Serious The Politics Thread

[Bakugames]

Hey so people who are smarter than me about the Middle East: are blue checkmarks doing what they usually do or is the Yemen stuff rn seriously heating things up again since the Iran strike on the dome?

even if its a 100% real thing, blue checkmarks will still do what they usually do LOL. but yes, houthis are claiming that they have struck tel aviv this friday. Some sources are claiming they've sent 5 strikes overall, but it's all a bit jumbled rn and nothing confirmed yet. I usually wait a few hours before taking any news fully, as a lot of info rn seems to be stuck in telegram chats.

I've got some bad news for you about Donald "I would let them go in there and finish the job" Trump. In every case that you've brought up, Republicans would absolutely escalate beyond what the Democrats would do with the same amount of power and time.

Biden is already letting them go in there and finish the job, he's just claiming that after this time he'll for sure make israel play nice.

We're only having this discussion because nihilist alt-leftists like yourself are continuously trying to argue that both sides are secretly the same. Were we not having this argument, we would be arguing about how best to oppose Trump, as seen earlier in the thread. Beyond that, I'm not sure what you expect. Material conditions aren't revolutionary in the developed world; and the revolution isn't going to be posted on Smogon at any rate. As far as this thread is concerned, it's elections or bust.

My belief that american presidents are all the same kind of guy doesn't give me doom or makes me feel particularly nihilist about the world (I actually think hope has always existed and always will, no matter how dire a situation may be), one because I'm not american lmao and two because this has never stopped activism from existing. I just don't see the point in ending all my messages with "here's exactly what you should do instead", because who wants to be preached about political activism on a pokemon forum when we don't know who we are beyond icons and signatures? Also anything that isn't voting has an 80% chance to get called either a russian psyop or worthless. If people want to be stuck in a doomed cycle that just brings them misery every 4 years because this time, surely, it's over for the usa if this guy doesn't win, then that's their prerogative

 

[adjectivenoun]

My belief that american presidents are all the same kind of guy doesn't give me doom or makes me feel particularly nihilist about the world (I actually think hope has always existed and always will, no matter how dire a situation may be), one because I'm not american lmao and two because this has never stopped activism from existing. I just don't see the point in ending all my messages with "here's exactly what you should do instead", because who wants to be preached about political activism on a pokemon forum when we don't know who we are beyond icons and signatures? Also anything that isn't voting has an 80% chance to get called either a russian psyop or worthless. If people want to be stuck in a doomed cycle that just brings them misery every 4 years because this time, surely, it's over for the usa if this guy doesn't win, then that's their prerogative

If you say so. I did gather that you're not an American. As an American myself, I shall continue to concern myself with the election, if only because a second Trump term would significantly harm many of the people close to me in a way that a second Biden term would not.

 

[juoean]

I will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is in this election. However, I will reconsider my party affiliation after November if they push out Biden. Why the hell am I participating in the party primaries if donors can just override my vote?

i find this post / group of posts very curious, yes obviously the donors often take priority over the voters that is how bourgeois electoral politics operates. ofc nothing is 100% of the time but in the main politicians make promises during campaigns and then break them after they get elected. (as you actually brought up yourself earlier in the thread re the dems consistently throwing black communities who voted for them under the bus after getting elected.) thats what politicians do they throw marginalized ppl under the bus.

why is changing the ticket post-primary the thing that makes u consider not voting dem in the future, but not committing genocides in iraq afghanistan yemen and palestine, and mass criminalization and incarceration/detention of black and indigenous people? bc personally my orientation is very much the opposite, the dem party consistently ignoring basic democratic procedures is gross sure but i never expected otherwise, and since they are not progressive to begin with what does it really matter. like in a community organization if theres a 'leadership' that starts doing undemocratic shit thats a very serious issue bc it is a betrayal and its going to impact all the work people are doing / trying to do in the org. but the democratic party is rotten substantively and doesnt represent any community to begin with so what difference does it rly make what internal procedures they follow. reminds me of when ppl criticize the executive going to war without a congressional authorization vote, sure its unconsistutional etc but are we pretending that congress has ever voted down a war authorization over the past 80 years? the iraq war authorization vote was like 500 to 1 (the one being barbara lee).
why should i be worried about democratic party procedures when (as a whole) the party will never do anything but 'sell out', and in the context being discussed here they might potentially replace one far right war criminal with another. ppl can talk about whether ur still planning to vote for the far right democrat in order to avoid the further right repub etc personally im never going to tell anyone whether or not to vote, but why does the democratic party's internal procedures factor into that. "who cares that the party is committing a genocide but oh no they arent following internal democratic procedures, thats where i draw the line"?

