Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, a sign of the president’s strength in uniting his party to have the backing of one of its most liberal members
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, a sign of the president’s strength in uniting his party to have the backing of one of its most liberal members
Did anyone expect anything different? I don’t recall incumbent presidents ever having a real primary.
Jimmy Carter did-- Ted Kennedy challenged him for the 1980 presidential nomination. The result was them doing so much damage to each other that the ultimate winner of the primary (Carter) came out battered and bruised, giving Reagan the edge he needed to win the general. And we all know how well that worked out for the planet. (Spoiler alert: horrifically.)
That was the opposite tho…
That was “moderate” party leaders trying to sabotage a progressive at any cost.
That fucked America up reeeeeeeally badly. But the people who decided to do it got what they wanted: an excuse to tell voters that progressives can’t win.
Wait, what? I thought Jimmy Carter was considered really progressive for his time. And Ted Kennedy wasn’t some perfect progressive hero, he had some pretty major blemishes on his record like Chappaquiddik. So I always saw it as more pointless infighting than any kind of centrist-vs-progressive showdown like 2016.
Then again, my parents were in high school when all this was going down, so my knowledge is obviously pretty limited, lol.
Which is why he got a primary challenger…
From Ted Kennedy, who was also extremely progressive for his time. 1980 was progressive vs progressive (which is part of how Reagan was able to win so decisively in the general, by portraying himself as being a centrist-- even though nothing could be further from the truth).
https://lemmy.world/comment/958758
I already had this conversation 14 hours ago, I’m not having it again.
Who is the moderate and who is the progressive in this?
Carter is our most progressive president since FDR…
The “moderates” were the ones running the party that allowed a primary…
I thought my comment was pretty clear, but hopefully that’s clearer
Not everyone’s American and not everyone knows history from 42 years ago of foreign countries.
It’s pretty clear from context.
I mean, things like primary challenger and stuff like that aren’t really terms non-Americans are familiar with. I also wasn’t quite sure which of the two people I didn’t know was the progressive one.
The kicker to this is that Kennedy was also super progressive. The whole statement doesn’t really make sense to politically engaged Americans either, it was just a “The Party allowed a progressive to challenge a progressive”. Ted Kennedy was a powerful enough politician that the party didn’t need to allow him to run. He was basically royalty (brother of John F. Kennedy) and an untouchable institution in the state he represented. Carter had really terrible approval ratings (28%) and Kennedy had presidential ambitions.
Don’t blame others for your ignorance
It’s really not.
Also, OP’s ignoring that Kennedy was also a progressive hero, too. The primary was progressive vs. progressive-- which is part of the reason it’s remembered today as the poster child of pointless infighting that did nothing but benefit the opposition. I’ve literally never heard anyone here in the States have OP’s take on the primary until this thread.
Reading it again the confusion is in Canada the party leader is basically the PM candidate.
I guess in the US the president is not the party leader. Without that knowledge, you don’t know what’s going on.
Ted Kennedy, champion of the moderates, is very much not a self-obvious implication.
I explicitly said the problem was the party leaders allowing a primary.
Sink two progressives in one blow, and hope you get a moderate in 4 years.
If Carter did 8, Kennedy would have likely been president next, maybe for another 8 years. Moderates were losing the party. Having a republican beat a weakened Carter let them tell voters that the party had to move right and that progressives couldn’t win.
In Canada the leader of the party is basically the PM (Prime Minister) candidate. One and the same.
So reading those words would mean that the PM, who is the party leader, would have had to allow a challenger. (which isn’t how it works here, but anyway.)
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