Kamala Harris has launched her campaign for the White House, after President Joe Biden stepped aside Sunday under pressure from party leaders.

The vice president has Biden’s endorsement, and is unchallenged as yet for the Democratic nomination, which will be formally decided at the Aug. 19 convention in Chicago.

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”

In her statement, the vice president paid tribute to Biden’s “extraordinary leadership,” saying he had achieved more in one term than many presidents do in two.

  • Birch@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Literally having a criminal prosecutor run against a convicted criminal is kind of beautiful.

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        4 months ago

        Going to be interesting to see fox news shift gears into full-time demonization of her.

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          I’m sure they’ll find their footing eventually, but so far it’s been pretty piss poor. Aimless. I think it legit never occurred to them this could happen.

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            They were always piss poor about Obama, because there wasn’t any ammunition to work with

            The biggest grievance about her has been that she was overly hard on criminals, and that would backfire on them if they echoed that sentiment to the right wing base. It can piss off leftists though, so astroturfing leftist Internet folks while trying to not say it too loud so people on the right won’t hear it seems to be the game.

            • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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              It does seem like the concern trolls have very quickly moved on from repeating that Biden is too old ad nauseum to Harris convicted too many criminals.

              I think the best thing anyone can do in this day and age is educate themselves on trolling/astroturfing tactics. Once you do they stand out and it makes their goal of dividing and astroturfing significantly more difficult. It also makes them waste their time if no one takes their bait, which is good for everyone.

          • elbucho@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Which is hilarious, since Biden is old as fuck, and has one of the most stressful jobs in the world. You’d think they’d already have a contingency plan in place in case he kicked the bucket while in office with all of the hate talking points for Harris.

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        4 months ago

        I wonder if the ‘Black’ part means less to the republican party than her being a pretty competent woman. I can see Harris pulling a LOT of single issue woman voters over the abortion rights issue. And that scares the republican party. It would kill the down ticket vote as well.

    • Freefall@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Black prosecutor vs Old white felon. Hahahaha their poor brains are gonna get cloudstriked

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      Party of law and order is running a convicted felon.

      Dems are running a DA.

      Wtaf?

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      ooooh never thought about that. people dislike that she’s a prosecutor so i don’t know if she should use this at all but it’s still kinda awesome

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        The “soft on crime” line is completely broken, though. They can’t use it against her because the response is how she built a career around holding felons like Donald Trump accountable, and nothing else. There is zero comeback.

        • pyre@lemmy.world
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          good point. funny how the “tough on crime” people are supporting a convicted felon. of course as with all of their issues it’s just code for bigotry.

          they don’t care about crime, they want to oppress black people.

          they don’t care about the sanctity of marriage or family, they want to oppress gay people.

          they don’t care about the welfare of babies, they want to oppress women.

          and as an obvious part of that of course they never cared about women’s safety in public places or women’s sports, they just want to oppress trans people.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          she built a career around holding felons like Donald Trump accountable

          I hope she gets a chance to say something like that to his face in a debate

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        She already has, talked about she was a prosecutor who took down sex predators and scam colleges, both of which are Trump.

  • Kroxx@lemm.ee
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    I don’t like Harris, mainly because of her time as a prosecutor. I’m also not going to lie, I was having a really really hard time grappling with voting for Biden, I was begrudgingly willing to before the debate but when I watched it I was so outraged. I genuinely feel like his administration has been deceitful with his condition for a while. I’m not saying I wasn’t going to vote for Biden, I understand the stakes, but I kept watching his interviews trying to get any genuine motivation for Biden. All I saw was a stubborn old man who refused to even acknowledge reality.

    I’ve been following Biden news and this week I was convinced that he would drop out and so I wondered who would replace him. Harris immediately came to mind. Now as I said I don’t care for Harris but before Biden announced this today I personally decided I would be willing to support Harris.

    She isn’t ancient, I believe she’s more progressive, and I think she will be good in the debates. She isn’t my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th pick, but I have far fewer hangups voting for Harris compared to Biden, and of course over Trump.

    She isn’t the best candidate in terms of absolute popularity, but when you factor in funding logistics and the fact that I think many good Dems picks would want to run in '28 when the timing isn’t fucked, I think Harris is the most realistic pick. I’ll happily take her compared to Biden.

    • elbucho@lemmy.world
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      You know what? I felt the same way before today. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the announcement, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Harris is the best possible presidential candidate.

      Like you, I don’t think she’d make the best president. Hell, she wasn’t even in my top 10. I’d have vastly preferred someone like Hakeem Jeffries. But here’s the thing: the person best suited for the office of president isn’t necessarily the best person to run for president.

