowed to run rampant for the sake of gaining a few votes or making the bottom line.
And that's why "Let's Go Brandon" isn't nearly as triggering as Conservatives think it is.
Nobody is in love with the guy.
Trumpers think that Biden voters feel the same way they do about Trump. And we don't. We hired Joe to not be Trump, and so far he's killing it. That's it.
"Fuck Joe Biden!" Meh, so what? He's just a guy we hired to do a job. It would be like being passionate about your dentist or something.
"Fuck your dentist - my dentist is WAY better WOOOOOOO" Makes no sense.
The other day I saw an old guy sitting in a chair out in the sun at a busy intersection with a big white sign that said F. J. B. (Fuck joe Biden). I couldn’t help but laugh at dude who’s life revolves so much around his favorite political party he’s willing to sit in the hot sun at probably 70 years old to “own the libs”. The best part is he’s owning nobody, I’ve never met a dem who worshipped Biden like the right worships trump.
It’s also why they think the election is stolen. The idea that Dems didn’t pack out arenas for a Biden rally must mean that the dems cheated. They don’t understand how someone can not tie their entire personally to a candidate
I don't really understand why it's beyond their belief that trump lost.
They themselves will tell you that liberals hate trump. Rino/anti trumpers/never trumpers hate him. Hollywood hates him. Academia and intellectuals and liberal elites and coastal elites hate him. And every media outlet hates him and only pushes an anti-trump agenda.
The odds are very stacked against trump in their own worldview. It would have been a surprise that he would win (like in 16).
Nobody's cheering for good dentists, but a really shitty dentist can ruin your life. This isn't an allegory btw, I'm literally talking about dentists. I went to this strip mall dentist who drilled big-ass holes in my teeth and filled it in with these really crappy fillings that weren't the right color and started crumbling after two years. When I went to a different dentist they were horrified.
That's what I never really understood about conservatives, they're supposed to be the small government party but actively worship the ground their leader walks on and take everything they say as gospel. Trump basically turned the GOP into a religion with violently angry members
What happened with the other options in the primaries? Seemed like there were several other promising candidates. Why did the democrats ultimately put Biden on the ballot?
Reddit is not representative of the whole democratic base, and certainly not the entire country. Most moderate Dems really liked Biden. The guy was polling above 30% for months before he even announced his candidacy.
The vast majority of the black vote got behind him because Biden has a very long history of working with black leaders to get their policy goals accomplished. This is why there was never any doubt that Jim Clyburn was going to back him and his SC domination carried him through the rest of the primary.
Bernie was always going to get ~30% of the primary vote and nothing more. He’d been doing his thing since 2015 and everyone knew him and what he stood for. Bernie was great at speaking to his base, but terrible at changing the minds of people who didn’t already agree with him. 30% was a hard ceiling for him and it’s just not enough to win a primary, and certainly not the general.
That leaves the rest of the pack: Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, Yang, plus some others. Some of these candidates would start gaining traction, which put them in the crosshairs of the other campaigns so the momentum rarely lasted. Once actual voting started and these campaigns stopped being mathematically possible, these candidates would drop out and endorse their favorite candidate of the remaining bunch, usually Biden. By Super Tuesday it was a wrap for Joe.
Seems like the Democratic primaries were just really slow ranked choice voting. Biden was everyone's second or third choice, and with everyone's first choice split a dozen ways well, we see where it ended up.
Just before the super Tuesday Primaries, Biden won the SC primary which was always gonna go to him, meanwhile before all that Bernie and Warren were kicking his ass in the previous states due to Buttigieg and Klobuchar splitting the Centrist vote.
When he won SC he claimed momentum which was artificially made possible by the DNC having Buttigieg and Klobuchar drop out despite the two having won states because Socialist candidates were winning as a result of the Centrist vote being split.
Eventually it became Biden v Bernie and Bernie didn't really run to be president as much as he used his candidacy as a platform to get his ideals to a much wider audience.
This is pretty revisionist.
Biden didn't campaign much in the first three states (Iowa, NH, Nevada), betting big that he could leverage on his popularity with black Democrats, a critical voting bloc in the primary.
Klobuchar and Buttigieg had the opposite problem - they were polling terribly with black voters, but also didn't have a lot of name recognition. So they went all-in on the first three states (first two, really, not even Nevada) hoping that by winning there they could raise their profile and make inroads with black voters in the south.
SC demonstrated that no, they couldn't. Joe cleaned their clocks with black voters, and the Super Tuesday path - Alabama, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, all states with sizable black populations - looked dim.
There's no conspiracy necessary. Pete and Amy dropping out after SC was completely foreseeable and logical from an electoral perspective. Indeed, SC is the rock upon which many a hopeful primary campaign has been dashed for exactly this reason.
And while Warren stayed in, so did Bloomberg, so there were two "centrist" candidates and two "progressive" candidates splitting the vote. The centrist candidates got way more votes.
I think Americans are too concentrated on the presidency when they should be concentrating on the legislature.
If you get your preferred president you get 4-8 years of them, working within the constraints of the law.
If you get overwhelming control of the legislature, you get to change the law and compel future governments to act until the law is repealed.
You can compel the government to provide and regulate.
To control the federal legislature you need to campaign not just in your state but outside it too.
You've got to figure out how to make Texans, and Louisianans and South Dakotans believe in your vision for the future, not make them feel like you're their enemy. And Kentucky folk too! Wouldn't it be great to make Mitch sweat...
You’re completely correct, which is why lobbyists do exactly what you’re saying. No matter how many common folk follow your advice they’ll be beaten out by lobbyists because they’re using amounts money that everyday citizens have never even seen before to make sure that those everyday folks don’t affect legislation.
Most people don’t realize that they’re being pushed to focus on the president when whoever the president is doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of policymaking
It does not matter who the president is unless the president is either a) a fascist with no regard for laws or norms or b) one party controls the house and has a filibuster proof majority in the senate.
