Sure, yet in the New Hampshire primary, Biden wasn’t even ON THE BALLOT and he won through popular support and a write-in campaign. If he is so unpopular, how did he pull that one off?
Good job moving the goal posts. Or, did you think we wouldn’t notice?
I didn’t say he’s unpopular, though he is. In fact, he’s the most unpopular president at this point in his presidency in US history, since polling has been a thing. The reason Democratic voters “Like” him is because he isn’t Trump. They don’t actually like him for himself.
Trump, on the other hand, the people that want to vote for him REALLY want to vote for him.
Frankly, I think Biden is the only person the Democratic party could field that would lose to Trump. Conversely, I think anyone on the Republican side but Trump would beat Biden.
But, all of this is besides the point. You weren’t arguing that Biden was popular. You were arguing, and I quote:
Who did “the establishment” block from running? You want to go make Bernie run somehow or something? Get the conspiracy theory nonsense out of here. People choose whether or not they will run.
And it is kind of hard to run if you aren’t even on the fucking ballot. You also implied that people who recognize the public fact that 5 states have removed everyone but Biden from the primary ballot are conspiracy theorists when in fact, they’re just not ignorant of current events like you seem to be.
I’m not entirely sure how to respond to this, seeing as your quote is of a comment made by Candelestine, so I’m not 100% sure this was intended as a response to me in the first place. Nevertheless, I do have some thoughts to share.
Main thought - I agree with you. We’re clearly on the same side, arguing about nuance. Biden is super unpopular. I’m not entirely sure he’s unpopular for the right reasons, but that doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t poll well.
I also agree that the main reason he’s even in the race is because he’s the only one who has ever beaten Trump. I, like many others, am terrified of a future where Trump wins and ushers in a fascist dictatorship. Thus, the party wants to back a proven winner. We’re going for the least bad option here in a choice between ol Joe and a Christo-fascist state.
If there was another Democrat out there with similar name recognition who had raised their hand, we might be having a different conversation, but conventional wisdom dictates that something really catastrophic would have needed to happen under Biden to change the math on the incumbent advantage. On reflection, while Biden still isn’t my favorite, his administration has done a lot of things right. I’ve lived through both options and there’s no contest, for me, between 4 more years of Joe or 4 more years of Trump.
Regarding winning a primary without being on the ballot or campaigning - the results in NH speak for themselves. If there was an alternative who stood a chance there wouldn’t be any discussion about being on the ballot in any state. Since we already know the Dems are going all-in on Joe, the goal now is to keep the message as clear as possible and minimize muddying the waters with spoiler candidates. It wouldn’t be an issue if every state used ranked choice voting, but we need every vote and first past the post makes spoilers extremely costly.
Sure, yet in the New Hampshire primary, Biden wasn’t even ON THE BALLOT and he won through popular support and a write-in campaign. If he is so unpopular, how did he pull that one off?
Good job moving the goal posts. Or, did you think we wouldn’t notice?
I didn’t say he’s unpopular, though he is. In fact, he’s the most unpopular president at this point in his presidency in US history, since polling has been a thing. The reason Democratic voters “Like” him is because he isn’t Trump. They don’t actually like him for himself.
Trump, on the other hand, the people that want to vote for him REALLY want to vote for him.
Frankly, I think Biden is the only person the Democratic party could field that would lose to Trump. Conversely, I think anyone on the Republican side but Trump would beat Biden.
But, all of this is besides the point. You weren’t arguing that Biden was popular. You were arguing, and I quote:
And it is kind of hard to run if you aren’t even on the fucking ballot. You also implied that people who recognize the public fact that 5 states have removed everyone but Biden from the primary ballot are conspiracy theorists when in fact, they’re just not ignorant of current events like you seem to be.
I’m not entirely sure how to respond to this, seeing as your quote is of a comment made by Candelestine, so I’m not 100% sure this was intended as a response to me in the first place. Nevertheless, I do have some thoughts to share.
Main thought - I agree with you. We’re clearly on the same side, arguing about nuance. Biden is super unpopular. I’m not entirely sure he’s unpopular for the right reasons, but that doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t poll well.
I also agree that the main reason he’s even in the race is because he’s the only one who has ever beaten Trump. I, like many others, am terrified of a future where Trump wins and ushers in a fascist dictatorship. Thus, the party wants to back a proven winner. We’re going for the least bad option here in a choice between ol Joe and a Christo-fascist state.
If there was another Democrat out there with similar name recognition who had raised their hand, we might be having a different conversation, but conventional wisdom dictates that something really catastrophic would have needed to happen under Biden to change the math on the incumbent advantage. On reflection, while Biden still isn’t my favorite, his administration has done a lot of things right. I’ve lived through both options and there’s no contest, for me, between 4 more years of Joe or 4 more years of Trump.
Regarding winning a primary without being on the ballot or campaigning - the results in NH speak for themselves. If there was an alternative who stood a chance there wouldn’t be any discussion about being on the ballot in any state. Since we already know the Dems are going all-in on Joe, the goal now is to keep the message as clear as possible and minimize muddying the waters with spoiler candidates. It wouldn’t be an issue if every state used ranked choice voting, but we need every vote and first past the post makes spoilers extremely costly.