      Harris has all of the advantages Biden had: she can run on this administration’s record, since it was her administration too. Every positive talking point about the stuff that Biden’s done for the country can equally apply to Harris. Additionally, she gets his entire war chest, and with the president’s blessing today, she’s likely going to have 100% party support as well. To make matters even better, she doesn’t have any of the flaws he sported: she’s young, she’s sharp, she’s great in debates, and because she’s the antithesis of Biden in all of these respects, all of the criticisms pointed at Biden (which could also 100% be applied to Trump) will now all be applied to Trump and Trump alone.

      Lastly, I think that now is the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president. She’s got the built-in support of everybody who dreads another Trump presidency. A significant number of people who would vote for Biden but not Harris due to sexism or racism will be rethinking that position when the opposition is Donald Trump. Also, something like 40% of people in the US just simply don’t vote. Biden would never appeal to those people, but a black / asian woman who has succeeded in a mostly male dominated field could be very inspirational to a large number of otherwise apathetic non-voters.

      I honestly think that Harris being endorsed for President is just an unalloyed good. I don’t see any realistic downsides, and an incredible number of upsides. It actually has me excited, which is a feeling I haven’t felt since 2008.

      • HiddenLife@lemmy.world
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        I don’t know where all this “I don’t like Harris” stuff comes from. Considering the presidents we’ve had lately, hahaha… if she won, it would be amazing. I’m sure there are better people in the world, but they don’t even get close to the White House. We have to be realistic. She’s a great pick considering current political realities.

        • elbucho@lemmy.world
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          Oh for sure. Don’t get me wrong; she’s not my ideal president, but she’d still probably be in the top 5 presidents we’ve ever had. That’s not necessarily making a judgment about her without seeing her performance first, it’s more of a statement about how bad most US presidents are. Still, I have high hopes for a Harris presidency. I think she’ll do a great job. She’s just not my #1 draft pick.

      • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Don’t forget that the fascists will push away moderates everywhere because they have no idea how racist and sexist they are, nor how to hide it, because it’s their entire platform.

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        I’m personally a little nervous about Harris–I remember the 2020 primary where her only notable accomplishments were accusing Biden of being racist over opposition to federal busing policies, and then flaming out shortly after and shuttering her campaign two months before the first caucus and polling single digits in California. Admittedly, she doesn’t have the same headwinds now that she had in 2020–she doesn’t have to differentiate herself from over a dozen other candidates and she won’t struggle to raise money–but she also made some unforced errors (e.g. coming out for total elimination of private insurance before revealing a plan that included private plans, or admitting her own policy on busing was essentially identical to Biden’s).

        Hopefully, she’ll run a much tighter campaign now since she’ll inherit Biden’s staff and can focus solely on attacking Trump, but I do have some concerns.

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          Polling single digits in California might actually be indicative of her having a better chance. The same reasons why she want the top choice in a deeply blue state may make her a stronger choice in more “on the fence” voters.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        Agreed with all that! But I have one caveat.

        the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president

        Look, I cried tears of joy when Obama won. I mean that literally. But guess when the conservative hate machine got dialed to 11?

        Some will say it started earlier, but I disagree. Back then I occasionally listened to Limbaugh and Hannity on the radio while running errands at work. They actually had some sane takes now and again. Wasn’t very political, but I had my ear to the ground. The entire machine, especially Fox News, went so far off the rails in response to a black President, I simply couldn’t listen to any of them, not for a second.

        Conservative brains take time to assimilate new social conditions, gotta chip away at 'em. I’m already hearing the, “Fuck them!” replies, but that doesn’t change the fact that these people exist and vote. And they’re going to get more and more violent.

        Look at LGBT rights. We got them to begrudgingly accept gay marriage. Fresh off that victory, liberals asked for more and more acceptance. Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk. Now I feel gay rights are perhaps worse than before.

        Scared to see what a double-whammy of a black woman does to their brains. I used to laugh about conservatives choking on their outrage, same with Christians. “Ha! Losing ain’t ya!” But now it isn’t so funny. They’re in a corner and lashing out. What next?

        • elbucho@lemmy.world
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          All, or at least the vast majority, of those people you’re talking about are already Trump voters. They’re going to continue backing Trump no matter who the Democratic party picks. They saw a black guy get elected president, and that radicalized them. They aren’t coming back. Pandering to the imaginary demographic of racists who will surely see the light if we elect the right candidate is simply a losing proposition.

