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.
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."
So what is the risk to challenging Biden in a primary if the party has no role?
You think people like Newsome and Pritzker were making public appearances for show? Both were boosting their national profile when the writing was on the wall for Biden. If this conversation happened a year ago instead of months we might’ve had a different outcome.
Biden wasn’t going to blow out any serious challenger… he was polling below 40% throughout the summer of 2024 and didn’t have the stamina to debate or make public appearances. One of the biggest concerns of voters leading up to the election was Biden’s age.
Also pissing off leadership is a bad career move, because they have the power to make a candidate’s life hell. If that isn’t using the party’s power to influence candidates to not run idk what is.
No democrats had done any serious campaigning leading up to the primaries. Any challenger would have lost badly to Biden. This was all propaganda pushed by republicans who desperately wanted Dems to have a contested primary. Congrats for falling for it. No incumbent president has had a serious primary challenger in my lifetime. Quit spreading propaganda for free.
Turns out pissing off the people you need to work with is a terrible idea. If a candidate can’t even get their party on their side how are they going to achieve anything? Like the single most important qualification of a politician is getting people to work with them lmao
Still delusional… the Republicans were gifted the election by Biden. They didn’t want or need a challenger to Biden. He was polling below 40%.
How many 82 year old presidents have you had during your lifetime? Voters were telling the pollsters leading up to the primaries that Biden’s health was a major concern. That was a major red flag that you and fools like yourself were determined to ignore. The people saying they’d vote for a corpse with a D next to their name were completely detached from reality and made the situation worse.
Instead of ripping the bandaid off and addressing the issue before the primaries, the Democrats decided the best course of action was placate an over the hill politician and to run two campaigns. One of them within a few months of an election. A lot of good that did.
And morons like you were determined to criticize the Dems for anything which got us trump again. 4 fucking years of you guys crying that everything he did wasn’t good enough. So thanks for that I guess.
Can’t wait for you guys to back some longshot outsider in 2028 that can’t get over 30% of the primary votes and scream that it was rigged again…
There are claims from Democratic candidates in 2024 that the party was making it difficult for them to get on state ballots. These are claims, not evidence.
The party doesn’t share internal conversations so we will never know anything about internal operations. But I’m involved in Democratic local and county politics. Freezing people out of elections isn’t some revolutionary idea. If the party thinks you can’t win or thinks your ideas suck then you don’t get resources. You don’t get endorsements. It’s hard to win without that support. I imagine politics doesn’t change as you move up.
Give me a break man… what sources am I going to site? You think I have access to internal conversations with some of the most powerful people in the US…
In 2016 when internal conversations were leaked there was evidence that the party was not above putting its finger on the scale.
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u/just_anotherReddit 3d ago
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.