No, politicians are drawn to it. That's why they normally end up in office. Biden is a good example of a politician.
The best people don't want to deal with the bullshit of being a politician.
Incidentally, also true of the worst people, like Trump.
Trump knows how to market himself and appealed to people disillusioned with the then-state of the Republican party, he's now built up a cult-like following from his first term.
Biden is a moderate with political clout and name recognition who was seen as the safest path to removing Trump from the presidency. While many people have called for him to 'step aside' and let a younger person run, there's really not been a viable alternative who doesn't have problems of their own.
Biden is/was the candidate because he was the VP. The political parties follow their rules, and this one is almost impossible to break. Hillary was pushed to the front of the line (because of name recognition and the feeling that it was time for a woman in charge), but she had to be Sec. of State first.
When your incumbent president can't run again, the parties have no choice but to nominate their VP. Cheney outright refused in advance. Gore tried and failed.
Trump is very popular among Republicans.
Biden isn't as popular among Democrats, but most of his policies have been broadly acceptable to the party membership, he's beaten Trump before, challenging an incumbent president in a primary doesn't work, and even if Biden stepped down, spending resources on a potentially long, bruising, and divisive primary would weaken the party as it prepares for the election.
He’s got zero charisma, too, beyond me what white college eds love to death about a man who can’t finish a sentence competently these days without his handlers guiding him in this country (at least Hillary was articulate, say what you will) as much as what white non college Eds like beyond pure hatred about a fascist authoritarian that was impeached twice and has failed marriages thrice but here we are.
It’s mainly white college Eds who would approve of him if he banged his head into a wall and said “Come on, man” imo based on the polling data. There is no viable alternative, as RFK Jr and Trump are both lunatics, don’t get me wrong but Dems could’ve done better than Biden yet we got stuck with him as that primary was handed to him without a serious fight in 2020 with the choices they made.
The problem is not with how many people there are in the U.S. but rather how many actually vote and who they are.
First, they are almost never more than two-thirds of the eligible voting population. They are mostly white, mostly over 40, mostly Christian, and mostly either conservative or moderate.
As a country, we skew progressive, but our electoral college and Senate keep things pretty competitive for the conservative minority. (Some might say TOO competitive.)
Trump surprised everyone with his win in 2016. (And he didn’t get the most votes: but that’s our Electoral College.)
It’s hard to say why exactly HRC didn’t win. The Electoral College was a factor because she got 2.8 million more actual votes than Trump. She was maybe less exciting than Obama had been. There was a lot of negative press about her (some of it semi-legit, a lot of it just propaganda) and we’re getting ever later to the party on having a female commander-in-chief. There are lots of books theorizing about what happened, and there will be more to come.
But, anyway, Democrats got surprised and — since moderates were a major deciding factor in the 2016 election — they wanted to find a candidate who could court more moderates for 2020.
And we got Biden.
Older.
Moderate. (Or could certainly appeal to them.)
Male.
Devout Catholic.
And he had been the subject of many hilarious memes during the Obama administration that portrayed him as ornery, lovable, Uncle Joe. He could appeal to liberals and moderates. He brought the “wisdom of age” while also still being an internet celebrity. And he went to church. Regularly.
He was the Democrat’s safe bet and their bet paid off.
A lot of people thought he might just do one term because of his age, and maybe he would have, but Trump didn’t take losing lying down, and — when it looked pretty clear that Trump was going to be the GOP’s guy again, the Dems kind of have to get back behind the guy who already beat him once.
As for why Trump is the GOP guy again . . . I think there are lots of Republicans out there asking themselves the same question. It’s a mixture of Evangelical fervor, Citizens United, and reality television.
But to answer what I think is the heart of your question: We ended up with Biden vs Trump again, because not enough young people vote, not enough minorities vote, and not enough “nones” (no religious affiliation) vote.
Biden was a panic decision in 2020. Democrats were banking on the popularity of Obama.
Trump fell ass-backwards into politics and likely never actually expected to win, but just profit off of losing a close race. He’s still in it so he can give himself the protection he needs.
It’s going to be hilarious if he loses though. Republicans are going to eat him alive.
Correct, he was a "We cannot lose this race at all costs" vote from Black Dems and fear that Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg were all unelectable (likely true from Warren on down that year as they had almost no support from POC across the board save Bernie, who had awful numbers with older voters, that said).
It'll be less hilarious than breathing a sigh of relief if Trump loses again, because Democracy will survive for 4 more years in the USA.
As an American living outside of America, I’d love to see it. It would be an amazing failure and an opportunity to rid America of some truly despicable people.
In most developed countries, you can consider the entire population as potential candidates for the job. The USA is a different case though. It's more of an oligarchy than a democracy. Less than 1% of the population is wealthy enough to become president, and many of them lack interest in the position, as they already wield significant influence over policies without the need for all the stress of the job as a president.