          Will there be right wing violence in response to a Harris presidency? Of course there will be. Is there right wing violence now? Of course there is. I understand that you’re tired of hearing the “fuck them” replies, but seriously: fuck them. They are a cancer on this nation. Holding back on doing something good just because you’re afraid that the fucking awful people you share a country with will do something awful just means that you never make any progress.

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk.

          Raises a conundrum I struggle with:

          No one should have to wait for rights, true.

          yet

          Idiots vote, true.

          How should we act if we know fighting for certain rights means fascists have an easier time in elections?

          Should we…:

          A. Be publicly on the right side of history at risk of losing an election to the detriment of all.

          B. Be publicly on the wrong side of a human rights issue in order to win, then try to privately backchannel to make up for the sin.

          (Perhaps a false binary here, so ready to be corrected.)

          Idealist in me says fight at all costs, maybe it’ll work out. Pragmatist in me says “win the damn election & backchannel the heck out of your term.” Feel guilty either way.

          Edit: corrected word to “wrong” from “right”

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      when you factor in funding logistics

      This is an incredibly important point. Unless rich donors said they’d fully make up the current campaign war chest for the new candidate, there would be a significant funding issue. Being able to use the existing funds is extremely important.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      She wasn’t anyone’s top 4 even in 2020. Between what they did before Super Tuesday then, and now this, this isn’t democracy. This is DNC controlling what happens to prevent something like Bernie. People aren’t getting choice and primaries are pointless.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        People could have voted for someone other than Biden in the primaries. That was always an option. Just because the incumbent was running again didn’t mean the voters HAD to vote for him.

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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          Quick poll

          Please up vote if you had a chance (I did, that’s 1)

          Please down vote if you didn’t get a chance to vote for someone else in the primary

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            I will never understand why we don’t just force Super Tuesday on all 50 states. My dipshit of a state is the week after and I hate it

            • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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              I really think it’s there’s a few lobbies that keeps our election cycles so goddamn long. They need the horserace and the controversy for as long as possible to get ratings. News organizations, election consultants, advertisers, etc.

              France had two elections within weeks of each other. Britain called a snap election and got it done in under two months. These things can be done quickly and efficiently, but nobody wants to run afoul of two groups required to get re-elected, so they keep us slogging through the mudslinging.

            • xapr@lemmy.sdf.org
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              From my understanding, the reason for this is to give candidates with less funds and less name recognition an opportunity to bubble up. Imagine that if the primary consisted of all states at the same time, candidates would need to campaign nationally, or only in the most populous states, either of which would cost tons of money. This would make it so that only candidates already starting off with massive campaign funds would have any chance.

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            Voted for Marianne Williamson who had already withdrawn because A) she was the only other choice on the ballot and B) She is actually great in interviews. Dont agree with some of her conclusions but you can tell she is studied on political theory…

            Dont think that really counts. The primary was yet another illusion of choice by the DNC who has proven they will make backdoor moves to nominate whoever they want since the days of Debbie Wasserman shultz and hillary

          • limelight79@lemm.ee
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            I didn’t, but I’m registered independent, so I don’t vote in the party primaries in my state.

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        This is DNC controlling what happens to prevent something like Bernie.

        I’ve gradually come around to “they’d rather see Trump than someone like Bernie” despite snorting at it the first few times I heard it suggested.

        Bernie is too old now honestly. I’d vote for him, but I don’t think he’d win. At least where he is he can push for what’s right.

    • lepinkainen@lemmy.world
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      She has also gotten close to $100M in funding just in the last 24 hours. From small donators.

      That’s a record of some sort

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      As to that 2028 topic…If Harris wins, it pushes all of them all the way back to 2032. Many of those hopefulf may like their odds right now, as opposed to 8 years later, unless those same people are confident Harris will lose against Trump.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      I believe she’s more progressive

      Convince me brother. I think we just sentenced ourselves to 8 years of “we’ll still move to the right, just more slowly than Trump.” Yes I’m going to vote for her, but would have loved for someone actually progressive to have a chance prior to 2032. If you run the calculus differently, tell me how.

      • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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        She’s Pro-Weed legalization, Pro-Medicare for All, and Pro-PRO Act. By all measures, she’s significantly more left wing than Obama, so I don’t exactly know how she could be “moving us to the right” at all.

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          Because sometimes people change their views because of personal growth and other times they say they have changed them for political expediency, which is the viewpoint considered by the article I linked. You are aware she was a prosecutor who made a career out of locking people up, right?

