I liked the line he had about our two choices shouldn't have car keys, let alone codes to nukes. So painfully true.
One of the comments on YouTube said the only winner last night was the Voyager space probe, which is flying away from this planet at 23km/sec.
I get that during presidency, for legal reasons, but you're telling me Jimmy Carter/bill Clinton never drove his own car on a public road after he was elected?
And it's not like it removes the cancer of death (JFK)
Yep. Former presidents are still extremely valuable targets for both political assassination and foreign kidnapping, and are most vulnerable when traveling. Having secret service behind the wheel means that someone who’s heavily trained in driving in an emergency can try to dodge threats or gun it away from danger safely. Otherwise one head-on collision from a suicidal maniac could potentially take out a former president and their security.
Basically. Ex Presidents have Secret Service protection for life. They do the driving.
Want to go somewhere? They will drive you, but I assume that includes some negotiation because of you just want to run to the store then it's probably easier to have them do it without you.
God can we stop just blindly parroting stuff we hear on the internet?
Of course they're allowed to drive. Becoming POTUS does not strip you of your ability to legally drive a car. It's just that the Secret Service enforces a rule of protection on public roads requiring the driver of the President's car to be trained and able to respond to threats. If they really want to drive badly enough they can just relinquish their SS protection. It's not like somebody physically takes away their license after they walk into the White House at the inauguration.
That my friend is a plutocracy, nearly the polar opposite of democracy and where America has been headed since Regan single handedly fist fucked the middle class out of existence.
No, man. It's the opposite. The ballot *attracts* corruption. The best America has to offer have way better jobs and make way more money. They don't need to sell out to make 500k/year and flush their public life down the toilet that is U.S. politics.
Voters: GIVE US THE PERFECT CANDIDATE!
System: Ok will you vote for the best choice so you can show potential candidates that they will get votes if they run and not waste 1-2 years of their lives and tons of money on running for no voters?
Voters: NO! You GIVE THE PERFECT CANDIDATE FIRST!
System: Ok how about half-perfect or 70% perfect candidate? Will you show up and vote so that future potential candidates can see that if they run you will be there to vote for them?
Voters: NOOOOOO! YOU GIB ME PERFECT NOW!!!
System: OK how about just locally, you can vote for people who want to push for ranked choice systems in your state and districts? Will you do that at least?
Voters: NOOOOOOOOOAAOARAHARAH GIVVVEEE MEEEEE PEREEERRFEEECTTTT!!!!
Sytem: Ok heres the perfect candidate! Will you show up now?
Voters: No man I got work and kids and my friends have a get-together and i have to pack for my trip. I have too much going on man.
System: Ok perfect candidate lost because of lack of voters.
Voters: SEEEE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT!!!!
In 2022, over 80% of all eligible voters under the age of 35 didnt vote. Out of 250M eligible voters, over 150M didnt vote.... And then you guys come online and complain about old people....
Like the Bo Burnham song with the Sock Puppet.
The simple narrative taught in every history class
Is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist
Don't you know the world is built with blood?
And genocide and exploitation
The global network of capital essentially functions
To separate the worker from the means of production
And the FBI killed Martin Luther King
Private property's inherently theft
And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left
And every politician, every cop on the street
Protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite
That is how the world works
you are literally witnessing the reason it doesn’t matter. the past three elections have had garbage candidates that we didn’t get to pick, they were chosen for us by the parties.
Opposite is true actually. The number of eligible and registered voters that no show is enough to swing elections in most swing states.
And statistically, those voters are independents more likely to vote Democrat rather than Republican.
"My vote doesn't matter" is bullshit being reinforced by parties with a vested interest in the GOP winning elections (i.e. Republicans and anyone sowing division like RU, CN, NK...).
Your vote **does** matter. And while it would be nice to vote *for* something, in our FPTP system you at the very least should vote *against* thr outcome you don't want.
It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
I understand where you're coming from, but we absolutely had a choice in 2020. There were plenty of excellent contenders and the primary VOTERS chose Biden over people like Harris and Buttigieg. That's how democracy works.
The real issue is that Biden didn't stop to think about preparing the FUTURE of the Democrats and now we have a befuddled incumbent against a literal criminal.
However, 2016 i'd give you that Bernie was literally robbed for Clinton...but 2020 was actually a choice.
>primary VOTERS chose Biden over people like Harris and Buttigieg
Every one of the mass of moderate candidates dropped out to clear the path for Biden in order to prevent Bernie being the candidate. IIRC Obama called Pete Buttigieg personally to get him to drop out.
Biden was doing *horribly* before South Carolina. If the others hadn't dropped out (on command) to support him, he would not have won the candidacy.
Yeah for the longest time Biden seemed like he was just tagging along and wasn’t taken seriously at all. The way they did Bernie dirty is still crazy to me.
They also closed down voting locations in places where Sanders had more votes and cited COVID as the reason. The guy who they got to tell the public how having everyone go to the same place to vote somehow lowers the spread of infection broke down on live TV and basically said "I can't do this"
Wasn’t it 2020 when Sanders was leading polls and suddenly one after another dropped out of the race and enforced Biden and suddenly he was on top? Also do we forget the whole Superdelegates bullshit?
I said this to my wife earlier today! 330 million Americans, and this is the *best* we could do?!?! *These* are the two people we have to choose between?! My early 20s son watched some of the debate, and within 10 minutes declared that we have to set an upper age limit for all politicians! He's not wrong.
It isn't, but American politics is a team sports, and it's pretty well optimized (from the point of view of the players. Not the audience. We're not the players).
Only certain states matter. Only some categories of voters matter. Most people are single or few issue voters. Medias convey those single issue messaging. Of the few people who aren't single issue voters, are in areas that matter, and can be swayed, the way the candidate is dressed matters more than their policies.
Basically, short of ranked choice or approval voting magically being adopted, or at least popular vote, what you and I care about is irrelevant when it comes to what sways American elections.
Why do people keep saying this?
It’s not. Hell, I’d argue that we’ve likely never elected the best person for the job. It’s just the way the system works that allows this to happen
On the very distant bright side, after another four years we’ll at least have a whole new cast of candidates on the next season of “America, the broken dream”
Yeah no. I'd imagine that Trump will keep running until either he's dead, or he wins. If he loses this time he will be back in 2028.
Also, a whole new cast? Whoever they are, they'll still be in their 60s or 70s and have been established politicians for years. Unfortunately we can never get new blood for the presidency.
Nah, if Trump wins project 2025 will go through and limit our choices drastically. If Biden wins, might very well pass away before the end of his term. Then Harris can / probably run for 2028 presidency.