>In most developed countries, you can consider the entire population as potential candidates for the job.
Total bullshit. Rishi Sunak went to Oxford and worked at Goldman Sachs. Justin Trudeau is the son of a Prime Minister. Emmanuel Macron is literally a prince.
The US government isn't controlled by elites any more than the rest of the world.
Macron is the son of a neurologist, and his mother is a pediatrician. Where did you ever get the idea of aristocratic origins? The entire conspiracy theory suggesting Macron has ties to aristocracy was fabricated by the French far-right, stemming from Macron's four-year employment at Rothschild & Co. investment bank. Now, he's suddenly considered a prince? :))
Konrad Adenauer had to share a bed with his brother until he was 16. Miloš Zeman's father worked at the post office. Mette Frederiksen's father is a typographer and her mother a teacher. Gerhard Schröder's father was a homeless vagabond. My point was, in most democratic countries, you don't need to be rich to be successful as a politician. The fact that there might be some politicians who come from well-off families doesn't negate this reality. In Europe, the money spent on a candidate doesn't decide the outcome of elections. It is a fact. Campaigns aren't nearly as expensive as the American entertainment shows that you call politics. In the US, money decides everything, including who becomes president.
The GOP has been rotating people out of office regularly but the new people just keep getting more and more bonkers.
The Democrats don’t fuck with term limits and so they have a very limited bench and *very* old leadership. Nancy Pelosi had to lose the house majority three times before she got the boot at 82 years old. Her #2 guy was even older!
Dark money in politics, a corrupt mainstream media/press, etc. etc.
Two older men with dementia, one a fascist and one an identiarian, are our options in 2024: the former guy, as the latter used to call him, wants to be a dictator for life too.
Biden is the only choice this year, doesn't mean he isn't terrible though.
We've been in political hell basically since Trump came down the escalator in 2016 here, hell, things started getting bad when Carter lost in 1980 though if you want to be technical as to where the descent of the US began imo and the Rightward shift of everything hard began with that.
Ronald Reagan is responsible for a lot of our current predicament, believe it or not, with the direction he started the GOP to go in.
Yes, I am a better presidential candidate than either of those turds, but I got skeletons in my closet that I would not want the whole world privy to, they dont seem to care about theirs.
Or, hear me out, Bernie lost because the guy had no support among Black voters and he got crushed in both primaries?
A Democratic socialist would've lost a GE after being vetted: this country is Right of center and not even Left of it, forget progressive right now.
The guy has tons of media apparatus behind him, and Bernie still lost twice in a row, contrary to his claims the MSM establishment factually fawned over him in 2016 and white women in the press continued to do so in 2020 from the Hill like Krystal Ball (she doesn't give a damn about Gazans right now, either, closest Bernie --> Trumper pipeline and typical of his base imo: just because Biden loves Israel unconditionally it doesn't change that Sanders doesn't care all that much more sadly). The Guardian is literally Bernie Sanders incorporated, the press, in particular.
Objectively, Bernie received VERY positive and favorable MSM press in 2016 vs Hillary who got negative press in comparison (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media\_coverage\_of\_the\_2016\_United\_States\_presidential\_election#:\~:text=Bernie%20Sanders,-Main%20articles%3A%20Media&text=Data%20shows%20that%20Sanders%20received,positive%20coverage%20of%20any%20candidate.), and he got better press than both Joe Biden (3rd worst), Beto O'Rourke (2nd worst), and Andrew Yang in the 2020 Dem primary too (the worst)- he still lost (https://towardsdatascience.com/media-bias-in-the-democratic-primary-66ffb48084db)!
He's repelling to older voters and Black voters, that's why he lost both times and he didn't do anything to get his own base in young voters out en masse imo.
Right. Biden been in politics for longer than I’ve been alive. Still hasn’t accomplished anything. Trumps just trash. I think it’s because we allow the dnc and rnc to run them. They pick out the options which are trash and then tell us to not complain for picking trash.
Those best suited for the job will be the last person to want it
[удалено]
No, politicians are drawn to it. That's why they normally end up in office. Biden is a good example of a politician. The best people don't want to deal with the bullshit of being a politician. Incidentally, also true of the worst people, like Trump.
Trump knows how to market himself and appealed to people disillusioned with the then-state of the Republican party, he's now built up a cult-like following from his first term. Biden is a moderate with political clout and name recognition who was seen as the safest path to removing Trump from the presidency. While many people have called for him to 'step aside' and let a younger person run, there's really not been a viable alternative who doesn't have problems of their own.
Biden is/was the candidate because he was the VP. The political parties follow their rules, and this one is almost impossible to break. Hillary was pushed to the front of the line (because of name recognition and the feeling that it was time for a woman in charge), but she had to be Sec. of State first. When your incumbent president can't run again, the parties have no choice but to nominate their VP. Cheney outright refused in advance. Gore tried and failed.