          Edit: Not in the branch of discussion I thought we were, I had not linked the article here. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/kamala-cop-record/596758/

          Edit 2: The most relevant bit:

          I can forgive a politician a vote on a crime bill that looks ill-conceived two decades later, or a too-slow evolution toward marijuana legalization, or even a principled belief in the death penalty, something I adamantly oppose. I find it far harder to forgive fighting to keep a man in jail in the face of strong evidence of innocence, running a team of prosecutors that withholds potentially exculpatory evidence from defense attorneys, and utterly failing as the state’s top prosecutor to rein in glaringly corrupt district attorneys and law enforcement.

          At best, Harris displayed a pattern of striking ignorance about scandalous misconduct in hierarchies that she oversaw. And she is now asking the public to place her atop a bigger, more complicated, more powerful hierarchy, where abuses and unaccountable officials would do even more to subvert liberty and justice for all.

      • LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world
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        The only way you’ll get a candidate that aligns with 100% of your personal beliefs, is if you run for office yourself

        That being said, I’d love a real leftwing candidate

        • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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          And sometimes you have to run on or embrace the ideals of someone else just to get elected. Unfortunate.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          Both candidates are right wing so it’s not really “BOtH sIdEs.” People on the left would like some representation for once.

          • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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            What policies have the right and left regularly agreed upon? What bills put forth have unanimous votes?

            • Steve@communick.news
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              I think your conflating Right and Left with Republican and Democrat.
              They aren’t the same thing.

              Both parties have been pro-corporate oligopoly. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have been catering to the same class of big corporate donors. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have been pro-military-industrial-complex. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have been pro-Israli genocide. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have shown a little movement toward economic populism. The Democrats, just more so.

              They might not vote together on many bills. Because it would look bad to their respective bases if they did.
              But they’ve both been pushing in similar directions on a number of topics for decades.

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                Fighting universal healthcare. Refusing to revoke Citizens United. Refusing the Right to Repair.

                The Patriot Act. The Iraq War. Enabling The Genocide of Palestine. The continuous decline into corporatocracy.

                All bipartisan efforts.

                You shitlibs genuinely do not understand the conversation happening in front of you. We know you don’t, or you wouldn’t be a shitlib, you’d be a social democrat at worst.

                • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  Using the term sHiTliB renders you exempt from discourse. It’s like screaming that you’re unreachable and a huge waste of time

      • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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        Yes, that’s what rational people do, pick the less damaging choice.

        What the FUCK is wrong with you people who actively choose the more damaging choice for lulz?

          • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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            History has shown what that impact is. Get out and fucking vote

            • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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              No shit I’m going to vote, when did I say I wasn’t? Everyone here so quick to forget we had two shit choices, now we still have two shit choices.

        • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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          And that’s how we get pulled further to the right. When did I say I had chosen anyone for the lulz. What the fuck is wrong with you jumping to conclusions?

          • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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            I have yet to meet a forum poster who unironically used the phrase ‘and that’s how we get pulled further to the right’ in response to a reply about not voting for a fucking convicted felon pedophile fascist that wasn’t a fucking fascist themselves.

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              Appropriate username. I never stated in any way who I was voting for now fuck off. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with your childish emotional outbursts.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      It’s attitudes exactly like this why American Democrats are center right, and why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

      If your family survives this coming shitshow of a fasist coup, I hope you beg their forgiveness and tell them your small part in helping start it.

      • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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        As a normal person, I’ve been helped by legislation both by Biden and Obama. Just because it’s not perfect doesn’t mean it’s not good.

        • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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          SCOTUS, Congress, and POTUS have all, regardless of party have catered to corporate interest over the citizenry an OVERWHELMING amount my entire life, and I remember life before the internet.

          Sure we get a few crumbs, cars for clunkers, a crippled ACA, a constant ‘will they, won’t they’ over college loans.

          Meanwhile Citizens United gave corporations near unlimited influence, the repeal of Glass-Steagall led to the housing collapse in 2008 and the banks were bailed out. Even recently in COVID those most benefitted were the corporations and ultra wealthy who netted a 1.3 FUCKINGTRILLION dollar payday with almost no oversight or pressure to pay back, and we are STILL seeing fraud cases from that show up.

          So was your little 3k ‘gift’ that was meant for relief during A FUCKING PANDEMIC in any way commesurate with the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS the owner class (who was at no financial risk at any time) got to keep?

          Do you feel all these little crumbs of social support they have doled out in meager and begrudging ways makes up for the fact that no matter what their party, NEARLY EVERY MEMBER of our top seats in government are more concerned about the interests of the wealthy than they are in normal people?

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

        The Affordable Care Act is why I was able to take a year off work to focus on my mental health after the pandemic crushed it. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping keep the renewable energy company I work for afloat and offering an optimistic future.