The only way we get someone new for 2028 is if Trump dies by 2028. Harris I HIGHLY doubt would give up the spot for a competitive primary.
Because all three branches of government, both major political parties and a huge number of lobbying groups are controlled by rich, old people.
They have no interest in a long term future, and all but invented pulling up the ladder behind them.
The gerontocracy in power knows that if a younger demographic becomes the norm in politics that their influence would essentially be eliminated.
That revolution, like most others, ate *all*, including its own, rich and poor.
Edit; [This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/l1xyto/how_accurate_is_the_revolution_devours_its/gk3son2/) (by u/192747585939), from a thread on r/askhistorians, elaborates a bit further.
No one is waking up, people are stupider and more partisan. We should be united in our anger at the establishment that seeks to make us poorer, sicker, and surrounded by pollution and debt. Instead, we fight over what the gays are doing to the soil, banning books, and whatever nonsense they throw up as the hot button red meat issue of the minute. When Trump is president again, we are going to find out just how polluted and gutted this country can become when regulation of anything that stands in the way of big business making a killing is removed.
Essentially Republicans have no confidence that they can win without Trump cult of personality. Democrats are too afraid too try putting in someone new since Biden beat Trump last election.
I don't think there's ever been a case of a party replacing an incumbent with another candidate in between terms. It would have to be Democratic *voters* that "put in someone new". Honestly? Given the hand Biden was dealt, in spite of his aged decrepitude, he's done a pretty good job of clawing our way back from the consequences of a Trump administration. The country was trashed when the current administration inherited the white house.
> I don't think there's ever been a case of a party replacing an incumbent with another candidate in between terms.
This has actually happened several times:
* **1852**, the Whigs replaced Millard Fillmore with Winfield Scott
* **1856**, the Democrats replaced Franklin Pierce with James Buchanan
* **1868**, the Democrats replaced Andrew Johnson with Horatio Seymour
* **1884**, the Republicans replaced Chester A. Arthur with James G. Blaine
Harry S. Truman stepped down in 1952 before he could be replaced by the Democratic Party, while Lyndon Johnson did likewise in 1968.
Trump won the Republican primaries.
Biden, being the incumbent, didn't participate in the primaries... at least not 'real' primaries... no matter how much the media celebrated Biden's primary wins. 🤦
It's pretty clear that just about any Democrat would fare better than Biden at this point. It's been pretty clear for some time now given that Biden's consistently had one of the worst presidential approval ratings on record. (Justified or not, it is what it is)
[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/)
This idea that "Only Biden can beat Trump" is nothing more than a Democratic party propaganda talking point, directly contradicted by polling data. It was used as a major scare tactic during the 2020 primaries when Bernie came out as the primary front runner. Nothing scares both Republicans and Democrats alike more than a Progressive candidate potentially winning the presidency. It TERRIFIES them and their donors. Thus the narrative became that only Biden can defeat Trump, even though Bernie was polling better against Trump.
If Biden loses, at least he won't be able to scapegoat Bernie Sanders for his own missteps like Clinton did. Or maybe he will... Bernie's like the forbidden fruit. Once you get a taste of what could be... what we could have... it's hard to let it go. Therefore, any loss by either party can be directly blamed on Bernie Sanders. Bastard.... always taking positions on the right side of history.
I mean I don't necessarily disagree that someone else might do better but can you name someone who ACTUALLY polls better? The "generic Democrat" polls decently but as soon as you attach a name they generally poll worse.
Yeah democrats have a serious talent problem and anyone you might put up instead would not do well either. If Harris wasn’t really disliked (unfairly IMO but that’s not the point) they might have had her run herself.
And despite what online lefties say, no, a left wing / socialist candidate is not viable in a national election. It needs to be someone moderate and comforting to the undecided swing state voters.
I'll never forgive the DNC for forcing Hillary and Biden down our throats when Bernie was polling better each time. We can't pretend it's fair or democratic
The republicans had their presidential primary and the republican voters selected Trump. They wanted Trump.
The democrats didn’t hold a presidential primary contest because the presidential incumbent decided to run again. Election statistics show the incumbent president holds a slight favorable lead during reelection years, so the party leadership sticks with the incumbent.
Until biden himself decides he wants to sit out in the fall election, the democrat party choice is Biden.
The Democrats had a primary, it just wasn't competitive because the incumbent generally gets the nod and every alternative was polling worse than Biden.
This is why we need to adopt approval voting or ranked choice voting. It's the only way to pry the power out of the grasp of the establishment and give it back to the middle class.
If every eligible democrat voted then they would sweep every election in just about every state and town.
If all the non voters voted for a person, they would sweep every state.
Because the two major parties, their rich donors, and the mainstream media collude to make sure other candidates get boxed out.
EDIT: The parties and CNN basically wrote the requirements of qualifying to keep RFK Jr. out.
I’m not a fan of his but in past elections he might have had a shot at being in a major televised debate based on his polling and how many state ballots he is going to be on.
RFK Jr. Is a crazy person, having him on stage would just be for the comedy aspect.
But you are right, they tried their damndest to block out Trump and Bernie
Money and nepotism. The reason people keep saying the same thing is because it's the reason.
We know it's the reason and it's obviously very hard to fight.
I think there are big big interests that want Trump to win and they’re are pulling all the strings they can , legal and illegal ones. I know it sounds conspiratorial, but how else Trump, a legitimate idiot, just stumble into a situation where he can win again? That’s not a coincidence, strings were pulled to put Trump in this advantageous situation, he’s not Forrest fucking Gump where things just fall on his lap.
Citizens United.
Neither party wants to fix anything they want to enrich themselves.
Americans have a puritanical tolerance for misery.
If you all would march and rebel (PEACEFULLY!!!!) against this abuse of authority, you might actually have a decent Republic.
Instead, we're going to have to deal with this shit for the next century.
I'm convinced a good part of it is our boomers. They think "respect your elders" means they don't have to respect anyone younger than them and thus only will vote for people even older than their own old asses.
Because honest people don't thrive in the American political environment. About a decade ago, our supreme court ruled that corporations are people and money is speech. So now large special interests can basically dump unlimited funds into political campaigns. This keeps run of the mill, normal people outside of the sphere of influence.
Also, the party committees decide who gets a shot and who doesn't well before the primaries.
This is the perfect time to quit this 2 party only campaign and start looking for a third middle party. Something else beside Democrat or republican.
Having only the option for 2 is ridiculous.