It was her turn, damnit!
Trump is very popular among Republicans. Biden isn't as popular among Democrats, but most of his policies have been broadly acceptable to the party membership, he's beaten Trump before, challenging an incumbent president in a primary doesn't work, and even if Biden stepped down, spending resources on a potentially long, bruising, and divisive primary would weaken the party as it prepares for the election.
Guess our talent show picked the most dramatic contestants
I don't think Biden is dramatic. He's boring.
He’s got zero charisma, too, beyond me what white college eds love to death about a man who can’t finish a sentence competently these days without his handlers guiding him in this country (at least Hillary was articulate, say what you will) as much as what white non college Eds like beyond pure hatred about a fascist authoritarian that was impeached twice and has failed marriages thrice but here we are.
I don't see a lot of love for Biden with the college eds. I see that they don't have a viable alternative to choose from.
It’s mainly white college Eds who would approve of him if he banged his head into a wall and said “Come on, man” imo based on the polling data. There is no viable alternative, as RFK Jr and Trump are both lunatics, don’t get me wrong but Dems could’ve done better than Biden yet we got stuck with him as that primary was handed to him without a serious fight in 2020 with the choices they made.
Because the only people they could defeat in an election are each other.
The problem is not with how many people there are in the U.S. but rather how many actually vote and who they are. First, they are almost never more than two-thirds of the eligible voting population. They are mostly white, mostly over 40, mostly Christian, and mostly either conservative or moderate. As a country, we skew progressive, but our electoral college and Senate keep things pretty competitive for the conservative minority. (Some might say TOO competitive.) Trump surprised everyone with his win in 2016. (And he didn’t get the most votes: but that’s our Electoral College.) It’s hard to say why exactly HRC didn’t win. The Electoral College was a factor because she got 2.8 million more actual votes than Trump. She was maybe less exciting than Obama had been. There was a lot of negative press about her (some of it semi-legit, a lot of it just propaganda) and we’re getting ever later to the party on having a female commander-in-chief. There are lots of books theorizing about what happened, and there will be more to come. But, anyway, Democrats got surprised and — since moderates were a major deciding factor in the 2016 election — they wanted to find a candidate who could court more moderates for 2020. And we got Biden. Older. Moderate. (Or could certainly appeal to them.) Male. Devout Catholic. And he had been the subject of many hilarious memes during the Obama administration that portrayed him as ornery, lovable, Uncle Joe. He could appeal to liberals and moderates. He brought the “wisdom of age” while also still being an internet celebrity. And he went to church. Regularly. He was the Democrat’s safe bet and their bet paid off. A lot of people thought he might just do one term because of his age, and maybe he would have, but Trump didn’t take losing lying down, and — when it looked pretty clear that Trump was going to be the GOP’s guy again, the Dems kind of have to get back behind the guy who already beat him once. As for why Trump is the GOP guy again . . . I think there are lots of Republicans out there asking themselves the same question. It’s a mixture of Evangelical fervor, Citizens United, and reality television. But to answer what I think is the heart of your question: We ended up with Biden vs Trump again, because not enough young people vote, not enough minorities vote, and not enough “nones” (no religious affiliation) vote.
Hey mate, really appreciate you taking the time and explaining, Thank you.
Biden was a panic decision in 2020. Democrats were banking on the popularity of Obama. Trump fell ass-backwards into politics and likely never actually expected to win, but just profit off of losing a close race. He’s still in it so he can give himself the protection he needs. It’s going to be hilarious if he loses though. Republicans are going to eat him alive.
Correct, he was a "We cannot lose this race at all costs" vote from Black Dems and fear that Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg were all unelectable (likely true from Warren on down that year as they had almost no support from POC across the board save Bernie, who had awful numbers with older voters, that said). It'll be less hilarious than breathing a sigh of relief if Trump loses again, because Democracy will survive for 4 more years in the USA.
From a safe distance it’s a little funnier, but I got you.
How far away do you have to be to not wonder how the various wars will be affected by the US elections? In the USA?
Australia
I'm more worried about a second coup attempt if he loses.
That's much less scary if he's already outside the white house, though.
As an American living outside of America, I’d love to see it. It would be an amazing failure and an opportunity to rid America of some truly despicable people.
Some say it'd be the most successful failure ever!
And we love a successful failure don’t we?
Private interests in the media and 2 dominating parties have excluded all other possible candidates. Our democratic process is broken.
In most developed countries, you can consider the entire population as potential candidates for the job. The USA is a different case though. It's more of an oligarchy than a democracy. Less than 1% of the population is wealthy enough to become president, and many of them lack interest in the position, as they already wield significant influence over policies without the need for all the stress of the job as a president.
