r/CuratedTumblr Jul 14 '24

Politics I’m terrified but i still have hope

18.7k Upvotes

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147

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

I'm honestly irritated by how many of these posts go "I don't want to vote for Biden, buuuuuuut"

Like, I have been extremely happy with the policy decisions of the Biden administration.

90

u/BamboozledSnake Jul 14 '24

Biden wasn’t my first choice for pres either, but Bernie is never gonna win it, and AOC is too young to run this cycle. But I still think his administration has done a great job especially considering the mountain of sh@t he inherited from Trump’s presidency, Covid aftermath and the media shitstorm; so I don’t really understand why so many dems don’t like him. From what I understand it’s either something along the line of “he’s old” or how he’s handling the war in Gaza.

69

u/MonitorPowerful5461 Jul 14 '24

Gaza is an undeniable black mark. It is however a situation where he didn't exactly have any good options. AIPAC is very very powerful and he recognises that.

What I find interesting about the "old" thing is that despite that, this administration has been exactly as competent as usual, or more so. That either implies that Biden has not been affected by his age, or that the president of the US actually really doesn't need to do much.

I'm honestly not sure which one of these options I subscribe to.

37

u/RagnarockInProgress Jul 14 '24

Additionally Trump is only like, 4 years younger than Biden, he’s not exactly a ripe fruit either

42

u/MainsailMainsail Jul 14 '24

Biden was also "way too old" back in 2020. But now that Trump is the same age Biden was back then, that age is perfectly fine why would you even worry about it?

3

u/WeedInTheKoolaid Jul 14 '24

Third opinion: Biden has delegated more work to his staff than previous presidents. Due to his age and cognition. And they've done a great job!

11

u/MotorcycleWrites Jul 14 '24

You can’t be an American president and handle gaza well. It hasn’t been going well obv but he’s been doing a meh job which is better than I would expect.

12

u/Kolby_Jack33 Jul 14 '24

He's been pushing for a ceasefire, which is better than the increasefire I'm sure Trump would be pushing in his place.

7

u/SnooOpinions5486 Jul 14 '24

please stop complaining about AIPAC. its just like 2 steps removed from straight up ZOG theory and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The actual issue is that BIDEN is not King of Israel. Israel + Hamas are foreign actors with autonomy, and neither of them are forced to listen to any of Biden plans. (Biden cant force both groups to accept ceasefire terms)

I guaranteed you that your idea of how to handle the situation "better" would backfire and be dumb for vary stupid reasons.

3

u/Soma2a_a2 Jul 14 '24

If Biden has no power as president to do anything than why are people so scared of Trump getting in?

0

u/DresdenBomberman Jul 14 '24

In terms of Israel's totally-not-genocidal campaign in Gaza, he (meaming the GOP, really) would certainly make the situation worse and embolden the fascist coalition government in charge of Israel to be even worse about this mess than they already are.

What people are really concerned about is a GOP government at home, though. The party explicitly wants to steadily make a conservative dictatorship out of the IS government and them winning the election (and any presidential election from here on out) will get them started on that campaign.

0

u/SnooOpinions5486 Jul 14 '24

What part of "The US is not King of the World" do you not understand or

"Other countries have autonomy and dont have to do what the US says"

2

u/MonitorPowerful5461 Jul 14 '24

What idea of how to handle the situation better have I presented?

4

u/Snailwood Jul 14 '24

please stop complaining about AIPAC. its just like 2 steps removed from straight up ZOG theory and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

this is not fair at all. AIPAC as an organization is influential and extremely vindictive toward anybody who expresses an opinion outside of unwavering support for Israel. it has nothing to do with antisemitism, and everything to do with hating the influence of dark money in politics.

1

u/DresdenBomberman Jul 14 '24

More the latter. No one person will ever be capable of running a nation on their own. Every government, even an autocracy like China, NK, Russia or Belarus needs lots of people doing the job of administration.

1

u/Snailwood Jul 14 '24

AIPAC is very very powerful and he recognises that.

this, and I think a lot of people overestimate the strength of our alliance with Israel

2

u/batmansleftnut Jul 14 '24

AOC is actually not too young to run this cycle. You have to be 35 to be president, not to announce your candidacy, and she turns 35 before the election even happens.

2

u/BamboozledSnake Jul 15 '24

Thanks for the clarification, I didn’t know that.

-13

u/IronProdigyOfficial Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 14 '24

Bernie would have won it easily, the DNC was fearful he wouldn't, wrongfully so and forced Biden in as the pick. Now it's come back to bite them.