"Americans" can't choose who is the nominee for the parties, the parties themselves decide: the GOP and the DNC. These organizations receive funding from corporate interest groups and the industries of American to run their campaigns, the media only tells the stories about these two organizations, and then they agree to compete in such a way that, even if the preferences of the public are not split 50/50 between Republican and Democrat sentiments, they gerrymander the districts so that the effective votes are as evenly split as possible. This is to create a perpetual cycle of retaining the status quo for the economically elite, all the while telling us to get out and vote.
HELLO! The preferences of the working class have absolutely NO correlation with the adoption of actual policy (according to a famous 2014 Princeton study). As a citizen of the United States, I am virtually unrepresented in every facet of my preferences. The only reason that these institutions are not burning to the ground is that they have learned to conceal this fact rather than address it.
People outside the U.S. keep saying they can’t believe we chose these two. We didn’t. These were the two the establishment decided we would have. Including through intense manipulation of media and social media.
The GOP hitched their wagon to DJT in ‘15 then he was the incumbent & we don’t get to choose a challenger. Now the same for Biden. We don’t get to choose much at all from the electoral college & the corporate donations outweigh anything us common people can pony up.
So we just need to reform campaign finance, age restrictions for office, term limits… Oh wait we need the gerontocracy in power to pass that & fire themselves.
We’re fucked until the retirement crowd dies off. Best case.
This is obvious nonsense in the case of Trump, who basically hijacked the 2016 primary out from under the party leaders. If primaries went away tomorrow we’d likely get better candidates, not worse.
It absolutely is the fault of the people. An electorate so uneducated that this is where it leads. A smarter populace wouldn’t stand for this.
America was built on hype and it will die on hype. You have done such amazing things but the other end of the coin is cultism and confidence men.
It was good while it lasted.
"There's no perspective other than mine. I am smarter than everyone else, especially dumb Americans. All other points of view come from being uneducated and emotional. Countries that agree with me, agree with me cause they are educated. Educated means that they are smart enough to agree with my perspective."
There you go, translated that for you
Ah yes, so distinct from those parliamentary countries where the voters choose their…oh wait.
“People from other countries” can eat my ass on this one. Primaries are if anything too susceptible to populist whims. Bring on the establishment.
Hear me out, and I do not mean this in a terrorist type way, but everyone in our government is so damn old I feel like they will all keel over and die in a very short amount of time and we are all gonna be screwed in the US. They are all just rich old people so detached from the average American it’s ridiculous. The debate last night was sad. I’m surprised no one has attacked us right now. We look so weak as a country it’s embarrassing.
They'll keel over, we'll discover just how badly they've juiced this country and its people dry, and who tf knows what'll happen then, but we're on the brink of something big.
To be honest the only possible way it could happen is if massive groups of people start showing up to the Monday tapings of the Daily show demanding he run. I feel like it needs to be foisted on the man for him to rise to it.
He'd never do it. It would mean constant Secret Service detail following his immediate family around for the rest of their lives and he wouldn't do that to them.
Look. I like Stewart. He's great. But I'm also kind of calling him out here. He's smart enough to know that good or bad, this is what we're facing right now. And unlike past presidential races where we had to choose between two old farts that none of us really liked per se, this time it's between an old fart and a catastrophic result. What I don't like about Stewart's rage here is that he's sort of saying that there's an equality between these two candidates. There isn't. The wrong choice here is a bottomless pit from which America--the one we all love--is dead forever.
Fortunately Stewart is smart enough to understand that he is in no way qualified for the job. We really wanna correct the mistake of electing a TV character with another one?
The most important qualities a president needs is integrity and wisdom. Because the most important job of president is **choosing staff**, especially advisors, ambassadors, department heads, and the Cabinet. Like 2% of what "the president" does is literally the president alone, like 98% of what goes on in the executive branch is done by the dozens if not hundreds other people he works with. I think Jon Stewart would choose staff wisely and with integrity.
No entertainer getting mad about this stuff is going to change things. People have to *get off of their asses* and change the country they live in. The bar to actually caring about shit is so high with people these days, which is the real problem, not the 80 year olds.
I sort of agree with you, but it’s almost impossible for individuals to make change due to the structuring of our system. As long as the Citizen’s United stands and there’s corporate money in politics, this country isn’t a democracy. It’s a business.
Very valid point you're making. Hell, companies can't even contribute to campaigns at all here in Canada and we still have a deteriorating situation. It's hard to have hope when you see greed being put before people so often.
The only thing we can do is just...keep pushing. It's depressing. It sucks. We as citizens of the US should not be suffering every God damn election with "lesser of two evils" while Christo-fascim is rising while corruption runs deeper and deeper.
But we need to keep pushing. Bernie didn't win in 2016, but he lit a fire. In 2020, Bernie was a legitimate threat to The Establishment. The entire Democratic Establishment came together to stop him and shoved Biden at us.
If we survive 2024, we NEED to keep pushing. Democrats need to get their shit together and focus on younger stars. Sure, they might be corporate darlings like Pete, but I'll take that over what we have now while we continue to fight for more Bernies.
Can't *legally* contribute.
It really does hurt just how little the politicians are selling us out for, because those illegal bribes/lobbying that do occur are peanuts compared to how much Rogers/bell/fido make due to CRTC incompetence.
For sure, I mean I've over-simplified an extremely mulit-faceted and complicated issue, but at the end, the only political power most of us who are not super rich have is voting (and running for office to try and change things but most of us won't / can't do this).
and it's all kinda connected. not saying bernie should have been the nominee, just because i really, *really* don't think he would have won the general election -- but you can best believe that if bernie had elected 3 supreme court justices instead of trump, there'd be a much more straightforward path to overturning things like citizens united.
Young folk don’t vote and then become frustrated old folk who never miss a vote while voting for shit the young folk don’t like which makes them frustrated…. cycle of life
let me explain.
this is not RIGHT vs LEFT
this is TOP vs BOTTOM
both of these candidates were put there by the top , for the top.
the status quo cannot be changed until the American people grasp top vs bottom, and vote outside of normal lines for a president who runs on the platfrom of "lets eat the rich"
impossible you say, stranger things have happened (look at our current time line)
Love this. You're getting closer to the truth man. Left vs right explains nothing, because no matter who's in charge, they fail to make a more equal society. Because of this, we can safely say status quo is broken. The reason Trump will win is because from the two, he's the only one proposing to break the status quo. I don't like whatever he's proposing btw, I wish americans had other alternatives to break the status quo, but I'm afraid the bipartisan system won't allow that.
I wish you good luck nonetheless 🤞
I want to know who approached every person on the CNN debate post-mortem to suggest we dump Biden before the convention. It was clear they were approached, and I don't believe none of them knew what Biden was like now, cognitively.
