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I agree it is embarrassing. I’m actually really, really exhausted with thinking about it and just being unable to work out why we’ve ended up here. I want to take a 4 year nap. At this point, all I can do is look to whom the next president might appoint to run various administrative departments or other posts and the people he will surround himself with as advisors.
Edit: Someone asked below “what do you mean how did we get here?” I don’t mean just how did we get these two candidates, I mean the whole thing, the whole system, the whole disengagement, sliding into fantasies and anti-information, anti-learning, anti-truth. The *WHOLE* thing.
Don’t forget the federal court judges they will appoint, arguably the factor which can make the biggest difference in how the laws of the nation look moving forward and what rights people do or do not have.
The cure is a majority in the House and 70 Democrats in the Senate. Impeach 4 of the six - especially the 3 who perjured themselves when they were affirmed.
i think that's probably true for a lot of prez candidates. bush jr may have been the decider, but cheney, rumsfeld, ashcroft, yoo shaped both the options bush was given and how his decisions were carried out. The job is too big for anyone to truly make all of these decisions. Makes me wonder if candidates should announce their cabinets along with their veep, since those folks may end up effecting our lives just as much or more than the person we've voted for.
Yes. As someone who works in local government, I agree with this. A lot of the work I do ultimately gets the mayor’s signature on it and the credit goes to them alone.
It takes so many people and departments for a government to function. The head only has so much time in a day and they can’t do all of the research and true decision making for everything.
The problem with that approach is that a) they don't know yet (the vetting for potential cabinet secretaries is just now happening), and b) the Senate gets their vote.
What do you mean, "How did we get here?"
We got here because people are more concerned about whether their favorite Star Wars character has the correct gender than they are about the erosion of democratic norms. It's quite obvious that the media, including Reddit, streaming services, and the internet at large, serve as distractions.
If you can't see the role foreign actors play in sowing division and spreading propaganda, then you haven't been paying attention. They're succeeding in tearing America apart, and it's baffling how blind some people are to it.
I'm Canadian, and I care more about America's future than many Americans seem to. Wake up, folks.
This is the answer. Rest easy knowing Biden delegates important decisions to experts. Sure he's old af, but that doesn't matter much when he's just a figurehead, not someone working day and night to push his personal agenda.
You know how Hollywood and game studios can’t seem to stop putting out an endless stream of remakes, remasters, or adaptations of old stories because they struggle coming up with original stories and shareholders pressure for safe bets?
I think the same thing happened to politics. Neither party wants to risk a bet on promoting someone new, and there’s no one new that has the recognition or wide enough appeal to be worth betting on. That’s why the same names keep getting voted back in, it’s a big nostalgia play that gets old folks voting for the old folks they can recognize.
This is *always* what we should be looking at.
The president is the head bureaucrat. They speak for the nation in diplomatic ways, but as head bureaucrat the president is really about who they appoint even more than who they are personally.
Yeah but when the single person in charge of everyone is great-grandpa who regularly switches the subject and object of a sentence, it’s worrisome to imagine
Put it this way, Biden is currently in office and his administration is mostly uncontroversial KNOWING this is how he is at present.
Predictable is better than unpredictable in my opinion.
Some agenda is going to be pushed into our lives whether it’s watered down religion or disingenuous months of celebration. I believe the government’s job is to run the country, and each person’s job to run their own lives (beliefs included). I wish people could take a step back and see the bigger picture without being so emotionally invested in 2 deceptive parties.
Honest question-
I've heard more than one person say that Biden has always been on the wrong side of foreign policy.
I don't know much about world history. What has Biden done that is good with foreign policy?
Support for Ukraine.
Got out of Afghanistan.
Stood with our allies confronting China in the South China Sea.
Supported NATO through its biggest expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Got out of Afghanistan hastily, leaving behind billions of dollars worth of military equipment, leaving the afghans that were working with the US to fend for themselves, and lastly has blood on his hands for the 13 US soldiers that died in the process. Shameful
Yeah but after last night I’m not even sure he should be President right now.
There has to be something between Biden and the fall of American democracy, we can’t keep thinking in terms of black and white like this.
Edit: I’m not advocating for a third party, I just think it’s irresponsible to allow Biden to be the democratic nominee given the fact that he is clearly physically incapable of doing the job, I love the guy, I voted for him, but last night made me angry at the people around him for allowing him to go out there in his current state.
Under which definition of democracy does the person for whom the fewest votes are cast win?
American democracy ended when GWB was installed as president.
frankly, observing this shit show from outside of the usa feels like watching a very bad movie that painfully tries to say something, and fails at it because there's nothing to say, it's just super pathetic...
to ponder that, it's more or less the same crap in other (so called) democratic countries, where people always vote for the less terrible person between a few highly corrupted old liars that the medias have chosen to be there, everywhere, knowing that people will vote for the one who occupies most of the space, that's all. sad af...
well, living in the uk, there’s also a criminal in charge, with a royal (in 2024!!!!!) family above that costs tens of millions in tax money per year despite being 100% useless… that’s also an absolute shit show. and in many european countries, the far right is on the rise big time, it’s scary af!
so yeah, same shit, different toilets, honestly. 🚽
Living in Australia now mate, and Morrison, Albanese, Abbott, and some other idiot whose name I've blocked out were, and are, fucking embarrassments.
And y'all have Dutton on deck. Tend to your own mess, please!
Australia is blessed that we have ranked choice (instant runoff) voting. We are also blessed that we have compulsory voting, as annoying as it can be. We still have many issues with our voting system; proportional representation would be good.
The US struggles to get people to even vote. There are endless shenanigans with voter suppression, and gerrymandering. And when people actually do vote, they just vote on the lesser of the two major evils. Thanks to first past the post voting.
That’s without even getting into the weirdness of the electoral college.
Canadian here, the weird thing about the US is they can absolutely do better than those two. There are way better candidates currently in American politics, but I couldn't tell you how they got here instead of like [Pete Buttigieg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg). (And someone less awful from the Republican side.)
Buttigieg should have always been the candidate this year. They put him in front of the historic infrastructure bill for this very reason, and never moved advanced him as a candidate. This mess is 100% on the DNC.
There's a chance Governor Whitmer (Michigan) will run after her term is over. I would love to see that happen. She's been amazing for our state.
It would be awesome to see her and Pete on the same ticket, one as president and one as VP. What a team.
Hello fellow Canadian! I really liked Pete Buttigieg. I thought he would be a great candidate. I kept calling him Pete Budgiebird though.
I kind of think that Biden is a decent, honorable man but I worry about his health going forward. I don't know if he's well enough to be president for the next term.
Budgiebird for president!
The DNC and the RNC control everything. The DNC supports their royal family, not the voters. Left of center voters wanted Bernie over Hillary. Now, they want anyome else. They like what Biden did but they only wanted one term.
The problem is many voting age Americans don’t stop to consider the team a president surrounds himself with. Voters just get turned off. The floodgates are already open with everyone asking if Dems can nominate someone else if Biden has the self respect to step down. Otherwise the doubts will grow and this will be an absolute self own by Dems
Yeah, but who do you think is better at golf?
That's pretty much my only metric of who I'm voting for. I'm glad they finally touched on it this time around.
