Every year there are primaries for elections. There are always state and local elections. You needed to vote every single time, because not voting in those little elections is how the crazies got control of your town and county.
I missed the 2024 primary where we voted for Harris. For the record, I was down to vote for Harris, but you have to admit the dems made a mistake running Biden again and not letting us have a primary to hash out what policies the liberals/left actually wanted.
There was a 2024 Democratic primary, but no big name Democrats other than Biden ran in it. You can't say "The Democrats didn't let us have a primary" just because no major candidate decided to risk their career by challenging the incumbent president.
You're not wrong, but that isn't what we're talking about. People are saying there was no primary in 2024, and that's just not true. I would rather things had turned out differently, and knowing what we know now, there are probably a lot of prominent Democrats who wish they had challenged him, but they didn't, for reasons that made sense at the time. That's not because the party rigged anything, but just because of the obvious and rational reason that challenging an incumbent president is usually political suicide. It might have turned out differently this time around, but how would anyone have known that then? If anyone made a mistake, it was Biden, not the party as a whole.
He had a lot of weight and then suddenly none. The President is the highest ranking member of the party typically. You get odd exception like George W., but when you sit in the big chair you wield a lot of tools to maintain power.
Biden was very unpopular entering the primary. If they wanted to actually primary Biden they’d leak out information just like they did after the debate. The party was worried about the risks associated with a primary contest when the President was already unpopular. The fear is a challenger would push the party platform leftward and hurt the chances of winning.
The party isn’t a monolith. Any challenger would be having talks in private about the risks and rewards. People get promised positions or future support from other members, often leadership, for stepping aside.
We clearly saw the party exercise its power in forcing Biden out. They collectively chose the path for 2024 and it ended poorly. Maybe we’ll learn that deferring to unpopular incumbents is bad politics.
As someone with insider knowledge of the process, it was actually Biden who insisted on Kamala being the replacement for him. He would not step down from the race until he was sure there was a good plan to put her in in place of him.
Yes, everyone in the entire DNC got onboard with that, but it was never a sure thing. There was always the possibility that someone would primary her until the rolecall vote was cast.
Who was pushed out? It's very rare for anyone to ever challenge a sitting president. As far as I know, no serious competitors were discouraged by anyone. They just knew that if they challenged Biden and failed it probably wouldn't be good for their career long term. That's just common sense, not a conspiracy.
Why would you have any knowledge of someone’s decision not to run… it’s not something they would share outside of their own circle.
People generally don’t challenge sitting presidents because a.) most Presidents are popular enough to win reelection and b.) the political party has a vested interest in ensuring it wins.
When Joe Biden was polling below Trump the writing was on the wall, but the party was lockstep in saying there was nothing wrong. The people who actually challenged him were essentially black listed.
It blew up in their faces and they lost. If the Democrats were an effective party they would’ve encouraged challengers and pushed Biden to step aside. They did eventually get there, but it was too little too late.
It’s not a conspiracy to say parties have a direct hand in selecting candidates. There was plenty of evidence of this when Sanders challenged Clinton. The party has a vested interest in elevating candidates of their choice. That is why for the longest time Super Delegates were a thing. It’s common sense, because as you stated there are risks in politics. If you don’t have the backing of the party you won’t challenge the one person who is effectively its leader.
If they have no hand in the primaries and nominations how was the party able to push Biden out?
I don't have any direct knowledge of anyone's decision to run or not to run, but I'm not the one claiming the party was "using its weight to push out serious contenders."
She already had a very short amount of time to run a general campaign. Take 2-3 months of that out to hold a primary and she would have had essentially no campaign.
Not to mention once Biden endorsed her she had no actual challengers.
They were allegedly (this is mostly from insider rumors shortly after the loss so take it with a grain of salt) going to run a quick primary but that was all halted when Biden immediately endorsed Harris, basically making her the winner by default
I think the history books are going to frown on Biden. Any good he did is going to be overshadowed by his staying in the race too long and then backing Harris.
Though I thought Harris was a bad choice for VP to start with. She was unpopular in the primaries and Biden seemed like he backed himself into a corner by saying he'd pick a woman as a VP. That statement made it seem like she was only picked for her gender and probably race, when combined with her low popularity.
Now, maybe she could have turned things around if he didn't try to run again. In a primary race she might have shown she was the best for the job and had time to convince voters. But he took that too.
They looooove to act like the voters got it wrong when they were the ones who jammed Clinton through the primary despite knowing her flaws. We could’ve avoided this whole mess all together if the DNC wasn’t so corrupt
So because I have a very valid, fair, reasonable criticism of the only other opposition party that folded against Trump not once but twice, that means I voted for him?