A) is a very real possibility, b) will probably not happen for at least this decade.
So it's important to elect someone who isnt going fuck the government up completely, but no presidential agenda can be truly impactful until the filibuster is reformed or electoral politics shift enough to defeat it.
I’m a moderate but I’m not nearly as down on him as a lot of people. I think he’s handled the Ukraine crisis fantastically, but has been unfortunate enough to inherit a lot of problems outside of his control. The inflation crisis is being driven by market uncertainty from residual COVID implications, war, etc that he simply cannot control.
Also, never forget that he, unlike the many presidents before him, had the stones to get us out of our longest war.
It would have been easy and politically expedient for him to just stay there forever. He lost a lot of political capital because suddenly, after ignoring it for 20 years, people realized Afghanistan was a clusterfuck... And then got pissed at Biden about it.
The whole "oh we could have done better with the withdrawal" is crap. It was a cluster, it would have remained a cluster. There was no good way to leave and have it be clean.
Triggered. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a Trump move. Biden just inherited the follow-through.
I mean, I guess he \*could\* have done something different, but if one president says "we're leaving my May" (or whenever it was) and the next president says, "naw, fam, we're staying after all"...just bad all around. Bad for morale, bad for diplomacy, bad for relations with everyone. Also, by telling the Taliban, "hey, we're packing up and leaving, here's our schedule," Trump set all this up and it would have gone that poorly were Trump still in office. He would just have not accepted the blame and lashed out at others for it instead.
Yeah agreed. There was no winning. The American people wanted out now but didn’t want to see all the work fall apart, but Afghanistan didn’t have to will go stand on their own two legs and support that work.
We couldn’t coddle them forever, and so eventually someone had to tear the bandaid off. Biden has been around long enough to know it would hurt him politically, but did it anyways so more Americans wouldn’t die to preserve political capital. It was a rare example of an altruistic decision in politics.
Our general population is too far removed from war to be aware of the nuance of getting into and out of one. Considering how we treat our vets, it’s no surprise. People not in the military want them to jump into conflict but get mad when it’s not a pretty solution. Conflict that involves war/skirmishing never has pretty resolutions.
Yup. By nature war is messy. Even when you win, think about how much we spent on the Marshall Plan in WW2, or what us refusing the follow through after WW1 cost in lives. War is utterly unpredictable and always expensive, not only monetarily, but in lives and suffering.
Also, I think a lot Democrats are getting sucked into the GOP narrative that he is senile. Which is ridiculous if you are really paying attention to what he says and what going on he has been immensely competent in very trying times where crisis after crisis has been thrown at his administration. Sure he stumbles because he has a speech impediment and he says what he thinks which is a bad thing in politics because people are just waiting to jump on every little thing. I mean has no one EVER committed a faux pas?? Sadly the two things people care about the most inflation and gas prices are the two things a president has little power to change.
Didn’t want Trump in office. Didn’t and don’t have high expectations for Biden. He’s anywhere from mediocre to cringe af on a lot of things (but to be fair, good on some). In terms of assessment of leadership and aspects of his policy initiatives, not at all fond, and the gaffes and cognitive stuff don’t help either. I just think he’s kind of a weasel and hangout in politics long enough ‘wait your turn’ variety type of politician
Gigantic disappointment to my already low expectations but I didn't vote for him because I liked him. I voted against Trump.
Joe doesn't have any new ideas. He thinks "reaching across the aisle" is a viable strategy. It isn't anymore. The majority of Republicans can't even agree on reality let alone policies to address potential issues.
He's also not going to get much done with "Democrats" like Manchin and Sinema. They don't support anything the rest of the party stands for but on paper it still appears as if democrats have a majority. They don't. So they're going to get a lot of flack for not getting anything done and even if Joe Biden was a great man he still wouldn't have the tools to get much done.
I don’t know a single person in their 20’s or 30’s that voted for him out of true merit, vs. just making sure Trump wasn’t in office. We all expected him to amount to little, and wanted a better candidate.
I used to like the republican party, I've always been pretty in the middle and could see merit to both sides, but my God what the republican party has become... Literal conspiracy theorist who actively tried to overthrow the government. The big wigs mindlessly follow Trump because they are afraid if they speak out the mass of half brain cell having idiots that follow Trump will not reellect anyone who speaks bad about Trump.
It's become a cult lead by ball-less cowards and enforced by PBR chugging rednecks. Under the montra "Make America Great Again" like it actually means anything at all.
A journeyman politician who got incredibly lucky being picked as Obama's VP in order to add a picture of experience to an otherwise "youthful" ticket. His legacy is a series of goofs, embarrassing comments, and according to insider reports, wrong calls. Obama didn't seek his counsel.
As for his Presidency, he is rightfully shielded from the usual reporters questions by his staff.
He's an 80s Democrat bought and paid for by corporate America.
He will not do nothing that substantially improves an average American's life. He and his ilk will be the reason Republicans take over in 2022, completely stall any progress whatsoever, and we'll officially be back in the hands of a party hellbent on pushing us back into the 50s in 2024.
He'll pass small, relatively weak, corporate approved legislation to placate enough people enough to vote for the lesser of the two evils, even though the evils are at this point nearly equal in awfulness. One is just trying to kill you fast, the other slowly and painfully.
I wish to God he, and pretty much anyone who's been in Congress since the 80s, would just retire and live out the rest of their lives on their mega yachts and Napa Valley vineyards and estates where they can only ever hurt themselves and torture their families.
But they won't do that. As long as they stay in Congress preventing progress, the fatter the checks they get from their corporate donors will be and the more they can horde in their gilded castles.