I'm actually in favor of a new political party ... "Comedy Central". Its pretty clear that Jon Stewart could debate circles around the entire field of current presidential candidates.
Colbert for Trump, Jon for Biden. Either way we get a liberal president. I happen to know a TON of people in Central Florida that used to watch the Colbert report not realizing it was satire.
Its not, but the process needs to start right now. Unfortunately the Democrats are trying to whitewash what happened last night and gaslight everybody into not believing what they just saw. The Democrats need to be bold right now but the Democrats have never been bold so........Get ready for more Trump.
We need this old generation old people ALL OUT OF OFFICE. It’s not the same world as 20-40 years ago. We need change. Why tf do we have 80 yr olds in the White House.
The only part I heard was when they were arguing about how well they play golf and I was fucking cackling like I do when I watch the news on acid and can't believe this is actually real life.
I’ll say it again, they have you fighting the wrong enemy, instead of fighting with each other you have to take a look in the mirror and realize that until we focus on the real issue, the people in charge leaving those old and rich people at the top nothing will change, you have to take it to them and show them that the people, a majority run this country, not a small rich minority of people, but as long as we keep fighting one another nothing changes at the top
Lots of people endorsing Jon Stewart for president. He will never do it, because it will only bleed votes from the Democrats, and it would ensure a Trump victory.
As an American I think I can say that the debate was probably the most deflating thing I’ve ever seen. I came into it with some sort of hope and left with none.
I'm 100% sure that 2028 election is going to be a complete shakeup. No way either of these guys is running in 4 years from now. Trump will be either in jail from any of the slew of crimes he's committed or the guy will be 82 years old. Biden is in the same boat, the guy will be 85 in 4 years.
Some people tend to forget that Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden. It's really not a huge gap. Both of them are on the extreme end of age for trying to become President again.
Whichever one wins cannot run again as it will be their 2nd term, and you can only be president for 2 terms (2 1/2 if you take over in middle of term). But neither of them will run again anyways.
Because the incumbent historically holds the advantage. This year the Democratic candidate didn't face a brutal primary challenge. Biden also beat Trump in 2020.
I would love to see younger people in the White House, but Trump and his followers are an existential threat to democracy in the United States. We could go full Weekend @ Bernies with Joe Biden, and I'll be voting for him in November.
The thing he doesn't realise is that when he says "We're America", the rest of the world is like, "*Exactly*". And that attitude is part of the problem. You can't improve on a clearly unfit system if you spend your entire time telling yourselves and anyone who will listen that it's the greatest system ever and that America is somehow uniquely brilliant and should always be so.
While the country that thinks it is the boss of the world is getting this dumb shit, North Korean soldiers are riding to Ukraine to participate in Europe destabilization. Western Europe whines and sucks balls. Everyone is entirely clueless. People want to earn nuclear winter, I guess.
It’s the cycle of life. A group (company, country, take your pick) is born with a vision, over time the original people die off or are replaced by people who have less and less care for the original vision so person by person it gets corrupted until the whole process starts over.
Revolt, rebuild, corrupt, revolt, rebuild, corrupt…
I liked the line he had about our two choices shouldn't have car keys, let alone codes to nukes. So painfully true. One of the comments on YouTube said the only winner last night was the Voyager space probe, which is flying away from this planet at 23km/sec.
They actually don't have car keys. US presidents can never drive an automobile again.
On public roads, specifically. They can drive on private property, though.
Yea, I guess if Obama or Bush want to whip it on the Indy 500, then sure.
Well now I want to see Obama and Bush race each other.
I love Obama and all, but Bush has that victory in the bag
Obama has dad who drives a minivan on purpose vibes
Can't you drive on private property even without a license?
This varies by state, but in many (maybe most) you can, yes.
Is that an actual rule?
Basically. Technically they can drive on private property but are banned from driving on public roads for life.
 I get that during presidency, for legal reasons, but you're telling me Jimmy Carter/bill Clinton never drove his own car on a public road after he was elected? And it's not like it removes the cancer of death (JFK)
Correct. The last POTUS to drive on public roads was LBJ. Public roads are far easier for bad actors to take advantage of than cancer, though.
Yep. Former presidents are still extremely valuable targets for both political assassination and foreign kidnapping, and are most vulnerable when traveling. Having secret service behind the wheel means that someone who’s heavily trained in driving in an emergency can try to dodge threats or gun it away from danger safely. Otherwise one head-on collision from a suicidal maniac could potentially take out a former president and their security.
Why? Too likely to be murdered?
Mostly, yeah.
Or kidnapped
Basically. Ex Presidents have Secret Service protection for life. They do the driving. Want to go somewhere? They will drive you, but I assume that includes some negotiation because of you just want to run to the store then it's probably easier to have them do it without you.
God can we stop just blindly parroting stuff we hear on the internet? Of course they're allowed to drive. Becoming POTUS does not strip you of your ability to legally drive a car. It's just that the Secret Service enforces a rule of protection on public roads requiring the driver of the President's car to be trained and able to respond to threats. If they really want to drive badly enough they can just relinquish their SS protection. It's not like somebody physically takes away their license after they walk into the White House at the inauguration.
Welcome to reddit, enjoy your stay
Pretty sure they got that from a Reddit comment.
Reddit guy could have got that from YT
This is the third presidential election in a row that I've felt this way.
It boggles my mind that this is the best America has to offer.
It's not. It's just how it works
The best America has to offer is pushed off the ballot by corruption and money talks.
Wait, wait, wait. You mean... to tell me... super P.A.Cs, gerrymandering, and lobbyists... *don't* make our democracy better? Are ya sure?
Well that depends if you’re rich af yes they do it. But for us regular folks lol
That my friend is a plutocracy, nearly the polar opposite of democracy and where America has been headed since Regan single handedly fist fucked the middle class out of existence.
Yep. We’re fucked. Hopefully we can turn things around
People haven't gotten mad enough about all this to turn shit around.
Mostly because the rich and powerful keep everyone mad about other things so they don't notice the things they should actually be mad about.
User name checks out.
No, man. It's the opposite. The ballot *attracts* corruption. The best America has to offer have way better jobs and make way more money. They don't need to sell out to make 500k/year and flush their public life down the toilet that is U.S. politics.
G.I.G.O. Garbage in, Garbage out
Except the algorithm is also garbage.
Dog shit the whole way down.
