- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
The former president and first lady threw their weight behind the presumptive Democratic nominee
Barack and Michelle Obama have endorsed Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president, sharing the news in a joint phone call.
A video released by the campaign suggests the former president and first lady called Harris on Thursday while the vice president was in Houston, where she addressed the American Federation of Teachers and received a briefing on recovery efforts following Hurricane Beryl.
“We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Barack Obama is heard telling Harris in a 55-second video of the call.
“This is going to be historic,” Michelle Obama tells Harris.
Is that really the best we can hope for? Or ask for? Someone who’s better than Trump?
Got any actual suggestions, or are you only here to complain that any candidate isn’t a 100% perfect match for everything you want in the world?
I’d be thrilled for someone who isn’t an obvious self centered opertunist. Someone with principals that aren’t power for its own sake. I thought that was Obama. Honestly I still believe he has that in him. I know it’s Bernie, and Yang. I’m sure there are more out there. But our system itself keeps them from getting to the top.
So, no.
Feel free to fund an entirely new party or even a new constitution, in the meantime you just need to take 2 hours off your massive, world changing project and vote for Kamala Harris.
If people are only ever given the choice between a terrible option and a mediocre option, they will start to question the system which gives them these choices.
Apparently not.
I’ve been donating monthly to the Forward Party since it started. I could work on a new constitution.
Great, please do.
I hear you, but it’s also fun to see how excited Democrats are right now. It’s partly shock and relief at Biden dropping out, but I think there’s also real excitement in the mix!
My wife and I have never been the biggest fans of Harris. We said the night Biden stepped down that she was the natural pick, but not the best pick.
She and her team have changed our minds. Harris actually attacking Trump and the right, embracing a younger crowd, along with some policies that she has mentioned, have us on board. Give her some time to lay out HER platform, not just Biden 2.0, and I think she’s going to surprise a lot of people. I am one of those excited.
If anything, it will be stuff from California that she has to worry about. Always been clouds around her but nothing specific i can recall.
That’s true. Even I’ve felt a couple times.
I’m skeptical but giving her a chance. Apparently her voting record in the Senate wasnt that far off from Bernies general position (although not “statistically closest to Bernie” like this circulated meme was saying)
At least she seems like she’s got some good energy and getting people engaged to vote and participate.
In July, of an election year, in the US? Yes, that’s the best you get.
Make a time machine, convince Biden to drop out 8-12 months ago, then you can have your open primary season.
That’s a plan, I can get behind.
But I would go to 5 years ago.
Why go 5 years when you could go back and ensure the convicted felon loses to Hilary.
That’s a good point. And a better plan.
I thought you were going to say:
“Is that really the best we can hope for? ‘Working on social and political causes to help see people and policies you like make it to the top’?”
And I was like “yeah, it is the best we can hope for”.
That is what I’m asking for. Everyone else seems content with backing a “winner”.
I don’t know if you understand. People are donating and volunteering, for Kamala Harris. You don’t want more participation, You just want people to support your personally chosen candidate (who remains nameless).
I haven’t seen one I like this cycle. Neither major party has nominated one I really liked in 40 years. The Dems came close a couple times.
Not one person? Really? You want people to satisfy you with a good candidate this November and you can’t even name one you like?
This is why people ready to vote blue this November get annoyed at these conversations. You aren’t serious people.
This sentiment is really impractical in a functional democracy of over 300 million people, if you can’t find anyone in 20 candidates that have run over the past 40 years from the two major parties you were willing to vote for.
Your perfect candidate that you hold out for isn’t going to be the perfect candidate for a lot of people. Part of the whole give and take is building consensus around most broadly acceptable candidates, rather than just taking your ball and going home when none of the viable candidates perfectly suite you.
Oh I voted in every election since I could. Just never for someone I believed in. It was only ever hope.
No one alive is probably fit to do the job, it’s an impossible task. Those who may come close, would probably never actually want it. And of those who remain who do want it ( which already might make them not worthy for the position) are probably not electable due to the forces of capitalism preventing such a candidate from getting elected.
So what is left is simply a pragmatic choice of the lesser evil. Many people are acutely aware of this and have gotten over it. I suggest until you manage to enact some sort of drastic systemic change you get it over it as well.
I’m working on it.
The drastic systemic change part.
I absolutely agree with your assessment of the problem. I’ve often thought of dividing The Executive Branch into at least two leadership roles. One of foreign responsibility, one of domestic. Though it may make sense to keep the roll as a single office, where teams of self determined size can divide responsibilities however they choose. Then it starts looks something like a parliamentary system. But I imagine the membership would be fixed somehow. I don’t know. Still working on it.
Ah, well that’s reasonable sounding. Perhaps the burden of understanding nuance of candidates is that you’ll always be disappointed when it comes time to reconcile with millions of others.
It really is amazing how poor our choices are. There are many competent humans out there, but it’s not obvious from our options. Seems like a direct result of the 2 party winner-takes-all political system.
I don’t expect the human world to meet my moral standards. That might sound sad, but it preserves my sanity.
It is sad, and it makes me depressed.
My moral standards are special because I hold myself to them, regardless of whether anyone else cares.
Honestly, it looks like it.