Some people will be miserable no matter who is running

    • hatedbad@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      from your own link, that’s only because she’s the least bipartisan dem in the senate.

      govtrack’s “left-right ideology” ranking is flawed, it doesn’t look at the content of the bills at all. in govtrack’s own words the ideology ranking “may be measuring something else, perhaps something more closely related to partisan-ness”.

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I don’t know.

    I really dislike Harris. She’s probably the bottom of my pick list for the nominee and a Dem President.

    But it’s not like a gaping sore of a liability the way Biden was.

    I’m excited the conversation can finally shift to “Trump fell asleep during his own convention? Doesn’t he seem tired in his speech?”

    I think it being a woman nominee is an interesting newsworthy discussion point at a time when the other party is actively working to harm women - even if she’s the last of the many other qualified women I’d rather see in the position.

    I don’t like her, I don’t like listening to her nonsensical off the cuff statements, I thought she did very poorly in the 2020 campaign, I am anxious about a law enforcement politician as President in a system with too much Presidential power over the Justice department.

    But in spite of all that, I just don’t care enough to push back strongly on her.

    She’s boring in the neoliberal way we’ve gotten used to, but she’s not addled and she’s not a neo-Nazi, and with an interesting VP pick she’s a ticket I could potentially even be excited about four months from now instead of watching her be put into a nursing home as the October surprise.

    I’d love to see an actual competitive open convention, but barring that I’m just going to accept a turd sandwich that’s palatable, as even that seemed like a stretch a week ago, and I’ll take what I can get.

    • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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      2 months ago

      I don’t like Harris at all. She’s just more status quo. We need big changes. Climate crisis is looming.

      The more salient point though, is that I don’t think she is the candidate to beat Trump. She just isn’t very likable. She’s not inspiring anyone.

      We need someone with some juice to beat Trump. We need a candidate that gets people excited.

      • kromem@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        She doesn’t need to be inspiring. She just needs to not be half dead.

        I think people are underestimating just how weak of a candidate Trump has become.

        It just wasn’t really able to be capitalized on because we were doing a whole “the emperor has clothes” thing on the left so the left media couldn’t point out Trump running around naked.

        He’s old and tired. And there’s now 4 months to show him as not only a fascist, but a half dead one that’s meandering and weak.

        He was only able to cosplay as a strongman when his opponent was literally presenting with Parkinson’s. Against a younger person the narrative immediately becomes “old man yells at clouds” and his BS can be rebranded as ‘confused.’

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I agree. But there’s not enough time to get momentum on any of the other front runners. She has the biggest name without a lot of negativity from Right propaganda (Newsom).

        She’s our candidate. Any kind of run off is going to waste time and probably fragment the party. I’ll vote for Harris. Not as happily as I would even the old and faltering Biden that dropped out. But I’ll fall in line and vote for her, and promote her to others.

        Because it’s our best chance.

      • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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        2 months ago

        I’m firmly of the opinion that no positive change will happen in time unless it’s at the point of a sword.

        And I’m still backing Harris. The Democratics would never permit a progressive to run, but at least this way we have a chance at 8 years before fascism wins. With Biden, we would have been lucky to get 4.

        And who knows, maybe she’ll pick a progressive VP to maintain the appearance of being for the working class!

    • AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      If you’d like something to be excited about consider how much psychological damage losing an election to a woman of color will do to not just trump, but Bannon and miller.

      I’d love for them to feel their ideology so rejected that they give up and finish drinking themselves to death.

      • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 months ago

        If you’d like something to be excited about consider how much psychological damage losing an election to a woman of color will do to not just trump, but Bannon and miller.

        Hell, there’s a part of my cold, cold heart that will be warmed to know that Hillary Clinton might live to see a woman become POTUS, and that woman will not be a Clinton.

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Yep and they’ll have “solid arguments” but zero solutions because they just want to accelerate the destruction of the US. They want people to not vote.

  • bouh@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    She’s a woman, and she’s black, of course there will be opposition.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      She could have dodged all this criticism by running as a Republican (and then getting ignored by all the old white guys at the RNC).

    • Test_Tickles@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      She’s also half Indian and therefore also Asian. She is like a Republican’s “all you can hate” buffet.

        • VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          There’s a double standard for Democrats, even if you’re an old white man. There’s also a double standard for women. And there’s a double standard for minorities. And it’s not just Republicans who hold them but voters all around. Harris is about to be on the receiving end of all of it.

        • Thrashy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          This was something I struggled with during the early years of the Obama presidency. At least initially, while the avenues of attack that right wing demagogues deployed against him were unique in their racist overtones, the volume and intensity wasn’t all that much different from what was directed against Clinton or Gore.

