I normally don’t even want to get involved in posting a drumbeat of “here’s something about Biden staying in the race” stories because, (1) I’m not sure he should, and (2) it doesn’t “cancel out” the waste of time that is the incessant drumbeat of articles about how he should drop out. It’s like taking uppers to counteract downers; it just doesn’t work that way, it makes everything worse. And the amount of press this whole thing is getting and the way it’s being presented is absolutely fuckin absurd.
But that being said, I want to post this one because I like Elizabeth Warren quite a lot and I think what she says gets to the core of the issue.
Also, if you are a Democratic politician or donor and you want to replace Biden with someone else, surely talking to the press about how he should drop out without anyone in particular in mind that you’re talking to them about as a replacement, and a strategy to get that person into place, should be an absolute last, last, last resort for a way to get that done. And probably not even then.
Biden’s thing of “If you want to replace me then mount a challenge at the convention, that’s what it’s for, and whoever wins, let’s fuckin fight the real enemy” makes quite a bit of sense to me, and the longer this goes on, the less sense the people who are talking to the press about him dropping out make.
So here you go, here’s a story about someone who thinks he should stay in and what she has to say.
I think I’m missing some context for what the left wing opinion was at the time considering I was born a few months into Clinton’s first term. Looking back, I can’t see him as progressive at all. I see Clinton as a catalyst of the party’s most recent shift to the right. My first presidential election was Obama’s reelection, which was fine but not very inspiring to vote for someone you were excited about 4 years ago when you couldn’t vote and starting to wonder when he was going to… uh… do anything.
I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I don’t dislike Biden because of the things I disliked about Hillary. I dislike Biden because he fits the same bill she did. I don’t like a moderate “incremental change” platform because that’s been the MO for a long while now and it clearly only lets the Republicans drag us right. I don’t like the lip service from the Democrats with no follow through time after time after time. I don’t like being told over and over that I have to be happy we have the “most progressive president ever” when half the things that are claimed about him are drops in the bucket when we need a faucet turned on.
I saw an administration holding student loan debt like a knife over people like me burdened with debt to milk extra votes out of us before proceeding to do very little about it and acting like they fixed the problem. I saw an administration do absolutely nothing to progress universal health care. Not even a plan. I recognize they don’t have the congressional votes for it now. But come up with a fucking plan to inspire us to vote for you so we know if we give you a mandate you’ll follow through. Instead, all we have to rely on is history which shows us the Democrats will implement a watered down, heavily means-tested version of whatever they do. Which means someone like me who makes over their threshold because I’m in one of the highest cost of living cities gets no help even though I’m barely treading water financially due to the yoke of student debt and goddamn groceries that cost over twice what they did 5 years ago. Meanwhile I haven’t been to a doctor in 10 years because I can’t afford whatever they’re going to tell me is wrong with me.