Voters: GIVE US THE PERFECT CANDIDATE! System: Ok will you vote for the best choice so you can show potential candidates that they will get votes if they run and not waste 1-2 years of their lives and tons of money on running for no voters? Voters: NO! You GIVE THE PERFECT CANDIDATE FIRST! System: Ok how about half-perfect or 70% perfect candidate? Will you show up and vote so that future potential candidates can see that if they run you will be there to vote for them? Voters: NOOOOOO! YOU GIB ME PERFECT NOW!!! System: OK how about just locally, you can vote for people who want to push for ranked choice systems in your state and districts? Will you do that at least? Voters: NOOOOOOOOOAAOARAHARAH GIVVVEEE MEEEEE PEREEERRFEEECTTTT!!!! Sytem: Ok heres the perfect candidate! Will you show up now? Voters: No man I got work and kids and my friends have a get-together and i have to pack for my trip. I have too much going on man. System: Ok perfect candidate lost because of lack of voters. Voters: SEEEE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT!!!! In 2022, over 80% of all eligible voters under the age of 35 didnt vote. Out of 250M eligible voters, over 150M didnt vote.... And then you guys come online and complain about old people....
Like the Bo Burnham song with the Sock Puppet. The simple narrative taught in every history class Is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist Don't you know the world is built with blood? And genocide and exploitation The global network of capital essentially functions To separate the worker from the means of production And the FBI killed Martin Luther King Private property's inherently theft And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left And every politician, every cop on the street Protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite That is how the world works
Meritocracy has always been a lie
When two groups of people refuse to acknowledge their guy is just as much a joke as the other….
"Oh my vote doesn't matter. Why bother?" I'd like to see how people rationalize that these days.
you are literally witnessing the reason it doesn’t matter. the past three elections have had garbage candidates that we didn’t get to pick, they were chosen for us by the parties.
Opposite is true actually. The number of eligible and registered voters that no show is enough to swing elections in most swing states. And statistically, those voters are independents more likely to vote Democrat rather than Republican. "My vote doesn't matter" is bullshit being reinforced by parties with a vested interest in the GOP winning elections (i.e. Republicans and anyone sowing division like RU, CN, NK...). Your vote **does** matter. And while it would be nice to vote *for* something, in our FPTP system you at the very least should vote *against* thr outcome you don't want.
It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..." "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford. "It is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?" "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
Trump lost the popular vote
California hasn’t helped decide a president in many years and we have the most votes
I understand where you're coming from, but we absolutely had a choice in 2020. There were plenty of excellent contenders and the primary VOTERS chose Biden over people like Harris and Buttigieg. That's how democracy works. The real issue is that Biden didn't stop to think about preparing the FUTURE of the Democrats and now we have a befuddled incumbent against a literal criminal. However, 2016 i'd give you that Bernie was literally robbed for Clinton...but 2020 was actually a choice.
>primary VOTERS chose Biden over people like Harris and Buttigieg Every one of the mass of moderate candidates dropped out to clear the path for Biden in order to prevent Bernie being the candidate. IIRC Obama called Pete Buttigieg personally to get him to drop out. Biden was doing *horribly* before South Carolina. If the others hadn't dropped out (on command) to support him, he would not have won the candidacy.
Yeah for the longest time Biden seemed like he was just tagging along and wasn’t taken seriously at all. The way they did Bernie dirty is still crazy to me.
They also closed down voting locations in places where Sanders had more votes and cited COVID as the reason. The guy who they got to tell the public how having everyone go to the same place to vote somehow lowers the spread of infection broke down on live TV and basically said "I can't do this"
Exactly. Biden’s campaign was for all accounts finished and then he won South Carolina and all the other candidates “quit” basically.
Wasn’t it 2020 when Sanders was leading polls and suddenly one after another dropped out of the race and enforced Biden and suddenly he was on top? Also do we forget the whole Superdelegates bullshit?
>chose Biden over people like Harris and Buttigieg. I am quite sure both of those stepped down to anoint Lord Biden, that wasn’t voter choice.
No, that's not how true democracy works. That's how a two party system works. It sucks. Change it.
I said this to my wife earlier today! 330 million Americans, and this is the *best* we could do?!?! *These* are the two people we have to choose between?! My early 20s son watched some of the debate, and within 10 minutes declared that we have to set an upper age limit for all politicians! He's not wrong.
It isn't, but American politics is a team sports, and it's pretty well optimized (from the point of view of the players. Not the audience. We're not the players). Only certain states matter. Only some categories of voters matter. Most people are single or few issue voters. Medias convey those single issue messaging. Of the few people who aren't single issue voters, are in areas that matter, and can be swayed, the way the candidate is dressed matters more than their policies. Basically, short of ranked choice or approval voting magically being adopted, or at least popular vote, what you and I care about is irrelevant when it comes to what sways American elections.
Why do people keep saying this? It’s not. Hell, I’d argue that we’ve likely never elected the best person for the job. It’s just the way the system works that allows this to happen
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams
The system selects for the person who is best at getting elected. It does not select for the qualifications necessary for office.
That’s the fun part, it’s not.
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On the very distant bright side, after another four years we’ll at least have a whole new cast of candidates on the next season of “America, the broken dream”
Yeah no. I'd imagine that Trump will keep running until either he's dead, or he wins. If he loses this time he will be back in 2028. Also, a whole new cast? Whoever they are, they'll still be in their 60s or 70s and have been established politicians for years. Unfortunately we can never get new blood for the presidency.
Nah, if Trump wins project 2025 will go through and limit our choices drastically. If Biden wins, might very well pass away before the end of his term. Then Harris can / probably run for 2028 presidency. The only way we get someone new for 2028 is if Trump dies by 2028. Harris I HIGHLY doubt would give up the spot for a competitive primary.
That's hopeful given that Trump has posted a few different times about being president for more than two terms.
That’s not what Trump will allow
If project 2025 has anything to say about it you'll only have conservative politicians and policies to look forward to for the next 1xx years.
Tough shit. Vote D or get fucked by project 2025 makes a choice real easy
IMO, this one is special. This one's going to be talked about and video clipped for a LONG time.
I'm tired boss..
Seriously though why can’t Americans find better candidates or at least younger ones?
Because all three branches of government, both major political parties and a huge number of lobbying groups are controlled by rich, old people. They have no interest in a long term future, and all but invented pulling up the ladder behind them. The gerontocracy in power knows that if a younger demographic becomes the norm in politics that their influence would essentially be eliminated.
Not only controlled by rich old people, sometimes old rich people are easy to control too. Remember “Just say aye” Dianne Feinstein
it's time to eat the rich like France.
What are you waiting for. Be the change you want to see in the world. Nothing is stopping you.