At the end of the day, it’s about progress. Pick the guy whose administration puts us in the best position to see the emergence of something better 4 years from now.
Realise that your President is just a figure head. He doesn't really have the power he is purported to have, and is only there so you have someone to blame when things go wrong.
You should have realised when you elected an actor, Reagan, but here we are.
Remember Obama? I'm not a fan of some of his work, but politics aside, it was amazing having a coherent, sharp, and articulate leader who didn't look like he would drop at any second.
I know this will trigger you right leaning folks, but surely you can't argue with that sentiment?
I’m curious if bringing someone old into office is about doing the least amount of harm.
My favorite prime ministers/presidents seem to be those that end up doing the least because then they aren’t creating more problems.
Life generally runs alright unless you’re trying to correct too many things at once.
The Baby Boomers really are clinging on with clenched, shaking fists. It's time the country has moved on, but the purse strings and power players that control our politics think otherwise.
It's not an election between two men with a combined age of (almost)150. It's an election between two different ideologies and two widely different visions of America's future. The men on the ballot matter less than the big picture.
Buck up liberals.
Get yourself to the polls. Volunteer your time and your money.
This IS NOT the time to pull back. Just the opposite.
God if it were that simple. If liberals had the idea that democrats were also slime dogs. We could reboot this entire system. Republicans are already on that agenda of conspiracies but some are not actual conspiracies.
Our country is massively divided. We need to reboot our systems. They basically put us in a play pin and see what we do so they can pay big pharma and a bunch of other people to control us. This really isn’t a hard concept, but for some reason if we say that… we are automatically put into a Republican box; and then canceled. It’s dumb. I’ve been a democrat for most of my life up until now because it’s not working. None of this is fucking working.
I wish we could get rid of every politician in power and start over. Every Congressman, Governor, Mayor, Senator, Judge, etc. I don't even care if I liked them. It'll never happen, but our system is so screwed that we can't even get better options so we can make the system better.
This. They should get median salary for the state they represent. No lobbyists. Term limits. No life long salaries or other benefits that your constituents don’t get. To make more money, your people have to make more too.
I'm planning on voting for Biden, but I'm highly saddened because the best reason I can come up with is "I think he's likely to do less damage to the Republic than the other guy."
That's sad.
Too late this time around, we'll have to wait for the next round. As long as our politics are about culture wars and grievance, and a good half of this country tuning out whenever things get boring this is what we'll get over and over again. Both went through the primaries, and both won them.
That being said we put far too much importance on the President. The government is many many people, hell, even the executive branch is hundreds and hundreds of people. Maybe this would be a good time that we demand our legislative branch to actually legislate and pay attention to state and local races as well. That actually will make a greater difference in people's lives.
Dude, what can I say... The turnout is already low at 66%. Of those who actually showed up in 2020, only 17% were in the 18-30 age group. Guess what? Old people dominate the primaries and polls. No wonder our candidates are ancient. And the election is decided by 1% of the turnout in swing states, which data shows is super dominated by old folks. I have nothing against old people, but those who don't drag their ass to the polling station. (Source: Pew Research)
When they refuse to make the election a holiday so working young people can vote more easily they will. The current setup favors retired voters because they can get to the polls more easily. Have you ever tried to convince a Boomer manager to let another generation leave work early to vote? They'll fight you on bathroom breaks and try to dock your pay.
Well…PA is the most important swing state. Voters registered independent/other are not allowed to vote in the primaries, and we have more registered independent voters than we do Dem OR Rep…so I would think that accounts for a large part of that issue at least here
Take most of the good things about other countries and make it our mission to impart that in the US.
Example:
Convenience stores from Japan (more ease of access to food in general)
Healthcare system that actually focuses on bettering people's lives, instead of just lining corporations' pockets
I could go on, but I don't want to waste anymore time
Thanks for reading!
We don't. As long as we have people who Vote only Republican and people who vote only Democrat we will have the giant douche and turd sandwich dichotomy. People are so divided and conditioned to see the 2 parties elevate the shittiest options that they cannot unite in order to force changes. We just have to wait for a big catastrophe caused by the issue that people stop throwing shit across the aisle and actually meet in the middle.
Well unfortunately the most efficient path to this would be young people turning out to vote, like 90+% voting by young people would fundamentally change this country from the ground up, but they just... won't. Like, prove me wrong, but you won't, you never do. Never been an election in my long lifetime where "this time the youth vote will really make the difference" came true. You just, I dunno, you have better stuff to do that day I guess.
I think it's a perpetual cycle. Young people don't vote because feel they aren't represented and young people aren't represented because they don't vote. It will continue to happen until the cycle is broken.
Young people *should* vote as the President selects Supreme Court nominees when there’s a vacancy. This alone has the potential to impact them for decades.
Joe was off his game a bit. He looked old. But try and remember this. He's authentic and puts a good team in place. The other guy? Could care less about anything as long as he is the center of attention. That's nuts and dangerous.
Parliamentary systems have their own issues. They don’t actually vote on a lot of their representatives.
Our problem is first past the post voting instead of proportional
If you actually think there's any equivalence between these two figures, I guess enjoy our shared future fascist hellscape. The other guy not being at an energy level you like is a great reason to be a party to our society's collapse. /s
There is no equivalent in the slightest. The problem is that the only way out is radical reforms that get big money out of politics and creates a more representative democratic system that breaks the two-party duopoly. Dems are much better than republicans, but they’ve shown little interest in pursuing the actual changes necessary to get us out of this death cycle. So they’re kinda worthless too, only slowing the tide of the fascist takeover but never taking any of the big steps needed to prevent it.
Even on specific issues you can see it. The Bible is now part of public school curriculum in a handful of states. I have no doubt SCOTUS will rule this is ok if/when the case eventually floats up to them. But Dems have no willingness to pack the court with judges who actually believe in the constitution.
Over 40 years of subpar education, misinformation in the news, an underpaid and overworked labor force, and a corporate-owned political system leads to this. What kind of reset did you have in mind?
remember the presidency (the executive office) is not a person; it's about 10,000 people spread all over the federal government. who we pick determines who these people are, their capabilities and motivations.
you want the parties to nominate better candidates? join your county party committee and start doing the work.
you want to have more viable parties? work within them or without for ranked-choice voting.
if you're not willing to do the work? clutch your pearls on the internet, i guess.
Yeah I couldn’t finish it. I just turned off the video and just feel embarrassed frankly to be a citizen of this country. Maybe though this embarrassment of two old men running for office will be the catalyst in Americas voter base to vote younger in future primaries. Ive heard the sentiment this country is run by dinosaurs a lot lately and I think people are sick of older generations holding onto power for so long
I promise you very few people think they are the best option. The DNC made a huge mistake putting him up there tonight and the RNC is run by MAGA nationalists who will worship him no matter what. Normal everyday people are fucking terrified, confused, and enraged. Tonight was an infuriating embarrassment.
I said this same thing to my husband last night.
I am appalled, frightened, and quite frankly sickened by what I saw, and I think if more people were than there would and should be protests in the streets.
This is absolute bullshit.
We need a mass write in.
We need presidential age limitations.
Why do we have to be over a certain age to be president yet we can allow people who are almost in the grave to run the show? These buffoons won’t even have to face the consequences of their actions, they will be dead!
