Current Events > "Democrats have a better option than Biden"

(+) Yeah! (+)

My heart breaks a bit for Joe Biden. This is a man who has been running for president since he was young. He wins the presidency, finally, unexpectedly, when hes old. And that age brought him wisdom. It brought an openness that hadnt always been there in him. Hes governed as a throwback to a time before I alone can fix it, a time when presidents were party leaders, coalition builders.

Biden has held together a Democratic Party that could easily have splintered. Think back to the 2020 campaign, when he beat Bernie Sanders, when he beat Elizabeth Warren, when his victory was seen as, was in reality, the moderate wing triumphing over the progressive wing, the establishment over the insurgents.

But instead of making them bend the knee, instead of acting as a victor, Biden acted as a leader. He partnered with Bernie Sanders. He built the unity task forces. He integrated Warrens and Sanderss ideas and staff into not just his campaign but also his administration.

And it worked. Democrats had 50 votes in the Senate. Fifty votes that stretched from Bernie Sanders on the left all the way to Joe Manchin on the right. Biden and Chuck Schumer, they often could not lose even one of those votes, and at crucial moments, they didnt.

With that almost-impossible-to-hold-together coalition, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats passed a series of bills the bipartisan infrastructure deal, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act that will make this a decade of infrastructure and invention. A decade of building, of decarbonizing, of researching. They expanded the Affordable Care Act, and it worked more than 21 million people signed up for the A.C.A. last year, a record. They did what Democrats have promised to do forever and took at least the first steps toward letting Medicare negotiate drug prices.

And the Biden team, they said they were going to run the economy hot, that at long last, they were going to prioritize full employment, and they did. And then inflation shot up. Not just here but in Europe, in Canada, pretty much everywhere. The pandemic had twisted global supply chains and then the economy had reopened, and people desperate to live again took their pandemic savings and spent. And the Biden team, in partnership with Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve, got the rate of inflation back down, and we are still beneath 4 percent unemployment.

Since the beginning of Bidens administration, I have been asking people who work with him: How does he seem? How read in is he? Whats he like in the meetings? Maybe its not a great sign that I felt the need to do that, that a lot of reporters have been doing that, but still. And I am convinced, watching him, listening to the testimony of those who meet with him not all people who like him I am convinced he is able to do the job of the presidency. He is sharp in meetings; he makes sound judgments. I cannot point you to a moment where Biden faltered in his presidency because his age had slowed him

yeah definitely a good idea barely 10 months from the election

Polis, Whitmer, Newsom, and Pritzker.

But heres the thing. I can now point you to moments when he is faltering in his campaign for the presidency because his age is slowing him. This distinction between the job of the presidency and the job of running for the presidency keeps getting muddied, including by Biden himself.

This is the question Democrats keep wanting to answer, the question the Biden administration keeps pretending only to hear: Can Biden do the job of president? But that is not the question of the 2024 campaign. The insistence that Biden is capable of being president is being used to shut down discussion of whether hes capable of running for president.

I think one reason Democrats react so defensively to critiques of Biden is theyve come to a kind of fatalism. They believe it is too late to do anything else. And if it is too late to do anything else, then to talk about Bidens age is to contribute to Donald Trumps victory.

But thats absurd.

It is February. Fatalism this far before the election is ridiculous. Yeah, its too late to throw this to primaries. But its not too late to do something.

So then what? Step one, unfortunately, is convincing Biden that he should not run again. That he does not want to risk being Ruth Bader Ginsburg a heroic, brilliant public servant who caused the outcome she feared most because she didnt retire early enough. That in stepping aside he would be able to finish out his term as a strong and focused president, and people would see the honor in what he did, in putting his country over his ambitions.

Other than that I won't vote.

AOC for presi

Other than that I won't vote. Whatever happens, happens.

I don't get why people say Newsom. The attack ads create themselves. He gains no right leaning independent votes once you mention California

1) Right leaning independent voters.

2) An acceptable fraction of the D base.

Pick one, because there's no way in hell to get both.

I guess the better question is, do the people who voted for Biden in 2020 vote for Newsom?
Maybe

Biden stepping down this close to the election and a new candidate being appointed in a brokered convention would be a disaster.