 

[MrHands]

the iraq war authorization vote was like 500 to 1 (the one being barbara lee).

I'm not arguing in one way or another for your post, I just dislike misinformation. People on this forum will unironically quote North Korean and Hamas propaganda so I think minimizing misinformation is important. The Iraqi war authorization vote was 296 to 133, with 81 of the "pro" being Democrats, which amounts to 40% of Dems in favor. Not 500 to 1.

Barbara Lee voted against military action in Afghanistan, which was 420 aye, 1 nay (Barbara Lee) and 10 abstained. US support for the war in Afghanistan at the time was 88% so regardless of the opinion of what anyone thinks today, at the time people supported it.

Congress also voted 250–183 in favor of the Gulf War, 416–0 in favor of Vietnam, 393–0 in favor of WW2, and 373–50 in WW1. We don't talk about Korea.

 

[RaikouLover]

i find this post / group of posts very curious, yes obviously the donors often take priority over the voters that is how bourgeois electoral politics operates. ofc nothing is 100% of the time but in the main politicians make promises during campaigns and then break them after they get elected. (as you actually brought up yourself earlier in the thread re the dems consistently throwing black communities who voted for them under the bus after getting elected.) thats what politicians do they throw marginalized ppl under the bus.

Are you lecturing a black man on how politicians "throw marginalized people under the bus?" Please do carry on.

why is changing the ticket post-primary the thing that makes u consider not voting dem in the future, but not committing genocides in iraq afghanistan yemen and palestine, and mass criminalization and incarceration/detention of black and indigenous people?

Respectfully, what about my post is not clear? Party registration is for primary voting. It has nothing to do with if and how I will vote in general election. I participate in all primary elections; local and federal. I specifically said I will consider no longer participating in the primary if donors are going to casually just throw my vote in the trash.

 

[faint]

i find this post / group of posts very curious, yes obviously the donors often take priority over the voters that is how bourgeois electoral politics operates. ofc nothing is 100% of the time but in the main politicians make promises during campaigns and then break them after they get elected. (as you actually brought up yourself earlier in the thread re the dems consistently throwing black communities who voted for them under the bus after getting elected.) thats what politicians do they throw marginalized ppl under the bus.

why is changing the ticket post-primary the thing that makes u consider not voting dem in the future, but not committing genocides in iraq afghanistan yemen and palestine, and mass criminalization and incarceration/detention of black and indigenous people? bc personally my orientation is very much the opposite, the dem party consistently ignoring basic democratic procedures is gross sure but i never expected otherwise, and since they are not progressive to begin with what does it really matter. like in a community organization if theres a 'leadership' that starts doing undemocratic shit thats a very serious issue bc it is a betrayal and its going to impact all the work people are doing / trying to do in the org. but the democratic party is rotten substantively and doesnt represent any community to begin with so what difference does it rly make what internal procedures they follow. reminds me of when ppl criticize the executive going to war without a congressional authorization vote, sure its unconsistutional etc but are we pretending that congress has ever voted down a war authorization over the past 80 years? the iraq war authorization vote was like 500 to 1 (the one being barbara lee).
why should i be worried about democratic party procedures when (as a whole) the party will never do anything but 'sell out', and in the context being discussed here they might potentially replace one far right war criminal with another. ppl can talk about whether ur still planning to vote for the far right democrat in order to avoid the further right repub etc personally im never going to tell anyone whether or not to vote, but why does the democratic party's internal procedures factor into that. "who cares that the party is committing a genocide but oh no they arent following internal democratic procedures, thats where i draw the line"?

My biggest surprise from that post was the seemingly news(?) that big time donors have more pull than the American public as though he wasn't aware money in politics is quite possibly the most important thing in American elections. Not to mention dropping your party affiliation because of that? Like I get it, I've been a registered independent since I could vote, but how the hell else does one think our two party system came to be? I guess I've just never met such a massive fan of the Democratic party where in which changing your party affiliation to independent or something would be seen as a "fuck you" to a group that doesn't know you exist.

Are you lecturing a black man on how politicians "throw marginalized people under the bus?" Please do carry on.







Respectfully, what about my post is not clear? Party registration is for primary voting. It has nothing to do with if and how I will vote in general election. I participate in all primary elections; local and federal. I specifically said I will consider no longer participating in the primary if donors are going to casually just throw my vote in the trash.

