The Gaming Den

I'm fine to make this a general 2024 election thread if we'd prefer that.

Biden has announced he's going for a second term. This is bad news in my opinion, as the majority of people in the country, including the majority of Democrats, did not want Joe Biden to run for president again.

I think Biden is still probably going to pull off a win against Trump, because Trump is also an incredibly unpopular politician, but I wish the Democrats would have put virtually anyone else up. Biden doesn't have accomplishments to run on, with his highest profile move likely being BBB (a thing nobody cared about) or student loan forgiveness (which hasn't happened and seems it may not ever happen). His campaign promises of free college and free childcare were left unmet, and were pursued with very little vigor if they were pursued at all. He is still president and could pursue these things, but he doesn't have the House anymore and didn't seem to care in the first place.

Biden will be running purely on "the other guy is Trump" for a second time, making for a second farcical election between two of the most disliked politicians in the country (assuming Trump gets the Republican nomination, which he will so long as he doesn't get sick or die). Two presidents who had approval ratings in the thirties running against each other. This is more ridiculous than Hillary vs Trump, it's an unpopular sitting president whose own party doesn't want him to run for reelection running against a deeply unpopular former president who was just indicted.

Can Biden lose this with his unmotivated base that was crying out for anyone but the sitting president to run? Will Trump eat too many Big Macs and die, handing Biden a second term? Will both Trump and Biden die from being old as shit, giving us a faint glimmer of hope for a good candidate to emerge? All of these questions and more can be discussed in this very thread.

If Trump dies, can't the GOP run someone just as evil, but pretend that he (it'd be a he) isn't so bad until the election?

Thaluikhain wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 25, 2023 1:15 pm

If Trump dies, can't the GOP run someone just as evil, but pretend that he (it'd be a he) isn't so bad until the election?

I think the Trump base would start assuming someone assassinated him if he died, even if Trump's own doctors said there was no foul play. If there's no Trump I don't think the Republicans can win (unless Trump endorses someone and campaigns for them, but Trump would never do that). I suspect the Republicans would put up Pence or some other negative Cha loser in a suit if there's no Trump, and then lose badly as they lose a big chunk of the Trump base due to them only being loyal to Trump and Trump-adjacent people. Who's stepping up for them again, Pudding Ron and a girl? No fucking way a bunch of working class midwestern racists are voting for either of those people. Those people don't eat McDonalds and talk shit on social media, marking them as holier-than-thou elites. Trump is a disgusting piece of shit, much like his base, and the Republicans don't actually have many people who both look and act that fucked up (at least not in public).

I'm of the opinion that Trump had some level of appeal to working class bigots that other Republicans just don't have. They need Trump to win a presidential election and they seem to know it.

If Trump dies the Republicans lose.

Unless they run a candidate whose entire platform is blood vengeance. In which case as long as they get someone convincing to do it their numbers only go up.

But they would have to be convincing. Looking at the talent pool... they would need to recruit from outside the current pool yard.

The Dems doing things that are unpopular and incompetent is par for the course. I take solace in that more Dems now aren't denying how bad a choice Joe is though I wish people had had this attitude before voting him in. That aside I don't think that running Joe again really matters that much even with the less than enthused voters.

I think that the Republicans are in a lose lose situation here. So Biden's unfortunate persistence might not be consequential. Given that the Reps have shown there hand at trying to make Ron Desantis a palatable candidate it is clear that they do not want another Trump term themselves. His rise to the top seems to have put the Reps in a situation where they are going to choke on their own success. "Success" in this case producing gains that they seem to truly want just for those to become hindrances as things go on. One being getting to implement a slew of laws that are deeply unpopular (the anti abortion stuff has been shown to be toxic to their party). There are the insane people that coasted into office on the heels of Trump's rise and who are actively proving to be nuisances and embarrassments. I'm not exactly sure how favored MTG is within her own district currently but nationally she is a household name and one of the faces of the Republican party. No matter how many 60 minute interviewers screw up I think it is pretty obvious that she represents incompetence within the party. Then there's Trump himself who is personally, intentionally, toxic to the party. No matter how much clout he still has among a fanatical base he has been actively attacking the rest of the party which, a good deal of the party (and not just those at the top) do not like. It is to a point that the swing voters are unlikely to back him in a general election even if the infighting wouldn't cost him votes within the party ultimately. Anyone that would rise to prominence against him, especially anyone that dares to win a primary against him, will be attacked relentlessly from their own side and no amount of pleading to the rabid and insane base they've cultivated would prevent it. Trump will never peacefully take an L.

So if Joe gets selected again, if he doesn't keel over beforehand, then I could see him coasting into another victory just because the Republicans are proving to be more incompetent than the seriously lacking Dems right now. In fact considering that no one else has exactly been a promising alternative candidate to Joe at present, letting him sleep into getting reelected is probably seen as the safe choice right now just because, once again, the competition is just that bad. Continuing to take the vote blue no matter who pill probably isn't going to be that difficult considering that there are, so far, no other palatable choices on the horizon.