I don't get why people say Newsom. The attack ads create themselves. He gains no right leaning independent votes once you mention California

I don't get why people say Newsom. The attack ads create themselves. He gains no right leaning independent votes once you mention California

Which is why this narrative is so irresistibly appealing to both GOP ratfuckers and useful idiots for GOP ratfuckers.

Yeah, I can't tell how many of the people pushing this legitimately think it would be a good idea for the Democrats and how many are doing it to try to help Trump get elected but I have a feeling it's more of the latter.

Or they just don't like Biden, regardless of whether replacing him is a good or bad idea.

Which is why this narrative is so irresistibly appealing to both GOP ratfuckers and useful idiots for GOP ratfuckers.

Seems really fucking stupid to tank victory just because you dont like Biden.

And then you look at how many Democratic bills he vetoed in California and he's not gonna get progressive votes either.

There's a reason he said he's not running against Biden OR Harris. He knows the mainstream establishment is gonna back them, and that he's not gonna get enough centrist OR progressive outsiders to fight back.

Seems really fucking stupid to tank victory just because you dont like Biden.

Well duh. Why get 70% of the things when you could instead not vote and get -30% of the things. That will obviously make democrats realize what they did wrong and change it next time and then you will get 130% of the things you want!

What bills did he veto?

Quite a bit. Some examples:

A bill that would've capped the price of insulin at $35: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2023-10-08/california-gov-gavin-newsom-vetoes-bill-aimed-at-limiting-the-price-of-insulin

A bill that would've required courts handling child custody cases to take into account which parent acknowledges the child's gender identity: https://apnews.com/article/california-gender-affirm-transgender-nonbinary-children-parents-336c3a7ac2706eb185aa4285b02368ea

A bill that would've banned caste discrimination: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/09/us/california-caste-discrimination-bill-veto/index.html

A bill offering unemployment protections to union workers caught up in strikes: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-governor-vetoes-bill-offering-unemployment-pay-strikers-2023-10-01/

A bill providing free contraceptives to teens: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/californias-gov-newsom-vetoes-bill-to-make-free-condoms-available-for-high-school-students

A bill that would've allowed weed at cafes: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/ab374-amsterdam-style-cannabis-cafes-gov-gavin-newsom-veto-asm-matt-haney/

A bill decriminalizing psychedelic medicine: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/newsom-vetoes-psychedelics-18411379.php

A bill aimed at providing LGBTQ homeless youth with safe housing placements: https://fox5sandiego.com/news/politics/newsom-vetoes-bill-to-create-housing-pilot-in-san-diego-for-homeless-lgbtq-youth/

A plan to require health plans to cover reproductive services: https://www.californiafamily.org/2023/10/good-news-bad-news-newsom-vetoes-and-signs-some-bad-bills/

A bill requiring youth health plans to cover hearing: https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/newsom-vetoes-childrens-hearing-aids-bill/

A bill to expand school health clinics: https://edsource.org/updates/newsom-vetos-bill-to-expand-school-health-clinics

There are more, but I got depressed listing them. These bills all passed the Democratic legislature with majority support, sometimes unanimous support, only to be shut down at the finish line by Newsom alone.

The suspicion is that he's trying to maintain a poll-tested image that would protect him from accusations of being far-left once he starts running in national elections, putting his career ambitions ahead of policy progress.

Yet Biden is the most center-left guy alive and the GOP still calls him far-left, so Newsom's potential strategy is useless at best, and fake, harmful, and highly off-putting at worst. Either way to a progressive he looks like he's just gonna be another safe do-little president.

I legitimately have more faith in literal Kamala Harris. She's already shown more spine by pushing Biden to be more favorable to Palestine (meanwhile Newsom literally travels to Israel to meet their prime minister and returns with no comment on that matter, claiming that his visit was "limited in scope").

We have to move past mediocrity at some point.

Some random snippets from the full article, which you should listen to.

I disagree, there's nothing about that article worth reading/listening to. I'd like that 2 minutes of my life back that it took to read his print article.

The fact that he advocates having a brokered convention, meaning nominating somebody that nobody voted for, speaks for itself.

That's kind of on you, since the TLDR of the OP already mentioned the stupid idea of the brokered convention.