I'm actually pretty dang hopeful right now. The right has spent so much time and effort focused around Joe being old and tired, and now that is all dead in the water.
Now we have a new candidate starting from zero with many people, vs trump which is obviously very well known. In short I'm trying to say we have the element of surprise, the benefit of the unknown. They have to convince moderates that this new candidate is still somehow worse than trump, and these aren't the hard right people, these are the undecided (somehow) and centered voters.
Far right voters will always back trump, but the indecisive voters and moderate Republicans who don't like trump but fell for the years of propaganda against Biden have been wanting anyone who is better than Biden but not trump. Same with more centered Democrats, not that they wanted to vote for trump but Biden was not a great candidate for them either.
The rights whole plan was "Joe is so much worse than trump!" and they had 16 years of content to pull on. They can't do that again with a new candidate. People say they handed the election to Republicans. I think it's the opposite. I think Republicans demanding Joe drop out when anti Joe was their only message may have just accidentally handed the election to Democrats.
If the Dems come out strong on this I think it could shake up the whole election. I see people online saying doom and gloom, I strongly disagree, I think this is a huge rallying cry.
I wonder if Biden's stepping down was partly influenced by the assassination attempt. If he hadn't, the most prominent symbol of this election would still be that image of Trump screaming "fight" while pumping his fist against the background of the American flag. But if someone from a deserted island opened a news website today for the first time, they wouldn't even know there was an assassination attempt.
All there is left to do is to fucken send it. Talk to every democrat you know and make sure they know when and how they will vote on voting day and commit to it. Hit up all your younger friends (who might forgor 💀) get that young vote out there cause the older of us most likely know what we are doing already.
As Trump has proven, people will vote for an unqualified person so you really just need a warm body.
Nobody really knows. The situation is somewhat unprecedented.
If you’re asking for personal opinions: this was absolutely a catch-22. But I do think that it’s probably a good move in the pragmatic context of “find a way to beat the fascists”. I also think it’s hilighting some glaring flaws in our primary system that I hope will be fixed, but I don’t honestly expect to be.
Gotta imagine there are a few more surprises in store for the convention.
More threads mentioning Joe Biden in the title than Trump.
I think he will don pipe and slippers and spend his remaining time with his family. It's the right thing to do.
Well, he won't be running for president, so there's that.
All future articles regarding things the executive branch does will go from "Biden did X" to "The Biden-Harris Administration did X"
It will confuse the tankies until they can write and send out their weekly newsletter with all the fun slogans to use over the next 7 days.
I'd love to say it will change the likely outcome, but I'm pretty sure no candidate has ever been subbed in this late in the race and gone on to win. History says people prefer a known quantity. Even if Harris is the new candidate, people don't pay attention to VPs, so she is kind of an unknown quantity to your average voter. AFAIK she hasn't participated in any "proper" debates with Trump
On the other hand, assuming it is Harris, the right's attacks on her are likely to be a lot more openly bigoted, which will lead to less people wanting to vote Republican. The Republicans tend to do better when the criticisms of their opponents are based on something legitimately concerning, like Biden's age. We are about to see some incredibly disgusting rhetoric from republicans, and it's liable to make them less popular. Much as I dislike all establishment neoliberal democrats, I have to say I feel sorry for Harris for what she is about to endure if she becomes the nominee. The right has gotten a lot more bold in their willingness to take the mask off since Obama was president, so if you thought the shit he had to wade through was bad, it's nothing compared to what they will fling at Harris.
The biggest thing at this point is that it's way too late to have a primary, so whoever is selected, they will be subjected to the very legitimate criticism that they were simply appointed as the nominee by the DNC. That would have basically been true even if there was a primary, but at the very least the primaries create the illusion of a democratic process. People aren't going to be psyched to vote for Biden's last minute substitute.
Literally the end now for the USA. Handing the white house to Trump and Vance. This couldn't be worse. You're going to see all kinds of violence in the country. Kids shooting kids at school, cops shooting first asking questions never, women's rights to reproductive health taken away. Shits going to get real scary now.
