The Defending Joe Biden Mega-Thread

tstorm823

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I'm actually not sure if Trump really can be called much of a manipulator. A fraud to be sure but he doesn't seem savvy enough to be a manipulator. He's more like a pitiful wretch being insanely fortunate in his circumstance. Trump getting away with things never quite comes down to his own skill but more the titanic failings of his targets.

Take the Republican party for instance. Its not like Trump puts the wool over their eyes. Aside from the occasional basket case like Greene most seem to know what he is. Trump didn't avoid getting kicked out of office by convincing the Republicans his secret evil twin blackmailed Zelensky. His Republican peers knew exactly what he did, they just didn't want to punish him for it. They didn't say ''Trump convinced us he did nothing wrong'' but instead said ''Yeah he did it but we don't WANT to punish him''

Rather than having to manipulate the Republican Party Trump is just fortunate to have found a party where the majority is spineless, corrupt and desperate for power. Its not any different for his base. They might have a creepy cult like obsession with Trump but its not like Trump had to do anything for it. He was just fortunate to run at a time where a large part of the electorate were so frustrated they'd support and adore anyone who promised or imply he'd burn it all to the ground. Then increasingly bizare cognitive dissonance did the rest.

Any healthy political party and political base would have kicked Trump the curb ages ago. But both the Republican party and their base are in deep moral and political crisis.
Alternate theory: maybe 80 million people aren't psychotic, and it really is just you.
 

crimson5pheonix

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I love it, the pundit went to literally the only defense of Biden that can ever be mustered in the face of genuine criticism. "But Trump".
 
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tippy2k2

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I love it, the pundit went to literally the only defense of Biden that can ever be mustered in the face of genuine criticism. "But Trump".
I mean, it was their only strategy last time and it worked out. They're hoping it'll work again because otherwise they might have to do something good instead of getting to do something evil and keep being rewarded for it.

I'm not a political expert but I feel like a lot of people bit the bullet and voted Biden last go around because they hated Trump, not because they liked Biden. I'm not all that convinced that particular trick will work again but Biden and Co seem to be putting all their eggs in that basket...
 
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Hades

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Alternate theory: maybe 80 million people aren't psychotic, and it really is just you.
that argument might have worked if you talked about a real politician and not a twice impeached, openly corrupt demagogue who’s misdeeds have decades of documentation.
 

tstorm823

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that argument might have worked if you talked about a real politician and not a twice impeached, openly corrupt demagogue who’s misdeeds have decades of documentation.
Because that makes 80,000,000 people psychotic, or because it makes you omnipotent? Which non sequitur are you going for?
 

Ag3ma

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Alternate theory: maybe 80 million people aren't psychotic, and it really is just you.
This perhaps goes back to the long-argued postwar question of how a supposedly civilised country ends up supporting and carrying out industrialised mass murder. The grim reality is that we all have that potential in us. You or I or anyone else in 1930s Germany could have fallen for it, one way or another.

Sticking up for and electing a venal and incompetent president is, by comparison, a ludicrously easy bar to pass.
 

Hades

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Because that makes 80,000,000 people psychotic, or because it makes you omnipotent? Which non sequitur are you going for?
I certainly won't discount the possibility I'm omnipotent. But that's besides the point.

The point is that apart from weird exceptions like the town drunk everyone knows in their heart of hearts what Trump is. They know because Trump doesn't hide it. He's a cartoon character. Deep down people know the guy who brags on national television that he doesn't pay his taxes, and who scammed college kids out of their money isn't a moral person. And when he blackmails allies they don't assume that somehow his evil twin did it.

Also psychotic is your word. I said they are in deep political and moral decline which is objectively true if Donald Trump is someone's champion.
 

Thaluikhain

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I mean, it was their only strategy last time and it worked out. They're hoping it'll work again because otherwise they might have to do something good instead of getting to do something evil and keep being rewarded for it.