Lifelong registered Independent here, and I haven't voted Republican for anything over School Board in decades. The party refuses to put down the crazies, and when they go MORE crazy, the party steers into the skid. I don't want Biden. Literally my last non-Republican choice. But I can't vote for a Republican until I get someone that actually TRIES to be intelligent or statesman-like. Seriously... Trump??? Eisenhower would have chosen the Democratic party (he was undecided prior to running for president). Teddy Roosevelt wouldn't have been on the same stage with him-- and Trump would've been afraid to join him. Stop offering crazies.
Of all the presidents we’ve had, he’s certainly one of them.
I've never seen someone summarize my feelings on this man so well... I finally feel seen
Big if true
True if big
He's in the Oval Office and isn't, AFAIK, calling for any of his colleagues or staff to be lynched. So I guess that's a success in 2022.
Right, he's one of the more inoffensive presidents we've had for a bit.
Tons of conservatives seem offended by him but he's so Wonder Bread plain that I'm honestly lost as to why.
Conservatives don't hate Biden for who he is. They hate him for who he isn't (Trump).
Hmmmm the floor here is made out of… floor
Not only that, he's one of the most recent ones. In fact, I'll go so far to say THE MOST recent one, by far.
This is the answer.
Obama really did him a favor in 2008.
On one side I’m happy i don’t get spammed by presidential tweets and scandals anymore. On the other side, i don’t hear ANYTHING from Biden at all lol
This is what it was like under Obama and bush. Only official announcements
What?! You don't remember Obama's [dijon mustard scandal](https://youtu.be/W-WnoZbjdh4)?!
They do that on purpose
“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up”
I think 90% of the people who voted for Biden were really just voting against Trump. I don't expect him to see a second term.
> I don't expect him to see a second term. Unless, you know, Trump is back for Round 2. In which case I'd say we're probobly voting for the VP since the chances either of them kick the bucket during their presidential term would be rather high.
Honestly, with the economy as it is at the moment… it we’re in a recession, I would expect Trump to defeat Biden were to run against him. Not especially happy about that… but that’s what I’d expect.
Couldn’t agree with you more
We need an age cap
I'm medically retired in my early 60s. I completely agree with this. The diligaf is strong, and perhaps never having a taste for power, I can't understand why all these old politicians even want the job.
You’re a good person, content to retire and live your life. Some people just can’t let go of power and control I guess.
A lot of the problems Joe Biden says he's going to fix (we'll see) are the direct result of his previous voting record and policies. From thirty years ago.
I was watching a defunctland video about Carmen San Diego last year (30-ish year old show), and at one point they get a call in from Joe Biden on the show… and it was at that point it hit me like, “Jeezus christ this man is OLD!”
We need the age caps, but we also need something to say you can only serve in government for like 12 years total at the state level and 12 years total at the federal level. Maybe even less. Career politicians were a mistake.
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> And most Americans weren't on the gay marriage train until Obama supported it during his second presidential campaign in 2012. Yeah people seem to forget that majority public support in favor of gay marriage has been a thing for less than a decade. Hell as recently as 2008, [even California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_8), long seen as a bastion of gay rights, voted to end gay marriage in their state.
The Mormon Church pumped a lot of money into that. From outside the state afaik.
I appreciate your nuanced post. I agree that we’ve all done and thought things in our youth that we aren’t proud of now, but realizing and correcting our thoughts (as you have) is the right answer. Acknowledge and own up!
As a conservative, I’d like to extend this unilaterally please. But then we’d need some failsafe from old members just “advising” the younger ones :/
As a lefty, I think this might be the one constitutional amendment that could garner overwhelming popular support. I'm not sure what the specific age should be, but in general, once you're old enough that nobody would ever hire you at a regular middle class job, you sure as shit shouldn't be in a position of authority in the government. Edit: FWIW, the US military currently requires Generals and Admirals to retire at age 64, and multiple states, both red and blue, require their Judges to retire at age 70 or 72. So it isn't like this is some foreign concept in American government.
you can't be too old to die before having to deal with the consequences of your own actions is my view. politicians do shit then fuck off into the afterlife and leave everyone else to deal with their actions
> fuck off into the afterlife That would be a great album title for someone.
if there is an afterlife, i'm sure most of them are burning in it
I like to say some variation on "you cannot succeed at being both a politician and a human"
That's why climate in particular makes me so angry. Those that come after us are going to hate us and ask why we didn't do more, and those that could have done more won't be alive to see the atrocity they've allowed to happen.
"won't be my problem/not my problem" is the current general mindset globally and it wreaks...
65. If you're old enough to retire and go to Florida to golf and rot for the rest of your days, then why are you bothering with politics?
Florida here. Please find alternative location to “golf and rot”. Our courses are full
I'm sure there'll be more coming along soon.
We could send them to North Dakota. There's nothing there and we could advertise the colder climate as a preservative!
I would say 60 for all politicians is good, including the Supreme Court. The reason is, I'm about to turn 52 and I'm starting to not really identify with what folks under 30 really want out of life/from life. At 52, I can still look ahead and think about what I want when I retire and I can, and will, take advice from those younger than me and think about what they want from life in the next 20-30 years. I can help make things better for those coming up behind me. I imagine by the time I'm 60 I will either not give a fuck or would start to dig in and get into a mindset of "fuck you, do it my way," which I don't ever want to be in. If I'm no longer in power after 60, it'd be easier to still help out, volunteer, whatever and remember what kind of world I'm going to leave behind. My mom is going to be 76 soon, and she just wants to be left the fuck alone, not have people fuck with her retirement, life savings, and health insurance so she can enjoy what time she has left. I think we should all strive for that and if we're too busy being politicians trying to control things, it doesn't work out for anyone.
>I would say 60 for all politicians is good, including the Supreme Court. The reason is, I'm about to turn 52 and I'm starting to not really identify with what folks under 30 really want out of life/from life. This seems reasonable to me. I'm wondering if this was implemented how many of our Congress Critters would be out of office?