          Then, as the years went on, they went progressively more insane and vitriolic. It turns out, I think, that it’s a lot easier to get a casual racist on your side if you can use the upending of the racial status quo to activate them.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I’m undecided on that because that increasing racism by Republicans towards Obama coincided with the period when both Democracts and Republicans moved more and more of their political propaganda into the domain of Identitarian Wars: whilst before there was still a lot of talk about Economics, later the loud shouting was all about people’s race, country of birth, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

            It’s unclear if the increase of the racism from the Republicans towards Obama was directly due to Obama’s being a black POTUS or if it was a reflection of a wider trend: it’s just as logical an explanation that with the 2008 Crash and both parties being unified in shoving money to Financial Institutions and saving large Asset Owners at a significant cost (i.e. Austerity) for the rest of Society, they had to switch their discourse from Economics (were their actions in the post-2008 Crash had made painfully clear there was no significant difference between both) and into the Moral space, which from the side of the Republicans means amongst other things turning up the racist speech, with Obama being the most visible minority-member recipient of it.

    • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      This idea that any criticism of her is invalid and just misogyny/racism is bullshit. She is a very flawed candidate, ESPECIALLY for people of color.

        • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Her activity as a prosecutor. A particular standout for me was prosecuting lower income parents of color for school absenteeism. While I firmly believe children should be educated, I don’t think throwing overworked low income parents in jail is going to help keep those children in school, well supervised, and ultimately safe.

    • VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It’ll be interesting to see what minor controversy from her past that voters glom onto and equivocate with Trump’s blatant assault on democracy.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        She argued in court in favor of California’s death penalty, and she threatened to jail parents of truant kids while she was the DA in San Francisco. It’s more complicated than those sound bites–like, it was her job to argue the state’s position–but you’ll get the sound bite opposition.

        I don’t like Harris since I support 2A rights in addition to things like LGBTQ+ rights, and right to choose, but I like her odds of winning more than I liked Biden’s.

        • DarthBueller@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Truancy courts are not controversial. Literally holding a parent criminally liable for not sending their child to school. Maybe there’d be less Lord of the Flies gangs of tweenage criminals in every major city if truancy was better enforced.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            They shouldn’t be. But I recall the way that they were framed at the time made them sound really bad. When you looked into it, and realized that no one had even gotten past the threatened with arrest part, it started to make a lot more sense.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Truancy courts are not controversial.

            Throwing people in prison does not benefit the children of those people.

            And truancy courts don’t typically target far right homeschooler quiverfull families. They’re aimed squarely at Two Income Trap working families and poor single parents, already under the gun thanks to poor bussing policies, no statutory time off from work, and abysmal access to health care.

            Truancy laws are a tool of the School-To-Prison Pipeline. They substitute a criminal mandate for accessible education.

            Maybe there’d be less Lord of the Flies gangs of tweenage criminals in every major city if truancy was better enforced.

            More daycare, free school breakfast/dinner programs, public after school activities, and less child homelessness would go much farther towards reducing delinquent kids than arresting their parents.

            • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              truancy courts don’t typically target far right homeschooler quiverfull families.

              …Because they don’t have to. The homeschoolers are home schooling (or, at least claiming to do so), whereas truant kids aren’t being educated at all. If the parents that were going to truancy courts were home schooling kids, they could just say that and be done with it. (I’m no fan of home schooling; I think that it’s almost always a disservice to the kids. But it’s still a legal right.)

              IIRC, Harris had other programs that she was using/working with to reduce truancy rates, and courts were the last-ditch effort for parents that refused to even show up for anything else. If I recall correctly–and please, fact check me here–no parents received any jail time for truancy while she was a DA. It was used as a tool to get parents to take truancy seriously.

              And yes, I agree that school lunches, etc. would all help, But there’s only so many tools that a district attorney has to use. The DA can’t mandate a tax to cover daycare or after school activities; that’s the job of the city council or state legislature.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                The homeschoolers are home schooling (or, at least claiming to do so)

                Right. Which is to say they pretend to teach and we pretend to believe them.

                But these homeschool kids come out with all the same problems as their school skipping counterparts. They’re misinformed, anti-social, and often xenophobic. They have trouble holding down jobs outside of a family business or parent’s career. They’re prone to crime and drug abuse. They don’t do well in higher education. But they’re spared the indignity of seeing their parents dragged into prison or being sent their themselves, so they’ve got that going for them at least.

                And yes, I agree that school lunches, etc. would all help, But there’s only so many tools that a district attorney has to use.

