In a rare public address, former president said US is experiencing ‘dark days’ and urged Americans to vote
Joe Biden has warned that his presidential successor, Donald Trump, will attempt to “steal” the midterm elections, in a rare public address.
Speaking in South Carolina, where he was being honored for his lifetime achievement in politics, Biden also asserted that the US is experiencing “dark days”, in a speech made hours before the Trump administration launched attacks on Iran.
Reprising a line from the 2020 campaign that saw him defeat Trump and end Trump’s first presidency, Biden told the crowd at the Columbia Museum of Art on Friday that the “battle for the soul of this nation is one that’s never really over”. He simultaneously criticized Trump’s plan to introduce potentially prohibitive voting requirements ahead of the midterms.
Idk if voting harder is the best strategy when the opponent wants to steal an election.
Edit: Since most discussion still focuses on voting, here are some ideas you could do instead / additionally:
- (general) strike / walk outs
- riots
- do what the yellow vests in France did and shut down the economy by blockading important logistical routes
- get inspired by indigenious resistance and shut down the US like they did with Canada by shutting down key freight train routes
- squat public spaces like was down in occupy wall street
- do property destruction of republican infrastructure
- take university campus like it was done during free palestine protests
- show solidarity with those imprisoned now and those that will be in the future
It’s a good starting point. The more people vote, the more people will be angry if the result is stolen.
Apathy is the worst threat against democracy. Especially when one part is cheating.
Its the only strategy really.
The bigger the tilt against republicans the harder it is to steal.
This is barely even a strategy. It’s the “take no action” approach. It’s easy, but definitely won’t accomplish very much.
A far better approach would be to organize a leftist January 6 or similar. Get as many people organized and armed as possible.
Jan 6 didn’t work for Trump and they had most of the police on their side.
Organizing a leftist one is suicide.
Jan 6 came dangerously close to succeeding and was the most disorganized mess of incompetent morons imaginable. Get half a dozen transgender hackers in charge of communications and a few hundred antifa supersoldiers to the capitol, they will do the needful.
It’s not the only strategy.
Its the only viable strategy.
What part of “vote in rigged election” is a “viable” strategy?
1964, Presidential Election (LBJ vs Goldwater):
Johnson won 61% of the popular vote. Even if there had been a concerted effort to rig the election against Johnson, it would have had to be so widespread and obvious that it would have been either stopped immediately, or it would have resulted in a new civil war. Getting that many people voting the right way should be the goal; make the margin of victory so wide as to be impossible to overcome via subtle chicanery.
If they still try to steal the election in those circumstances, then there will be violence, which is the only other option for changing government, so we might as well try having the election before the violence.
TLDR:
There have already been extremely obvious attempts to steal US elections. The guy in charge right now tried to lead one. Some were even successful. People weren’t rioting in the street or overthrowing the government when Bush got handed the election by the supreme court, and that’s a much more recent precedent that refers to a successful steal, rather than a failed one.
Did anyone who tried to rig this one election 80 years ago face consequences? Were any measures taken by those in power to prevent another attempt?
2000 Presidential Election:
Popular vote: 50,456,002 (Bush) / 50,999,897 (Gore)
Bush won because the margin was so narrow. He lost the popular vote but eked out an electoral college win because of Florida.
Per Wikipedia:
Bush carried Florida by only 537 votes out of 5.96 million cast in the state (a margin of 0.009%).
Nader took 97,488 votes. If less than one percent of Nader voters had gone for Gore, Gore would have won the state, and who knows what timeline we’d be living in now.
Elections can be stolen when the margin is that narrow. When the margin is wide, it’s impossible to steal.
John Hancock has entered the chat.
Vote hard enough that they legitimately lose, so that the correct course of action is more justified
It already is, of course, but a large majority needs to agree
How can we be sure this isn’t setting up for another 2000 Bush v Gore? Except, you know… on purpose?
At least it can be contested then. It will get more support from people. If they’re going to rig it (hack machines, miscount votes), nothing can be done. But if they’re just trying to weasel they’re way into disenfranchising people, they can be beaten with turnout - and all the republican redistricting (gerrymandering) efforts have razor thin margins, lots of opportunities to flip seats and districts in elections leading up to the big one.
If only there had been someone with the ability to stop this!
Yeah, we know. But it’s not like Congress or SCOTUS is doing anything to stop him. Or even slow him down.
It’s also not like Biden did anything to stop him lol, ie pursuing prosecution more heavily or… you know… releasing the Epstein files which he also had.
That’s because “moderate Democrats” are just pre-insanity Republicans.
Yeah, no shit. If only one of us had been in a position of power to try to prevent this…
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Have no idea why you’re getting down voted. He and his administration dicked around and held no one accountable for anything. They had a chance. They could have saved our democracy*. Instead, they made sure their corporate sponsors weren’t too uncomfortable. And while this has been building for two generations, I will never forget who dropped the ball in what was the last chance at keeping the US from slipping into a fascist shithole.
Sit down and shut up, Joe. Enjoy the America you wouldn’t fight for.
- Maybe it was and is doomed inevitably from the start, but goddamn to just let it go without doing the simplest thing like PROSECUTING CRIMINALS is pathetic.
As to my being downvoted?
I can tell you I reported the response that called me a nasty name as being uncivil. I can also say that my post was just removed for “civility”
Anyways, theee was nothing uncivil about my post as I’m sure you’ll recall
Lemmy might actually suck.