Isn't this the antithesis of everything you believe in? Are you being radicalized to sit out primaries because you're suddenly realizing money has influence? Where was this energy when Jamaal Bowman lost his race?

 

[juoean]

im not lecturing anyone? i was j repeating and agreeing with what u already said
but ok i didnt get that part @ you meant u just didnt want to participate in primaries anymore

and yea i mixed up the iraq and afghanistan war authorization votes then, the overall point still applies obv

edit: re above wasnt raikou the first person to talk abt the primary campaign against bowman in this thread https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/the-politics-thread.3743029/post-10167139

 

[RaikouLover]

My biggest surprise from that post was the seemingly news(?) that big time donors have more pull than the American public as though he wasn't aware money in politics is quite possibly the most important thing in American elections. Not to mention dropping your party affiliation because of that? Like I get it, I've been a registered independent since I could vote, but how the hell else does one think our two party system came to be? I guess I've just never met such a massive fan of the Democratic party where in which changing your party affiliation to independent or something would be seen as a "fuck you" to a group that doesn't know you exist.

Isn't this the antithesis of everything you believe in? Are you being radicalized to sit out primaries because you're suddenly realizing money has influence? Where was this energy when Jamaal Bowman lost his race?

What are you even talking about? Everyone knows money has an outsized role in 2024 US politics. The stated comment is not “stop voting in general elections.” There is a difference between participating in a party primary and voting in the general.

 

[Celticpride]

Imagine what can be, unburdened by what has been

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Yes, please be honest. Biden won the primary in 2020, picked a black woman to be VP, and some people within the party clearly have an issue with it.

This conversation is donor led, and the mega-donors are freezing contributions to all congressional Democrats that back the Biden-Harris ticket. How democratic of them.

History is clear on what happens to the incumbent president’s party when he does not seek a second term. If they continue down this path, I’d advise people to make contingency plans for the coming Trump dictatorship.

Was that the primaries where most candidates dropped out of the race right before Super Tuesday to block Bernie and enforce that a high-ranking Democrat would win?

Nah, they wouldn't play with weighted dice like this... That wouldn't be very democratic of them.

And the conversation is being led by people who put their money where their mouth is. Do you think people with that kind of money would invest in a sinking ship?

You keep harping about how being an incumbent is a massive advantage because the party rallies behind them and their work for a boost to everyone involved.

That advantage is in the mud. The Dems are in complete disarray.

The Dems are fumbling this election on a historical level. Even the Shillary fiasco wasn't as bad as this.

 

[RaikouLover]

Was that the primaries where most candidates dropped out of the race right before Super Tuesday to block Bernie and enforce that a high-ranking Democrat would win?

Nah, they wouldn't play with weighted dice like this... That wouldn't be very democratic of them.

Biden won the primary in 2020 and accomplished the goal of defeating Trump. Sad that people are still bitter about his victory.

And the conversation is being led by people who put their money where their mouth is. Do you think people with that kind of money would invest in a sinking ship?

The “sinking ship” theory operates on the assumption that President Biden is not capable of beating Trump. Where is the evidence?

Last I checked, Biden already beat Trump. He will do so again.

You keep harping about how being an incumbent is a massive advantage because the party rallies behind them and their work for a boost to everyone involved.

That advantage is in the mud. The Dems are in complete disarray.

The Dems are fumbling this election on a historical level. Even the Shillary fiasco wasn't as bad as this.

Yes, there is a coalition of bed wetter Democrats, doomer progressives, and wealthy white men that just don’t want their taxes raised that are working overtime to get the fascist elected. I agree, this is the most egregious self-destruction of a political party witnessed in history to this point. A party trying to drive their own duly elected incumbent President off the ticket is fucking insane. There is no historical precedent because it is that pathetic.

 

[myowngamertag]

I'm looking forward to a 5% cap on rent increases, personally.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Biden won the primary in 2020 and accomplished the goal of defeating Trump.

Let's be real, that wasn't a high bar to clear at all, especially mid-pandemic.

The “sinking ship” theory operates on the assumption that President Biden is not capable of beating Trump. Where is the evidence?

Kamala not only overtook Biden on the odds, but she's also doing way better at them.

We're talking about Kamala Harris. How is this even happening right now?

No matter how you slice it, the Democratic Party is imploding over it. That's devastating for Biden's campaign.