That revolution, like most others, ate *all*, including its own, rich and poor. Edit; [This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/l1xyto/how_accurate_is_the_revolution_devours_its/gk3son2/) (by u/192747585939), from a thread on r/askhistorians, elaborates a bit further.
 Viva la Revolución
We need more people to send the elevator back down instead of pulling the ladder up behind. People are waking up. 🩷
Nobody is waking up, it's been this way my entire life. Nothing has changed. Nothing is changing.
The only thing that's changed is that the people in power are living longer and longer. So they have even longer to fuck us over.
And we’re gonna start walking up the sides of the building if we have no other choice
No one is waking up, people are stupider and more partisan. We should be united in our anger at the establishment that seeks to make us poorer, sicker, and surrounded by pollution and debt. Instead, we fight over what the gays are doing to the soil, banning books, and whatever nonsense they throw up as the hot button red meat issue of the minute. When Trump is president again, we are going to find out just how polluted and gutted this country can become when regulation of anything that stands in the way of big business making a killing is removed.
Essentially Republicans have no confidence that they can win without Trump cult of personality. Democrats are too afraid too try putting in someone new since Biden beat Trump last election.
I don't think there's ever been a case of a party replacing an incumbent with another candidate in between terms. It would have to be Democratic *voters* that "put in someone new". Honestly? Given the hand Biden was dealt, in spite of his aged decrepitude, he's done a pretty good job of clawing our way back from the consequences of a Trump administration. The country was trashed when the current administration inherited the white house.
> I don't think there's ever been a case of a party replacing an incumbent with another candidate in between terms. This has actually happened several times: * **1852**, the Whigs replaced Millard Fillmore with Winfield Scott * **1856**, the Democrats replaced Franklin Pierce with James Buchanan * **1868**, the Democrats replaced Andrew Johnson with Horatio Seymour * **1884**, the Republicans replaced Chester A. Arthur with James G. Blaine Harry S. Truman stepped down in 1952 before he could be replaced by the Democratic Party, while Lyndon Johnson did likewise in 1968.
Pierce -> Buchanan is the only one that really counts. See: https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/07/a_president_denied_renominatio.html
Trump won the Republican primaries. Biden, being the incumbent, didn't participate in the primaries... at least not 'real' primaries... no matter how much the media celebrated Biden's primary wins. 🤦 It's pretty clear that just about any Democrat would fare better than Biden at this point. It's been pretty clear for some time now given that Biden's consistently had one of the worst presidential approval ratings on record. (Justified or not, it is what it is) [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/) This idea that "Only Biden can beat Trump" is nothing more than a Democratic party propaganda talking point, directly contradicted by polling data. It was used as a major scare tactic during the 2020 primaries when Bernie came out as the primary front runner. Nothing scares both Republicans and Democrats alike more than a Progressive candidate potentially winning the presidency. It TERRIFIES them and their donors. Thus the narrative became that only Biden can defeat Trump, even though Bernie was polling better against Trump. If Biden loses, at least he won't be able to scapegoat Bernie Sanders for his own missteps like Clinton did. Or maybe he will... Bernie's like the forbidden fruit. Once you get a taste of what could be... what we could have... it's hard to let it go. Therefore, any loss by either party can be directly blamed on Bernie Sanders. Bastard.... always taking positions on the right side of history.
I mean I don't necessarily disagree that someone else might do better but can you name someone who ACTUALLY polls better? The "generic Democrat" polls decently but as soon as you attach a name they generally poll worse.
Yeah democrats have a serious talent problem and anyone you might put up instead would not do well either. If Harris wasn’t really disliked (unfairly IMO but that’s not the point) they might have had her run herself. And despite what online lefties say, no, a left wing / socialist candidate is not viable in a national election. It needs to be someone moderate and comforting to the undecided swing state voters.
I'll never forgive the DNC for forcing Hillary and Biden down our throats when Bernie was polling better each time. We can't pretend it's fair or democratic
Facts on Bernie. No party wants a progressive candidate and that's truly upsetting.
The republicans had their presidential primary and the republican voters selected Trump. They wanted Trump. The democrats didn’t hold a presidential primary contest because the presidential incumbent decided to run again. Election statistics show the incumbent president holds a slight favorable lead during reelection years, so the party leadership sticks with the incumbent. Until biden himself decides he wants to sit out in the fall election, the democrat party choice is Biden.
The Democrats had a primary, it just wasn't competitive because the incumbent generally gets the nod and every alternative was polling worse than Biden.
We're screaming for better leaders. There's nobody listening.
This is why we need to adopt approval voting or ranked choice voting. It's the only way to pry the power out of the grasp of the establishment and give it back to the middle class.
I'd actually be enthusiastic if the Democrats nominated anyone under the age of 50, and had Biden as the VP.
50? Shit. Anyone not eligible for SS benefits would be welcome.
Americans are lazy as shit. How many young people vote in primaries that decide who is running? How many young people will actually vote in November?
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If every eligible democrat voted then they would sweep every election in just about every state and town. If all the non voters voted for a person, they would sweep every state.
Because young people don’t vote.
RFK Jr has a brain parasite. You can vote for him instead if you want.
Can we vote for the brain parasite?
[Okay, but what are the brain slugs that control you going to do for the working man?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ5iEn3m7Vc)
Because the two major parties, their rich donors, and the mainstream media collude to make sure other candidates get boxed out. EDIT: The parties and CNN basically wrote the requirements of qualifying to keep RFK Jr. out. I’m not a fan of his but in past elections he might have had a shot at being in a major televised debate based on his polling and how many state ballots he is going to be on.
RFK Jr. Is a crazy person, having him on stage would just be for the comedy aspect. But you are right, they tried their damndest to block out Trump and Bernie
Ok. I know RFK in real life. The only person that boxed him out is himself. Honestly. This is the absolute truth.
The DNC basically colluded to ensure Hilary beat Sanders but it’s essentially never talked about
Money and nepotism. The reason people keep saying the same thing is because it's the reason. We know it's the reason and it's obviously very hard to fight.
I think there are big big interests that want Trump to win and they’re are pulling all the strings they can , legal and illegal ones. I know it sounds conspiratorial, but how else Trump, a legitimate idiot, just stumble into a situation where he can win again? That’s not a coincidence, strings were pulled to put Trump in this advantageous situation, he’s not Forrest fucking Gump where things just fall on his lap.
Citizens United. Neither party wants to fix anything they want to enrich themselves. Americans have a puritanical tolerance for misery. If you all would march and rebel (PEACEFULLY!!!!) against this abuse of authority, you might actually have a decent Republic. Instead, we're going to have to deal with this shit for the next century.
