• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

2020 Presidential Election: Biden v. Trump

Great post on why progressives should back Biden from VA delegate Danica Roem. She originally posted this in response to someone complaining about having to choose between Biden and Trump.

https://www.facebook.com/danicafordelegate


I wrote this story about meeting Joe Biden as a reply to a comment a couple days ago. Several of you asked me to share this as its own status and given that he's accepting the Democratic nomination tonight, I'm happy to oblige.
This is why I'm supporting Joe Biden
 and Kamala Harris
 for President and Vice President of the United States of America:
---
I met Joe for the first time while he stood next to his son's flag-draped casket in Dover. I thanked him for raising a son with the character of Beau because when Beau as Delaware attorney general successfully fought to pass a trans rights bill, he was fighting for people like me.

Despite being exhausted from spending hours greeting well-wishers, Joe rested his hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eye and said, "We mean that. *We* mean that.*

He then kissed the back of my right hand and gave me a hug.

Two years later in October 2017, when I was tied dead-even in the polls against a 26-year incumbent, Joe endorsed my campaign and donated from his PAC, which gave us a huge momentum surge right before our first GOTV dry run.

On Election Night 2017, when 19/20 precincts had reported and I was just waiting on Prince William County absentees, my phone rang. I answered it and the person on the other end asked if I would like to speak to Joe Biden because he wanted to talk to me.

He was the one who broke the news to me that I won and that we changed what's possible in American politics.

He told me he remembered meeting me that day in June 2015 when he, as the sitting vice president of the United States of America grieving the loss of his son, was willing to tell a trans woman her rights were worth protecting.

When I finally saw him again in person the following year in 2018, when Joe saw me, he walked directly over to me. He remembered who I was. He gushed over how proud he was of everything we had accomplished in Virginia, especially since we were able to expand Medicaid to now 452,000+ Virginians and counting, which was made possible under the Affordable Care Act that Joe was tasked with shepherding through Congress.

Then in 2019, when everyone assumed my race was safe and I didn't need help, everyone started turning me down for help. It might not mean much the first few times it happens but after months and months and months of it, it starts to freak you out as a candidate when you're on the verge of not being able to afford to execute your full campaign plan for the final six weeks.

Joe didn't forget me.

He was the *only* national politician who endorsed my re-election campaign, the *only* one who took the time out to help down the home stretch.

There is no national, state or local politician with whom I agree on every issue. I'm the only member of the Virginia General Assembly who shares my voting record, which is the way it should be.

I could pick apart every single national presidential candidate who ran this year and identify their flaws and sins of the past -- all of them. Not one of them was or is perfect.

But the thing is, I don't expect perfection. I don't expect to agree all the time and definitely know there will be policy positions taken, votes cast or statements made that are really, really hard to accept because they'll hurt people.

What I'm looking for is someone who's learned, someone who's as close to honest as there is, and someone who's genuinely trying to do what they think is best while working to make our country more inclusive.

With his platform that includes a $15/hr minimum wage, a genuine commitment to infrastructure, prioritization of the Equality Act and a Medicare public option, I'm not planning to settle on anyone when I cast my vote.

I'm voting *for* Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, not just against Donald Trump and Mike Pence. I don't expect to agree with them on everything but I do expect those of us who want them to be bold to have a seat at the table. I expect them to default to doing the right thing to help people more often than to hurt people.

I expect them to make progress, even if it's more incremental than systemic.

I expect them to understand loss, to understand grief and to understand that we're counting on them to serve their constituents, so we have an administration that stops singling out and stigmatizing the very people they're elected to serve and starts figuring out how they can help us instead of hurt us.

I understand if you feel differently and disagree with my rationale and how I personally feel. I respect you and your viewpoint and appreciate you sharing it.

Warmly,
Danica
Click to expand...
 
The fact that progressives have to be convinced to vote for Biden tells me all I need to know about their collective intelligence.
 
Isn’t that what happened last time? Hillary got every major endorsement, generals, editorial boards, etc... Trump won anyway as a fuck you to those educated experts. Now round two is see the experts were right you rubes, oh yeah well fuck you im still voting for Trump.
 
Either Shields or Brooks made a good point Fri nite. Neither of the last 2 Pub presidents would want to go to the convention this week, nor would they be invited.
 
Louis Gossett Jr said:
Isn’t that what happened last time? Hillary got every major endorsement, generals, editorial boards, etc... Trump won anyway as a fuck you to those educated experts. Now round two is see the experts were right you rubes, oh yeah well fuck you im still voting for Trump.
Click to expand...

This is the portion of electoral season where the Dem establishment dances on the grave of the left and is so confident from winning their own primary that they believe they've got the election in the bag. Everything will predictably tighten up by October.
 