        No one expects to end up on government assistance or using FMLA to take a few months off for an illness. We support it on the left because we know it’s the fucking right thing to do.

        It’s all good and fine to criticize programs as useless theoretically when you don’t rely on them. But when you’ve actually experienced them and needed them, your perspective changes heavily.

        Democrats have gotten good shit done for the average person, and I’ve personally benefited from it when I really needed it.

      • Kroxx@lemm.ee
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        So the DNC gets to make this decision not me. This is a last minute situation that hasn’t happened since the 60s, every ounce of divisiveness will only embolden the “facist coup”. The time is up, whoever they pick we’ve got to unite behind and hopefully rally voters to the booths. Honestly the presidency needs to be D so it can’t veto/ can veto, the VP can tie break, and executive orders. She will hopefully be a beacon to encourage voters to get more D in the senate and house. The house/senate flips and your meaningful legislation point becomes moot. Lastly I have no clue what you are saying in the 2nd paragraph, somehow voting for Harris makes a facist coup? No clue what middle steps are included to achieve that outcome but you must know something I don’t. Regardless I have no worries about my family but I appreciate the concern!

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    After the debate and especially after the botched assassination attempt, I felt despair and a hopeless sense of certainty that our comrades in the USA would have to endure a Trump presidency and all of us around the world would suffer the consequences.

    I’m genuinely optimistic now. I think Harris can win.

    People who complain about her not being a socialist or how electoralism won’t change the system are missing the point. Those are true things, but the alternative is a fascistic climate change denier with the Sons of Jacob as his cabinet.

    The Americans are standing at a crossroads between an increasingly fragile status quo and tyranny. As much as I hate the status quo, I’m glad that the odds are now smiling far less at tyranny.

      • BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world
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        Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Johnson rambling lunatic for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

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    Fine. Whatever. No go on the offensive HARD before the Regressives can recover from the change! GOGOGO

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    Now we just need to get Trump to step down. Then we can have a less insane election.

    He really should. He has no business running.

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      Even if the assassin had finished the job, his cult would prop his corpse up and wait for him to come back to life.

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      Now we just need to get Trump to step down. Then we can have a less insane election.

      If that hands the GOP nomination to Vance, then Vance would completely destroy any of the Democrats who the Dem establishment could possibly let run. This was obvious on watching about a minute of Vance’s VP acceptance speech on the news. Dems should be careful what they ask for.

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        As an ohioian, I can assure you no one gives a shit about vance and he stands for nothing. He’s a Muppet who says what he’s told to say

      • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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        then Vance would completely destroy any of the Democrats who the Dem establishment could possibly let run.

        Well…

        In February, during an episode of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vance said that he cared more about the security of the US southern border than the Russian troop build-up near Ukraine. “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” Vance said.

        ““Indigenous Peoples’ Day” is a fake holiday created to sow division. Of course Joe Biden is the first president to pay it any attention.”

        “I am as pro life as anyone, and I want to save as many babies as possible. This is not about moral legitimacy but political reality.”

        “There are dozens of people who protested on J6 who haven’t even been charged with a crime yet are being mistreated in DC prisons. A friend suggested the below link if you’re able to support them.”

        Vance said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat” in the US government and “replace them with our people.” If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law. “You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” he declares. The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears.

        Yeah, Democrats will sure have a tough time with him…

        • solrize@lemmy.world
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          Well, maybe you’re right, I had basically never heard of Vance until Trump picked him. But his acceptance speech was written to eat the Democrats’ lunch, since they weren’t willing to eat it themselves. And that stuff you quoted will delight Trump supporters, and maybe not bother too many Democrats.

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            “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler” - JD Vance

            He’s no different from Ted Cruz. Was against Trump, then later supported him. Both of these guys grew a beard after flipping to be huge Trump supporters too.

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        Oh I thought he was a huge liability being absolutely full of baggage. Insane things he’s said, including that trump is America’s Hitler (mind you that’s only insane to cultists)

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        I doubt they can keep it private now that a black (Asian?) woman is running. Someone will say the quiet part out loud and on record.

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      Accidentally? Could be years or decades. “Accidentally”, it’s probably already happened multiple times, let’s be honest.

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      The next debate should be hilarious. Someone with facts and speaking ability vs a windbag lie machine

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        Trump won’t debate her. He’s fucking stupid, but he’s not that fucking stupid.

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      She has less than 4 months and was completely invisible before. She is going to lose hard and this time we can really blame the Dems for betraying Biden this late in the race.

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    Fuck it, I’ll vote for her if not for the mere fact that I would get a lot of entertainment seeing people complain how our president is a black woman.