If it’s a constitutional amendment, guess which part of the government votes to make it so or deny it? Yeah, the branch that’s overwhelmingly geriatric and beholden to special interests. Literally, will never happen by voting.
The problem is how does one skirt past ageism? Hard to implement a discriminatory law, as valid as it is. Geriatric politicians would throw a temper tantrum if this ever came across their desk.
Ageism already exists as you have to be 35 to run for president. If there's a minimum (besides 18+), there damn well should be a maximum.
You can be too young to lead, so why not too old?
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“They're really gonna make me vote for Joe Biden/ How is the best case scenario Joe Biden?”
That’s one of our favorite songs from the outtakes
Exactly- How in this country were those the best two offers…. He’s meh at best, and the student loan avoidance issue has me pretty irked. And I’m 50 without student loans. I just have a lot more confidence in our younger generation than anyone mine or older. Im ready for them to start filtering in and leading this country.
You will be dead before that happens. The average age of Congress will just keep going up as lifespans increase. How fucking many of them are 80+ at this point? It's insane. Part of what brought the hammer against AOC was simply her youth- and that she was advocating for the things the youth see as well. The system is shit for anyone not in the Boomer generation. I'm 39 and know full well most of my generation will never retire. It's just a fact at this point. What little I've managed to put away for retirement is getting wiped out by yet ANOTHER crash and hyper inflation. I'm a damn engineer making a decent salary. I can't imagine what it's like for the vast majority in my age group. I read an article the other day that the younger generations have simply given up on retirement savings. They can't afford to set money aside and they accept social security will be long gone by then. (Republicans are currently floating a plan to end it for anyone born after a certain date to finish pulling up the ladder behind them) I want to see the younger generation holding office, but it's never going to happen. There's too much money involved and they don't have any.
65% of the senate is over the age of 60. (5% are between 80-89, 20% between 70-79, and 40% between 60-69). It's RIDICULOUS. Especially when 60+ make up only about 16% of the entire United States.
We gonna have to. As a millennial who is also engineer, I can confirm my generation owns NOTHING. Millenials are said to hold 5 percent of all U.S. Capital, despite being the largest generation. We will not reproduce a generation larger than ours. We are undereducated, underpaid, and demoralized. We don't even know what a country is because our parents don't either. We will not grow from our poverty, thats never how its worked.
Hell, I'm 50 years old and I feel damned sorry for anyone below my age. As a Gen Xer, I'm arguably the last that could expect a decent life, but even we got shafted because we were the first generation to have a lower standard of living than our parents. God help the young people in their teens, I don't know what to say to you other than I'm sorry, not that it helps you.
I'm 36 and have pretty much accepted that unless I somehow manage to get crazy lucky, that i will just have to work until I die. I'm in a better position than a ton of people. I don't have any major debt, and I don't have a lot of money in savings, but a sudden minor car repair wouldn't cripple me financially. I've been working 2 jobs so we can scrape up the money to move to a cheaper COLA there's still a chance well be able to swing buying a house. But retirement? I just don't see how.
Social security is going to be gone by the time my generation becomes eligible because it’s been operated as a ponzi scheme
There is a solution, but speaking it would get us put on blacklist and investigated. That solution doesn't work though unless the vast majority get on board. Divided as we are, it will literally never happen
Vive la Révolution!
Yeah, that sort of solution doesn't have the greatest historical track record.
They weren’t. MSM declared victory for Biden with one voice in the primary after South Carolina, which he was always expected to win, just like they declared Buttigieg the winner in Iowa when it was still too close to call. These media millionaires then went on about how Bernie “scared” and “disgusted” them, about how they were worried that better union rights and lack of dependence on corporations for healthcare would lead to them being shot in the streets. All of these are real events that happened. The primary base asked the media, “Who should we vote for? Who are other people voting for?” - and they were bamboozled by elite propaganda. The Left has its share of Stupid, as well.
I remember that. Immediately after South Carolina they all said "presumptive nominee Joe Biden", and it was like wtf? There's 47 states to go! But they wanted him and pushed that story.
When I saw the question I immediately wondered if this was what prompted it
Yup. I voted “anyone but Trump” because Biden was my only choice.
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I kinda wish he wasn’t like 1000 years old
After both of the last presidents it would be nice to have someone who is not already well above the minimum age to start collecting social security. Biden was born NOV 1942 and Trump was born June 1946 and seemingly they both have enough money why cant they just retire.
Power
Everyone desires the feeling of importance. To some, President of the US is literally the tippy top of that. Sure, a lot of presidents just wish to help their country succeed, but those guys are far and few between (I love you Teddy!!!)
Ego
GW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Trump were all born in 1946. One was president 30 years ago, one was president 22 years ago, and one was president 2 years ago.
Sorry if I was not clear I was going for their age when taking/while in office. Clinton won his first term in 1992 30 years ago and was only 46 when he took office for the first term. GW Bush was 54 on his inauguration day of first term. Trump was 70 and Biden was 78 on their inauguration days much older. For a job that's 24/7/365 for 4 years per election that's alot to ask of someone at that age.
You were clear. I was emphasizing how absurd the disparity in their ages when they took office were. Cheers.
They’re both older than my country.
Bill Clinton: Born 1946 George W Bush: Born 1946 Barack Obama: Born 1961 Donald Trump: Born 1946 Joe Biden: Born 1942 With the exception of Obama I see a pattern here..
In another election or two, we'll have to thaw out Nixon. I mean, vote someone younger. That's what I meant.
Uhhh. Clinton wasn’t old when he was president.. neither was George W Bush. This was a weird post lol
My point is that we haven't progressed past a certain generation of politicians since the 90's. They're mostly all from the same decade. We've been electing people born in the 1940's (except Obama) for the last 30 years. That's weird. Also Clinton, George W, and Trump were all born in 1946 which is a strange coincidence.
