This article does a great job of explaining people’s frustration with having to vote for Biden again. It’s long, so here are some quotes. They’re totally cherry-picked, I’d recommend reading the whole thing (especially if you think the problem started with Biden, and that Clinton and Obama were ever good choices).
during the 1980s and early 1990s, fears of a relentless Republican juggernaut pressured those left of center to take a defensive stance, focusing on the immediate goal of electing Democrats to stem or slow the rightward tide.
Today, the labor movement has been largely subdued, and social activists have made their peace with neoliberalism and adjusted their horizons accordingly. Within the women’s movement, goals have shifted from practical objectives such as comparable worth and universal child care in the 1980s to celebrating appointments of individual women to public office and challenging the corporate glass ceiling.
Each election now becomes a moment of life-or-death urgency that precludes dissent or even reflection. For liberals, there is only one option in an election year, and that is to elect, at whatever cost, whichever Democrat is running. This modus operandi has tethered what remains of the left to a Democratic Party that has long since renounced its commitment to any sort of redistributive vision and imposes a willed amnesia on political debate.
I mean, you probably should vote Biden this time, because he’s not all that bad, he’s done some good things. And trump is so terrible, it probably will be the end of democracy and the victory of fascism if he wins. Right? But what about in two years time, or four years, or eight years?
It’s honestly tiresome. I was caught up in the fervor of the Trump era, when it felt like the Democrats would finally, once it was their turn, start enacting fundamental changes to fix this mess of a country, but now that the combination of the pandemic stresses and the opportunity that results from chaos has died off, I more clearly remember the Obama administration and can watch the Biden administration affirm, they have no desire to make any changes necessary to truly help people or right the incredible wrongs of this nation.
I’m tired of liberal scolds who like to pretend Biden didn’t write the Clinton Crime Bill, hasn’t routinely granted more funding to police when possible, hasn’t increased the military budget and so on.
Tired of them acting like Biden will ever even attempt to fix the fundamental problems with this nation, like FPTP voting, lack of single payer healthcare, overly mitarized police and wanton expansion of civilian surveillance.
I know he’s one of the best President’s to date on climate and that people in the bottom quartile of income in the US have seen pay rises. It’s good, but it’s not enough. The Democrat’s method of incremental change feels like platitudes in the face of wanton use of power by the Republicans. As if they feel they need to be cautious and careful in their use of power to seem more legitimate in the public instead of wielding the office in a way that makes sweeping benefits to Americans.
I don’t think Biden is all that great, I have zero faith he’ll ever do anything to truly prevent this country from sliding to fascism in the future, he’ll just maintain the status quo and kick the ball to the next guy, just how every other Democrat does it and his successor surely will too.
So vote blue, whoopty doo, what else is there to do?
Student loan forgiveness, 15% minimum corporate tax, 40% emissions reductions by 2030, 7% increase in wages at the bottom end as compared with inflation even when inflation is at historic levels, NLRB providing legal backing for union activity for the first time in quite a while
And that’s only the shit they got done; what they passed as bills / orders but then the Republicans blocked was actually quite a lot more (much more aggressive versions of most of the above + marijuana legalization as a start)
Also, “democracy might end if Trump gets elected” is not some weird bogeyman; they already stormed the capitol with plans to kill the vice president and progressive congresspeople. The liberal press didn’t make that shit up to scare you; I can send you the videos if you want
Don’t send me shit.
What part of my last sentence didn’t get through? Fuck, the whole point of this article is that voters feel like they must vote for the DNC candidate despite not liking them, but they still vote for them.
Fuck, it doesn’t even matter how I vote because of where I live and how our broken ass voting system works. It goes Blue regardless. Y’all keep acting like the popular vote matters. If you aren’t convincing majorities of people in particular counties of swing states to vote, it doesn’t matter.
I’m sick and tired of people acting like it’s the people’s job to vote for whoever the Party puts forth instead of the Party being responsible for putting forth a likable candidate. That the onus lies on the voting block, whose job it is to simply cast their ballots for the DNC, instead of the DNC being any fucking bit responsible for selecting a candidate people want to vote for.
instead of the DNC being any fucking bit responsible for selecting a candidate people want to vote for.
That’s very apt…and they’re about to throw away Democracy as we know it due to their apathy.