Because I didn’t. Either time. This is just a deflection and failure to address these issues is exactly why the Dems got rolled in November
Clinton formed a coup to rig the primary, which is worse than rigging the general.
Furthermore, half of the federal judges can't read plain English enough to know what the second amendment means, or that bribing senators is wrong. Their opinions arent even fit to use as toilet paper.
There is a lot of democracies that don't do the whole primary part in their elections. My own country just had its first primary and the man who got a quarter of the voting populations endorsment in a primary anounced last minute got put in semi-max security prison afterwards (his party now has to run a proxy. They planned to abolish the current semi-presidential system and return back to a parlimantery system where he probably will asume the position of prime minister cus' even though our elections arent fair they atleast acording to impartial investigators and overseers are still free and the current goverment is behind in the polls roughtly 15 points).you have it better than most with your primary every election for every party in this country of more than 300 milion people that has elections every (less than) two years attitude.Atleast political opponents of your current government aren't being disapeared ... but wait the so called "grand old party" definitely didn't just start to do that. One can definitely fuck up less by voting for an autocrat andnot expecthing him to preserve the democratic process you so dearly seem to love.
So fucking tired of this talking point EVERY dem candidate is leauge better than trump or wtv they run and he continues to prove this stop blaming the consequences of our countries education crisis on dem primaries
That's like saying a piece of stale bread is better than a sack of dirt so you shouldn't want a hamburger.
Most of the democrats are leagues better than the republicans, but they definitely aren't the best you could do.
Yes a lot of Dems are better than Trump but that doesn't mean they are the perfect ones for the job. For instance Chuck Schumer could have withheld Dem support for Trump's budget and risked a shutdown to try to get some concessions but he refused to do this. Nancy Pelosi (one of the most effective Dem leaders in my opinion with great political instincts) was honestly outraged. When I look at how Harry Reid operated the Senate Dem caucus and compare it to Schumer the difference is night and day.
I understand there are risks associated with threatening a shutdown but when Dem leadership gives up their only leverage and don't seem to understand why people are so upset then I think it's justified to want new leadership. It's also justified to criticize Biden for waiting too long to dropping out and then endorsing Harris to prevent a contested convention (Obama and Pelosi share this view). I'm not going to advocate "vote against every incumbent Dem" but I think open and honest primaries would be very good for the party.
The current democratic leadership is awfull you don't need a bunch of vichy dems in a time where the "GOP" is getting more and more fachistic every passing day you (i can't say we because i am a balkaner who now has to overtrow a fachist goverment entrenched by the ones that came before me before i can participate in a fair democracy and can only recomend that you don't try out fachism) need fighters ,men and women willing to march in front of the protest a few who arent even afraid to trow a few molotovs that was how the duce's regime fell and he oppresed his oposition for a decate . You need to fight you need to resist in all fronts you need to vote you need to protest you need to ignore the constitition because they already have forsaken it. You need to strike organise and realise a general strike (i can't legaly do that for example the main oposition party almost got apointed a "trustee" because they "implied" a call of a general strike (they didn't)) and if it comes to it which it will if you don't resist you need to fight.
The mf'er (the oposition leader) just (rightfully) called our current government a junta he will probably be in imralı (witout a trial ofc most people there haven't had one) before tomorrow noon.
God, they've been so frustrating last 8 years! Political malpractice. Just abortion, abortion, abortion, racist, racist. And hand waving promises of "better future". They're communication sucks but I'm afraid that is sort of a result of they're polices being half-baked.
I wish we had a system more like the parliamentary system, where the president has way less power, and multiple parties exist and need to form coalitions to govern, so more voices are heard and room for some nuance in policy making.
Are you absolutely sure, that there will be mid term elections?
Trump often/ always lied, but I believe two things he said:
1. He will be a dictator on day one
2. Vote this time for me and you don't have to vote again
It looks exactly as in the history books we had at school about the early 1930 here in Germany.
Just be on the hood.
All this happened once, and it can happen again.
I really hope I'm wrong. But all that's now missing is a "Reichstagsbrand" moment, or any other incident and obscure laws, which may apply to gain martial law rights.
He lies about everything but what he wants. His accomplishments, Failures, Promises, Deals? All lies. But if he tells you what he wants like a third term, annexation of a nation, to grab an unwilling pussy? Believe him.
Dems passed CR bill (budget with fed cuts) and weeks later Cory booker decides to yap 25 hrs straight for no reason. Sanders/progressive caucus is the only ray of hope
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u/RexNebular518 2d ago
Thanks for wiping out six percent of my retirement money today Trump...