Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

pretty sure if Trump loses, the psychic trauma and humiliation of having to deal with a constant daily flow of utterly shitty things flowing from his incompetence and malevolence will in fact come to an end.

xp

but it won't change the underlying contradictions of american society

imo whatever you're thinking of, it's over, it's never coming back and the results of the election won't change that

― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Thursday, June 11, 2020

some kind of sanity at least, you can't be that nihilistic

no it won't! but it will remove one very big and unpleasant problem that is weighing a lot of us down.

xp

anyway I sincerely hope Trump 2.0 causes you all a little less humiliation in 2024 or 2028

there are absolutely more shitty leaders in our future, things are going to continue to swing back and forth just like they always have. that was a given no matter what.

xp not sure what that means but it doesn't sound sincere to me

I take no pleasure in your collective anguish. But a reactionary movement deferred is one that comes back harder.

And very possibly smarter, since almost everyone who's not Trump is smarter.

that's big of you

you're welcome

not sure what that means

To expand slightly, I think we can all agree that the GOP is now the party of Trumpism? The whole thing about isms is they tend not to end with their progenitors' election loss or gruesome, hilarious assassination.

Agree there is going to be someone like Tom Cotton or Josh Hawley in our future

Don't want to give up hope that we can defeat Trumpism

If Trump loses in a massive wave election will this continue to be true? I suspect most Republican politicians will be scrambling to toss it all down the memory hole.

obviously that's a big if...

Trumpism doesn't differ from anything the GOP has believed for the last 56 years, he just says the quiet part loud. Even if you believe they'll "toss it down the memory hole" they just go back to being more genteel in their racism... but if it heals some peoples' psychic trauma, hurray?

What other way forward do they have? They can easily blame the failure on the man himself but preserve the approach with a less divisive host, and they'd be idiots to do anything else. xp

pursuing a politics that has a broader base of support is a way forward that they have avoided for the last decade plus

The rot in white America’s heart will only ever put worse and worse Republicans into power

that may be true, but this appeals to an ever narrowing slice of the electorate, and is propped up by widespread efforts to steal votes rather than earn them.

Is it not working?

it has worked, I'm not convinced it will work much longer

The party of 'Trumpism today, Trumpism tomorrow, and Trumpism forever' is going to find it nearly impossible to get the electorate to endorse Trump himself a second time. Their only hope in November would be to engage in vote suppression on a massive scale, unprecedented since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed. Their next best hope is being out of power, since all they really know how to do well and consistently is to obstruct, complain, vilify, hatch conspiracy theories, and prove the country is ungovernable without their consent.

The Senate filibuster must be destroyed forever in 2021. If the ship is going down, at least it will be clear who was in charge.

if you trust Biden or anyone in his circle to meaningfully capitalize on or substantively counteract any of that then we have reached a pretty clear "agree to disagree" situation xps

also iirc Biden does not support ending the filibuster

(and yeah I know Bernie didn't either, but at least he had a scheme in mind to accomplish similar ends)

yes, I agree completely with your first post. As to the 2nd, you may well be right, but there needs to be huge amount of pressure put on him to do just that.

Joe Biden thinks his calling card is his long history of reaching across the aisle (to work with such luminaries as Jesse Helms, Storm Thurmond and... Mitch McConnell).

(And Cornpop, probably)

he's under a lot of delusions about that stuff that he will need to disabuse of very quickly.

How exactly does one "disabuse" the late-septuagenarian most powerful person of the political program he's pursued his entire life?

most powerful person in the world

The Joe Biden who exists is the Joe Biden you're getting. You have no leverage over him once in office - you gonna vote for Tom Cotton in 2024 over a second Biden term?

is this election over yet

The Joe Biden Who Exists is the Joe Biden You're Getting by Flannery O'Connor

is this election over yet

jokes on you it's still q4 2016

It really feels like that's true, is the problem.

the psychic trauma and humiliation of having to deal with a constant daily flow of utterly shitty things flowing from his incompetence and malevolence will in fact come to an end.

one of the very worst things about Trump's presidency is that the daily flow of utterly shitty things will in fact continue after he loses, as so many of them have been set up to keep running

death to America etc.

of course

(sorry, I was duty bound to complete the bit)

the Dem rank and file has never put pressure on a D president in my entire life.

^not since LBJ anyhoo

The argument that Biden needs to shore up African American turnout is a good one, but if Harris had the kind of draw with them them that her boosters on the internet say she'd be picking the VP, not in the running for it.

— Nied (@BNiederer) June 12, 2020

That is a pretty weak argument, unless "her boosters" is meant to be refer only to the hardest of hardcore KHive dead-enders.

Our country is crying out for leadership that Donald Trump can’t deliver. pic.twitter.com/QHvUdgg6Io

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 12, 2020

His campaign advisors and media managers have what the military calls "a target-rich environment". But even though the message that Trump is a horrible man, horrible leader, and disaster for the nation needs to be a bass note running through the campaign from now to November, it is not one his base needs to absorb before choosing between them.

At some point he'll need to figure out some key issues where he rewards voters for bestowing their vote upon him, something to be eager for, not just bashing Trump on the daily. His signature program can probably can wait for the 'convention', whatever that looks like, but it needs to arrive by September to help drive turnout, both up and down the ballot.

I have to admit I'm still chuckling at the "de fund for the police" tweet. I'm half convinced it'll turn out prophetic.

he should run on legalizing marijuana

being the Democratic nominee for president in a period of rapidly rising demands for social change, and needing the national base to show up for you to win, encourages a somewhat different perspective than being senator from Delaware in a time of rampant Reaganism. if he knows how to shift left, he will.

kinda unlikely considering his quotes on the subject from a only a month ago xp

we'll find out more as we go along. masses in the streets in most states alters matters. but change is hard for anyone, let alone an old man who has been amply rewarded for his past views.