It Will Be an Election Unlike Any We’ve Lived Through. Are the Democrats Prepared?
newrepublic.com
Like it or not, 2024 has arrived. We’re in for 11 months of hell. But the outcome is far from preordained.

The animating concept behind the Trump campaign will be chaos. This is what history shows us fascists do when given the chance to participate in democratic political campaigns: They create chaos. They do it because chaos works to their advantage. They revel in it, because they can see how profoundly chaos unnerves democratic-republicans—everyone, that is, whether liberal or conservative, who believes in the basic idea of a representative government that is built around neutral rules. Fascism exists to pulverize neutral rules.

So they campaign with explicit intention to instill a sense of chaos. And then comes the topper: They have the audacity to insist that the only solution to the chaos—that they themselves have either grossly exaggerated or in some cases created!—is to vote for them: “You see, there is nothing but chaos afoot, and only we can restore order!”

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    121·
    11 months ago

    Because Biden is a lot closer to HW Bush than he is to Obama. One of the reasons he got the nod in the first place was his promise not to run for re-election. And where we are now is why.

    • SwampYankee
      31·
      11 months ago

      Biden specifically said he would not promise to serve one term.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        21·
        11 months ago

        Oh bullshit he said that once while telling everyone around him that he was a one term president. And he continually referred to himself as a transition president or a stopgap bridge to the next generation.

        The message was received by voters.

        • SwampYankee
          21·
          11 months ago

          https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/biden-single-term-082129

          Another top Biden adviser put it this way: “He’s going into this thinking, ‘I want to find a running mate I can turn things over to after four years but if that’s not possible or doesn’t happen then I’ll run for reelection.’ But he’s not going to publicly make a one term pledge.”

          …

          A top Biden adviser said Biden ruled out a one-term pledge when the issue was raised before he even entered the race. “He said it was a nonstarter,” the adviser said, adding that Biden believed it was a “gimmick.”

          …

          In April [2019], when asked whether he would serve just one term, Biden responded, “No.” More recently, Biden has been ambiguous. In October, The Associated Press reported that when “asked whether he would pledge to only serve one term if elected, Biden said he wouldn’t make such a promise but noted he wasn’t necessarily committed to seeking a second term if elected in 2020.”