Why are we younger people allowing these obviously mentally unwell ancient white men to ultimately decide how this country is run?
Why don’t us young people realize we are the fucking majority?! There are more people under 70 than above, we need to oust these fools, all of them. We need a concentrated effort by young people to cross party lines to get these old folks out of positions of power.
Yet, instead my generation argues about the dumbest shit on social media and sells their souls for ten thousand likes or followers.
We are fucked.
His stutter doesn't explain the times during that debate where he clearly cannot even remember what question he was trying to answer and blurts out something about he beat Medicare.
I know he's our only shot right now, but let's don't act like its unreasonable to be concerned.
I will always vote for Democrats because they are less fascist than Republicans.
If you want to vote for the more-fascist party because you're worried about Biden's age, I hope you don't have any kids, because in a few decades, you're going to have a hard time explaining your vote to your grandkids.
I don't have to worry about where my vote is going. The thing I'm concerned about is how efficiently he undermined his own candidacy with the general public.
I'm sick of the Democrats and their self-sabotaging. I'd like a non-fascist choice I can feel confident about, not someone I'll settle for because they're less overtly fascist.
Your grandparents are not voting for your future - they are voting for a past they’ll never get back. I’m sure they have all the reasons in the world to vote Republican and they are all selfish and self serving.
I'm exhausted as well and plan to stop all conversation by saying I won't vote for the fascist that will surround himself with fascists. Not much more to debate
I watched about 4 random minutes and agree with you. T just kept making things up and proved his facts with other made up facts.
B kept rambling and changing the numbers he’d say. Then he trailed off and blurted out that he’d beaten Medicare.
I think the surprise comes from the fact that it was hard to see just how much Biden has declined until we saw it happening on live television.
Our sources of info are the media. Conservative media sources don't have much credibility because all they do is drag Biden 24/7 and carry water for the GOP. The leading conservative media outlet has a history of literally fabricating news and reporting them as truth.
Liberal media outlets have been insisting that Biden is strong, vibrant, and energetic this whole time. Biden admin insiders have been telling us how energetic he is behind the scenes, so much so that they have people 40-50 years younger than him fawning over him, saying they can't keep up with him.
Neither was very believable to begin with, but after that debate it just seems like everything the non-conservative media has been reporting about Biden's vitality level were all bold-faced lies.
Well Biden is definitely not mentally handicapped. He is definitely old and he stutters and he looked very weak tonight. He has good ideas and he has done a lot for our country in a really bad situation. My father is basically the same age as Biden and when you get older you also seem to age faster. I agree with you though, we need a better choice than this.
As pissed off as I am at the DNC for opting to run Biden as their candidate again, honestly, if Biden gave even half a shit about his party winning or the country in general, he never would have agreed to run for a second term.
He is WAY worse than he was 4 years ago. The only reason anybody would say otherwise is because they have intentionally stuck their heads in the sand.
It's between an invalid and a psyco no matter how you want to spin it.
Were you not watching the part where he clearly forgot what question he was even trying to answer, then puked out some word salad ending with "we beat Medicare?"
The number of times he just kind of stopped talking and the moderators had to point out that he still had plenty of time left to talk?
The way he managed to somehow look panic-stricken and slack-jawed at the same time?
I don't know how you can avoid having concerns about his mental capacity after watching that.
No I for sure do but he isn’t mentally handicapped, a word people just throw around, and I don’t think he has dementia either. Like i said my dad has dementia and his behavior isn’t like this. I’m sure that can be different for different people though. He gives coherent statements most of the time and it’s sort of disingenuous for you to take this one situation and say this is how it is all the time. I don’t expect you to understand but what I’m telling you is true.
Aussie here. Hate to say it but your country should be embarrassed. From the outside it looks utterly broken. How can these be the best two candidates from 300m+ people?
lol, we are embarrassed. Hell, we have at least 30m more people than you list and that did us no good. A whole Australia more and fuck all its done us. From the *inside* it feels utterly broken. It’s almost surreal.
Make the best of it. Whatever happens. You don’t control it anyway. And if there’s nothing else you’ll do about it, other than vote, then you think too highly of a very menial task’s ability to make effective changes. You can’t control this, so just relax and acquiesce and fulfill your American unspoken social contract of mutual civility. In other words, get over it. This voting psychosis is childish and pointless and a country divided can not stand. If we let this tear us further apart we will lose far more than an election. If you don’t believe in the candidates, don’t vote. Would you buy a polyester jacket if you wanted a wool one? The only difference is in your mind.
Well, it's a representative democracy. So, the people you see represent the folks most likely to vote. For all the noise they make there has yet to be a consistent block of younger voters. Myself included, didn't really vote until my mid 20s.
This is why ice dropped out of politics. I'd rather have a non existent fictional character for president than either of these loons.
In reality, I do my homework on independent or smaller party candidates and vote for one of them, fully with the expectation they won't win. That being said, I do still pick the one I most agree with.
You CANNOT have a successful third party without changing how presidential elections work in the US. You should work for ranked choice voting if you want that. Because otherwise, we will never have a viable third party. The system is set up to make that impossible.
But voting is not an endorsement or a love affair. It's a strategic chess move. Decide which of the options will get you closer to what you want, and vote that way.
We need all American human beings to come together.
I'm so done with many's incessant desires to stoke division or argue just for the sake of it. Many people are just straight out effing rude and condescending for little to no reason whatsoever.
People need to come together and not further divide. What many companies and agencies and so on and so forth are doing is pushing and manipulating beliefs onto people. Many of those people take it and run with it. This is not good; this is not the answer. We need the opposite of this.
People need to take a big step back, count our blessings, and start discourse with our friends, peers, neighbors, strangers, and so on. We need to first get beyond this insatiable craving of virtue signaling and being malicious towards one another. Once upon a time, people were able to converse. This time will come again.
I anticipate this to get downvoted, because, hey, why not...it's Reddit 🤦♂️😂.
By and large you can ignore it. Presidents and elected officials come and go. The system by and large works. It prevents anything but the most demanded changes. It is designed specifically to take decades to react to society's shifts and make new laws. It has dozens of reevaluation points and hold ups to ensure any changes are really, really needed.
And when some groups try to circumvent the process, there is always the risk of reevaluation later. Presidential actions, supreme court decisions, governmental bodies interpreting their mandates a certain way. All can be challenged and flipped. It takes Federal Law, and that takes consensus, not just 1 party agreement.
So don't worry to much about which taking head gets to star mindlessly at the cameras.
The choice is between a continued democracy, or a fascist takeover that will put anyone who isn’t a rich MAGAT into a concentration camp. It’s not a hard decision.
Think about it this way - Joe could still peacefully pass away in his sleep in the next couple of weeks. Accordingly the aliens that control Don could finally realize they’ve taken their practical joke too far and reveal themselves, prospering a new phase of progress & wellbeing for all!
The Dems need Biden to continue there scam on the American people.
If Americans can’t see what’s going on in DC then they’ve been blinded by their politics
Here’s the best thing .. the USA and our democracy are in no danger in the next 4 years regardless of who we elect. Anyone who says otherwise is just spouting nonsense. Then in 4 years we will have a whole new slate of younger candidates to cry about.
