According to one journalist’s tally, the New York Times has run 192 stories on the subject since the debate, including 50 editorials and 142 news stories. The Washington Post, which has also gone for saturation coverage, published a resignation speech they wrote for him. Not to be outdone, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief declared that Biden not going away “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and had a staff writer suggest that Democrats should use the never-before-deployed 25th amendment.

Although the Biden administration seems to have run extremely well for three and a half years, with a strong cabinet, few scandals and little turnover, a thriving economy and some major legislative accomplishments, the narrative the punditocracy has created suggest we should ignore this record and decide on the basis of the 90-minute debate and reference to newly surfaced swarms of anonymous sources that Biden is incompetent. Quite a lot of them have been running magical-realism fantasy-football scenarios in which it is fun and easy to swap in your favorite substitute candidate. The reality is that it is hard and quite likely to be a terrible mess. Nevertheless, this pretense is supposed to mean that telling a presidential candidate in mid-campaign to get lost is fine.

  • @Krono
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    12 months ago

    If theres only two tracks, the full-on genocide Trump track, and the slightly slower genocide Biden track, then yes the moral choice is the Biden track. But in the real world there are infinite tracks.

    Biden can choose a track where he stops sending American weapons. Biden can choose a track where the US stops vetoing UN peace plans. He can choose a track where his state department doesn’t repeat false Israeli propaganda to the American people.

    This idea that US politicians must be subservient to Israel or be voted out is from a bygone era. The modern electorate is much less Zionist than it used to be, and the voices of Palestinians are finally starting to gain traction. Now is the time when a principled leader could end the genocide with popular support, but unfortunately Biden is neither principled nor a leader.

    Doing a genocide in order to prevent Muslim bans and border cages is not a principled stance, it is not realpolitik morality; instead it is the banality of evil.

    • @pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      12 months ago

      I mean this sincerely, you really need to run for office and then let me know how you feel. I’m not going to argue the details because I think you’ve gotten quite a bit wrong, but I think we agree overall. Being close to politics changes people. I wish we lived in a country where a Bernie could get elected as president. I hope we all fight for this country to be that way.

      • @Krono
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        31 month ago

        I haven’t personally run for office, but I have volunteered for a few campaigns, both local and national, and the experience really radicalized me.

        I used to have faith in the Democratic party. I used to believe they were interested in serious policy. I used to believe the party had a moral compass. After seeing it from the inside, I no longer believe these things.

        The people used to run the Democratic Party, but now corporations are in control. The final straw was the Clinton administration, since then the Democratic Party is just Republican-lite.

        One of the biggest issues for the Bernie campaign was that the DNC was actively working against him. But on this subject I may be more hopeful than you- I believe Bernie was extremely close to the presidency, and I believe the next person to seriously take up the Bernie mantle will have a great chance at winning.

        • @pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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          11 month ago

          I used to have faith in the Democratic party.

          I don’t have faith in the dem party, I have faith in some of the people in there. It’s just like I do for any other party but the r’s right now. If they get back to their roots of trying to do the most for all Americans with a smaller government, I’ll believe in some of them too. They’ve 99% lost their way.

          I believe Bernie was extremely close to the presidency, and I believe the next person to seriously take up the Bernie mantle will have a great chance at winning.

          I hope that’s true.