So you wanted Biden to act just like Trump? Erm…
No, just for Biden to appoint someone who wasn’t too cowardly to prosecute Trump for his many, many crimes.
Routine reminder that the Supreme Court decision stating that presidents have total immunity for official acts taken during office came during Biden’s admin, not Trump’s.
The Supreme Court literally, on record, said that the president could order the assassination of political rivals and face no (personal) legal consequences. Biden didn’t bar Trump from office, didn’t order covert surveillance to gather additional information on how he might present a threat to democracy (Project 2025 anyone?), didn’t order him imprisoned, and definitely didn’t order his assassination. (Or did he? Jk)
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Then why didn’t you put him in prison you useless cancer-hiding fuckhead?
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the reason we don’t put people like ex presidents in prison cuz there’s a higher chance they’ll get petty and leak info to another country or is that just an excuse I heard by people trying to justify it?
No, pretty much no President besides Trump would even consider doing traitorous shit.
Garland and the Biden administration and Jack Smith took great care to ensure that Trump would be held accountable for his crimes in a way that was professional and followed due-process and could not be seen by a reasonable person to be a political witch-hunt.
75 million people fucked it up by voting for Trump again. Biden fucked up by not bowing out and holding a primary, but Jack Smith and the DOJ put together a great case that likely would have resulted in him being held accountable.
Trump’s bathroom leaks information, regardless of whether Trump is prosecuted.
Excuse, for sure. There’s any number of slimy “protect the rich and powerful” excuses all over the place. Fuck all the excuses, no one is above the law and no one gets to hold the country hostage.
I get that I just wasn’t sure if it’s like that’s why they don’t stay in prison but still get charged with felonies. I do wish we could choose to punish political opponents tho like public hanging if convicted
try toWell it seems there’s evidence musk stole the last one and nobody is doing shit about it
NO SHIT SHERLOCK
grandpa has escaped containment
Fuck you for not stopping it Joe.
I remember reading for four years that Merrick Garland was just making sure his T’s were crossed and his I’s dotted before putting Trump away. Whoopsie.
The worst part about this was, at the time many believed that to be true.
But it was never even in the works
Well he did defeat medicare.
The sky is blue, more at 11.
I warn Joe Biden that he could go to prison for violating standing American laws against genocide. Maybe that particular idiot should stop trying to be a political figure and enjoy his oatmeal and bingo. He has ruined enough for one lifetime.
Golly, if only someone could have prevented this…
Well, maybe the voters could. Well, I guess not.
He should shut the fuck up. That fucking hump is responsible for this.
When he took over, he immediately launched a Covid Vaccine program and an Economic Stimulus program that were both far more successful than predicted. For that, he could have landed in the top 10-15 of presidents.
But he had to do a decent job for the rest of his presidency, which mainly included dealing with MAGA as the National Security Threat they are. He had just seen Trump launch an Insurrection. That would have been enough for him to step off the podium after being sworn in, and say “Round them ALL up, and ship them to Guantanamo for interrogation. We’ll sort them out there.”
If he’d done that, we would have found out about the False Electors Plot, AND his Stolen Classified Documents Operation. That’s THREE separate cases of sedition and treason, and more than enough for him to get the noose.
Rounding them up would have suppressed the Conservative Propaganda Machine, and allowed the Dems to better control the messaging going into the 2024 election.
Instead, Biden basically checked out of the job after announcing his Covid and Stimulus programs, and stupidly appointed the most feckless Republican to be his AG, perhaps the STUPIDEST Democratic Presidential decision in modern history, who dithered and slow-walked Trump’s treason cases as long as he could, giving him a two year head start to run out the clock, which he did, successfully.
In addition, he ignored the many warnings, many coming from the mouths of the criminals themselves, that they intended to rig the election and steal the presidency, and Biden allowed them to do it in front of the entire world, without any interference at all. And when they did, he went along with the ridiculous concept that Trump won the election “fair & square.”
The American voters fired MAGA decisively, and expected the new Democratic administration to clean up the mess. Instead of getting justice for America, they tried to make friends with feral animals, and got eaten alive. For his weakness and cowardice, allowing MAGA to rise again, Biden’s legacy is in the toilet, and will he will be buried in the bottom 10 of all presidents.
Biden betrayed us, and he’s lucky that he won’t be joining the MAGAs against the wall with the rest of them. He deserves the firing squad as much as any of them.
And this is the fatal flaw with “blue no matter who.”
That isn’t the lesson from this.
You’re taking the wrong lesson from this. Sometimes a feckless Democrat in office is worse than no Democrat at all. In retrospect, we would have been much better off today if Biden had lost in 2020.
The lesson is that a Republican can never be allowed to win any election. Shut the fuck up with this strategic losing using magic future vision powers nonsense talk.
You have to beat the Republican every time or countless people will suffer.
I don’t want to hear any plan that doesn’t involve the Republican losing the election.
No, we wouldn’t. Any second Trump administration was going to be bad.
And the only way it could have been prevented is if everyone made it clear any centrist is unelectable. Instead we had Vote Blue No Matter Who shouting from the rooftops they’d vote for 99% Hitler and so would everyone else.
The DNC might have listened if they couldn’t delude themselves into thinking the base was going to vote anyway, so only appealing to republicans matters.
100% THIS
The Dems are complicit and criminally inept by design and top-down decision-making, they fucking allowed this. We are here as much by the dirty players, Project 2025 puppet-masters as the DNC itself.
Fuck the entire two-party charade.
Sir, with respect, we in the rest of the world known that for the past year. Please try to keep up.
