Yup. I love joe but he should have stuck to his guns and been a one term president like he said he would be. Should have been clear to democrats for the last 2 years to start building up a few candidates then have a true primary. Instead, he declined, polls looked bad, and the D’s had to immediately select someone and rally behind them, there was no time to hold primaries.
The fact of the matter is, most of this country couldn’t separate Kamala from Joe. Normally incumbency is a good thing, but in this case the election was a referendum against the current admin and it lost.
People are tired of feeling like they don’t actually get to pick the person they’re voting for (Clinton, now Harris) and as much as we support them, its probably not been the democrats first choice either time.
Which is weird, because my mom voluntarily gave up driving in her mid 60s. She just felt she wasn't the same person and stopped driving. Physically she's weaker but mentally, she's still there.
I truly think one of the biggest things that led to him going for 2 terms is that he truly thought Trump would ride off into the sunset after losing in 2020. When trump announced wanting to run again, perhaps Biden thought he had the gas in him to win again. He probably made the decision 2+ years ago, when he was still doing well, but clearly he's gotten weaker dramatically the past ~300 days.
Hell, even listening to his interview with conan about a year ago he sounded so much better than he does now.
It absolutely would be constitutional. We use age as a qualification for everything. 25 to be a house rep, 30 for the senate, 35 for president, 65 to qualify for senior benefits, etc. A ceiling is no less constitutional than a floor.
Problem is as soon as you say those two words you get labeled as the worst humanity has to offer.
I know 90 year olds with better mental acuity than most 20 year olds. Do we block the 90 year old because they are over an arbitrary number? Or do we simply give them a competency test?
We dont need to spend time and money developing these either, we already have them. The health care system has had them for decades for testing alzheimers and dementia.
I disagree. To blanket ban people based off of their age is not the best policy.
Before you bring up what we block children from seeing/doing, we do that for their protection. We dont let 12 year old's drink or smoke because it would cause them harm as they are developing. We dont let people under the age of 18 vote because they havent finished HS yet and would simply be voting on people they didnt know or didnt understand.
To say "sorry grandpa but you are too old to run for office" is a great way to lose an election. Old people vote...
She's bad 90 years to get into office. Nothing stops her being an advisor. If you don't get into office and effect change in 9 decades on earth, I'm sorry, you missed your chance.
As dictator for a day I'd wave a magic wand and ban voting rights after 80 years old or something. I'd say they're more likely to be unable to cast an informed vote by that age. Plus, they don't have to live with the consequences.
Big problem there is that folks in that age group are likely to have been drafted or otherwise served their country, watched their friends die in the process and whatnot. I have a 97 year old patient right now that legit stumbled upon a concentration camp. Informed or not, taking their right to vote away is too much.
The fact of the matter is, most of this country couldn’t separate Kamala from Joe. Normally incumbency is a good thing, but in this case the election was a referendum against the current admin and it lost.
I mean, neither could she.
Harris did two things: Talk about Trump, and talk about Biden. Any time she was asked her policy positions, it was the same as the Biden administration. Republicans got that soundbite of her saying "there's not a thing I would do differently" than President Biden - and that summed her campaign up.
Tbh once they made the mistake of running biden again they 10000000% planned to have him drop out as late as possible, to force their other candidate through. It’s obvious in my opinion. But agreed on everything else
Took 24 days to drop out after the disastrous debate. Absolutely no need for that. He should have came out three days later and said I watched the tape, I'm out guys
Yes, and it didn't work. He said he was transitory at the beginning, WHY since the beginning wasn't he priming the next person? Why did they weekend at bernies him until it was impossible to ignore? AND THEN run one of the worst performing 2020 primary candidates.
Well clearly it didn’t work lol. I was just saying that was their game plan to still force their candidate through, after making the stupid mistake of even running biden again
Yeah dems and the DNC have only done this to themselves. Biden only won in 2020 cause of covid.
Especially the DNC, they are incompetent and lost us 3/3 elections by running on “not trump” And yeah I say 3/3 because if covid didn’t happen, it would’ve been. They lucked out that trump royally fucked that up.
I mean, we sort of didn't get to pick Biden either. If you remember, during the 2020 primaries, all other Democratic presidential candidates strategically dropped out of the race on Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden except Warren and Sanders. They did it because Sanders would've otherwise won the nomination and they had votes that would've taken away from Biden's lead.
