Both the president and his reelection campaign are going after his coup-attempting predecessor even before the first GOP primary ballots are cast.
A full year out from the 2024 presidential election and nearly two months before Republicans cast their first primary ballots, President Joe Biden and his campaign are assuming that Donald Trump will be his opponent and have already started reminding voters why they threw him out of office in the first place.
Biden personally has stepped up criticism of his coup-attempting predecessor and is framing the likely rematch as one that will determine the survival of American democracy.
“The same man who said we should terminate the rules and regulations and articles of the Constitution — these are things he said — is now running on a plan to end democracy as we know it,” he said last week at a fundraiser in Chicago.
“This next election is different. It’s more important. There’s more at stake. And we all know why: Because our very democracy is at stake,” he told a San Francisco audience on Wednesday.
History suggests the exact opposite.
Consider healthcare and Obamacare. What happened when people unhappy with Obamacare not going far enough didn’t vote in 2010? The US swung rightward and the far right grew in power. The only thing that happened with healthcare was the constant Republican attempts to repeal it, and they were almost successful. We almost saw regression on the issue, not improvement.
Think about this another way – if reelection is a vindication to the politics and means their voters see no need to hold them accountable, what happens if a Republican wins? They’ll see their positions as justified and be emboldened. The country will seem to favor conservatism, so Democrats will go the opposite direction and become more moderate. A Republican victory isn’t seen as Democrats needing to be more left and a Democrat victory isn’t seen as Republicans being to be more right. It’s the complete opposite.
The problem is that you’re forgetting this is a zero sum game. If you hold the Democrat accountable, you let the Republican slide. If you hold the Republican accountable, you let the Democrat slide. If you want to hold both accountable and just not vote, you’re letting the candidate at an advantage slide and holding the underdog accountable. There’s no good option. If you want to actually hold both of them accountable, you have to vote FOR the one that’s closer the direction you want to go, and then use your vote as leverage. Politicians listen a lot more to their voters than go non voters. Young people are putting real pressure on Biden because they previously voted for him.
That’s what I’m doing by threatening to withhold my vote! That’s how pressure works. We put pressure on him by making sure his campaign knows “no ceasefire, no votes”. I helped him get into the white-house and I won’t help again if he doesn’t listen.
All you blue-no-matter-who voters have absolutely zero pressure you can apply. You’re locked in. Your voice is worthless.
Please tell me how you can apply pressure without withholding your vote. Calling? They let it go to voicemail. Writing? Shredder.
democrats just have been becoming more conservative. I dont expect that trend to change anytime soon and Im no longer going to support it.
and he ignored that pressure so Im no longer voting for him.
Firstly, that’s untrue. Over the last decade Democrats have demonstrably moved left, and even academic analyses have observed it. Second, as I said, Democrats become more conservative when conservatives win. There’s a reason why Bill Clinton was more conservative than other Democrats and why his approach actually worked. The Third Way, as they called it, was their answer to Republican dominance from Reagan onwards.
Like it or not, Republicans kept winning, and Clinton saw that as an indication that voters were conservative and Democrats were too liberal for what voters wanted. Since then however, the country has shifted leftwards, and Third Way has become unsuccessful because of it. If you don’t vote and Republicans win, and they keep winning, don’t be surprised when Democrats shift to the right because they think voters are conservative. Your actions are perpetuating rightward movement, not stopping it.
Voting for someone isn’t the same as supporting them. That isn’t what a vote indicates. Your vote for someone simply means that you think they’ll do better than the other person or that person is more closely aligned to your beliefs. It’s not like you’re sending a love letter. You’re picking leadership based on who’ll perform better to achieve the goals you want. Voting is a calculated move, not an act of passion.