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    I’m pretty sure the DNC and it’s donors helped force this hand, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they field a different candidate.

    That being said, I’d actually like to see a non shill run who will actually fulfill his promises with legislation and not half ass executive orders that die after 5 seconds.

    They’ll never let Bernie in, but like cmon choose at least someone who can agree genocide is not good. Can’t believe we’re still scraping the bottom of the barrel for requirements here.

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      After all the shit they gave Biden about his age, do you think Bernie, who’s even older, would be a good idea?

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
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      I think Newsom could beat Trump. He has a track record of fighting for progressive (by dem standards anyway) shit and is used to telling Republicans to fuck off.

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        Through a horrific series of events I watched him debate with Desantos on Fox News. I was fairly impressed with the job he did. I still have no idea why Desantos agreed to debate him lol.

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        The American public isn’t yet ready for AOC in executive office, as great a she would be. Her time is yet to come.

        • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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          Yeah I don’t totally disagree there… This would be a great time to force it though… If it was someone like Romney rather than Trump then a lot of centrist Dem/Reps would probably shift to him, but with Trump, I don’t think they’ll do that, at least not enough to matter… They’ll take anyone other than Trump. So AOC doesn’t cost us all that many votes from the center (under these particular circumstances) but she WOULD bring in millions of young progressive votes that will probably just stay home or vote 3rd party if there’s no progressive for them to vote for.

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            True, but there’s also a VERY loud dissent against her on the right, which they would be happy to run with in their ads up to the election. The right - and the sponsors behind them (Russia, chiefly) - ate experts at loudly dispersing disinformation with their rhetoric (see: anti-vaxers, everything about trump, etc), and having AOC in the spotlight would give them a lot of ammo in the form of ThE rAdIcAl LiBeRaLs “talking over the executive office” etc. I just don’t trust that the milquetoast voting public wouldn’t buy into that loud rhetoric enough to not siphon more votes than they would gain. Unless that’s too pessimistic of me?

            • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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              People need to stop reflexively posturing defensively.

              The right is a known quantity at this point. They aren’t growing their support by any significant margin. The reason they’re a threat is because Dems keep choosing candidates that don’t inspire turnout.

              AOC, were she to get maneuvered into a political position where she had some institutional support to a presidential shot, absolutely would drive turn out. I’d imagine in similar levels to Obama.

              People on the left need to stop worrying themselves with what the right thinks of how the Dem party is run or how the right would respond to a candidate. Flinching and hesitating because of what the right might think is how Dems lose elections.

              • Sarothazrom@lemmy.world
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                That’s a really good point. Perhaps I am thinking too defensively. If someone as progressively strong as her does run, it will give them the excuse to ramp up their attacks on her, but also ramp up our attacks on them.

            • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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              Just to clarify I meant AOC as running mate to Kamala… In case that wasn’t clear. However, I think the more the magas run their bs the more the left will recognize whoever they’re attacking as legitimate. I don’t know why people worry what the right is going to say. They’re going to spread their crap anyway. The young progressive left is larger than the center left at this point… Give them someone worth showing up for and they will, and then it won’t matter what the Republicans do. Especially with Trump as the nominee… No one is moving blue to red while he’s running… Maybe fewer centrist reds will move to blue but the young progressives will far outnumber whatever reds decide Trump is better than Kamala/AOC

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        Really? I don’t think AOC has a chance in hell among the voting public.

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          No one who was going to vote for Biden is about to vote for Trump just because Kamala is a black woman… Stop worrying what the Republicans are going to think… They were going to think that about any “lib”, and it doesn’t matter because they were never going to vote for a Dem. The only people we need to worry about are the young progressives who still have no one to vote FOR and might stay home because of it… Throw AOC on the ticket and a lot of them will get excited enough to show up.

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        I think they’ll err on the side of appeasing people who are on some level uncomfortable with minorities and women and run some generic straight white man.

        • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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          Yep probably… But that’s the wrong move… Those people aren’t about to switch to Trump just because they’re uncomfortable with a black woman… Trump is just too much of a Trump you know? Like if it was Romney running as R… Then yeah, but Trump is different. The people who “always vote” are going to vote blue no matter who… It’s the young progressives that need to be swayed to vote at all. And there are significantly more young people who could be swayed to show up than there are centrists who might switch to Trump instead of a black woman.

      • mlg@lemmy.world
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        AOC would be a good VP or Speaker pick, but for president I think we’d need someone with more broad appeal.

        I think Mark Kelly or Newsom would be able to capture enough votes.

        • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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          Honestly I think a Newsom/AOC ticket would do even better than Kamala/AOC… Just have to have someone actually progressive on there to get the young progressive left excited enough to show up

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      She was a kind, empathetic leader and was great at uniting the country in crisis… multiple times.

      Unfortunately she was distinctly average as a stable environment politician. Wouldn’t want her as PM now but would be great if we could hire her out on call when everything does hit the fan again.

      • TastyWheat@lemmy.world
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        I worked at a Sydney airport shop years ago and she would come through our area from time to time. She was approachable, easy to talk to and despite having big spooky security guys around, was happy to just go shopping and wait for her flight.

        The Fijian PM at the time used to come through, crack jokes, run up a bill and then jokingly ask one of his security guys to buy all the stuff for him. He was a really funny bloke and he made our day.

        • davidagain@lemmy.world
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          Jacinda Adern wasn’t just a good leader for New Zealand, she was a good leader for the world in the covid crisis. She’s the reason several of my elderly relatives are still alive. Under Boris Johnson, the UK policy was initially “herd immunity” which basically means wait till everyone gets infected and then those that survive will be immune and it’ll stop spreading and die out.

          They actually moved covid patients from hospitals into care homes, which seems stupid on the face of it, but was at least consistent in persuing the maximum death policy. The Conservatives had heard that non white people, poor people, people with preexisting health conditions (who cost a lot in the UK’s free health care system) and elderly people (who cost a lot in state pensions and state supported places in care homes) we’re worst affected. I think they saw whole scale death as a cost cutting measure and we’re never fans of ethnic minority folk or poor folk.

          Anyway, along comes Jacinda Adern and implements lockdowns and travel restrictions and it works and it’s seem as sensible, then the Scottish leader at the time, Nicola Sturgeon, does the lockdown thing and it’s seem as responsible and then a fortnight later, Boris Johnson does it for England and Wales. We might not have abandoned our death first policy of it weren’t for the international leadership of Jacinda Adern.

          Meanwhile, Boris copied another policy from abroad where you give vast sums of picnic money to drug companies to jump the queue on vaccines. This worked out well for us and was the best thing he ever did in his entire self-serving lying life. Of course he lied about it by claiming that being in the EU would have prevented it (it didn’t, and a few EU states went their own way on vaccines, facts never got in the way of what Boris wanted to say).

          The whole VIP lane for masks and gowns, if you didn’t hear about it was the most bold faced corruption enabling scheme the UK has done in my life. No tendering process, no checks, no process, you don’t even have to be in a related industry, just, and I’m not kidding or exaggerating at all, literally if your company was recommended by a conservative mp, they were in the VIP lane and the government would order as much equipment as your company claimed you could supply. Guess what happened!

          Anyway, I’ll always be grateful to Jacinda Adern. I credit her with not losing any close relatives to covid.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      Does the New Zealand system have a restricted 3 month official campaign period the way the UK does? A lot of Kiwi government shares similar structure with the British system.

      The US doesn’t, and normally campaigning spans a substantially longer period of time.

      kagis

      Yeah, this sounds like they do. Three months.

      https://elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/historical-events/2023-general-election/key-dates/

      Friday 14 July

      Regulated period for election advertising expenses begins

      Friday 13 October

      Regulated period ends. All election advertising must end. Signs must be taken down by midnight.

      Saturday 14 October

      Election day.

      https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/09/04/how-did-the-us-presidential-campaign-get-to-be-so-long/

      Four hundred and forty-four days prior to the 2024 presidential election, millions of Americans tuned into the first Republican primary debate. If this seems like a long time to contemplate the candidates, it is.

      By comparison, Canadian election campaigns average just 50 days. In France, candidates have just two weeks to campaign, while Japanese law restricts campaigns to a meager 12 days.

      You can argue whether the US should or shouldn’t restrict the campaigning period (though I’m almost certain that doing so would violate the First Amendment and thus require a new constitutional amendment permitting it to put into force).

      But the thing is, Trump doesn’t have that restriction, the American system doesn’t normally expect it, and Harris is going to be trying to run a British-length campaign with no lead time for prep in the American system when her opponent has no such restrictions. She is gonna have to hit the ground running.

      Also, American presidential campaign spending and fundraising is very large compared to the European levels I’ve seen. Dunno what things are like in New Zealand, but I remember that when Hillary ran against Trump in 2016, each campaign spent about a billion dollars.