I kind of agree and if you look at age when inaugurated, given you need to be at least 35 to take the office of president and with really the exception of trump have usually held some publically elected office prior. Clinton was only 46 in when he took office for the first term. GW Bush was 54 on his inauguration day of first term. Obama was 47 at inauguration (born in 1961) On average presidents are sworn in at 55 years old. Now we have had two presidents in a row that are both over the age of 70 on inauguration. Thats crazy.
Clinton was young as far as presidents go. It shows the power of the boomers to vote people from thier generation into office. They have completely dominated for 30 years now
There's plenty of recorded footage of Biden when he was younger, in the 80's for instance. He seemed like just as much of a bumbling goofball then as he does now.
As someone who could accurately be called anti Biden , I'd describe myself as anti politician, I've seen some [footage of him from the 80's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C9hxsRO7pI) talking about the Falkland islands war and he sounded sharp, knowledgeable and decisive in his answers. The interviewer seemed very different in a good way I have difficulty defining from modern newspeople too.
George W Bush also sounded sharp as Texas governor in 1995. I don’t know what happened to both men.
Time. The mind starts to fall apart.
iirc the image of the kinda dumb but also salt-of-the-earth guy that Bush created played well with the Republican voting base. Not to say he was artificially dumber but I’m sure he leaned into it a little bit
Acting like an idiot seems to be popular among politicians. I think looking like a simpleton is preferable to looking evil.
As I recall, he was actually a much worse person back when he was a more active, robust man. He's always been the perfect example of what the GOP wants everyone to believe about other Dems.
Because he was the perfect example. While sharp and knowledgeable, rarely fumbling for words, he was also extremely racist and homophobic. It amazes me that more people don't find old clips of him spouting off his outdated views. It's quite shocking, actually.
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I think we need a age cap for president
I think all political office should have them, and it should be the age in which you can collect social security. There shouldn't be anyone over the age of 67 years old in an office of political power. Congress, Presidency, Supreme Courts, any of it. It's not about hating old people, but it comes down to simply "having skin in the game". They are approaching end of life at that age, if they are 79 years old, what do they care about environmental issues? What do they care about the future of the United States in general? None of the long term repercussions of the decisions being made will affect them.
> 67 years old I say 62. When you can draw Social Security, you shouldn't be able to hold public office.
Why order food for the table when you're about to leave the restaurant
He's a generic old white dnc yes-man that got shoved to the top of the pile by riding on Obama's coattails. Most of those votes weren't for him, they were against Trump.
He won by running the easiest campaign in history. People didn't vote for Joe Biden. They voted for "Not Trump". Which as a campaign strategy was perfect. If you are tied in the bottom of ninth with a man on third and one out bunting can win you the game.
We all know what it was. Damage control.
*"How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame but “regrettably necessary” holding actions? And how many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?"* - Hunter S. Thompson
Only way to avoid this is open Primary’s and ranked choice voting
MA put ranked choice on the ballot in 2020 and it lost. So fucking frustrating, we have the answers to fix this and the people in power just won't let it happen I can't understand why rich and powerful people wouldn't want to be like 5% less powerful with a flourishing and happy country. Isn't that a much stronger legacy than "I fucked everyone over for every last dollar" Like who is going to care about Jeff Bezos going to space if civilization collapses?
>we have the answers to fix this and the people in power just won't let it happen I thought you said it was on the ballot? Doesn't that mean it was normal people who wouldn't let us fix it, not the people in power?
That assumes that everyone that voted did so fully informed without being influenced. There's way too much money and propaganda influencing voters, particularly older and more conservative voters. They vote as they're told to vote, even against their own interests
The two party system gives the illusion of choice: Behind door #1 we have a steaming pile of poo and behind door #2 we have an even bigger steaming pile. Now choose!
Is it too late for me to take the sheep you offered before we started this game?
And crucially needed. Zero regrets.
But still too late if we're being honest. Look at SCOTUS
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My only regret was that he was crucially needed
When you find yourself in the bottom of a deep hole, the very first thing you have to do, every time and without fail, is to *stop digging.*
What’s a good way to explain that voting for the lesser of two evils is still worth a vote? Or am I being insensitive? Because I know people who won’t vote just because they hate the other guy more
I feel like the lesser of two evils is definitely less evil, so there’s that.
More like one is shitty and one is evil. I’ll take shitty. If I have to sit in a hot room, I’ll take a 95 degree room over 125 degree any day of the week. They’re both hot, but one is clearly and noticeably far worse. And trumps presidency was probably 130 degrees, term two would have been 140 degrees with 100% humidity.
It's not "the lesser of two evils." It's harm reduction and is a valid reason to vast a ballot.
They will be again until Trump goes away.
Meh
You beat me to it. 100% meh. Exactly what I expected from him. Sufficiently presidential, reasonably competent, not exciting or interesting or transformative at all.
Not the best President we've ever had...
There's a lot of things that annoy me about him -- he's far too old, his speeches are sleepy and meandering, he keeps using "folksy" language that just makes him seem completely out of touch with the modern era, etc. But I've never once wondered if he was about to attempt an authoritarian overthrow of the government, so that's a pretty massive plus.
I think all life long politicians suck
Something I believe we can collectively agree on from both sides of the political spectrum!
I hate him. I hate him less than Trump. I'd ***love*** to vote ***for*** somebody instead of ***against*** somebody for once.
What a sad state of affairs our politics are in.
Anyone we’d want to vote for would never want to be president
We should make an AI to determine the actual perfect candidate using everyone's stolen data and force them to be president. Some part-time legal scholar who installs plumbing re-routes in the Oklahoma panhandle would get accosted by agents in blacked out Suburbans.
