Former democratic party activists are organizing Muslims and Arab-Americans in Swing states to vote against Biden with the demand that he support a ceasefire in Gaza.

I'll allow them a little bit of electoralism this time.

  • StalinForTime [comrade/them]
    ·
    8 months ago

    The lesser evil argument for Biden is very weird to me because as a non-American it doesn't materially seem better than Trump. Objectively it's been equally bad if not worse, and while not all of that is due to particular features of Trump or the Dems, a think a decent amount is due to how viciously hawkish and shamelessly imperialist the Biden regime has been, from Ukraine to Israel and a lot more in between. Like on the international level I'd argue that Biden has been demonstrably more destructive.

    The most convincing 'lesser-evil' argument seems to me to basically be that a Trump presidency would be worse for minorities, for immigrants, non-white people, and LGBT people. Now I agree that they would be more likely to introduce federal-level legislation if they could, but I also haven't seen any real effort by the Biden gov to combat transphobic legislation by fascistic Republicans at the state or local level, or to do anything real for them for that matter. Again LGBT folks and racial minorities are a woke virtue-signalling marketing asset to be invested in for the Dems, as they base their electoral campaigns now no longer on class points, no longer appealing to working class interests (whereas the Republicans have positioned themselves as doing so), but instead appealing to those with college educations. I have comrades who argue that Trump would crack down harder on the left and make it more difficult to organize, but I'm not completely convinced by this. It's not become easier under Biden.

    In any event, I don't know how people can make a non-nationalist lesser-evil argument once you've seen Biden literally go on stage with Bibi and give unconditional support to apartheid, settler-colonialism and ethinic cleansing.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      ·
      8 months ago

      Legitimately think it's worse under Biden.

      Stopped labor strikes, stopped covid relief (motherfucker still owes me $600), student debt relief is gone, roe is gone, anti Trans laws are way worse, inflation is slowing down but everything's still twice what it cost 2 years ago.

      Literally the only difference is when there's a republican president republicans don't do as much to actively pass speople off and dems pretend to care about progressive issues.

      When there's a dem president liberals just tell minorities and poor people ro stop complaining because it's making them look bad and republicans do shit to whip up their base that democrats are completely unwilling to oppose.

      • tails__miles_prower [none/use name]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Agreed on everything. Especially student loans. It takes forever to get disability and Biden has put a time limit on how long you can go without a job. I dont think this was a thing before.

        • privatized_sun [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          judges nominated by the former administration,

          nice try, but everyone knows the Democrats strategy chose Trump (and other more fascistic right wing capitalists) because they can only get votes by showing off how they're a "lesser evil" like you believe:

          https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/

          2018: https://observer.com/2017/10/democrats-revive-failed-pied-piper-strategy-for-2018/

          2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/opinion/democrats-far-right-midterms.html "The Republican Party isn't capable of governing a democracy. And yet Democrats keep helping some of its most unhinged candidates."

          vote

        • crusa187@lemmy.ml
          ·
          8 months ago

          Biden had half a dozen good options for stopping this and did none of them. Restructuring the court, bullying the dems in Congress into passing a roe codifying law, declare a public health emergency, or open abortion clinics on federal lands. He did none of these, sadly, because Dems see Roe being overturned as a fundraising opportunity. All the women and children being harmed in the interim by government getting between them and their doctors be damned.

          Perhaps the most frustrating attribute of the Dems is when they do control the majority of governmental branches, they still do nothing, complaining all the while that republicans will yell at them if they do, or the senate parliamentarian won’t let them, or whatever bs excuse to not fight for their voters. However, someone dares to challenge the status quo, you’ll never see a dem more vicious. It’s pathetic, gross, and disheartening.

          • Creakybulks [he/him]
            ·
            8 months ago

            my personal favorite is whenever the dems have a majority a group of conservatives sprout up in the ranks of the party to vote down laws with any degree of progressive policy

        • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
          ·
          8 months ago

          Lol 'I have no argument against anything else and I don't actually understand how U.S. politics work, but I'm actually completely right and justified at being a snot-nosed little shit about it '

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Democrats were never the lesser evil, I'm also not American but it doesn't even take more than a simple look to understand this

      Bush 1 Iraq war

      Clinton Yugoslavia

      Bush 2 Iraq-Afghanistan

      Obama- More Afghanistan, drone campaign, Syria etc

      Trump - Syria, almost Iran, China

      Biden - Russia, Palestine

      If you want to add Bernie - anti-Cuban statements, pro-Israel statements, pro-Ukraine statements etc. Fucking loser is just another FP ghoul too.

      Meanwhile economically and socially the US continues to deteriorate since the beginning of the current neoliberal era(late 80s-90s) as you noticed and maybe Bernie gets a honorable mention for being just a bump on the steep downhill road, nothing more.

      Heck we noticed and commented some time now since the beginning of the Ukraine war that current FP is in some ways even more deranged than even what Kissinger would do. Indeed some would even say current policy makes Kissinger look competent in comparison. That's how bad it is. And to be honest some argument does mention that Kissinger was from an era where the US actualy somewhat respected their peer adversaries, these days its all end of history BS.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Biden was much more a hawk on China than Trump. Trump talked shit, Biden drastically escalated the trade war.

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]
            ·
            8 months ago

            I'm not praising Trump, if you somehow don't understand that. Trump is just too much of an arrogant moron who acts with little direction beyond merely saying things that appeal to his base and sometimes calling for such-and-such person to be killed.