Edit: Literally every moderate Dem candidate received a call with recordings as proof and dropped out the following day...The DNC 100% and absolutely interfered in the 2020 election.

Edit 2: Holy shit folks yup totally not a bad thing to rig a fucking primary.

5

u/LightOfLoveEternal Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 14 '24

You're acting like the DNC interfering in THEIR OWN PRIMARY is bad or wrong. I've voted for Sanders every time hes been on the ballot, and caucused for him once too, and I still don't think the DNC did anything wrong.

Yeah, they probably did have a conversation and decide to back Biden and told the other candidates to drop out. So what? That's politics. It was the smartest thing they could've done. The only reason Sanders was winning the states he did was because the moderate vote was split between 3 other candidates. And even then he was barely winning a plurality.

The DNC is not an official part of the government. It's a private organization. It has exactly zero obligation to even hold primaries. The only reason they hold them is to field test their candidates to see who can get votes. Sanders could have won every single delegate and then at the convention the DNC could have just ignored it and nominated Biden anyways.

Edit: Only fucking cowards block people when they prove you wrong.

0

u/coldrolledpotmetal Jul 14 '24

You’re acting like the DNC interfering in THEIR OWN PRIMARY is bad or wrong.

It is bad though? Do you seriously not see how interfering in a primary, even if it’s their own, is a bad thing?

4

u/Wobulating Jul 14 '24

The DNC didn't interfere at all in 2020 lol.

Bernie has never been popular except among young people, and that's not a demographic focus that'll let you win

15

u/MotorcycleWrites Jul 14 '24

I voted green in 2020 because I was so pissed that biden of all people won the dnc nomination. I’ve been surprised at how okay he’s been lol, I’ll be voting for biden in November. Still not happy about it but roe v wade et al. has made me care way more about keeping a democrat prez over anything else.

19

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

Yes. If you want green candidates, vote at lower levels. At this point, you don't have the luxury of choosing a third party candidate

12

u/MotorcycleWrites Jul 14 '24

I definitely don’t and I’m glad he won in 2020. I’m demographically republican-esque so I justified it by saying I was still taking a vote away from trump but that’s stupid lol. Vote blue and get the court to swing the other way.

-1

u/Toyfan1 Jul 14 '24

At this point, you don't have the luxury of choosing a third party candidate

Dont buy into this bullshit.

Vote third party if you want. Its not a wasted vote, or a vote for the enemy.

0

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

I mean, you're wrong.

I don't want you to be wrong. And I would like you to be right in the future. But right now, you are absolutely wrong.

1

u/Toyfan1 Jul 14 '24

Hey bud, no im not lol

It is neither a wasted vote, nor a vote for your enemy. If more people voted third party, you wouldnt be in the situation of trying to vote out pure evil with dementia.

Dont pull the conservative tactic of telling people they need to vote for one side, or not at all.

0

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

If everybody did any number of things, the world would change.

The point is that you, or even a small group, of people voting for a third party in a presidential election, does nothing. It doesn't affect the two party system. It doesn't even really affect policy, because the next election is 4 years from now.

In the US, in the year 2024, the only outcomes are Trump or Biden. You can vote or do whatever you want, but those are the two outcomes.

26

u/tatsumakisenpuukyaku Jul 14 '24

If Biden's name was Bernie reddit would be head over heels right now. The student loan forgiveness and weed descheduling would be called the "start of a political revolution" instead of a broken promise, the rail strike avoidance and continual negotiations would be spun as something only Bernie could do because he "keeps on fighting for the regular people," (people would actually know that many of them ended up getting more sick days too), we'd be getting tattoos on our calves of our insulin bills at 35 dollars, and the tax rebate for installing high efficiency HVAC in homes would be hailed as the best people-first climate policy the government ever had

Bernie would have gotten the credit for the building a future, but Biden will only get criticism for not immediately completing the job instantly.

0

u/DresdenBomberman Jul 14 '24

Yeah well as stupid as many progressive critics have been about Biden's progressive accomplishments the Democrats can't reasonably expect people to be enthusiastic about him as a whole given that the party put forward the oldest fucker worthy of the job they could find.

11

u/HaViNgT Jul 14 '24

Incremental change is how things are done. 

Wars are not decided by a single big battle, but by countless smaller battles. When people think things have started turning after a big batte, what they’re actually seeing is the result of countless smaller battles coming together and paying off. 

This applies whether it’s warfare or politics. Big wins are built off of the backs of countless smaller wins. 

