SmaptyWolf said:
Wufpack17 said:
Civilized said:
Wufpack17 said:
The people should know what is going on. We don't.
A random tweet and then a recorded phone call isn't driving home confidence right now. Who is in charge?
Presidents don't owe you blow-by-blow updates on their health and I doubt the administration cares about your confidence as Biden recovers from COVID. How is that information actionable for you? They were clear last week he was returning home to isolate, rest, recover, and work.
His doc said yesterday his symptoms were abating and he was carrying out his duties.
They owe you an update if the President's health becomes precarious or worrisome but beyond that it's just tabloid fodder.
The President isn't a monarch. He answers to the people and no one else. Frankly, what's transpired is pure disrespect of the American people and democracy itself. Tucking his tale and disappearing while non-democratically electing a nominee to take his place.
This is not democracy.
You guys are too much. Don't you blather endlessly about how we're a Republic, not a Democracy... but this Biden thing has you in tears about how undemocratic it is?
Here's a fun fact! Before the 1970's the voters never got the final say on who the candidates would be. The current primary voting system is a modern custom, but ultimately political parties can basically do what they want to pick their candidates.
Let's get real. The only people pushing for an open Dem primary with 3 months left in the race are Republicans and certain news outlets, both of whom would greatly benefit from another month of Dem chaos.
Exactly.
The party primary system is most certainly not "a democracy." Does the Constitution even have political parties in it?
And to whatever extent you want to try to impose democratic or representative norms on the primary system, Biden stepping down and Kamala stepping up is clearly what the people want. We're only in this situation because...
a. the Dems didn't have a competitive open primary. There were no real challengers to Biden, and...
b. very clearly the large majority of Democrats wanted Biden to step down, and are also in favor of Kamala being the candidate, and...
c. Biden's decline wasn't widely known until the debate.
There is no argument to be made that Biden stepping down or Kamala stepping up are not the will of the majority of Democrats at this point.
And frankly it's not up to one party to tell the other party how to select their candidate, as long as the selection abides by pertinent election law. This isn't some conspiracy. Democrats didn't ask for Biden's health to get to the point where he clearly can't go 4 more years but for that to not become widely recognizable until after the primary.
And it's not like the party had already nominated Biden. But even if they had y'all remember what happened when the *****-grabber-in-Chief had his *****-grab tape come out? The Republicans with courage/dignity/a conscience said he should step down. And that was AFTER he was the official nominee, only a few weeks before the election.
I didn't see Democrats lining up to pontificate about how anti-democratic such a move would be. They just agreed with the Republicans that were saying he should step down.
Like you said, Republicans beating this drum are either just being contrarians or they're sowing chaos. They're not going to get it, though - nobody believes any legal challenges would hold up, and the party is united behind a candidate that thus far looks very well-funded and well-supported by the Democrat base and leadership, and also by many young swing voters that were on the sidelines with Biden at the helm.