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Linda1961 is woke and proud's avatar

I voted for Biden in the primary, so the ONLY candidate that I will accept, other than Biden, is VP Harris. If so many Dems think that Biden should drop out, I blame Congressional Democratic "leaders" for not backing the guy that we all voted for, and I am pissed that they think that our votes don't count. In addition, as has been mentioned - what is the plan if he does drop out? And why are they doing this? Some have suggested that Biden is too progressive, others that blackmail may be involved, but it most likely is just good, old fashioned Democratic spinelessness. We are facing a real threat with the entire republican party (it ain't just trump) and some Dems are playing a stupid game, for what purpose I can't fathom.

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Lesley's avatar

thank you Stephen, best breakdown of what's happened I've seen yet.

I've been resolutely committed to keeping Biden on the ticket, if we could. didn't care that he couldn't serve out his term, just felt as you said the fundamentals would come into play, a lot of voters would come home after Labor Day when these shifts occur, and the contrast with the Project 25 gang and general odium of Trump would do the rest. beating Trump is the whole game right now, so if Biden couldn't serve his term and we got President Harris, I'm fine with that. she's far more prepared and experienced than any other candidate, as talented as our up-and-comers are.

my beef with the Dump Joe crowd is largely that they were acting out of panic after the debate, and that in their narrative the only problem was replacing Joe, after that it would be smooth sailing. no worries about our diverse, fractious coalition, of which we need every single vote, coming apart over who we choose and how we do it. there was the issue of disenfranchising the 14 million of us who voted for Biden in primaries, and the question of who would choose the new nominee.

and a lot of the musing about possible replacements seemed more like an internet poll over which movie or star was best, a kind of idle shopping for someone younger and better who would (they think) never disappoint them...that seemed barely tethered to the reality that we gotta play the game we're in, not cast a TV show hypothetically.

and last, it's been jarring and outraging to see how members of the Fourth Estate who have helped normalize Trump relentlessly, who when challenged on their compromised access journalism shrugged and rolled their eyes at the dumb subscribers who clearly don't get what a great job they're doing...suddenly becoming wild-eyed activists screaming for the head of the Democratic candidate. all these years they've insisted they can't accurately portray Trump's threat bc "we don't work for the Biden campaign" or somesuch, now they emerge as zealous advocates of a step that should only be taken when absolutely necessary, and with careful thinking, planning, organizing, and politicking to avoid the schisms the GOP and Putin and God knows who else are so eager to create.

so now we're going to do this. do you have confidence the Dems are on top of the potential pitfalls and can do as much as is humanly / politically possible to avoid them? I do not, and the fact that the most vehement Dump Joe folks have never bothered to engage or even acknowledge that these issues exist, makes me fear for the outcome.

but again, gotta play the game we're in. I would vote for a ham sandwich this November. have voted straight Dem ticket my whole life. depending on how this matter is handled, I may change my affiliation to independent after the election.

sorry this got so long, like a lot of us I've been thinking a lot about it with obviously a lot of strong feelings and concerns...

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