614
We'll have a long memory as things get worse for working class Americans, minorities and women
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
614 points (73.3% liked)
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Given how Harris was chosen, I'm really not sure this is the year to make that argument.
I look at the 2016 primaries, and the 2020 primaries, and I have little reason to expect people to suddenly show up for the primaries. They just show up to bitch about their lack of choice leading up to the election.
2016 and 2020 make great examples of how the Democratic establishment rallies around their preferred candidate to ensure that The centrist choice wins. There was a lot of activism in the primaries, how in the world can you call that "showing up to bitch"? Then this year Biden conveniently did not allow us to have primaries.
You really can't tell progressives to just "vote in the primaries" when it's very clear that Democrats will do everything in their power to prevent a progressive from being nominated.
I agree with everything you say. At the same time, if more of the people bitching about the ultimate candidate actually voted in the primaries they may have made a difference. I get it. Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, everybody knows that the good guys lost.
I want to push back on this. "The people bitching" were probably out knocking doors for their candidate with me. It's just one more insult that moderates use. We don't have the massive get out the vote machine that the establishment does, but my guess is that the most vocal people are pretty active.
"May" is doing a whole lot of heavy lifting here.
The DNC is a private entity able to pick it's candidate however it deems fit. The primaries are like a basketball game where the refs are wearing the other team's uniforms.
We dont need it. Progressives just need to be the difference between centrists winning and centrists losing, and in this election we are. We hold tremendous power here and we shouldnt feel powerless in this case and just do what we are told.
People protest voting in the primaries is part of why Biden dropped this election. It proved he didn't have the support.
In 2020 Bernie Sanders won 3 of the 4 primaries that happened and was projected to win more before the DNC forced every other candidate to drop and support Biden for a cabinet position that they didn't even fulfill for any candidate actually left of Biden (poor Warren). And then they announced an early win for Biden because of it.
And in 2016 the DNC had to say they didn't have to pick who was voted for because they had literally performed under the table agreements and deals to help Clinton.
I also agree we have to deal with what we gave got. Vote with who we have and suck it up as much as possible.
But, hand waving and blaming it on the primaries where obviously people did go out to vote and there is deeply something wrong and corrupt about it is also disingenious to the people that put the work in but were stopped.
We all want to blame some part of the chain, some specific link for why this is bad, but the answer is that there is corruption and apathy all over the place and we all want to find some answering flaw when it's clear it's all broken. It won't be because of a specific voter or non voter it will be because this setup is nearing its limits of what it can acheive on rolling along as is.
It was Biden/Harris. He stepped down, but that doesn't suddenly mean that she has to. And with the way the rules around succession and such are worded, especially campaign finance, she was the only choice. Because she was already the VP nominee.
But most importantly, Biden stepped down for the good of the country, and Harris has stepped up.
I think the parent poster's point is that Biden didn't have to win a primary this time, because they didn't have one.
Except there was a Democratic Primary. It's just that no one runs against an incumbent.
Biden could have decided not to run at any point. Many people were calling for him not to run and he didn't suddenly become an 80 year old.
Biden waited until after the primaries to step down. I'm glad he's gone, but "she was the only choice" because of Biden's choice.
You can't tell progressives "Vote in the primaries!" when you don't even hold primaries.
Just because you didn't pay attention to the primaries, doesn't mean they didn't happen.
There were primaries, and even a few jackasses who ran against Biden. They didn't win. Biden did. Then the debate happened and every media org out there focused on the "Biden old" narrative until he was forced to drop out.
Then the Republicans start pretending that we need to redo the primaries because Harris didn't have top billing on the ballot that she was on. Because they're racist and misogynistic jackasses who argue in bad faith.