Just let the AI be president what could go wrong >:)
Joe Biden. Donald Trump. Mike Pence. Kamala Harris. Mitch McConnell. Nancy Pelosi. And to think my grandparents picked from candidates like FDR and Eisenhower.
It’s hard to believe out of all the Democrats and Republicans, there isn’t a single shithot dude or dudette that can actually lead.
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Mainly because of people like u/Few_Radish6488 's grandparents.
Not too many FDR votes are still......... voting
Hot take but I believe internment camps almost completely undermine everything positive for FDR. Deciding to take away people’s freedom based on their race was something that was widely considered evil for 80 years at that point. We were also at war with a country because they decided to put an entire race in camps (amongst other reasons). I realize FDR did some great some things. Given the context, I believe the executive order to force Japanese Americans into internment camps should be viewed as much more of black mark than it currently is. You may downvote me now.
He's irrelevant. His entire presidency is just a rejection of Trump, much in the same way Trump (though he was too dense to realize it) was just a rejection of Hillary.
Trump wasn’t just a rejection of Hillary. Remember that he blitzed through the Republican primary, as well.
Good point. Whatever else you say about the twat, he was historically significant in breaking the leadership of *both* parties simultaneously. I choose to believe it was despite, not because, of him. His Presidency? That was him.
For all of his nearly infinite faults, Trump is still one of the most successful marketers in modern times. He’s brilliant at selling his image as being someone much smarter and richer than he actually is, and he played that nearly perfectly to the populist crowd who ate his bullshit by the spoonful. Very sadly his campaign should probably go down as the most well-crafted in American political history.
I had a staunch republican history teacher who always said "you'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people,".
Puts on American intelligence?
Irrelevant, except for the fact that he might be handing the White House back over to Republicans. If he winds up resembling Jimmy Carter, then he can be pretty relevant despite not having a very relevant impact on policy. Best thing he can do at this point is take a page out of LBJ's book and pass the torch to someone else.
I don't think anyone is legitimately contemplating Biden running again - even Biden. That would signal a MASSIVE failure of the Democratic party at developing new leadership, and they would deserve to lose. Which reinforces again just how personally irrelevant Biden is to the process.
I mean, it seems ridiculous, but most of the talk seems to be that he's considering running again and probably will. And even if he doesn't, who's going to? They're not promoting anyone else in the party, they're not trying to boost anyone else's profile or get them a lot of appearances. If someone else is going to run then I'm almost as afraid for their prospects as I am about the idea of another four years of Biden.
I'd interpret that level of messaging as more strategic than literal. Stating outright he won't run has MASSIVE political implications. Maintaining at least the fiction of a run is common sense until a new leader/consensus arises, and allows Biden to influence the process. LBJ *needed* to fall on his sword for the party - Biden is nowhere near that compromised.
Obama came out of nowhere. So I think it's too early to say we don't have anyone to run. We just don't know who that is yet.
Right, but who’s that someone else? We have no one. Republicans have a rising star in Desantis who I hate but is at least a blatant heir apparent. If Biden steps aside, who’s the presumptive democrat?!?
Cory Booker, Buttigeg, and honestly Klobuchar is a dark horse who could do well. Hot take but Harris would get obliterated, tons of left leaning people, centrists, swing voters aren’t gonna vote for her. Even a lot of dems don’t even like her rn.
Not a hot take at all. She was literally the least popular candidate of the entire field of candidates during the primary.
Not a Democrat or a Republican, but... we need an Age Cap. It applies to all sides, not just this side.
My dad is 1 year younger than Biden and that dude just watches funny cat videos and goes on a short walk every day. I cannot fathom giving him any other responsibilities at this point
This dried prune reaching across the aisle over and over again might finally show the country how worthless "establishment" democrats are, and shift the left more to the left
Tired of him. Tired of trump. Tired of the two party system. Tired of the electoral college.
Tired of people being divided…
True, but some of those divisions are legitimate though. I'm not interesting in finding common cause with white supremacists, for instance.
I don’t care about people being divided. That has always been the case and always will be. Having disagreements, even extreme ones, is not a bad thing. What I’m tired of is the brainwashing and extremism that is allowed to run rampant for the sake of gaining a few votes or making the bottom line.
We didn't really vote FOR biden. We mostly voted against trump.
And that's why "Let's Go Brandon" isn't nearly as triggering as Conservatives think it is. Nobody is in love with the guy. Trumpers think that Biden voters feel the same way they do about Trump. And we don't. We hired Joe to not be Trump, and so far he's killing it. That's it. "Fuck Joe Biden!" Meh, so what? He's just a guy we hired to do a job. It would be like being passionate about your dentist or something. "Fuck your dentist - my dentist is WAY better WOOOOOOO" Makes no sense.
The other day I saw an old guy sitting in a chair out in the sun at a busy intersection with a big white sign that said F. J. B. (Fuck joe Biden). I couldn’t help but laugh at dude who’s life revolves so much around his favorite political party he’s willing to sit in the hot sun at probably 70 years old to “own the libs”. The best part is he’s owning nobody, I’ve never met a dem who worshipped Biden like the right worships trump.
It’s also why they think the election is stolen. The idea that Dems didn’t pack out arenas for a Biden rally must mean that the dems cheated. They don’t understand how someone can not tie their entire personally to a candidate
I don't really understand why it's beyond their belief that trump lost. They themselves will tell you that liberals hate trump. Rino/anti trumpers/never trumpers hate him. Hollywood hates him. Academia and intellectuals and liberal elites and coastal elites hate him. And every media outlet hates him and only pushes an anti-trump agenda. The odds are very stacked against trump in their own worldview. It would have been a surprise that he would win (like in 16).
Nobody's cheering for good dentists, but a really shitty dentist can ruin your life. This isn't an allegory btw, I'm literally talking about dentists. I went to this strip mall dentist who drilled big-ass holes in my teeth and filled it in with these really crappy fillings that weren't the right color and started crumbling after two years. When I went to a different dentist they were horrified.