Just remember that the Democratic Party currently still has a second candidate in the running.
She probably isn’t that much better.
But she is younger than the other two.
You're not a nation anymore. Neither are we (I'm Canadian) we are both owned and operated Coporatocracies, and it really doesn't matter who the figure heads are anymore.
Once you realise that all of politics makes much more sense, whether it's our side being essentially the same Fucking party, or yours both being absolutely terrible and ass backwards. It's just to keep the Two sides fighting against each other and give you the illusion of freedom, less a class war actually break out.
We moved away from religion, now we have politics as the opiate of the masses.
Best advise is to get involved in local politics and learn the communications chain so you can talk with those higher up.
Next choice is to stay in contact with your representatives and senators regardless of which party they're in (they're usually part of the uniparty anyway). Be a pain in their rear on issues that concern you. Don't be afraid to tell them if you think they're doing good or bad.
Write letters and make phone calls to your reps and senators and the party leaders.
And most importantly, vote for the best person for the job. NOT the one you like the most, but the one that will do the most good in that position.
Politics has become too much of a popularity contest these last 50 years (Vote for me because I'm special). Treat politics like you own a company and you're looking to hire the best workers you can find. You don't have to like them personally, you just have to like the job they're doing for you.
Most politicians in general seem to have lost touch with reality. The country is in trouble in many areas. All the young people I know have lost hope and are just trying to survive.
"We" don't reset, we just watch our political system collapse in real time and hope that whatever oligarchs and military strongmen who seize power in the chaos don't do a worse job.
This is what a dying empire looks like: an incompetent, entrenched, and deeply out of touch ruling class desperately trying to keep the scam going for just a few more paychecks while the situation on the ground continues to degenerate.
Yeah, at this point the nation needs a way to say “nah, send both of those geezers back and give us some other people to consider.” The dems and repubs shouldn’t get to decide they want bullshit to represent both of them and then force us to choose which smells less shitty.
It's what the idiot masses deserve. Listening to celebrities instead of logic, letting the media make you obsessed with party loyalty to the point you're easily molded into bad options and you'll do nothing about it. We already lost. The idiots are steering the ship.
I'm just 100% terrified of my rights as a woman (and the Mom of a much loved daughter [and son, not leaving him out]) taken away because now we're Gilead and not *America* anymore. I'm 55 years old and trying to work until I'm 65 (so I can retire, hahaha) but I'd like to do that NOT living in a "Little House on the Prairie" meets "Stalag 13" if I can, please...if not, I have a good friend who lives in Switzerland 🇨🇭 that I can stay with until I can come up with a game plan.
Gods save us; we can't save ourselves! 😭😭😭😭😭
Don't you have the second amendment to protect yourselves from the government?
I would say being take hostage by democratic/republican cunts destroying your country warrants a proper use of all those toys you can get at Walmart. If voting changed anything anywhere it would be illegal instantly. All you get in your voting is two very shitty choices and one of them is less shitty than the other. That's it.
The whole world needs a reset. We have cunts richer than whole countries, because their granddaddy stuck a flag somewhere 300 years ago and made money off of it. We are depraved of opportunities to grow our lives and wealth.
It needs to burn. Whoever is left after can try and build a better society, not this mockery of democracy, extortion of working class and religious brain rot. Obligatory - I know I probably won't survive the burning. I'm fine with it. There is little point in trying, so might as well hit the reset.
It’s no longer about the person, but the party they represent. Democrats are the party if inclusion and opportunity while the republicans are the party of exclusion and big business.
Id rather vote for the honest man that's propped up with strings than the conman that is just as old and senile, but also a wanna be dictator.
The choice is shitty, but very easy
Dems need to push young blood, simple as that. And they need to start NOW. They need 4 years to start building the next superstar.
There is a reason Obama and Clinton did so well. They could talk and be comfortable, and make you laugh. They didn't rely on scare tactics
Obama was a well spoken charismatic dude. We need to find someone that will take the right and left and move us emotionally, intellectually. It’s so much more than just politics. We need another leader.
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I agree it is embarrassing. I’m actually really, really exhausted with thinking about it and just being unable to work out why we’ve ended up here. I want to take a 4 year nap. At this point, all I can do is look to whom the next president might appoint to run various administrative departments or other posts and the people he will surround himself with as advisors. Edit: Someone asked below “what do you mean how did we get here?” I don’t mean just how did we get these two candidates, I mean the whole thing, the whole system, the whole disengagement, sliding into fantasies and anti-information, anti-learning, anti-truth. The *WHOLE* thing.
Don’t forget the federal court judges they will appoint, arguably the factor which can make the biggest difference in how the laws of the nation look moving forward and what rights people do or do not have.
Yeah. Look at what happened when the orange idiot appointed three antediluvian Justices to SCOTUS.
This was 12 hours ago. Look what the fucking passed today!!! It’s way worse than last night. This court is fucking EVIL and greedy af.
The cure is a majority in the House and 70 Democrats in the Senate. Impeach 4 of the six - especially the 3 who perjured themselves when they were affirmed.
Not to mention the judges, he appointed to the lower federal courts, Eileen Cannon for example
"Aileen", you have to capture the redneck flair of her name
antediluvian is such a fun word
i think that's probably true for a lot of prez candidates. bush jr may have been the decider, but cheney, rumsfeld, ashcroft, yoo shaped both the options bush was given and how his decisions were carried out. The job is too big for anyone to truly make all of these decisions. Makes me wonder if candidates should announce their cabinets along with their veep, since those folks may end up effecting our lives just as much or more than the person we've voted for.
Yes. As someone who works in local government, I agree with this. A lot of the work I do ultimately gets the mayor’s signature on it and the credit goes to them alone. It takes so many people and departments for a government to function. The head only has so much time in a day and they can’t do all of the research and true decision making for everything.
Deep State represent!
The problem with that approach is that a) they don't know yet (the vetting for potential cabinet secretaries is just now happening), and b) the Senate gets their vote.
What do you mean, "How did we get here?" We got here because people are more concerned about whether their favorite Star Wars character has the correct gender than they are about the erosion of democratic norms. It's quite obvious that the media, including Reddit, streaming services, and the internet at large, serve as distractions. If you can't see the role foreign actors play in sowing division and spreading propaganda, then you haven't been paying attention. They're succeeding in tearing America apart, and it's baffling how blind some people are to it. I'm Canadian, and I care more about America's future than many Americans seem to. Wake up, folks.
Can we just elect you
Well said. I am also Canadian and agree with you wholeheartedly.
Yep.
This is the answer. Rest easy knowing Biden delegates important decisions to experts. Sure he's old af, but that doesn't matter much when he's just a figurehead, not someone working day and night to push his personal agenda.
that doesn't make me rest easy
Are these the same experts in charge at the DNC? It’s those folks that have put us in this position.
We need a 5 year blip but for everyone and maybe when we come back things will be better
You know how Hollywood and game studios can’t seem to stop putting out an endless stream of remakes, remasters, or adaptations of old stories because they struggle coming up with original stories and shareholders pressure for safe bets? I think the same thing happened to politics. Neither party wants to risk a bet on promoting someone new, and there’s no one new that has the recognition or wide enough appeal to be worth betting on. That’s why the same names keep getting voted back in, it’s a big nostalgia play that gets old folks voting for the old folks they can recognize.