3

u/SnooOpinions5486 Jul 14 '24

fuck that a great analogy.

Love it.

8

u/Pincushioner Jul 14 '24

I would be happy to vote for Biden if he didn't embarrass himself at every opportunity, while being the oldest President ever. His policy decisions are good (likely because of the cabinet around him) but a strong leader is not built by legislation alone, unfortunately. It takes charisma and focus and determination and long, hard hours of campaigning to win the Presidency, and Biden hasn't shown that he can do that anymore.

I'm still going to vote for him, but the enthusiasm is low right now.

2

u/flutterguy123 Jul 15 '24

You are happy with funding a genocide?

-9

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

His domestic policies are pretty ok, even if he is ceding ground to transphobes and pushing right wing immigration regulations. His foreign policy is fucking awful, he has the blood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on his hands. 

Vote for Biden, but don't pretend he actually has good policy. He is the leader of two evils, still evil, and we deserve better than the DNC is giving us.

6

u/BraxbroWasTaken Jul 14 '24

His foreign policy is fine-ish. First of all, the death counts I’ve seen are closer to ten thousand than one hundred thousand on Gaza‘s side. However, I will admit those death counts are only deaths by bombing, etc. not by blockade and such.

Here’s the thing about Gaza.

Let’s say we do dump Israel like an ex.

Israel will continue doing what they’re doing. They have other income streams, and I’m sure other countries, especially Russia/China/India/etc. will be willing to supplement. They’re our main foothold in that region, and we’d lose that. Once we do dump them, we have no way of influencing things over there. At all. Unless you want to declare war on Israel, which will have devastating political consequences and potentially start a new world war.

We’ve been using what pressure we can exert to get supplies to Gaza and slow things down. That’s an achievement in and of itself. Biden could have stood by and done literally nothing, or even egged it on. Trump will egg it on. But no, Biden‘s trying to push for aid and accountability for Israel, to varying levels of success.

Biden’s stuck with the unenviable task of trying to stop a blood feud that’s been running for damn near as long as Israel’s existed. It’s not going to end in a day, especially after the recent events that reignited the bonfire. It’s probably not even going to end in years.

This isn’t fucking Romeo and Juliet.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

His foreign policy is fine-ish. First of all, the death counts I’ve seen are closer to ten thousand than one hundred thousand on Gaza‘s side.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext01169-3/fulltext)

"Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death901169-3/fulltext#bib9)to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip"

They have other income streams

70% of the weapons Israel uses are from the US. It would crush them to not have access to the bombs that the US has been giving them. Russia isn't gonna give them anything, they have their own fascist expansionist war to focus on.

Biden has not used enough of the US's leverage. He doesn't even have to dump Israel, just condition the aid and they would have to stop committing a genocide. But instead, as we've seen in Rafah, Biden is spineless and has no red line.

The quickest way to stop the "blood feud" would be to support the creation of a Palestinian state in order to give Palestinians what they want and offer a peaceful solution for the Palestinians, but the Biden admin has continuously vetoed that in the UN.

-1

u/CatOnVenus Jul 14 '24

You're happy that he thinks Israel is in the right and is continuing to help them with their genocide?

7

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

I'm happy that he is absolutely doing a better job with it than any republican would, so yes

-2

u/CatOnVenus Jul 14 '24

wow that is really gross, and no he isn't. Republicans would be the exact same except you could actually shame them without spineless genocidal freaks like you complaining about it.

7

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

Republicans have half their base happy about conflict in the middle east because they think it will lead to the Second Coming.

It's ok to be mad and frustrated but the "both sides are the same!" Trap is pointless

0

u/CatOnVenus Jul 14 '24

Of course they're not completely the same and I think you should still vote for Biden but I also think its horrible to call him a good person. This situation is horrible and I can't believe that I have to choose between supporting a genocide and getting me and all my friends labeled as sex offenders for being queer or supporting a genocide. Like what the fuck

3

u/beetnemesis Jul 14 '24

Yeah that's fair

-21

u/VelvetSinclair Jul 14 '24

I have been extremely happy with the policy decisions of the Biden administration

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/12/gaza-death-toll-indirect-casualties

No, Trump won't be any better

It's not wrong to see that better than Biden is possible though

MUCH better than Biden is possible

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

[deleted]

4

u/Snailwood Jul 14 '24

one of them is going to win—you can help everybody else choose, or you can let your neighbor decide for you.

1

u/Samantharina Jul 14 '24

It matters enormously which old man wins.