 

[RaikouLover]

Kamala not only overtook Biden on the odds, but she's also doing way better at them.

We're talking about Kamala Harris. How is this even happening right now?

Your evidence is… oddsmakers?

Remind us. What did those oddsmakers say about Hillary Clinton in 2016?

No matter how you slice it, the Democratic Party is imploding over it. That's devastating for Biden's campaign.

Yes and yes. It’s every form of stupid.

My speculation is that it will subside. Biden has reiterated that he is staying in. All he has to do is ignore it and wait out the clock. There is no mechanism to “force him” out. And the Harris campaign is allegedly just as dug in, following the leaks that donors want to leapfrog her. Put yourself in Bide’s shoes:

Imagine being an underdog, upstart politician from Delaware, overcoming a stutter. You serve in the Senate for decades as a mainstream, loyal Democrat. Mount a couple unsuccessful Presidential campaigns. You accept the job of Vice President to an upcoming star Barack Obama, who is twenty years your junior and served less than one term in the Senate. You serve loyally to Barack for eight years, become close friends. In 2016, when it is finally your chance (VPs of Presidents are shoe-in to succeed their boss), Barack dissuades you to run and endorses Hillary Clinton. Clinton loses to Trump!!

Fast forward 4 more years, you’ve watched Trump destroy the country. Appoint THREE Supreme Court Justices. You can’t take it anymore because that was your job. You could have beat him! You declare to run in 2020. No one believed in you, and the campaign sputters. Ruthless attacks on your old age. However, you catch a break when a friend Jim Clyburn endorses you, in large part to your loyalty to Barack Obama. With your campaign revitalized, you win the primary and go on to defeat Trump!!

Fast forward 3.5 more years. You’ve led the US out of Covid-19 (which Trump mishandled and trashed the pandemic playbook you left him), passed three major pieces of legislation despite razor thin majorities, appoint the first black woman on the Supreme Court and the most diverse assortment of Federal judges ever. You have no scandals. You win the 2024 primary with 87% of the vote. You reluctantly agree to an unprecedented early debate with Trump, because people have always doubted you. The debate goes horribly.

It all changes. The media declares your candidacy dead. Your own party- congressmen, donors, former supporter, and most notably the former President you served as VP with, suddenly tell you to quit. “You can’t win” they cite. “The polls.” You are too old. You don’t speak well. Never mind that you proved you can beat Trump already. The start bullying you to quit the job you spent decades proving people wrong to achieve.

Biden is seething inside I tell you. Does this sound like “too much ego” to you? or betrayal? Being a lifetime underdog?

I do not think Biden will step down. I certainly wouldn’t from his point of view.

 

[boo836]

I thought we got over "north korea is the most evil country in the world they cook people alive and put them in little soups with carrots and tomatoes" discourse. The global north will always be infinitely more brutal, "authoritarian" and facist than a country that was almost bombed into extinction and is isolated from the world by the same global north and is actually a Normal Country with Normal People on it. destroy europe and the united states and then we can talk about north korea being problematic or whatever. maybe I'll even hear you out about china or something

I love this alternation between " North Korea isn't that bad" to "Joe Biden is a genocidal fascist and no different from Trump." There is absolutely no good faith position of "Joe Biden is a genocidal fascist" wherein North Korea can ever be thought of as anything else but substantially worse. To then try lecturing others about how fascism isn't so bad because it's supposedly *no different* from what we have only speaks to your own reception and normalisation of fascists. It's nothing short of extremely gross.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Yes and yes. It’s every form of stupid.

My speculation is that it will subside.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you... To an extent. Biden should have paved the way for a successor during his term, not cashed in on a runback.

With that said, trying to get him out the paint at the Dems convention is nothing short of absurd. Imagine the Dems having an open civil war and trying to run anything like a primary this close to the election with the Republicans locked in right at the heels of Trump surviving an assassination attempt.

That ship has set sail. Why the Dems don't ride or die with Biden is beyond me, they can't possibly be that short-sighted.

Your evidence is… oddsmakers?

I look at it this way. It's as viable as any poll, except odds fluctuate depending on people putting money on them or not. And most people at least have some reason to believe their predictions when their cash is on the line. So they really mean it.

They're not fool-proof, of course. For example, the odds of Biden not being the nominee are 5:05, so as long as the Dems don't start a civil war, I'm making 200 bucks.

Go Biden!

 

[RaikouLover]

Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you... To an extent. Biden should have paved the way for a successor during his term, not cashed in on a runback.