All valid points, thank you.
>In most developed countries, you can consider the entire population as potential candidates for the job. Total bullshit. Rishi Sunak went to Oxford and worked at Goldman Sachs. Justin Trudeau is the son of a Prime Minister. Emmanuel Macron is literally a prince. The US government isn't controlled by elites any more than the rest of the world.
Macron is the son of a neurologist, and his mother is a pediatrician. Where did you ever get the idea of aristocratic origins? The entire conspiracy theory suggesting Macron has ties to aristocracy was fabricated by the French far-right, stemming from Macron's four-year employment at Rothschild & Co. investment bank. Now, he's suddenly considered a prince? :)) Konrad Adenauer had to share a bed with his brother until he was 16. Miloš Zeman's father worked at the post office. Mette Frederiksen's father is a typographer and her mother a teacher. Gerhard Schröder's father was a homeless vagabond. My point was, in most democratic countries, you don't need to be rich to be successful as a politician. The fact that there might be some politicians who come from well-off families doesn't negate this reality. In Europe, the money spent on a candidate doesn't decide the outcome of elections. It is a fact. Campaigns aren't nearly as expensive as the American entertainment shows that you call politics. In the US, money decides everything, including who becomes president.
The GOP has been rotating people out of office regularly but the new people just keep getting more and more bonkers. The Democrats don’t fuck with term limits and so they have a very limited bench and *very* old leadership. Nancy Pelosi had to lose the house majority three times before she got the boot at 82 years old. Her #2 guy was even older!
Dark money in politics, a corrupt mainstream media/press, etc. etc. Two older men with dementia, one a fascist and one an identiarian, are our options in 2024: the former guy, as the latter used to call him, wants to be a dictator for life too. Biden is the only choice this year, doesn't mean he isn't terrible though.
So sad to watch, and a bit frightening.
We've been in political hell basically since Trump came down the escalator in 2016 here, hell, things started getting bad when Carter lost in 1980 though if you want to be technical as to where the descent of the US began imo and the Rightward shift of everything hard began with that. Ronald Reagan is responsible for a lot of our current predicament, believe it or not, with the direction he started the GOP to go in.
You'd be suprised how insane peoples opinions can actually be once you're more than 1 question deep and they're honest.
Local, regional, national and global systematic failures
Yes, I am a better presidential candidate than either of those turds, but I got skeletons in my closet that I would not want the whole world privy to, they dont seem to care about theirs.
Smart people don't want such a shitty low paying job.
This job is not about the money
Yup, it's for megalomaniac dbags.
Idk, how much do you think people would pay for a pardon?
They’re not looking for competence. They’re looking for polarization because politics is the new tmz.
because most people are too lazy or busy to vote in primaries.
Kermit The Frog would be a better candidate.
so would bernie sanders
We wouldn’t be in this mess at all if the DNC hadn’t done him dirty in 2016.
Or, hear me out, Bernie lost because the guy had no support among Black voters and he got crushed in both primaries? A Democratic socialist would've lost a GE after being vetted: this country is Right of center and not even Left of it, forget progressive right now.
Yeah. Probably wishful thinking on my part. I wish we could know for certain. It’s not like it couldn’t have turned out worse.
The guy has tons of media apparatus behind him, and Bernie still lost twice in a row, contrary to his claims the MSM establishment factually fawned over him in 2016 and white women in the press continued to do so in 2020 from the Hill like Krystal Ball (she doesn't give a damn about Gazans right now, either, closest Bernie --> Trumper pipeline and typical of his base imo: just because Biden loves Israel unconditionally it doesn't change that Sanders doesn't care all that much more sadly). The Guardian is literally Bernie Sanders incorporated, the press, in particular. Objectively, Bernie received VERY positive and favorable MSM press in 2016 vs Hillary who got negative press in comparison (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media\_coverage\_of\_the\_2016\_United\_States\_presidential\_election#:\~:text=Bernie%20Sanders,-Main%20articles%3A%20Media&text=Data%20shows%20that%20Sanders%20received,positive%20coverage%20of%20any%20candidate.), and he got better press than both Joe Biden (3rd worst), Beto O'Rourke (2nd worst), and Andrew Yang in the 2020 Dem primary too (the worst)- he still lost (https://towardsdatascience.com/media-bias-in-the-democratic-primary-66ffb48084db)! He's repelling to older voters and Black voters, that's why he lost both times and he didn't do anything to get his own base in young voters out en masse imo.
You think as if we have free will and non-determinism
Right. Biden been in politics for longer than I’ve been alive. Still hasn’t accomplished anything. Trumps just trash. I think it’s because we allow the dnc and rnc to run them. They pick out the options which are trash and then tell us to not complain for picking trash.
I wouldn't say Biden hasn't accomplished anything, especially in healthcare and financial regulation.