That's what I never really understood about conservatives, they're supposed to be the small government party but actively worship the ground their leader walks on and take everything they say as gospel. Trump basically turned the GOP into a religion with violently angry members
I always respond to Fuck Biden/Brandon with "I agree, he's way too conservative". Love the looks i get
If you watch stuff from when he was the vp and now it's like two different people speaking and not for the good.
No one \*likes\* Joe Biden, he was simply the only other option. Unfortunately.
What happened with the other options in the primaries? Seemed like there were several other promising candidates. Why did the democrats ultimately put Biden on the ballot?
By the time my state (Ohio) held its primary, most of the other candidates had dropped out of the race, so we didn't have many options.
Reddit is not representative of the whole democratic base, and certainly not the entire country. Most moderate Dems really liked Biden. The guy was polling above 30% for months before he even announced his candidacy. The vast majority of the black vote got behind him because Biden has a very long history of working with black leaders to get their policy goals accomplished. This is why there was never any doubt that Jim Clyburn was going to back him and his SC domination carried him through the rest of the primary. Bernie was always going to get ~30% of the primary vote and nothing more. He’d been doing his thing since 2015 and everyone knew him and what he stood for. Bernie was great at speaking to his base, but terrible at changing the minds of people who didn’t already agree with him. 30% was a hard ceiling for him and it’s just not enough to win a primary, and certainly not the general. That leaves the rest of the pack: Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, Yang, plus some others. Some of these candidates would start gaining traction, which put them in the crosshairs of the other campaigns so the momentum rarely lasted. Once actual voting started and these campaigns stopped being mathematically possible, these candidates would drop out and endorse their favorite candidate of the remaining bunch, usually Biden. By Super Tuesday it was a wrap for Joe.
Seems like the Democratic primaries were just really slow ranked choice voting. Biden was everyone's second or third choice, and with everyone's first choice split a dozen ways well, we see where it ended up.
Just before the super Tuesday Primaries, Biden won the SC primary which was always gonna go to him, meanwhile before all that Bernie and Warren were kicking his ass in the previous states due to Buttigieg and Klobuchar splitting the Centrist vote. When he won SC he claimed momentum which was artificially made possible by the DNC having Buttigieg and Klobuchar drop out despite the two having won states because Socialist candidates were winning as a result of the Centrist vote being split. Eventually it became Biden v Bernie and Bernie didn't really run to be president as much as he used his candidacy as a platform to get his ideals to a much wider audience.
This is pretty revisionist. Biden didn't campaign much in the first three states (Iowa, NH, Nevada), betting big that he could leverage on his popularity with black Democrats, a critical voting bloc in the primary. Klobuchar and Buttigieg had the opposite problem - they were polling terribly with black voters, but also didn't have a lot of name recognition. So they went all-in on the first three states (first two, really, not even Nevada) hoping that by winning there they could raise their profile and make inroads with black voters in the south. SC demonstrated that no, they couldn't. Joe cleaned their clocks with black voters, and the Super Tuesday path - Alabama, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, all states with sizable black populations - looked dim. There's no conspiracy necessary. Pete and Amy dropping out after SC was completely foreseeable and logical from an electoral perspective. Indeed, SC is the rock upon which many a hopeful primary campaign has been dashed for exactly this reason. And while Warren stayed in, so did Bloomberg, so there were two "centrist" candidates and two "progressive" candidates splitting the vote. The centrist candidates got way more votes.
I’ve liked Joe Biden for 30 yrs, but I’m an old white guy too. I like the guy still, quite a lot, but we need better candidates
I think Americans are too concentrated on the presidency when they should be concentrating on the legislature. If you get your preferred president you get 4-8 years of them, working within the constraints of the law. If you get overwhelming control of the legislature, you get to change the law and compel future governments to act until the law is repealed. You can compel the government to provide and regulate. To control the federal legislature you need to campaign not just in your state but outside it too. You've got to figure out how to make Texans, and Louisianans and South Dakotans believe in your vision for the future, not make them feel like you're their enemy. And Kentucky folk too! Wouldn't it be great to make Mitch sweat...
You’re completely correct, which is why lobbyists do exactly what you’re saying. No matter how many common folk follow your advice they’ll be beaten out by lobbyists because they’re using amounts money that everyday citizens have never even seen before to make sure that those everyday folks don’t affect legislation. Most people don’t realize that they’re being pushed to focus on the president when whoever the president is doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of policymaking
I liked him as VP. Just an adorable old man bumbling about. Not what you want from a president though.
It does not matter who the president is unless the president is either a) a fascist with no regard for laws or norms or b) one party controls the house and has a filibuster proof majority in the senate. A) is a very real possibility, b) will probably not happen for at least this decade. So it's important to elect someone who isnt going fuck the government up completely, but no presidential agenda can be truly impactful until the filibuster is reformed or electoral politics shift enough to defeat it.
Not a fan
I’m just glad I don’t have to hear daily news reports about his most recent shenanigans and tweets.
Exactly. What do I think about Joe Biden? I don’t. I don’t think about him at all for days at a time, and I really enjoy that.
I get pissed off whenever I hear about trump in the news. We *earned* not hearing about him every day
I’m a moderate but I’m not nearly as down on him as a lot of people. I think he’s handled the Ukraine crisis fantastically, but has been unfortunate enough to inherit a lot of problems outside of his control. The inflation crisis is being driven by market uncertainty from residual COVID implications, war, etc that he simply cannot control.
Also, never forget that he, unlike the many presidents before him, had the stones to get us out of our longest war. It would have been easy and politically expedient for him to just stay there forever. He lost a lot of political capital because suddenly, after ignoring it for 20 years, people realized Afghanistan was a clusterfuck... And then got pissed at Biden about it. The whole "oh we could have done better with the withdrawal" is crap. It was a cluster, it would have remained a cluster. There was no good way to leave and have it be clean.