With that said, trying to get him out the paint at the Dems convention is nothing short of absurd. Imagine the Dems having an open civil war and trying to run anything like a primary this close to the election with the Republicans locked in right at the heels of Trump surviving an assassination attempt.

That ship has set sail. Why the Dems don't ride or die with Biden is beyond me, they can't possibly be that short-sighted.

I mostly agree with everything here. Except- why does everyone assume he was “supposed to be” a one-term President? He made it clear when he ran there would be no “one-term pledge.”

A one-term President is a lame duck on day one. No new President should ever promise only one term. Furthermore, the party in power’s best chance to hold the White House is to unify behind their incumbent. I don’t get why people are suddenly game goofy about this 3.5 months before an election.

 

[JALMONT]

I said it in 2020 and I've tried to avoid saying it again but I can't help myself - it's quite amusing to me the shift in how vitriolic the smogon marxists were towards anyone who may have even slightly blamed the democrats for Hillary losing the 2016 election (not to mention the general hysteria generated by Trump's vicotry) to well actually voting doesn't matter and the Democrats are equal if not worse than the Republican party etc etc etc. there's some kind of irony in that the smogon marxists used to harass and troll users in the politics thread, blame "racist white Americans" for electing Trump (and enabling white supremacy), and avowed to riot against trump. what happened? were those racist white americans on to something? does seem like the MODS are now actively RUINING everything. (side note: who would ever want to moderate a political forum? I once made a post questioning moderating inconsistencies; I'd like to take it back now and apologize).

I don't really know if 2016 political discussion on smogon was any better than we are today. Certainly there are a lot of things to be concerned about in modern political discourse, very much including the legitimate concern of Joe's age (I hope I'm just alive at 80!). But then other discussion points seem way more disconnected from reality than before (or is it just me?). I have to admit, if North Korea > everywhere else on the list of ethical countries is the argument that's being made, it does provoke many thoughts in me. I think about the ethics of living in a country one believes is truly awful - the logical conclusion of such a stance (that it isn't ethical) seems to lead to violence and terrorism; does it mean anything that leftist violence seems to be down historically?? don't hear too much about people going to Gaza to join Hamas. If not actively resisting, why live in a country so evil?

I wonder what the average Normal North Korean thinks about the ethics of North Korea vs. anywhere else. I suppose there's something positive to be said about living somewhere where you can have the opinion that actually your country is the worst, most corrupt and evil place ever.

-
I go back and forth between feeling optimistic (and perhaps naive) and cynical towards our future. It's easy to be disheartened by politics discussion here, irl, and anywhere really, not to even mention all the depressing stuff going on. But I try and find the optimism in the fact that even just in this thread, there are people who care about these things, and really, care about making the world a better place, as abstract as that is. Even the people who I very much disagree with, at least I get the sense that they care about the world and the people in it. The takeaway then is that I hope this thread encourages us to be present in our country, our communities, our personal spaces. there's a kind of selflessness in being engaged politically for the sake of betterment of our society, no matter how small your world, your community is. Perhaps it's a misguided hope. Politicians suck, corporations suck, lots of things suck. But we have to try. Looking at Smogon all day won't change reality. I guess I'm just trying to say that I appreciate the people here caring about the state of the world. And I hope that everyone is also doing something in their real lives to create positive change, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant.

If I don't find a candidate I like, I vote for the Communist Party in my state elections. I don't think I'm helping very much but at least I have that choice.

 

[BLINGAS]

logged in for the first time in years just in time to read the funniest post ever made

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

karl marx famously said "i love hillary clinton .if you don't vote for her you are a racist white bloke"

 

[juoean]

the post about "north korea does not cause as much harm as us imperialism" has nothing to do with western-humanist conceptions of "good and evil" that boo's response immediately assumes/adopts. rather, the point is that north korea materially does not have the power on a global scale to be able to even come close to the level of harm that US imperialism enacts.

similarly when i previously posted about US imperialism being responsible for tens of millions of murders in every decade since 1940 and it thus being responsible for the quantitatively greatest level of violence of any single State in human history, this has nothing to do with "evil", amerikkkan imperialism is not "uniquely evil" or smthg, these are primarily 'materialist' analyses rather than primarily 'idealist' ones.


