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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  1734 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Joe Biden, Architect of Mass Incarceration

Any positive you can list for Biden is true of any of his political opponents within the Democratic party.

Just like the last Democratic nominee for President, he comes with a ton of political baggage that can, has been, and will be leveraged against him.

I've already committed to a Democratic vote come November. I am not making a 'both sides are the same' argument. I am in the position of watching the party that I want to succeed shoot itself in the head and foot simultaneously, after doing the same thing four years ago.

I'm falling in line, isn't that enough?





ghostoffuffle  ·  1734 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Man, I hate doing the line item thing, but I'm going to.

    Any positive you can list for Biden is true of any of his political opponents within the Democratic party.

I fail to see the direct line of reasoning between this statement and your original statement ("there is no positive case for Joe Biden"). So what if a broad swath of the Democratic lineup shared some positives? How does that then translate to "there are no positives for Biden"?

    Just like the last Democratic nominee for President, he comes with a ton of political baggage that can, has been, and will be leveraged against him.

Lemme FTFY:

    Just like EVERY nominee for President, he comes with a ton of political baggage that can, has been, and will be leveraged against him.

I'll demonstrate:

Bernie Sanders is a Socialist, and Socialism is bad, mkay?

Oh, no! There are vague and unfounded rumors that Biden has dementia! Guess what is a perfectly well-founded fact? Bernie Sanders had a fucking heart attack! And now he refuses to share his medical records! Wonder what he's hiding about the state of his health?

Bernie Sanders is a fucking hypocrite.

None of this is to slag on your preferred candidate. It is only to demonstrate that there's no such thing as an unassailable frontrunner.

    I am not making a 'both sides are the same' argument.

You opened with:

    Is there a positive case for voting for Joe Biden?

    Nah.

    The sole reason to vote for Joe Biden is that he plays for the blue team, not The red team.

In doing so, you are absolutely making a "both sides are the same" argument. There are no benefits to voting for Biden over Trump? The only difference is the color of the team? Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.

    I'm falling in line, isn't that enough?

No, it's not. And it's statements like this that demonstrate as much. If the last three years, the last three weeks have taught us anything, it's that messaging matters. Words and ideas, they're like memes, they're like viruses. If your message is "vote or don't, I don't give a shit because there's only one perfect candidate and he's no longer in contention," that message helps shape voter enthusiasm, and ultimately turnout. We saw that last election. And we've seen what the consequences have been. Why are you doubling down on the message? What's the value in ignoring every good reason to vote for the better candidate?

kleinbl00  ·  1734 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This young man has walked the road to damascus several times in order to get to the point of holding his nose and agreeing that the odious deed must be done. Trust me, I've used a rubber hose on him plenty of times.

Let the wookie win on this one.

OftenBen  ·  1733 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Clearly I haven't been beaten enough.

Clearly I need more so I can jump for joy that Smokin' Joe has been anointed chosen one.

user-inactivated  ·  1732 days ago  ·  link  ·  
This comment has been deleted.
kleinbl00  ·  1733 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sulking is unbecoming on everyone, even you.