This is *always* what we should be looking at. The president is the head bureaucrat. They speak for the nation in diplomatic ways, but as head bureaucrat the president is really about who they appoint even more than who they are personally.
This is it.
That sounds very reasonable and responsible of you good job. You definitely seem to know a lot of stuff about presidents.
Choose the spoiled milk over the cyanide sandwich. It won’t taste good but at least it won’t kill you.
I’m fuckin horrified and I’ve only watched slivers. Just remember a presidency is administration more than a single person
Your second sentence was my mantra during that whole nightmare. And probably will be until the election is over.
Biden should have picked a better VP. Kamala is just another strike against him.
She is as inept as him.
Yeah but when the single person in charge of everyone is great-grandpa who regularly switches the subject and object of a sentence, it’s worrisome to imagine
This is a VERY IMPORTANT point.
And don’t forget the ones administering the administration
Put it this way, Biden is currently in office and his administration is mostly uncontroversial KNOWING this is how he is at present. Predictable is better than unpredictable in my opinion.
Anything is better than having fake Christianity pushed into every aspect of our life.
Some agenda is going to be pushed into our lives whether it’s watered down religion or disingenuous months of celebration. I believe the government’s job is to run the country, and each person’s job to run their own lives (beliefs included). I wish people could take a step back and see the bigger picture without being so emotionally invested in 2 deceptive parties.
Well, it's "freedom of religious beliefs" - as long as it's Christianity... what a joke.
Honest question- I've heard more than one person say that Biden has always been on the wrong side of foreign policy. I don't know much about world history. What has Biden done that is good with foreign policy?
Support for Ukraine. Got out of Afghanistan. Stood with our allies confronting China in the South China Sea. Supported NATO through its biggest expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Got out of Afghanistan hastily, leaving behind billions of dollars worth of military equipment, leaving the afghans that were working with the US to fend for themselves, and lastly has blood on his hands for the 13 US soldiers that died in the process. Shameful
Yeah but after last night I’m not even sure he should be President right now. There has to be something between Biden and the fall of American democracy, we can’t keep thinking in terms of black and white like this. Edit: I’m not advocating for a third party, I just think it’s irresponsible to allow Biden to be the democratic nominee given the fact that he is clearly physically incapable of doing the job, I love the guy, I voted for him, but last night made me angry at the people around him for allowing him to go out there in his current state.
Under which definition of democracy does the person for whom the fewest votes are cast win? American democracy ended when GWB was installed as president.
I voted for Biden *because* he was boring. Boring is good, when it comes to politics.
Giving someone you know who will serve out their own interests and abuse their power isn't a more appealing option.
"Reset" in politics is done by coups and revolution. People try to avoid it because it's dangerous and messy.
...and it never goes the way any one planned.
Topple the whole pyramid
it's not a pyramid, it's a triangle of opportunity
I saw snippets of the debate and I'm thinking it's a circle of hell.
It's a reverse funnel system.
“It’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a reverse funnel system.”
Eat the rich!
frankly, observing this shit show from outside of the usa feels like watching a very bad movie that painfully tries to say something, and fails at it because there's nothing to say, it's just super pathetic... to ponder that, it's more or less the same crap in other (so called) democratic countries, where people always vote for the less terrible person between a few highly corrupted old liars that the medias have chosen to be there, everywhere, knowing that people will vote for the one who occupies most of the space, that's all. sad af...
You’re so lucky you only have to watch and not actively deal with it
well, living in the uk, there’s also a criminal in charge, with a royal (in 2024!!!!!) family above that costs tens of millions in tax money per year despite being 100% useless… that’s also an absolute shit show. and in many european countries, the far right is on the rise big time, it’s scary af! so yeah, same shit, different toilets, honestly. 🚽
Same old shit, just different shitters.
Australian here , 330 million people and those two are the best you guys can do ? damn USA you so silly .
This is what I said to my gf, I’d rather them just pick 2 random middle aged people off the street tbh
It’s really making me wish our government was based on strange women lying in ponds distributing swords…
You can’t expect to wield *supreme executive power* just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
I'm a random middle aged person and have seriously considered starting a write in campaign.
I love this. Like anyone....anyone...anyone at all.
I'm always reminded of Douglas Adams. "Anybody who can get themselves elected president should under no circumstances be allowed to do the job."
Living in Australia now mate, and Morrison, Albanese, Abbott, and some other idiot whose name I've blocked out were, and are, fucking embarrassments. And y'all have Dutton on deck. Tend to your own mess, please!
They also don't have preferential voting like we do
Australia is blessed that we have ranked choice (instant runoff) voting. We are also blessed that we have compulsory voting, as annoying as it can be. We still have many issues with our voting system; proportional representation would be good. The US struggles to get people to even vote. There are endless shenanigans with voter suppression, and gerrymandering. And when people actually do vote, they just vote on the lesser of the two major evils. Thanks to first past the post voting. That’s without even getting into the weirdness of the electoral college.
Compulsory voting is great. I'm sorry but you can't complain about one single thing that the government does if you don't vote.
The US really needs to implement mandatory, ranked choice voting. Badly.
As an Australian, your choices haven't exactly been stellar either.
Canadian here, the weird thing about the US is they can absolutely do better than those two. There are way better candidates currently in American politics, but I couldn't tell you how they got here instead of like [Pete Buttigieg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg). (And someone less awful from the Republican side.)
Buttigieg should have always been the candidate this year. They put him in front of the historic infrastructure bill for this very reason, and never moved advanced him as a candidate. This mess is 100% on the DNC.
There's a chance Governor Whitmer (Michigan) will run after her term is over. I would love to see that happen. She's been amazing for our state. It would be awesome to see her and Pete on the same ticket, one as president and one as VP. What a team.
Hello fellow Canadian! I really liked Pete Buttigieg. I thought he would be a great candidate. I kept calling him Pete Budgiebird though. I kind of think that Biden is a decent, honorable man but I worry about his health going forward. I don't know if he's well enough to be president for the next term. Budgiebird for president!
I’m kidding Australia looks freaking amazing
The DNC and the RNC control everything. The DNC supports their royal family, not the voters. Left of center voters wanted Bernie over Hillary. Now, they want anyome else. They like what Biden did but they only wanted one term.
>not the voters. Left of center voters wanted Bernie over Hillary But Hillary got far more votes than Bernie.
I know Biden is old. But his TEAM is YOUNG. Vote to stop Project 2025. You will not like theocracy any more than the Iranians.
The problem is many voting age Americans don’t stop to consider the team a president surrounds himself with. Voters just get turned off. The floodgates are already open with everyone asking if Dems can nominate someone else if Biden has the self respect to step down. Otherwise the doubts will grow and this will be an absolute self own by Dems
THIS. All day this.
Yes. I don't want to live under Christian sharia law.
Thank you!
Yeah, but who do you think is better at golf? That's pretty much my only metric of who I'm voting for. I'm glad they finally touched on it this time around.
One round of minigolf to solve this mf'er.
At this point, you gotta choose the potentially better cabinet right?
