“Florida Democrats don’t know why Taylor Swift is naming an upcoming song on her new album ‘Florida!!!’ or the reason she chose to hold three concerts in Miami less than a month before the November elections,” Politico reports.

“But their excitement around the news is less about ‘why?’ and more about leveraging Swift’s celebrity status to fill the blank space for beleaguered voters tired of losing to Republicans.

  • CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I’m not exactly a fan of Biden, but he’s on the ballot for two reasons:

    • Incumbents historically have an advantage, and it would be crazy to throw that advantage away.
    • Who else would run in his place? It’s not like there’s some other obvious candidate. I can think of lots of progressives that I’d personally love to see on the ballot, but the reality is that none of those candidates are seen as being electable in swing states. Be nice if it were otherwise, but it ain’t.
    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      Incumbents historically have an advantage, and it would be crazy to throw that advantage away.

      In lower offices maybe, but since 1980 (Carter) we’ve only had 4/7 incumbents reelected. People may talk about how Carter/Bush/Trump all had something uniquely terrible that caused them to lose their reelection, but Biden’s got a 38% approval rating, is tied to an unpopular foreign war, and has record low numbers with critical voting blocs. He’s not riding high and doing fine.

      • Weirdfish@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        And yet I’ll still go out and vote against Trump instead of staying home in november.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Who else would run in his place?

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Ossoff

      That guy’s 36, but ran the most funded US Senate campaign in America’s history.

      So he’s got the money neoliberals say they care about.

      He was an investigative journalist going after corruption, his positions line up with what Dem voters want…

      And he’s really popular with gen z voters.

      Why not him if all that matters is “not trump”?

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The most funded in America’s history isn’t because of him; it was because it was a special election with the entire nation pouring money in for the sake of winning a Senate majority. It could’ve been Joe Manchin and the same outcome would’ve happened. That’s not a reflection of Jon’s campaign prowess.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Did someone stop him from putting his hat in the ring? Because otherwise, I think the problem is that he doesn’t want to run in Biden’s place and I don’t know that voting for someone who isn’t running in the first place is an especially good strategy to beat Trump.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          9 months ago

          The issue is no one wants to challenge Biden, not that no one would want to run in his place. Biden shouldn’t have run for reelection, but if he doesn’t step aside a challenge is likely to just blow up the party (at least unless Biden has some major senior movement that causes people to abandon him en masse). But that’s an actuarial gamble, and if it doesn’t happen you’ve got a split party and a weakened candidate. We’re seeing the in Republican party how well challenging the presumptive nominee goes when you’re simultaneously not trying to say anything remotely negative about him.

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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              9 months ago

              Expressing an interest in running is challenging Biden, they’re the same thing.

          • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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            9 months ago

            Dens also spent a ton of money getting him into the senate majority. They’d have to risk doing that again if he left to be president (not that they couldn’t, but it could be pressure against running).

            The real problem is that most of the people smart enough to run, are too smart to want to be president.

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Ossoff would be great. I’d also be up for Jeff Jackson, who has a pretty solid social media following due to his “I’m a newcomer in Washington, here’s what it’s like” videos.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I don’t know why people act like there aren’t other options.

          Biden himself literally said he could think of 50 other Dems who could beat trump.

    • winky9827b@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I will pour my heart, soul and life savings into an AOC for president campaign as soon as she decides she’s ready.

      • harry_balzac@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I said I’d vote for her as Prez and pretty much all of my coworkers (Trump suckers) nearly had heart attacks.

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      You realize the DNC went into overdrive to kill the primary this election cycle, right?

      Reordering states to favor Biden, keeping candidates off ballots, and some state Democratic parties even effectively cancelled their presidential primary.

      Now, if you only consume mainstream media sources, it wouldn’t be surprising that you weren’t aware, as they have been mostly ignoring it.

      • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Biden wasn’t even on the ballot in NH and easily won via write ins. Presidential incumbents who seek the nomination of their win primaries. Without exception. Always. Biden might not be popular, but he’s much much more popular than anyone who even imagined running an opposition.

      • fkn@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        And? Just because I am not a fan of how the democratic party is run doesn’t mean I’m not going to vote for them.

        There are a lot of problems… But this argument is awfully close to apologetics for Trump.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Maybe you missed the part where I was responding to another comment that casually mentioned there’s no other viable Democratic candidates.

          Stating objective facts isn’t an argument, they’re just facts. The DNC did those things, and worse. It’s not up for debate, and there was no point being argued.

          It sounds like you believe anyone saying anything critical of the DNC, is actually secretly a Trump supporter, or Trump apologist?

          Well… golly gee, you got me there. Good work!

          Keep it up, and don’t worry, there’s definitely no way that approach to political discourse will ever spectacularly backfire on you.

          • fkn@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Again. And?

            It still sounds like you are one of those “it’s broken so don’t vote” assholes.

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              Twice now you’ve invented positions for me, based off nothing that I’ve actually said i.e. straw man.

              Lame dork.

                  • fkn@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    I haven’t made up shit. I stated what it looked like and they failed to repudiate it followed by calling me names.

                • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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                  9 months ago

                  What argument???

                  argument /är′gyə-mənt/

                  noun

                  1. A discussion in which disagreement is expressed; a debate.
                  2. A quarrel; a dispute.
                  3. A reason or matter for dispute or contention

                  Please, tell me what I’ve actually said that qualifies as an argument.

                  Not what you’ve imagined or mystically determined using tea leaves or tarot cards, but my actual words.

                  • fkn@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    Exactly. The points you put together made no argument. I asked “so what?” And indicated that the points as presented appear to be the same points people use/put together to say: “so don’t vote.” / are used by the same group of people who are trying to disenfranchise or discourage voting. This is a common propaganda technique.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      You’d be moving that advantage to 2028 most likely. It sure would be amazing to get 12 years of democratic presidents.

    • hglman@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Maybe they could have held a preliminary contest to pick a candidate.

      • CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        I respect Warren a lot, but she’s 74 and I’d really like to see a US president who isn’t well past retirement age.

        • NataliePortland@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Omg is she really? She doesn’t look that old to me I wouldn’t have guessed. Is she single? What’s her story? Asking for a friend

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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            9 months ago

            Would you believe she also doesn’t drink caffeine? There are some people who just have unbelievable amounts of energy.

        • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Well, Warren is the one person I’d like to see in office right now. I don’t like Biden. I hate that he is running for reelection. I only voted Biden because I would vote a steaming bucket of literally dog poo over Trump.

          I really, really hate our two party FPTP system but I realized in 2016 that third party is a waste. I just want someone I’m excited to vote for and not someone I’m voting for because it’s not Trump.

    • Tremble@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Polling indicates among democrat voters that LITERALLY ANY OTHER DEMOCRAT IS PREFERRED OVER BIDEN.

      It’s so bad that next presidential election (if we have one) the democrat can candidate can say “at least I’m not Biden” and probably win on that alone. That’s basically all Biden is doing.