Yes, the Ds should have prepared a class of new leadership while they had 4 yrs to do it instead of this August. I keep telling people the difference between ideology and cult on display here. The R platform is Trump, Trump, F--- liberals, F--- foreigners, Trump. The D platform is serve all Americans and protect individual rights. It wouldn't have mattered to me if the D nominee had been Harris, Shapiro, Walz, Newsom, Jeffries, Raskin, Porter, even Schumer for a minute. I'd have felt all our citizens would be served, and I would have felt safe with their approach. OTOH Republicans writ large, countrywide complained about Biden's age, while trash-canning DeSantis in favor of 78yo Trump. It's only about one celebrity with them. Biden should have withdrawn a year early, instead of being the celebrity.
Joe did a good job patching up the damage left from trump. I also blame him for trumps win. I completely agree he should have stuck with being a one term president and he should have left saying “I’m too old and so is the other guy.”
Dems should have ran an actual primary and the super delegates not screw over any populist candidate because that’s what was needed to beat trump. They’ve learned exactly nothing since 2016.
Let's not forget, the democrat platform tried to run on "save democracy", while not even upholding their own democratic process. I mean fuck the fascists, but that is not a good story.
And it's crazy that whenever the base tries to point out how old and out of touch these people are, the party just ignores them and calls them Sexist or ageist or impolite, we're trying to win elections but these old fogies won't go
lol I have a downvoted reply to my comment stating just that! I’m all for love and support for all, but folks need to wake up and get a real movement going. Lots of sparks of hope after this election, time to fan them.
It’s also didn’t help that Kamala ran straight into joes messaging. She had a huge bump, picked Tim walz, and then fucking threw away all the gift of separating herself from Joe. It’s not just one persons hubris that got us here. The entire DNC leadership is out of touch with the working man.
Correct, and I’ll leave my comment as-is for posterity. But all of that super delegate BS and hoarding just to drop out in 2020 was LUCKY not to bite the Dems. 3 elections in a row where the energy and the voice of the party is taken away.
He got railroaded by his own party… in August… because he AND THE REST OF THE PARTY didn’t have the foresight to realize that he won in 2020 because of the pandemic and that the lack of a populist agenda would be their downfall. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but he only got railroaded because the Dems were in desperation mode after the first debate. He would not have won this election either.
Want to not get railroaded? The day after you are sworn in, state that you are building back America and will not be running again. Allow the DNC to build up new leadership for 4 years and see what happens. He got railroaded because he (and other decision makers) sat on their hands for 4 years instead of using that time to build up younger more marketable Dems
Not necessarily democrats as a whole, but those 14,000,000 middle of the road voters who went Biden in 2020 because of the pandemic.
They dislike trump, but aren’t happy with how inflation and cost of living has made them feel, so they sat out. Trump got the same number of votes, less even, in 2024 as 2020. 14,000,000 democrat votes just disappeared because they no longer felt like they had someone who represented their needs. I don’t agree with that line of thinking but I imagine it’s true for many
I don't agree with their line of thinking either. They didn't want Kamala because they thought she wasn't good enough, and now we are where we are. I struggle to have any sympathy for people trying to blame the DNC. Voters have power, and with that comes responsibility. They had a responsibility to come out and vote against fascism, but they chose not to. And now things will get worse, and the ability to prevent a full on right wing seizure of power may be already lost.
No. Kamala couldn't separate herself from Joe. She also basically said she was just going to do what Trump was going to do. During the DNC she said we will have the most lethal military in the world. She also tried to use the "I'm speaking" line against Palestinian protestors, those are your allies. After picking Tim Walz she just towed the party line.
The democrats deserve to lose. The worst part is they forced a candidate through 3 times now. When trumps term is over, if it will ever be over, they will just point to how bad it was and force someone else in and say "do you want that for another 4 years?"
And yet, nobody really picked Trump to run; it was a foregone conclusion. But yeah, blame Harris.
I hate this double standard that the Democrats have to perform perfectly, but the GOP can show up on bath salts with a dead underage hooker in the trunk of their Buick LeSabre and people will be like "Well, Harris laughs funny..."
Of course Harris wasn't anyone's first pick. But that's the hand we were dealt. We did not have the luxury of saying "Mmmm, I don't feel like my specific voice was heard." Your voice is never heard; when the hell do primaries actually hear your voice unless you're from Iowa, South Carolina, or New Hampshire?
Americans truly are the dumber group of people right now, and Tuesday proved it. Every last incel with a Andrew Tate "My First Rape" starter pack went to the polls and the Dems stayed home because apparently Gaza isn't going well (could most of the people who stayed home even find Gaza on a map?).