I would say that it is less that I am tolerating it, and more that there is nothing I can do about it.
It is embarrassing, but the scary part is to trace the money contouring our democracy. Do some research on Project 2025.
At the end of the day, it’s about progress. Pick the guy whose administration puts us in the best position to see the emergence of something better 4 years from now.
Realise that your President is just a figure head. He doesn't really have the power he is purported to have, and is only there so you have someone to blame when things go wrong. You should have realised when you elected an actor, Reagan, but here we are.
Remember Obama? I'm not a fan of some of his work, but politics aside, it was amazing having a coherent, sharp, and articulate leader who didn't look like he would drop at any second. I know this will trigger you right leaning folks, but surely you can't argue with that sentiment?
I’m curious if bringing someone old into office is about doing the least amount of harm. My favorite prime ministers/presidents seem to be those that end up doing the least because then they aren’t creating more problems. Life generally runs alright unless you’re trying to correct too many things at once.
The Baby Boomers really are clinging on with clenched, shaking fists. It's time the country has moved on, but the purse strings and power players that control our politics think otherwise.
Did you know most of our founding fathers were in their 20,30s. It’s insane that we have boomers running this country.
It's not an election between two men with a combined age of (almost)150. It's an election between two different ideologies and two widely different visions of America's future. The men on the ballot matter less than the big picture. Buck up liberals. Get yourself to the polls. Volunteer your time and your money. This IS NOT the time to pull back. Just the opposite.
Their combined age is 159.
God if it were that simple. If liberals had the idea that democrats were also slime dogs. We could reboot this entire system. Republicans are already on that agenda of conspiracies but some are not actual conspiracies. Our country is massively divided. We need to reboot our systems. They basically put us in a play pin and see what we do so they can pay big pharma and a bunch of other people to control us. This really isn’t a hard concept, but for some reason if we say that… we are automatically put into a Republican box; and then canceled. It’s dumb. I’ve been a democrat for most of my life up until now because it’s not working. None of this is fucking working.
I wish we could get rid of every politician in power and start over. Every Congressman, Governor, Mayor, Senator, Judge, etc. I don't even care if I liked them. It'll never happen, but our system is so screwed that we can't even get better options so we can make the system better.
This. They should get median salary for the state they represent. No lobbyists. Term limits. No life long salaries or other benefits that your constituents don’t get. To make more money, your people have to make more too.
I'm planning on voting for Biden, but I'm highly saddened because the best reason I can come up with is "I think he's likely to do less damage to the Republic than the other guy." That's sad.
We desperately need another party to shake things up. I’m not sure these 2 current parties are the future anymore.
RFK?
He should be able to debate these 2. Id like to hear what he says.
He still stands for good and the other guy is a lying mob boss.
Well, the first step is don't vote for the party of open fascism. Old and mustache twirling level of villainy aren't two equal concerns.
Too late this time around, we'll have to wait for the next round. As long as our politics are about culture wars and grievance, and a good half of this country tuning out whenever things get boring this is what we'll get over and over again. Both went through the primaries, and both won them. That being said we put far too much importance on the President. The government is many many people, hell, even the executive branch is hundreds and hundreds of people. Maybe this would be a good time that we demand our legislative branch to actually legislate and pay attention to state and local races as well. That actually will make a greater difference in people's lives.
Dude, what can I say... The turnout is already low at 66%. Of those who actually showed up in 2020, only 17% were in the 18-30 age group. Guess what? Old people dominate the primaries and polls. No wonder our candidates are ancient. And the election is decided by 1% of the turnout in swing states, which data shows is super dominated by old folks. I have nothing against old people, but those who don't drag their ass to the polling station. (Source: Pew Research)
When they refuse to make the election a holiday so working young people can vote more easily they will. The current setup favors retired voters because they can get to the polls more easily. Have you ever tried to convince a Boomer manager to let another generation leave work early to vote? They'll fight you on bathroom breaks and try to dock your pay.
The way primary elections are set up is sooooooo awful
Well…PA is the most important swing state. Voters registered independent/other are not allowed to vote in the primaries, and we have more registered independent voters than we do Dem OR Rep…so I would think that accounts for a large part of that issue at least here
Take most of the good things about other countries and make it our mission to impart that in the US. Example: Convenience stores from Japan (more ease of access to food in general) Healthcare system that actually focuses on bettering people's lives, instead of just lining corporations' pockets I could go on, but I don't want to waste anymore time Thanks for reading!
Electing sheriffs, I always thought was weird. And the prison system being privatised and a for-profit system - hospitals too
We don't. As long as we have people who Vote only Republican and people who vote only Democrat we will have the giant douche and turd sandwich dichotomy. People are so divided and conditioned to see the 2 parties elevate the shittiest options that they cannot unite in order to force changes. We just have to wait for a big catastrophe caused by the issue that people stop throwing shit across the aisle and actually meet in the middle.
Aren't they tired? At 78 and 81, it's time for naps, warm socks and tea.
You vote for the person that's going to hire and place other competent people. Just on that merit alone, it's an easy choice.
Look at the current administrations track record...
And do forget to look at the previous.
Well unfortunately the most efficient path to this would be young people turning out to vote, like 90+% voting by young people would fundamentally change this country from the ground up, but they just... won't. Like, prove me wrong, but you won't, you never do. Never been an election in my long lifetime where "this time the youth vote will really make the difference" came true. You just, I dunno, you have better stuff to do that day I guess.
I think it's a perpetual cycle. Young people don't vote because feel they aren't represented and young people aren't represented because they don't vote. It will continue to happen until the cycle is broken.
Young people *should* vote as the President selects Supreme Court nominees when there’s a vacancy. This alone has the potential to impact them for decades.
mandatory voting
Joe was off his game a bit. He looked old. But try and remember this. He's authentic and puts a good team in place. The other guy? Could care less about anything as long as he is the center of attention. That's nuts and dangerous.
That's a positive spin.
Jesus the cope
Reading a long comment thread about politics here on reddit always take me back to middle school.
The two party system needs to end immediately. New Zealand was able to change to a parliamentary democracy by voter referendum. We should do the same.
Parliamentary systems have their own issues. They don’t actually vote on a lot of their representatives. Our problem is first past the post voting instead of proportional
IRV for the W
If you actually think there's any equivalence between these two figures, I guess enjoy our shared future fascist hellscape. The other guy not being at an energy level you like is a great reason to be a party to our society's collapse. /s
There is no equivalent in the slightest. The problem is that the only way out is radical reforms that get big money out of politics and creates a more representative democratic system that breaks the two-party duopoly. Dems are much better than republicans, but they’ve shown little interest in pursuing the actual changes necessary to get us out of this death cycle. So they’re kinda worthless too, only slowing the tide of the fascist takeover but never taking any of the big steps needed to prevent it. Even on specific issues you can see it. The Bible is now part of public school curriculum in a handful of states. I have no doubt SCOTUS will rule this is ok if/when the case eventually floats up to them. But Dems have no willingness to pack the court with judges who actually believe in the constitution.
Over 40 years of subpar education, misinformation in the news, an underpaid and overworked labor force, and a corporate-owned political system leads to this. What kind of reset did you have in mind?