Can someone explain something to me? How is it that so many Americans think we’re so close to becoming a soviet style socialist state?

If the economic spectrum were a football field and one end zone was state economic control of everything and the other was pure capitalism with no government regulation, we’re currently at, say, the 20 yard line on the capitalism end. Countries like Norway are at the 45. Even implementing the ideas of the most extreme leftists in the US political space would only move us to the 35 or 40.

So why the chatter like we’re on the Soviet 20 heading for the end zone? Do people actually believe it or is it just scare rhetoric?
 
redwing42 said:
Agree. If you want any of that to mean anything, at least have the Covid map show new cases instead of a rising tally. This is very much someone in production saying "Hey... tie swing states into covid numbers. And stretch it into a full segment because we have to fill all this time somehow."
Click to expand...

plus, like, the entirety of Southern California is red and they conveniently skip over that

also Colorado, PNW
 
WFU03 said:
Can someone explain something to me? How is it that so many Americans think we’re so close to becoming a soviet style socialist state?

If the economic spectrum were a football field and one end zone was state economic control of everything and the other was pure capitalism with no government regulation, we’re currently at, say, the 20 yard line on the capitalism end. Countries like Norway are at the 45. Even implementing the ideas of the most extreme leftists in the US political space would only move us to the 35 or 40.

So why the chatter like we’re on the Soviet 20 heading for the end zone? Do people actually believe it or is it just scare rhetoric?
Click to expand...

People are idiots. It's really that simple.
 
DistrictDeacon said:
The fact that progressives have to be convinced to vote for Biden tells me all I need to know about their collective intelligence.
Click to expand...

Biden told the New Yorker he “had to be sure that Bernie was serious, that he wasn’t going to make this an ideological jihad”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/24/joe-biden-bernie-sanders-policy-goals-barack-obama


I fully reject the idea that progressives have to just accept Biden and not make him earn their vote
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
Biden told the New Yorker he “had to be sure that Bernie was serious, that he wasn’t going to make this an ideological jihad”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/24/joe-biden-bernie-sanders-policy-goals-barack-obama


I fully reject the idea that progressives have to just accept Biden and not make him earn their vote
Click to expand...

There's a huge shitcloud around Biden coming from all angles one moment he's trying to be the moderate candidate of swing voters, the next he's trying to be the most progressive candidate ever. The end result is that his campaign just looks deceitful. You try to please everybody and you're not going to please anyone. Pick a fucking lane and live with the consequences.
 
really wish the damn edit function worked. replace "swing voters" with "disaffected Republicans"
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
There's a huge shitcloud around Biden coming from all angles one moment he's trying to be the moderate candidate of swing voters, the next he's trying to be the most progressive candidate ever. The end result is that his campaign just looks deceitful. You try to please everybody and you're not going to please anyone. Pick a fucking lane and live with the consequences.
Click to expand...

So you won’t accept anybody trying to appeal to Progressives but complain that they won’t do it.
 
WFU03 said:
Can someone explain something to me? How is it that so many Americans think we’re so close to becoming a soviet style socialist state?

If the economic spectrum were a football field and one end zone was state economic control of everything and the other was pure capitalism with no government regulation, we’re currently at, say, the 20 yard line on the capitalism end. Countries like Norway are at the 45. Even implementing the ideas of the most extreme leftists in the US political space would only move us to the 35 or 40.

So why the chatter like we’re on the Soviet 20 heading for the end zone? Do people actually believe it or is it just scare rhetoric?
Click to expand...

Human beings are primarily emotional/narrative-driven creatures and skill in logic/argumentation is not a default or a given even though post-enlightenment discourse loves to structure itself around around the latter as an ideal. People are really fucking bad at argument - even those who study argumentation struggle with it. Also reality is largely constructed, so if we're defaulting to emotional/narrative-driven constructions of reality then some people are going to view the above as gospel, depending on the context of their communicative practices (who, what they're talking about; the symbolic economy they operate in).

Every time I see someone insist on the Reality (first-order reality) of a political situation and then get frustrated when their uncle on Facebook rejects this I die a little inside because they're missing the point.
 
PhDeac said:
So you won’t accept anybody trying to appeal to Progressives but complain that they won’t do it.
Click to expand...

Thats a stupid question. I accept progressives appealing to progressives, which often puts them at odds with moderates. I'm frustrated that ambassadors for Bidens campaign are giving opposing messages. Maybe his teem feels its good strategy for him to be ideologically undefinable, but I don't appreciate it.
 
PhDeac said:
So you won’t accept anybody trying to appeal to Progressives but complain that they won’t do it.
Click to expand...

There is no possible way to win with some people. I'm starting to think MDMH won't even vote for Biden. God, I wish he would confirm it either way --just need to know!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top