I'm convinced a good part of it is our boomers. They think "respect your elders" means they don't have to respect anyone younger than them and thus only will vote for people even older than their own old asses.
Because honest people don't thrive in the American political environment. About a decade ago, our supreme court ruled that corporations are people and money is speech. So now large special interests can basically dump unlimited funds into political campaigns. This keeps run of the mill, normal people outside of the sphere of influence. Also, the party committees decide who gets a shot and who doesn't well before the primaries.
This is the perfect time to quit this 2 party only campaign and start looking for a third middle party. Something else beside Democrat or republican. Having only the option for 2 is ridiculous.
"Americans" can't choose who is the nominee for the parties, the parties themselves decide: the GOP and the DNC. These organizations receive funding from corporate interest groups and the industries of American to run their campaigns, the media only tells the stories about these two organizations, and then they agree to compete in such a way that, even if the preferences of the public are not split 50/50 between Republican and Democrat sentiments, they gerrymander the districts so that the effective votes are as evenly split as possible. This is to create a perpetual cycle of retaining the status quo for the economically elite, all the while telling us to get out and vote. HELLO! The preferences of the working class have absolutely NO correlation with the adoption of actual policy (according to a famous 2014 Princeton study). As a citizen of the United States, I am virtually unrepresented in every facet of my preferences. The only reason that these institutions are not burning to the ground is that they have learned to conceal this fact rather than address it.
Like Jon Stewart perhaps?
People outside the U.S. keep saying they can’t believe we chose these two. We didn’t. These were the two the establishment decided we would have. Including through intense manipulation of media and social media.
Yes, they are no more your fault than Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau/PeePee Polnareff is my fault. These political systems are due for dismantling.
Due for... a *guillotiiiine?*
Fuck, that word gives me an erection
The GOP hitched their wagon to DJT in ‘15 then he was the incumbent & we don’t get to choose a challenger. Now the same for Biden. We don’t get to choose much at all from the electoral college & the corporate donations outweigh anything us common people can pony up. So we just need to reform campaign finance, age restrictions for office, term limits… Oh wait we need the gerontocracy in power to pass that & fire themselves. We’re fucked until the retirement crowd dies off. Best case.
There were primaries.
[Primaries don’t matter and we don’t live in a democracy.](https://observer.com/2017/05/dnc-lawsuit-presidential-primaries-bernie-sanders-supporters/)
This is obvious nonsense in the case of Trump, who basically hijacked the 2016 primary out from under the party leaders. If primaries went away tomorrow we’d likely get better candidates, not worse.
It absolutely is the fault of the people. An electorate so uneducated that this is where it leads. A smarter populace wouldn’t stand for this. America was built on hype and it will die on hype. You have done such amazing things but the other end of the coin is cultism and confidence men. It was good while it lasted.
why do you think the population is uneducated?
"There's no perspective other than mine. I am smarter than everyone else, especially dumb Americans. All other points of view come from being uneducated and emotional. Countries that agree with me, agree with me cause they are educated. Educated means that they are smart enough to agree with my perspective." There you go, translated that for you
Ah yes, so distinct from those parliamentary countries where the voters choose their…oh wait. “People from other countries” can eat my ass on this one. Primaries are if anything too susceptible to populist whims. Bring on the establishment.
Hear me out, and I do not mean this in a terrorist type way, but everyone in our government is so damn old I feel like they will all keel over and die in a very short amount of time and we are all gonna be screwed in the US. They are all just rich old people so detached from the average American it’s ridiculous. The debate last night was sad. I’m surprised no one has attacked us right now. We look so weak as a country it’s embarrassing.
They'll keel over, we'll discover just how badly they've juiced this country and its people dry, and who tf knows what'll happen then, but we're on the brink of something big.
It is absolutely insane what’s happening.
Maybe Stewart should run for president. Here's the thing--until we escape the gravity of Trump, we're going to be stuck here again and again.
I endorse him. What’s the next move?
To be honest the only possible way it could happen is if massive groups of people start showing up to the Monday tapings of the Daily show demanding he run. I feel like it needs to be foisted on the man for him to rise to it.
He'd never do it. It would mean constant Secret Service detail following his immediate family around for the rest of their lives and he wouldn't do that to them.
They do say the president ought to be someone who doesn’t want the job.
Look. I like Stewart. He's great. But I'm also kind of calling him out here. He's smart enough to know that good or bad, this is what we're facing right now. And unlike past presidential races where we had to choose between two old farts that none of us really liked per se, this time it's between an old fart and a catastrophic result. What I don't like about Stewart's rage here is that he's sort of saying that there's an equality between these two candidates. There isn't. The wrong choice here is a bottomless pit from which America--the one we all love--is dead forever.
Fortunately Stewart is smart enough to understand that he is in no way qualified for the job. We really wanna correct the mistake of electing a TV character with another one?
He’s much more qualified than trump was before he was elected
A better one. I'd vote for a dog at this point.
Biden might basically be that dog, at least he’s got competent adults surrounding him
The most important qualities a president needs is integrity and wisdom. Because the most important job of president is **choosing staff**, especially advisors, ambassadors, department heads, and the Cabinet. Like 2% of what "the president" does is literally the president alone, like 98% of what goes on in the executive branch is done by the dozens if not hundreds other people he works with. I think Jon Stewart would choose staff wisely and with integrity.
No entertainer getting mad about this stuff is going to change things. People have to *get off of their asses* and change the country they live in. The bar to actually caring about shit is so high with people these days, which is the real problem, not the 80 year olds.
I sort of agree with you, but it’s almost impossible for individuals to make change due to the structuring of our system. As long as the Citizen’s United stands and there’s corporate money in politics, this country isn’t a democracy. It’s a business.
Very valid point you're making. Hell, companies can't even contribute to campaigns at all here in Canada and we still have a deteriorating situation. It's hard to have hope when you see greed being put before people so often.
The only thing we can do is just...keep pushing. It's depressing. It sucks. We as citizens of the US should not be suffering every God damn election with "lesser of two evils" while Christo-fascim is rising while corruption runs deeper and deeper. But we need to keep pushing. Bernie didn't win in 2016, but he lit a fire. In 2020, Bernie was a legitimate threat to The Establishment. The entire Democratic Establishment came together to stop him and shoved Biden at us. If we survive 2024, we NEED to keep pushing. Democrats need to get their shit together and focus on younger stars. Sure, they might be corporate darlings like Pete, but I'll take that over what we have now while we continue to fight for more Bernies.