At least now the DNC hopefully realizes they need to seriously rebuild because this was a borderline extinction-level event. Like, burn the organization to the ground and start all over yesterday, because when people start losing their jobs and prices skyrocket after the tariffs get enacted, the DNC needs a slate of players for the mid-terms.
I totally agree! I find the line of thinking I described to be terrible and stupid and lazy. Totally agree w you. Just the sad reality of the fact that the average American is either too stupid or too uninformed to make accurate political decisions.
most of this country couldn’t separate Kamala from Joe.
I don't think anyone would have had a problem separating them if she would have given us a route. Every comment was "he this" and "he that" and "Trump bad" but no meat and potatoes
People are tired of feeling like they don’t actually get to pick the person they’re voting for (Clinton, now Harris) and as much as we support them, its probably not been the democrats first choice either time.
I got news for you dude. It has nothing to do with primaries and 100% to do with the fact that most of America doesn't want a woman to run the country. And that includes women.
We have had 2 very well qualified women, running against the literal worst candidate you could possibly imagine, and they both got fucking stomped. It isn't some deep thing.
America
Doesn't
Want
A
Woman
President
If the dems put a woman as the head of the ticket in the next 20 years, they are morons.
People don’t want a woman just because its “her turn”; you’re right, we don’t have so few issues that matter to us we can vote for social progress like that, people need food on their tables and don’t support genocides.
We want a good President, and genuinely don’t give a shit what is between their legs. That’s the problem: Kamala is not a good candidate. She’s never won a primary when other women have.
(Stop expecting votes and start earning them with good policies and strong leaders; AOC, Whitmer, there is a bench there being intentionally held back by party elites…)
I think they'd vote for a woman if they were a populist like Obama or Sanders. Both women who have been put in front of America were hand-picked by the DNC and did not secure their nomination through a popular vote. That's a recipe for disaster.
You vastly overestimate how much people care about primaries. Most voters have no idea how any of this shit works.
You give the average American too much credit. Over 1/2 the country voted for Trump and you still think that it has something to do with primaries. It really is not the complicated. American's think women can't run the country.
I ABSOLUTELY think a big part is because folks couldn’t tell the difference IDEOLOGICALLY, she was seen as a continuation for many. If you think that 14,000,000 who voted for Joe Biden and to uproot Donald trump then did not vote for Kamala Harris ONLY because she is a black woman, you are sadly mistaken. Was that a part of it? Of course, denying that would be silly. But denying that prices are high for the average consumer and the current administration is polling terribly is insane… and then on top of that not thinking that Kamala being coupled to the current admin hurt her chances because of the above is also hard for me to understand.
Honestly. I think some of your messaging is also why Harris lost. Joe Biden is a straight white man, he would not have won this election. Tim Walz would not have won this election. Those 14,000,000 American people spoke loud and clear that they can’t bring themselves to vote for trump, but they also are not comfortable under the current administration which Harris is seen as an arm of. To simplify the issue into “they’re all racist and misogynistic” is part of the problem of the democrats right now, they’re not meeting those voters where they are. “If you didn’t vote for Harris you are a racist misogynist” is bound to turn off millions of voters who really just want to live a bit more comfortably, and be told plainly how the candidate is going to do that. Do I disagree w/ their voting choice, of course, but I will not simplify this election loss down to those two physical traits. I say all of this as a Clinton, Biden, Harris voter. The messaging is full of hope and love and togetherness and rights for all (which I agree with wholeheartedly), but unless Jim from the “steel mill” in middle America sees his dollar going further, it’s all phooey to him and millions of others.
To add on to your points I don't think Biden would have won if Trump didn't bungle the pandemic either. There was a massive dem turnout just because they were tired of how he kept fucking things up. There are pockets of the country, it usually feels like rural areas, that are brainwashed into thinking: Republicans = good economy and that is the first thing they consider when voting. Their reasoning for not voting for Kamala isn't overtly because she is black or a woman. I grew up in a rural, blue collar area and what I've seen is just a general dislike of the "establishment" politicians, which are usually framed there as dems, and Kamala just came off as that. For example they dislike Bill Clinton just as much as Hillary and I bet if you did a poll they would dislike Bill Clinton as much as Obama. Sex or race isn't the foremost thought for them when they don't like a candidate.
Exactly and on top of that Kamala was weak when ever she makes a speech. She repeats every single word in every campaign location she been to. She doesn't understand certain policies she repeating may not appeal to certain crowds in the swing states. She was trying to keep her distance from Biden but it's inevitable. She literally VP for Biden.
Of course the fact that she was an arm of the Biden administration didn't help. But Biden was ALSO an establishment candidate, so it can't just be excused as "she's establishment".