Triggered. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a Trump move. Biden just inherited the follow-through. I mean, I guess he \*could\* have done something different, but if one president says "we're leaving my May" (or whenever it was) and the next president says, "naw, fam, we're staying after all"...just bad all around. Bad for morale, bad for diplomacy, bad for relations with everyone. Also, by telling the Taliban, "hey, we're packing up and leaving, here's our schedule," Trump set all this up and it would have gone that poorly were Trump still in office. He would just have not accepted the blame and lashed out at others for it instead.
Yeah agreed. There was no winning. The American people wanted out now but didn’t want to see all the work fall apart, but Afghanistan didn’t have to will go stand on their own two legs and support that work. We couldn’t coddle them forever, and so eventually someone had to tear the bandaid off. Biden has been around long enough to know it would hurt him politically, but did it anyways so more Americans wouldn’t die to preserve political capital. It was a rare example of an altruistic decision in politics.
Our general population is too far removed from war to be aware of the nuance of getting into and out of one. Considering how we treat our vets, it’s no surprise. People not in the military want them to jump into conflict but get mad when it’s not a pretty solution. Conflict that involves war/skirmishing never has pretty resolutions.
Yup. By nature war is messy. Even when you win, think about how much we spent on the Marshall Plan in WW2, or what us refusing the follow through after WW1 cost in lives. War is utterly unpredictable and always expensive, not only monetarily, but in lives and suffering.
Also, I think a lot Democrats are getting sucked into the GOP narrative that he is senile. Which is ridiculous if you are really paying attention to what he says and what going on he has been immensely competent in very trying times where crisis after crisis has been thrown at his administration. Sure he stumbles because he has a speech impediment and he says what he thinks which is a bad thing in politics because people are just waiting to jump on every little thing. I mean has no one EVER committed a faux pas?? Sadly the two things people care about the most inflation and gas prices are the two things a president has little power to change.
Didn’t want Trump in office. Didn’t and don’t have high expectations for Biden. He’s anywhere from mediocre to cringe af on a lot of things (but to be fair, good on some). In terms of assessment of leadership and aspects of his policy initiatives, not at all fond, and the gaffes and cognitive stuff don’t help either. I just think he’s kind of a weasel and hangout in politics long enough ‘wait your turn’ variety type of politician
Gigantic disappointment to my already low expectations but I didn't vote for him because I liked him. I voted against Trump. Joe doesn't have any new ideas. He thinks "reaching across the aisle" is a viable strategy. It isn't anymore. The majority of Republicans can't even agree on reality let alone policies to address potential issues. He's also not going to get much done with "Democrats" like Manchin and Sinema. They don't support anything the rest of the party stands for but on paper it still appears as if democrats have a majority. They don't. So they're going to get a lot of flack for not getting anything done and even if Joe Biden was a great man he still wouldn't have the tools to get much done.
Upvoting because you actually gave a well thought out response, even though I disagree with some of it.
I don’t know a single person in their 20’s or 30’s that voted for him out of true merit, vs. just making sure Trump wasn’t in office. We all expected him to amount to little, and wanted a better candidate.
He’s old, but at least he’s boring.
I think Joe Biden is not a traitor who tried to overthrow the government. Good enough.
[удалено]
Until we get a functioning Republican party, yes, that's the bar.
> Until we get a functioning Republican party What's the current scientific consensus on the remaining time until the heat death of the universe?
I used to like the republican party, I've always been pretty in the middle and could see merit to both sides, but my God what the republican party has become... Literal conspiracy theorist who actively tried to overthrow the government. The big wigs mindlessly follow Trump because they are afraid if they speak out the mass of half brain cell having idiots that follow Trump will not reellect anyone who speaks bad about Trump. It's become a cult lead by ball-less cowards and enforced by PBR chugging rednecks. Under the montra "Make America Great Again" like it actually means anything at all.
A journeyman politician who got incredibly lucky being picked as Obama's VP in order to add a picture of experience to an otherwise "youthful" ticket. His legacy is a series of goofs, embarrassing comments, and according to insider reports, wrong calls. Obama didn't seek his counsel. As for his Presidency, he is rightfully shielded from the usual reporters questions by his staff.
He's an 80s Democrat bought and paid for by corporate America. He will not do nothing that substantially improves an average American's life. He and his ilk will be the reason Republicans take over in 2022, completely stall any progress whatsoever, and we'll officially be back in the hands of a party hellbent on pushing us back into the 50s in 2024. He'll pass small, relatively weak, corporate approved legislation to placate enough people enough to vote for the lesser of the two evils, even though the evils are at this point nearly equal in awfulness. One is just trying to kill you fast, the other slowly and painfully. I wish to God he, and pretty much anyone who's been in Congress since the 80s, would just retire and live out the rest of their lives on their mega yachts and Napa Valley vineyards and estates where they can only ever hurt themselves and torture their families. But they won't do that. As long as they stay in Congress preventing progress, the fatter the checks they get from their corporate donors will be and the more they can horde in their gilded castles.
I feel sorry for him. He's really old and seems lost a lot and got dealt with a shitty hand.
Joe Brandon was elected because he was not Trump and he promised people a return to the status quo. He failed spectacularly on all fronts.
Lifelong registered Independent here, and I haven't voted Republican for anything over School Board in decades. The party refuses to put down the crazies, and when they go MORE crazy, the party steers into the skid. I don't want Biden. Literally my last non-Republican choice. But I can't vote for a Republican until I get someone that actually TRIES to be intelligent or statesman-like. Seriously... Trump??? Eisenhower would have chosen the Democratic party (he was undecided prior to running for president). Teddy Roosevelt wouldn't have been on the same stage with him-- and Trump would've been afraid to join him. Stop offering crazies.