                Maybe the DA shouldn’t be the one charged with fixing the problem.

                • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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                  2 months ago

                  Right. Which is to say they pretend to teach and we pretend to believe them.

                  Yes. But that’s the way the system works. We’ve decided, as a society, that parents have the right to manage their child’s education, as long as they at least claim to be educating them. Parents of truant children aren’t making that claim at all. They’re more than welcome to do that, if that’s what they want, but they’re usually not interested in attempting home schooling either.

                  And yes, I agree that home schooling is, in almost all cases, a problem. I know some parents choose it because the schools refuse to follow IEPs for children with documented disabilities, and they simply don’t have the resources to sue the schools to force compliance. But that’s not most families that home school.

                  Maybe the DA shouldn’t be the one charged with fixing the problem.

                  The DA is charged with fixing only one part of the problem, rather than the entire problem. In an ideal world, all of the systems would be working together perfectly, but since we have some people that are determined to break the system, and since they keep throwing sabots in the machinery, that’s not happening.

                • blackstampede@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 months ago

                  I was homeschooled from kindergarten through highschool. While I don’t dispute much of what you said here (I was mis- and under- informed, I was anti-social, and I was xenophobic), I think the situation is more nuanced than you make it out to be.

                  First, I don’t think it’s the role of the school to make sure that students are not xenophobic or anti-social.

                  Second, it took me one remedial class in college (trigonometry) to get caught up.

                  By the time I reached the university level, I was extremely good at learning things on my own, and the raw information was available online. The ability to learn on my own without anyone holding my hand has proven to be very useful, and it’s a skill that is lacking in a lot of public school graduates.

  • blazera@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I was a major biden naysayer. Id always love more but this was a huge ask that was answered. Lets kick republican ass

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This is going to be another talking point “but DiD yOU eLecT her???” When in truth only 2% of the US population votes in the primaries

      • Crismus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I didn’t vote for either in my primary. I chose any other Democrat, like many other people.

        We don’t need another DA/Prosecutor or proponent of prison slavery and ignorer of Police Brutality as President. She was against the Israeli War before this, I wonder if that position will change now.

        Kamala Harris lost badly in the 2020 Primary, so putting everything on her will not do well for us.

        • EnderWiggin@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          If you didn’t just vote for her in 2024 then you were never a Biden/Harris voter to begin with, so I’m not really too concerned with your opinion on the matter.

          • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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            2 months ago

            I don’t understand your comment. Are you literally telling another Democrat that because they didn’t vote for a Biden/Harris ticket in the Democratic party primaries that their opinion does not matter?

            I hope that I am misreading it this.

            • EnderWiggin@lemmy.world
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              I’m not a Democrat. I don’t care if they are either. But if they didn’t vote for them in the primary, then clearly, they aren’t Biden/Harris supporters anyway. That’s really all I’m saying here.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Someone winning an election once and then being in power for the rest of their life.

        What do we call that again

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Can’t do a primary. There’s no time. We only have enough time for a coronation followed by a bunch of people screaming “Vote Blue No Matter Who!”

      • Omega_Man@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s not a coronation. You can still vote for Trump, if you think he’s the better choice.

        You have to admit, Joe senility was apparent at the debate.

      • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’ve always been fascinated with written correspondence between regular people in early 19th century Germany before the nazis took over, and how the ignorance and delusion of everyday people became the paved road that led hitler to power.

        A lot of them sound exactly like yours.

    • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      There already was one. No one but Biden showed up.

      And no Jill Stein and your buddy Cornel West are still not viable.

      Are you going to flip to bitching about Harris all the time? Most of us know the real reason you’re here even though you won’t admit it.

      • irreticent@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Are you going to flip to bitching about Harris all the time?

        You know he will. His tactics are so obvious.

  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I’m sure the Russians already have their list of alliterative agitprop ready to test on .ml before pushing the best ones to prod on Reddit and Facebook.

    • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I mean just reprint the copmala material from when she was announced as VP pick and you’re golden.

  • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’m not here to say anything negative about Harris, but she DID kick my pregnant sister in the stomach.

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I nominate Danica Roem. She’s INCREDIBLE, highly effective, and trans, so she’ll have every Republican having the vapours every day 100 times more than Obama did.

    Seriously she’s awesome.

  • Cowbob12@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This whole debate among the American left just feels to me as a big sign of “letting perfect be the enemy of good”

  • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Another reminder that not everything is black and white to the tribal folk of the USA.

    You are allowed to dislike someone on the basis of their character even if they have a certain skin colour, genitalia, or age.