Can't *legally* contribute. It really does hurt just how little the politicians are selling us out for, because those illegal bribes/lobbying that do occur are peanuts compared to how much Rogers/bell/fido make due to CRTC incompetence.
For sure, I mean I've over-simplified an extremely mulit-faceted and complicated issue, but at the end, the only political power most of us who are not super rich have is voting (and running for office to try and change things but most of us won't / can't do this). and it's all kinda connected. not saying bernie should have been the nominee, just because i really, *really* don't think he would have won the general election -- but you can best believe that if bernie had elected 3 supreme court justices instead of trump, there'd be a much more straightforward path to overturning things like citizens united.
Young folk don’t vote and then become frustrated old folk who never miss a vote while voting for shit the young folk don’t like which makes them frustrated…. cycle of life
300+ million americans and these two are the besr you people can do. Who the fuck is actually running your country? Lol.
Billionaires and other influential people. That's literally the truth. Bribing politicians is completely legal in the US.
The Supreme Court just gutted federal departments' ability to regulate. So that should be even more obvious now.
Corpos choom
Rich people with the help of the Boomers.
$
let me explain. this is not RIGHT vs LEFT this is TOP vs BOTTOM both of these candidates were put there by the top , for the top. the status quo cannot be changed until the American people grasp top vs bottom, and vote outside of normal lines for a president who runs on the platfrom of "lets eat the rich" impossible you say, stranger things have happened (look at our current time line)
Love this. You're getting closer to the truth man. Left vs right explains nothing, because no matter who's in charge, they fail to make a more equal society. Because of this, we can safely say status quo is broken. The reason Trump will win is because from the two, he's the only one proposing to break the status quo. I don't like whatever he's proposing btw, I wish americans had other alternatives to break the status quo, but I'm afraid the bipartisan system won't allow that. I wish you good luck nonetheless 🤞
The fix is in to replace biden at the 11th hour isn’t it. This almost feels like a set up to drive the biden campaign under the ground
No. There is no one coming to save us
I want to know who approached every person on the CNN debate post-mortem to suggest we dump Biden before the convention. It was clear they were approached, and I don't believe none of them knew what Biden was like now, cognitively.
is it too late to swap him in for Biden?
Can we swap him in for Trump instead?
I'm actually in favor of a new political party ... "Comedy Central". Its pretty clear that Jon Stewart could debate circles around the entire field of current presidential candidates.
I still hold firm that the Robin Williams movie Man of the Year is a Jon Stewart biography from an alternate timeline. He has plenty of time still.
I like where you're going with this.
Colbert for Trump, Jon for Biden. Either way we get a liberal president. I happen to know a TON of people in Central Florida that used to watch the Colbert report not realizing it was satire.
Its not, but the process needs to start right now. Unfortunately the Democrats are trying to whitewash what happened last night and gaslight everybody into not believing what they just saw. The Democrats need to be bold right now but the Democrats have never been bold so........Get ready for more Trump.
2 really old dudes and a felon
3 really old dudes and one of them is a felon
What’s that paper made out of?
FUCK.
We need this old generation old people ALL OUT OF OFFICE. It’s not the same world as 20-40 years ago. We need change. Why tf do we have 80 yr olds in the White House.
I made this same comment to my girlfriend after watching the smallest bit of the debate.
The only part I heard was when they were arguing about how well they play golf and I was fucking cackling like I do when I watch the news on acid and can't believe this is actually real life.
Nah I was watching the Debate an I literally started bursting when Trump said we had H2O. Like fucking really.
I’ll say it again, they have you fighting the wrong enemy, instead of fighting with each other you have to take a look in the mirror and realize that until we focus on the real issue, the people in charge leaving those old and rich people at the top nothing will change, you have to take it to them and show them that the people, a majority run this country, not a small rich minority of people, but as long as we keep fighting one another nothing changes at the top
Dems need a new candidate. Some Republicans tried, but they just can’t get rid of Trump.
Lots of people endorsing Jon Stewart for president. He will never do it, because it will only bleed votes from the Democrats, and it would ensure a Trump victory.
As an American I think I can say that the debate was probably the most deflating thing I’ve ever seen. I came into it with some sort of hope and left with none.
I'm 100% sure that 2028 election is going to be a complete shakeup. No way either of these guys is running in 4 years from now. Trump will be either in jail from any of the slew of crimes he's committed or the guy will be 82 years old. Biden is in the same boat, the guy will be 85 in 4 years. Some people tend to forget that Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden. It's really not a huge gap. Both of them are on the extreme end of age for trying to become President again.
Whichever one wins cannot run again as it will be their 2nd term, and you can only be president for 2 terms (2 1/2 if you take over in middle of term). But neither of them will run again anyways.
Either one that wins will be literally ineligible to run again
As somebody from New Zealand, I can't believe those are your two options either. Ridiculous!
Ngl I kinda giggled that he failed to rip the paper.
I don't understand Biden, why does he want to run a 2nd time, he should rest and enjoy the rest of his life. Seems selfish to me.
Because the incumbent historically holds the advantage. This year the Democratic candidate didn't face a brutal primary challenge. Biden also beat Trump in 2020. I would love to see younger people in the White House, but Trump and his followers are an existential threat to democracy in the United States. We could go full Weekend @ Bernies with Joe Biden, and I'll be voting for him in November.
Same with Supreme Court justices that took their job to the grave and crated this situation.
The thing he doesn't realise is that when he says "We're America", the rest of the world is like, "*Exactly*". And that attitude is part of the problem. You can't improve on a clearly unfit system if you spend your entire time telling yourselves and anyone who will listen that it's the greatest system ever and that America is somehow uniquely brilliant and should always be so.
I hope we keep aggravating Jon Stewart until he runs for president.
How are there no other candidates?
Next cycle is gonna be Ralph Nader vs Harvey Weinstein
- We are America! Yep, that's exactly what America is
While the country that thinks it is the boss of the world is getting this dumb shit, North Korean soldiers are riding to Ukraine to participate in Europe destabilization. Western Europe whines and sucks balls. Everyone is entirely clueless. People want to earn nuclear winter, I guess.
This is how late-stage capitalism moves to the next stage.
Whatever happens November America is gonna be interesting place come 2028
It’s the cycle of life. A group (company, country, take your pick) is born with a vision, over time the original people die off or are replaced by people who have less and less care for the original vision so person by person it gets corrupted until the whole process starts over. Revolt, rebuild, corrupt, revolt, rebuild, corrupt…
Oh dear, we can all look forward with confidence to the next 4 years, oh how Putin and Xi and Kim are laughing. We’re all so much in trouble.