U.S. Rep. Katie Porter became a social media celebrity by brandishing a white board at congressional hearings to dissect CEOs and break down complex figures into assaults on corporate greed, a signature image that propelled the Democrat’s U.S. Senate candidacy in California.
The progressive favorite known for spotlighting her soccer mom, minivan-driving home life was trounced in Tuesday’s primary election to fill the seat once held by the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, finishing far behind Republican Steve Garvey and fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
Porter didn’t go down quietly. She immediately pointed a finger at “billionaires spending millions to rig this election.” That claim resulted in a brutal social media backlash from many who were happy to depict the congresswoman as a graceless loser.
Perhaps chastened by the criticism, Porter later clarified her initial statement to say she didn’t believe the California vote count or election process had been compromised, but she didn’t recant her earlier remarks. Rigged, she said in a follow-up, “means manipulated by dishonest means.”
The only reason why Trump is even a contender is because of these two shitty parties and the Democratic leadership backing some of the worst candidates in existence. Every election is going to have people claiming the opponent “will lead to millions of deaths and destruction” because nothing is going to change which is why we had to vote against him in 2016, again in 2020, and now again in 2024. Even after he dies there will be another Trump popping out of the woodwork.
By continuing to support these two parties, you’re just ensuring this will continue until the sun burns out. Neither party has any reason to improve things because they’ll get your vote regardless of how awful they become. Even aiding in genocide isn’t enough to alter your decision.
Trump is a threat because an overwhelming majority of Republicans are willing to vote for a monster. Assigning blame for a full 45% of the population for the Democrats not running someone more to your liking is completely crazy. You call Biden one of the worst candidates in existence but the American people voted for him for Vice President of the United States twice and for President once already.
The states had the ability to elect someone else for this round if they were really so against him. Spoiler alert they aren’t going to. In fact of the states and territories that have held a primary the only one which awarded votes to anyone other than Biden was American Samoa which… doesn’t actually get to vote in the presidential election. The truth is anyone on team blue would by now be hated by our divided country. Trump and co have done NOTHING but lie since they lost. A Democrat moderate enough to win by definition will be disliked by nearly 100% of the right leaning folks and at least 10–20% of the most progressive if he hews close enough to the middle to actually have a chance to win. 37% is the new normal.
If you recall, in 2016, this guy lost to Clinton in the primaries, who was then defeated by Trump. He won in 2020 because people wanted to oust Trump. Both him and Clinton are both completely unappealing candidates to the populace but darlings to the party, which is how they got the support and backing to win the primaries.
And why do you think that is? Is it because he’s the very best person to lead out of 330 million or is it because he has the party leaders in his pocket with the added bonus of the incumbent advantage? I haven’t even been able to vote in the primaries in my state but the race is already over since enough states had theirs already.
Are you more concerned with winning elections or putting a good leader in office? It sounds like the former.
Biden was dealing with the death of his son from cancer in the season leading up to the primaries and didn’t compete in 2016. Your assertion that Trump > Clinton > Biden falls on its face. The only time Biden ever went head to head with Trump he won. Primary season is over and with an incumbent you and I pretty much knew it was over before it started. Third parties can’t win and for practical purposes parties are unlikely to change horses with an incumbent and actually win elections. Yes winning elections vs allowing the other side to elect a genocidal fascist is an overriding concern because of course it is. This go round was always going to be Trump v Biden v2. If we go with Biden we get slow change and investment in America. If we go with Trump he gets 4 years to try to destroy democracy and our country at best crashes as he guts the government in a way that takes us 10 years to recover from while millions of Taiwanese and Ukrainians die. At worst we fight a civil war to restore democracy like Spain too.
If you want to really reform the way we do elections you can’t do it by bitching on lemmy. The most achievable changes are ranked choice voting in primaries and general in the states. That is something the states can legally do. The next most achievable is getting rid of the filibuster in the senate followed by expanding the supreme court. Even though this really only requires a simple majority it probably practically requires 55 in the senate.
We can start on these reforms that Republicans oppose vehemently by voting for Biden in the coming election and democrats down ballot while pushing for these reforms at home. In my state—Washington—we have an initiative process. Maybe they do in your state too.