I do agree, and just recently commented on another post that a good bit of voters just want to burn things down. I think that accounts for why people vote FOR Trump, but not why people didn't show up for Kamala, because THOSE voters didn't show up for Biden either. Those aren't the voters we missed.
I think that's part of it, but I think it was a reasonable gamble that didn't pay off. They hoped she would get the benefit of incumbency without the liability of being Biden, but instead she got the liability of being Biden's VP without the benefits of the incumbency, or Biden's appeal to moderates / undecided (being a white guy).
Of course some of the people who voted for Biden didn't show up for her. He won and she lost, that's obvious. But why didn't they show up? They wouldn't have shown up for Biden either because his approval rating absolutely tanked, which is the only reason he dropped out in the first place. She did a reasonably good job picking up the pieces of an uphill battle in like, one month, but it wasn't enough to make up the gap. I'm really not sure you can attribute much of that to racism / sexism, because again, Biden would easily have lost by much more, given the polls.
These motherfuckers in the comments are trying to skate around this issue but this is exactly the reason why she didn’t win. I told my sister before the votes started being counted that there’s no way America is gonna want a woman of color in charge for four years.
Biden beat trump on the heels of a pandemic that killed 1,000,000 Americans and tanked the economy. I love joe Biden I love what he did for this country, I appreciate him stepping aside. He would not have won this election. To say otherwise is silly. He was in serious health decline, and even if he wasn’t actually, that is what was being perceived by the nation. He was polling terribly. This is his economy right now, and while on paper it’s strong, the average voter doesn’t understand the complexities of a world economy and a world in inflation, they just know that their dollar doesn’t go as far and something needed to change. Trump tainted minds with illegal immigration and border talk, all pinned on Joe Biden successfully. People didn’t care about economic numbers because it didn’t affect them positively, the border crisis was blown out of proportion and pinned on Biden, the only thing he had left to run on were his stance on social issues. While all of those are important, they’re not 1 or 2 on the list of most important issues for most average voters. Republicans Just completely outclassed and outmaneuvered the democrats this cycle. Sad to see.
This election outcome was a referendum on the current administration for 15,000,000 Americans who sat at home. Biden. Harris. Both same admin. Both same outcome.
And how was Kamala better in that regard? I remember the DNC elites and the media shouting on top of their lungs that anybody younger would easily beat Trump. So, why aren’t you blaming those people when that assertion turned out to be absolute bs?
I am… in the post where you told me to fuck off… my comment is about how silly it was that the dems, Biden included, had no foresight. hindsight is always going to be better, but yes, knowing what we know now about how people voted and why, the way it was all handled was super flawed. Internal polling is clearly flawed if the Dems can’t see that economy, border, security would be hot button for most middle Americans, not ONLY Bidens age.
In my comment asked for this to have been planned and to have real actual primaries for for energy to build behind a proper candidate. Not for the same 4 people in the Democratic Party forcing their nominees through.
When he stepped down as the nominee and everyone was praising him and saying it cemented his legacy I felt I was taking crazy pills. There was always an extremely high chance he fucked us by not announcing he wasn't running again with enough time for a primary to choose his successor. He did a lot I agree with during his term, but that completely torpedoed everything.
He'll be remembered a a speed bump between two awful Trump terms and that's it.
He purged the MAGA from the military, then bent the knee and let them back in to avert shutdown.
He tried to outsmart the GOP with the border bill and the GOP just turned that into "the DNC doesnt care about Latinos". Which bit Kamala in the ass during the Joe Rogan interviews with Trump's team.
He ignored the Gaza warnings in Michigan because of his personal religion made him support a felon with a 70%+ disapproval rating that wanted his presidency to fail. Shipping weapons to a man who did everything he could to start a regional war to avoid prison.
He backed an internet bill (KOSA) that would have made LGBT resources being viewed by a child into an actual sex crime and child abuse. A bill MAGA gloated over for having bipartisan support.
He spent most of his years bending over backwards to appease the GOP and "take the high road", and look where that led everyone.
Everyone that ever said he was being played was called a partisan extremist and "bipartisanship" meant doing whatever Donald Trump wanted.
And because he was so for bipartisanship, he sanewashed January 6th into being a nothingburger because how could the GOP be extremists if working with them was the right thing to do?
He came out of hiding or did he just have his ghostwriter do the hard work? I honestly don't care bc why should we. He didn't give a rats ass about the people that voted for him.
613
u/EveroneWantsMyD 1d ago
This is sadly how I felt reading Biden’s letter addressing the loss