        • carpoftruth [any, any]
          ·
          8 months ago

          he also campaigned as such - I will be tougher on china was a focus of his campaign in summer 2020

      • the_kid
        ·
        8 months ago

        good post, I'd also add Palestine '08 and '14 under Obama where Israel committed a lot of the same crimes as today, and Obama gave them his full unconditional support and said they have a right to defend themself.

        and maybe Bernie gets a honorable mention for being just a bump on the steep downhill road, nothing more.

        reminds me of Labour, where Corbyn was really only an a strange anomaly. Stürmer's the real continuation of Labour - saying cutting off water, food, fuel to Gaza is cool and good (human rights lawyer btw).

        Heck we noticed and commented some time now since the beginning of the Ukraine war that current FP is in some ways even more deranged than even what Kissinger would do. Indeed some would even say current policy makes Kissinger look competent in comparison. That's how bad it is. And to be honest some argument does mention that Kissinger was from an era where the US actualy somewhat respected their peer adversaries, these days its all end of history BS.

        the Kissinger era ghouls seemed to have a strategy they were following. I have no clue what the US is doing now. they're rapidly getting rid of any credibility they had, alienating allies in the area, etc. the empire is deteriorating fast.

    • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
      ·
      8 months ago

      In terms of foreign policy democrats have been dogshit, and as BynarsAreOk pointed out this isn’t new. I think it’s worth giving context why even a number of leftists are saying that Biden is the lesser of two evils with regards to FP, which really boils down to the fact that Trump’s more heavily genocidal policy aspirations were heavily dampened by resistance from dems and dissenting republicans. He basically called for BLM protestors to be massacred, he would be even more dogmatically in support of the Palestinian genocide based on what I know of him (and accordingly zionists love him), he started and popularized the sinophobic rhetoric and really ramped up anti Chinese FP in a way no other president that I know of has. Now, Biden hs continued many of these problems but a pattern seems to be established that the far right normalizes these things and the right (“moderate” republicans) and center right (dems) continue them. One of the major fears is that another term with Trump at the helm, especially if he has a republican majority in congress, the political ratchet will keep moving further at a much faster pace.

      • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        He basically called for BLM protestors to be massacred, he would be even more dogmatically in support of the Palestinian genocide based on what I know of him (and accordingly zionists love him), he started and popularized the sinophobic rhetoric and really ramped up anti Chinese FP in a way no other president that I know of has.

        He also went from some concrete steps towards normalizing relations with Iran under Obama to an actual exchange of fire with them. An attack on Iran is one of the more realistic imperialist ambitions and it would kill the most people of anything short of a nuclear exchange. He also stepped backwards on Cuba, though not to anywhere near the same degree.

        I think you can make a case that Republicans do worse things abroad in general, but that is quickly undercut by libs abandoning any sort of anti-imperialist sentiment whenever their guy is in the White House.

        ...the problem with that point is that libs railing against wars under a Republican president does not result in a Democratic president meaningfully changing anything. Where something approaching meaningful change has happened under a Democrat (the withdrawal from Afghanistan) libs have panned or ignored it, too (and of course Biden is sanctioning the hell out of Afghanistan now and I'm sure we're still fucning around with some version of the Islamic extremists we've bankrolled for the last half century, see the ETIM and Pakistan, generally).

        • D3FNC [any]
          ·
          8 months ago

          "Trump and Republicans are bad because he nearly started a war with Iran"

          Biden: hold my beer

    • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Liberals put money before morals, conservative-liberals put evil before money. Liberals go a lot less out of their way to be evil, while conservative-liberals will give up tons of free money in order to be evil. This is one reason to vote Dem.

      Secondly, America/NATO is getting its ass handed to itself, which is a good thing. I don't want them to try switching it up last minute. I want them to continue getting fucked in the ass. This is another reason to vote Biden.

      China's growing, India's growing, NATO is not getting back the land from Russia, African nations are kicking out France and other westoids from their territory. The current status quo honestly seems good (apart from the ecocide but Rs will only make this worse), and having an incompetent geezer in the white house trying all the same old tricks and not switching up the playbook is a good thing IMO

      In right wing, wignat circles, there's a lot of mental gymnastics they go through in order to avoid facing the elephant that wealth produces culture and innovation, rather than the other way around. One such trapeze routine is the "cold winters theory". Which holds that animals in cold climates evolve"smarter" because they have to "plan for the winter". Of course, this ignores the fact that plenty of tropical places have a dry season in place of a cold season, which requires just as much planning. More importantly, it ignores the very, very, very basic and fundamental truth that good things are good.

      Having warmth and rain year round (up to a point) is good. Having food is good. Having wealth is good. Having people in power who want to kill you less, is objectively a good thing. Don't be a chud, good things are good

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        8 months ago

        Trump used Title 42 against asylum seekers. Biden said "bad man" and stopped using Title 42 against unaccompanied minors. But Biden increased total enforcement by multiples. So is the "good thing" here actually just cover?

        • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          But Biden increased total enforcement by multiples.

          There's a pretty good chance anyone who came in would have done that though, since the ghoul machine just gets worse every semester

          the biggest difference is between the masses who vote for these politicians. The masses on one side don't want to go out of their way to kill gays and minorities. The masses on the other side do

          Also there's a ton of hi-resolution change that can happen in local politics because pretty much all good people are blue or will run blue. AOC is a sellout but if all of our politicians were AOC then that would become our new baseline, and the left would be able to go even lefter

          Not saying people should blindly vote blue, but yea