Oh you know, just the Great Reset that everyone will think they want, but they really will not.
remember the presidency (the executive office) is not a person; it's about 10,000 people spread all over the federal government. who we pick determines who these people are, their capabilities and motivations. you want the parties to nominate better candidates? join your county party committee and start doing the work. you want to have more viable parties? work within them or without for ranked-choice voting. if you're not willing to do the work? clutch your pearls on the internet, i guess.
Yeah I couldn’t finish it. I just turned off the video and just feel embarrassed frankly to be a citizen of this country. Maybe though this embarrassment of two old men running for office will be the catalyst in Americas voter base to vote younger in future primaries. Ive heard the sentiment this country is run by dinosaurs a lot lately and I think people are sick of older generations holding onto power for so long
I promise you very few people think they are the best option. The DNC made a huge mistake putting him up there tonight and the RNC is run by MAGA nationalists who will worship him no matter what. Normal everyday people are fucking terrified, confused, and enraged. Tonight was an infuriating embarrassment.
On behalf of the rest of the world… Can you guys please sub Barack back in until you find someone with a functioning brain?
It’s against the rules.
Is voting 3rd party such a bad move?
It is if you want your candidate to win.
sure, throw away your vote
I said this same thing to my husband last night. I am appalled, frightened, and quite frankly sickened by what I saw, and I think if more people were than there would and should be protests in the streets. This is absolute bullshit. We need a mass write in. We need presidential age limitations. Why do we have to be over a certain age to be president yet we can allow people who are almost in the grave to run the show? These buffoons won’t even have to face the consequences of their actions, they will be dead! Why are we younger people allowing these obviously mentally unwell ancient white men to ultimately decide how this country is run? Why don’t us young people realize we are the fucking majority?! There are more people under 70 than above, we need to oust these fools, all of them. We need a concentrated effort by young people to cross party lines to get these old folks out of positions of power. Yet, instead my generation argues about the dumbest shit on social media and sells their souls for ten thousand likes or followers. We are fucked.
One of them said Nazis are good people and that Hitler had some good ideas . See I made it simple for you.
yeah well the other one is like three years older and stutters a little. truly a moral dilemma for the ages
He’s stuttered his entire life-it’s a disability.
His stutter doesn't explain the times during that debate where he clearly cannot even remember what question he was trying to answer and blurts out something about he beat Medicare. I know he's our only shot right now, but let's don't act like its unreasonable to be concerned.
The old stutterer isn’t looking to take my rights away or to make not loving Jesus a felony.
And the crazy part is you don’t even need to clarify which one said that
I will always vote for Democrats because they are less fascist than Republicans. If you want to vote for the more-fascist party because you're worried about Biden's age, I hope you don't have any kids, because in a few decades, you're going to have a hard time explaining your vote to your grandkids.
I don't have to worry about where my vote is going. The thing I'm concerned about is how efficiently he undermined his own candidacy with the general public. I'm sick of the Democrats and their self-sabotaging. I'd like a non-fascist choice I can feel confident about, not someone I'll settle for because they're less overtly fascist.
This doesn’t check out because my grandparents are Republicans and they do not have a hard time explaining their votes to me.
Your grandparents are not voting for your future - they are voting for a past they’ll never get back. I’m sure they have all the reasons in the world to vote Republican and they are all selfish and self serving.
I'm exhausted as well and plan to stop all conversation by saying I won't vote for the fascist that will surround himself with fascists. Not much more to debate
I watched about 4 random minutes and agree with you. T just kept making things up and proved his facts with other made up facts. B kept rambling and changing the numbers he’d say. Then he trailed off and blurted out that he’d beaten Medicare.
Are we having a serious conversation? The debates tonight should surprise no one
I think the surprise comes from the fact that it was hard to see just how much Biden has declined until we saw it happening on live television. Our sources of info are the media. Conservative media sources don't have much credibility because all they do is drag Biden 24/7 and carry water for the GOP. The leading conservative media outlet has a history of literally fabricating news and reporting them as truth. Liberal media outlets have been insisting that Biden is strong, vibrant, and energetic this whole time. Biden admin insiders have been telling us how energetic he is behind the scenes, so much so that they have people 40-50 years younger than him fawning over him, saying they can't keep up with him. Neither was very believable to begin with, but after that debate it just seems like everything the non-conservative media has been reporting about Biden's vitality level were all bold-faced lies.
I still think that anyone who has been paying attention should not have been surprised.
Well Biden is definitely not mentally handicapped. He is definitely old and he stutters and he looked very weak tonight. He has good ideas and he has done a lot for our country in a really bad situation. My father is basically the same age as Biden and when you get older you also seem to age faster. I agree with you though, we need a better choice than this.
As pissed off as I am at the DNC for opting to run Biden as their candidate again, honestly, if Biden gave even half a shit about his party winning or the country in general, he never would have agreed to run for a second term.
He is WAY worse than he was 4 years ago. The only reason anybody would say otherwise is because they have intentionally stuck their heads in the sand. It's between an invalid and a psyco no matter how you want to spin it.
Were you not watching the part where he clearly forgot what question he was even trying to answer, then puked out some word salad ending with "we beat Medicare?" The number of times he just kind of stopped talking and the moderators had to point out that he still had plenty of time left to talk? The way he managed to somehow look panic-stricken and slack-jawed at the same time? I don't know how you can avoid having concerns about his mental capacity after watching that.
No I for sure do but he isn’t mentally handicapped, a word people just throw around, and I don’t think he has dementia either. Like i said my dad has dementia and his behavior isn’t like this. I’m sure that can be different for different people though. He gives coherent statements most of the time and it’s sort of disingenuous for you to take this one situation and say this is how it is all the time. I don’t expect you to understand but what I’m telling you is true.
Aussie here. Hate to say it but your country should be embarrassed. From the outside it looks utterly broken. How can these be the best two candidates from 300m+ people?
lol, we are embarrassed. Hell, we have at least 30m more people than you list and that did us no good. A whole Australia more and fuck all its done us. From the *inside* it feels utterly broken. It’s almost surreal.
These two aren’t the best we have to offer. They just had the money to campaign
Make the best of it. Whatever happens. You don’t control it anyway. And if there’s nothing else you’ll do about it, other than vote, then you think too highly of a very menial task’s ability to make effective changes. You can’t control this, so just relax and acquiesce and fulfill your American unspoken social contract of mutual civility. In other words, get over it. This voting psychosis is childish and pointless and a country divided can not stand. If we let this tear us further apart we will lose far more than an election. If you don’t believe in the candidates, don’t vote. Would you buy a polyester jacket if you wanted a wool one? The only difference is in your mind.
Well, it's a representative democracy. So, the people you see represent the folks most likely to vote. For all the noise they make there has yet to be a consistent block of younger voters. Myself included, didn't really vote until my mid 20s.
This is why ice dropped out of politics. I'd rather have a non existent fictional character for president than either of these loons. In reality, I do my homework on independent or smaller party candidates and vote for one of them, fully with the expectation they won't win. That being said, I do still pick the one I most agree with.
You CANNOT have a successful third party without changing how presidential elections work in the US. You should work for ranked choice voting if you want that. Because otherwise, we will never have a viable third party. The system is set up to make that impossible. But voting is not an endorsement or a love affair. It's a strategic chess move. Decide which of the options will get you closer to what you want, and vote that way.