      EDIT: I don’t know if this is directly comparable, because it sounds like Kiwi rules don’t have parties declare donations under $1,500 (and I don’t know if these aggregate figures include individual contributions that don’t have to be reported individually). I think so, because this is measuring spending, not donations. The Kiwi system is parliamentary rather than presidential and so the race for the executive is the same as the race for the legislature, whereas the spending above is only for the executive race in the US, excludes all legislative campaign spending. And I’m not clear on whether this includes donations to individuals, which apparently can differ from party donations, though the Westminster system is more party-centric than the American one, where candidates need to do a lot more of their fundraising and spending thenselves. But without my digging much more, some Kiwi numbers:

      https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350220141/labour-spent-1m-more-national-lose-2023-election

      Labour spent $1m more than National to lose the 2023 election

      The ACT Party spent more than National, declaring $2.77m in expenses. NZ First spent $1.51m on a campaign which returned them to Government alongside National and ACT, whereas the Green Party spent $1.33m on a campaign that achieved wins in key electorate seats.

      Also, those are Kiwibucks, not American dollars, so the USD numbers are only something like 60% of that. Accounting for that, if the numbers are comparable, that’d be the largest-spending Kiwi party doing $1.6 million USD across all of their seats compared to the US presidential campaigns alone doing about $1 billion.

      Harris has got to raise some – or all, not sure whether she can get funds from the Biden-Harris campaign warchest – of that in the time remaining, which means that she’s gotta convince people that she is who they want to be president enough to pitch into the war chest so that she can spend that to sell herself to the public. She has to build a campaign, plan to spend the money, and do so to target voters. Not much time to iterate doing that.

      And keep in mind that the first Republican presidential debate mentioned above, 444 days before the election, isn’t when those people started campaigning, and certainly isn’t when they started planning their campaign. It’s just an early milestone in the campaign. Harris is gonna have to pull all of this off in about three and a half months.

      The US presidential election is an awfully large and expensive marketing fight for voter minds.

      EDIT2: One positive sign for her: this person says that she believes that Harris most likely can get access to the funds that the Biden-Harris campaign has, so that’ll help get her some of the way there:

      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/21/kamala-harris-fundraising-surge.html

      Harris can likely get immediate access to the Biden campaign’s roughly $96 million donation pot, according to Anna Massoglia, an investigations manager at the campaign finance research center, OpenSecrets.

      “The general consensus among most people that I’ve spoken with is that she can use the funding,” Massoglia told CNBC in an interview.

      And she picked up a little more after announcing:

      But it wasn’t just the big donors who responded to Biden’s announcement: The progressive donation platform ActBlue initially said it raised $27.5 million from small-dollar donors in the five hours after Biden endorsed Harris. Later, the company announced it raised over $45 million.

      • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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        Lucky for her she also has a significant national and international threat as her opponent. She isn’t an unknown going in to try take 50% - she’s already got all the votes for those who see what Trump is.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          she isn’t an unknown

          I mean, that’s true. But she’s a not-terribly-high-profile veep. The regular crowd has been campaigning for over a year. Hell, Trump served as President, and he’s got the visibility from that; he started campaigning for Trump-for-President like a decade ago.

          Yeah, okay, Harris ran for Senate and California Attorney General, maybe they can draw some material from those campaigns or something, though running for President and targeting specially the Midwest isn’t quite running to be a senator for California in terms of what material will work best, but they’re gonna have to start getting people to put together a lot of content and to get it out there.

          Harris has no campaign website, no volunteer network, no…like, I’m assuming that she has to be expecting to get at least a substantial chunk of the Biden-Harris campaign infrastructure, and hoping that Biden’s endorsement will result in his volunteers volunteering for her.

          checks

          It looks like Biden’s 2024 campaign website, joebiden.com, just redirects to ActBlue, a Democratic donations website, with a plain text message put up by him. They don’t even have a graphic, campaign logo, anything. Like, they didn’t have all this lined up and ready to go hot, or I expect that it would have redirected to a Harris campaign website.

          looks further

          They haven’t even taken down the old website’s content, just had the main page redirect.

          Well, this is gonna be a historic campaign, win or lose.

  • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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    Didn’t like her in the primaries, still don’t like her now but honestly she’s the best shot Democrats have now. I’m just so pissed off that Democrats and Biden waited this long and now have to scramble like this.

    It’s absolutely infuriating at this level of incompetence.

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      Meh. Timing is pretty good imo.

      4 months is loads of time for her to establish a brand.

      Great distraction from everything that’s gone wrong.

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    i really hope kamala gets nominated. Shes younger than most candidates, under my age range for politicians (just barely) and experienced enough to be capable for the position.

    There is literally no better candidate you could pick other than her, but a white man instead, because that would assuage a few more voters lmao.