im bringing up this interaction to spotlight the threat posed by white humanism as an ideology, where actual material structures are ignored or minimized and replaced by discourse of individual 'moralities'. every person, all of us included, have awful ideas and beliefs at least occasionally. this is a consequence of living under imperial-capitalism, and its ideological apparatuses that pervade our society and influence all of us to some degree. if u evaluate people as "good or evil" based on if they/we have some shitty ideas or beliefs then everyone would fall under "evil"; but such an orientation is not only ineffective but also inevitably tends to shift blame away from perpetrators of imperialist violence, who have control over the media and therefore can shift focus away from their own errors etc, and onto victims/survivors and onto colonized people in particular.

we see this type of ideological violence operate in palestine (and in southwest asia generally), where instead of talking about the material conditions of 80 years of settler colonization, we are expected to focus on this or that islamic fundamentalist or whatever group and xyz Evil Beliefs. meanwhile the Zionist state having control of the media adapts its discourses to fit within the superficial standards of white-humanism, and all of this then displaces any discourse about the actual material reality of colonization. the zionist entity held 2 million people in an open air prison in gaza for twenty years (not to mention conditions in the west bank, in '48 palestine, and the million+ in refugee camps barred from returning home), but instead of addressing what exactly you expect 2 million people who have been incarcerated for decades just bc of where they were born are 'supposed' to do instead we are expected to talk about the Beliefs of [org redacted] and because one org has some Evil Beliefs TM then this invalidates the entire population's right to resist their extermination by the zionist settler colonial project. and ofc since everyone has some Bad Beliefs this tactic can be used against any organization ~ if u put anything or anyone under a microscope u can find something to criticize. so, the colonized have every aspect of their lives bared and picked apart, while colonizers get to cover up wholescale theft, forced starvation and mass murder with Good Manners.

the antidote to white humanism is to recognize that while all of us have horrific ideas sometimes, ideas are contextualized by the power to actually put them into practice. to take another example the ADL, a white supremacist humanist organization that has operated as FBI informants for many decades, regularly puts out various alarms about indicators of a lack of knowledge of the Sho'ah among ppl within the so-called u.s. (in general and/or particular aspects of it). the public education system is underfunded etc and lots of ppl dont know basics of the history of the amerikkkan settler colonial project, much less knowing about historical events around the world. tbc nazi-holocaust denial is obv a relevant element of some ideological sections of amerikkkan fascism, but everyone who doesnt know the history of the sho'ah cannot automatically be categorized as part of that (and lack of knowledge about amerikkkan history is rly much more concerning). but instead of contextualizing and differentiating between someone who is actively promoting fascism and someone who j never learned and therefore ended up with some incorrect or incomplete understandings, instead social ignorance is turned into a weapon and of course is used to further the ADL's own white supremacist political project, colonized people are ofc put unde a microscope as always and portrayed collectively as being anti semitic until they 'prove' otherwise; and ultimately the only acceptable such proof is adherence to zionism.
so, people who went to underfunded public schools get villified, while one of the most dangerous mainstream white-supremacist organizations gets to: 1 present itself as having the Moral High Ground; 2 weaponize miseducation into a philosemitic accusation of antisemitism, and thereby 3 sever the history of antisemitism from the history of white supremacy and to instead project antisemitism onto the colonized.

we must reject this framework of white humanism that places discourse above material reality and presents racist snitches who enforce colonialism as if they were a moral authority.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I mostly agree with everything here. Except- why does everyone assume he was “supposed to be” a one-term President? He made it clear when he ran there would be no “one-term pledge.”

A one-term President is a lame duck on day one. No new President should ever promise only one term. Furthermore, the party in power’s best chance to hold the White House is to unify behind their incumbent. I don’t get why people are suddenly game goofy about this 3.5 months before an election.

Because he was already old as dirt in 2020. Y'all seen the pics of Obama before and after 8 years as president.

Now the man is coming apart at the seams and the Democrats are panicking instead of rallying behind him anyway because it's too late to sub him out.

Everyone knew from the jump Biden's age and low-energy would be called into question and they still didn't prepare for it.

 

[BestDatrix]

god I hate politics

 

[Local Dog]

god I hate politics

I made the exact same realization at the exact age you are right now

 

[Medeia]

god I hate politics

Same, only reason i even interact as much into it as it is outside of being affected by racism is because my damn rights as human being are under vicious attack and ignorant, arrogant fools spread the same constant misinformation they propagate from the Bible/Quran, far-right demagogues and so on, thinking they are oh so smart and the "sane ones". Politics only tends to make me despise a large chunk of humanity quite frankly until i read something or go out and meet people.