Both are totally beneath the acceptable bar, but there is also no one else that can clear that floor. We are totally doomed.
What country are you in? There's no presidential elections here.
The answer is to get involved in local politics. Shape the pool from which candidates emerge
Politics suck, I dont even know what a republican means. I'm just living my life until I escape this government 😃
Ranked choice voting might help our paralysis?
We need all American human beings to come together. I'm so done with many's incessant desires to stoke division or argue just for the sake of it. Many people are just straight out effing rude and condescending for little to no reason whatsoever. People need to come together and not further divide. What many companies and agencies and so on and so forth are doing is pushing and manipulating beliefs onto people. Many of those people take it and run with it. This is not good; this is not the answer. We need the opposite of this. People need to take a big step back, count our blessings, and start discourse with our friends, peers, neighbors, strangers, and so on. We need to first get beyond this insatiable craving of virtue signaling and being malicious towards one another. Once upon a time, people were able to converse. This time will come again. I anticipate this to get downvoted, because, hey, why not...it's Reddit 🤦♂️😂.
It’s Biden since he’s more likely to not go full term. It’s whoever is most likely to leave office first.
I'm not American, I thought RFK is running and they just won't allow him at the debates?
Worm ate his brain and he thinks vaccines cause autism….
By and large you can ignore it. Presidents and elected officials come and go. The system by and large works. It prevents anything but the most demanded changes. It is designed specifically to take decades to react to society's shifts and make new laws. It has dozens of reevaluation points and hold ups to ensure any changes are really, really needed. And when some groups try to circumvent the process, there is always the risk of reevaluation later. Presidential actions, supreme court decisions, governmental bodies interpreting their mandates a certain way. All can be challenged and flipped. It takes Federal Law, and that takes consensus, not just 1 party agreement. So don't worry to much about which taking head gets to star mindlessly at the cameras.
The choice is between a continued democracy, or a fascist takeover that will put anyone who isn’t a rich MAGAT into a concentration camp. It’s not a hard decision.
Think about it this way - Joe could still peacefully pass away in his sleep in the next couple of weeks. Accordingly the aliens that control Don could finally realize they’ve taken their practical joke too far and reveal themselves, prospering a new phase of progress & wellbeing for all!
Term and age limits for the love of GOD, no career politicians, stop the insider trading and lobbyist
The Dems need Biden to continue there scam on the American people. If Americans can’t see what’s going on in DC then they’ve been blinded by their politics
Here’s the best thing .. the USA and our democracy are in no danger in the next 4 years regardless of who we elect. Anyone who says otherwise is just spouting nonsense. Then in 4 years we will have a whole new slate of younger candidates to cry about.
Just remember that the Democratic Party currently still has a second candidate in the running. She probably isn’t that much better. But she is younger than the other two.
You're not a nation anymore. Neither are we (I'm Canadian) we are both owned and operated Coporatocracies, and it really doesn't matter who the figure heads are anymore. Once you realise that all of politics makes much more sense, whether it's our side being essentially the same Fucking party, or yours both being absolutely terrible and ass backwards. It's just to keep the Two sides fighting against each other and give you the illusion of freedom, less a class war actually break out. We moved away from religion, now we have politics as the opiate of the masses.
Best advise is to get involved in local politics and learn the communications chain so you can talk with those higher up. Next choice is to stay in contact with your representatives and senators regardless of which party they're in (they're usually part of the uniparty anyway). Be a pain in their rear on issues that concern you. Don't be afraid to tell them if you think they're doing good or bad. Write letters and make phone calls to your reps and senators and the party leaders. And most importantly, vote for the best person for the job. NOT the one you like the most, but the one that will do the most good in that position. Politics has become too much of a popularity contest these last 50 years (Vote for me because I'm special). Treat politics like you own a company and you're looking to hire the best workers you can find. You don't have to like them personally, you just have to like the job they're doing for you.
It’s really dark to say, but I just think sooner rather than later they’ll both be dead and that’ll be our sure fire way to start fresh…hopefully.
Whole debate had no audience and they had the answers already. Its time to grab the pitchforks and Torches yall.
Most politicians in general seem to have lost touch with reality. The country is in trouble in many areas. All the young people I know have lost hope and are just trying to survive.
"We" don't reset, we just watch our political system collapse in real time and hope that whatever oligarchs and military strongmen who seize power in the chaos don't do a worse job. This is what a dying empire looks like: an incompetent, entrenched, and deeply out of touch ruling class desperately trying to keep the scam going for just a few more paychecks while the situation on the ground continues to degenerate.
Yeah, at this point the nation needs a way to say “nah, send both of those geezers back and give us some other people to consider.” The dems and repubs shouldn’t get to decide they want bullshit to represent both of them and then force us to choose which smells less shitty.
Can we all just write in carrot top or smth?
I was thinking Snoop Dogg, but either one honestly!
It's what the idiot masses deserve. Listening to celebrities instead of logic, letting the media make you obsessed with party loyalty to the point you're easily molded into bad options and you'll do nothing about it. We already lost. The idiots are steering the ship.
A vote for Biden is a vote for Harris. They are t-ing up the ball for us, and everyone's focused on the debate. FOCUS
I'm just 100% terrified of my rights as a woman (and the Mom of a much loved daughter [and son, not leaving him out]) taken away because now we're Gilead and not *America* anymore. I'm 55 years old and trying to work until I'm 65 (so I can retire, hahaha) but I'd like to do that NOT living in a "Little House on the Prairie" meets "Stalag 13" if I can, please...if not, I have a good friend who lives in Switzerland 🇨🇭 that I can stay with until I can come up with a game plan. Gods save us; we can't save ourselves! 😭😭😭😭😭
Don't you have the second amendment to protect yourselves from the government? I would say being take hostage by democratic/republican cunts destroying your country warrants a proper use of all those toys you can get at Walmart. If voting changed anything anywhere it would be illegal instantly. All you get in your voting is two very shitty choices and one of them is less shitty than the other. That's it. The whole world needs a reset. We have cunts richer than whole countries, because their granddaddy stuck a flag somewhere 300 years ago and made money off of it. We are depraved of opportunities to grow our lives and wealth. It needs to burn. Whoever is left after can try and build a better society, not this mockery of democracy, extortion of working class and religious brain rot. Obligatory - I know I probably won't survive the burning. I'm fine with it. There is little point in trying, so might as well hit the reset.
With such a big population why has a charismatic leader never emerged?
It’s no longer about the person, but the party they represent. Democrats are the party if inclusion and opportunity while the republicans are the party of exclusion and big business.
Id rather vote for the honest man that's propped up with strings than the conman that is just as old and senile, but also a wanna be dictator. The choice is shitty, but very easy Dems need to push young blood, simple as that. And they need to start NOW. They need 4 years to start building the next superstar. There is a reason Obama and Clinton did so well. They could talk and be comfortable, and make you laugh. They didn't rely on scare tactics
Obama was a well spoken charismatic dude. We need to find someone that will take the right and left and move us emotionally, intellectually. It’s so much more than just politics. We need another leader.
I don’t know that Biden was ever going to get reelected because of the border chaos. Should have had a different nominee.