I'm not a political expert but I feel like a lot of people bit the bullet and voted Biden last go around because they hated Trump, not because they liked Biden. I'm not all that convinced that particular trick will work again but Biden and Co seem to be putting all their eggs in that basket...
Yeah, being the lesser evil is a vote-winning strategy, but you have to be noticeably lesser. Biden seems determined to make people hold their nose really hard if they vote for him.
 

tstorm823

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I certainly won't discount the possibility I'm omnipotent. But that's besides the point.

The point is that apart from weird exceptions like the town drunk everyone knows in their heart of hearts what Trump is. They know because Trump doesn't hide it. He's a cartoon character. Deep down people know the guy who brags on national television that he doesn't pay his taxes, and who scammed college kids out of their money isn't a moral person. And when he blackmails allies they don't assume that somehow his evil twin did it.

Also psychotic is your word. I said they are in deep political and moral decline which is objectively true if Donald Trump is someone's champion.
Trump didn't blackmail Ukraine.
Trump brags about taking the legally allowed deductions off his taxes.
"Trump University" wasn't an actual college, it wasn't "college kids", it was 1 week training seminars for wannabe real estate investors. It was certainly as scammy as anyone else who says they can teach you to get rich quick if you pay them upfront, but it certainly wasn't "scamming college kids" as though people were choosing that instead of an actual university.

I suspect you don't know what you're talking about...
 

Hades

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Trump didn't blackmail Ukraine.
Trump brags about taking the legally allowed deductions off his taxes.
"Trump University" wasn't an actual college, it wasn't "college kids", it was 1 week training seminars for wannabe real estate investors. It was certainly as scammy as anyone else who says they can teach you to get rich quick if you pay them upfront, but it certainly wasn't "scamming college kids" as though people were choosing that instead of an actual university.

I suspect you don't know what you're talking about...
Tripped at the first sentence didn’t you?
 

Kwak

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Alternate theory: maybe 80 million people aren't psychotic, and it really is just you.
Maybe group dynamics and brainwashing of populations is a cursed science that has been studied for a century.
 

tstorm823

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Maybe group dynamics and brainwashing of populations is a cursed science that has been studied for a century.
And you think Donald Trump is the one capable of that? You think Donald Trump is studied in brainwashing and has the power to employ a century of engineered political tactics?
 

Gergar12

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Actually wage have increased across the board (with the poorest experiencing the greatest growth). This hold true even if you account for the increase governement transfer. And this doubly true for black and hispanic. But Biden isn't doing this by hurting group, he's just helping everyone get better off, so for most people rich getting richer = poor getting poorer, and so they think Biden is making them worse off.

So here's the thing wages will increase in general and living standards will increase, but purchasing power relative to the cost of living goes up, and down.

Edit: Throughout history.
 

tippy2k2

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The Press conference you called to demonstrate that your memory is good and there are no issues with you mentally...

Well I'm convinced this man should be one of the most powerful people in the world!
 
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Ag3ma

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Well I'm convinced this man should be one of the most powerful people in the world!
Aw, why not? He's "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory".

Unfortunately, the alternative is going to be an unsympathetic, ill-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Still, at least that guy shouts a lot and hates foreigners.
 

Gergar12

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He's sleepy, he has dementia, etc.

I would rather not have the best leaders rule by themselves like your MBS for example and do stupid shit like build the Line City, vs a not-good leader who has competent advisors which Biden has in spades.

The best leader unchecked by his peers will make bad decisions. I would argue MBS vs his father and various others like the king of Jordan is a philosopher king in every sense of the word, the problem is he thinks he knows best.

The best leader checked who is smart enough to have stubborn views like your Obamas will pull the US in a direction that they find will create problems in the future. Look at President Obama he deported millions of hard-working Hispanics to appease Republicans versus listening to his advisors even at the University of Chicago about the benefits of immigration. He created the ACA without a public option funded by itself to appease the insurance industry, which has led to Congress having to do healthcare policy by treading on thin ice ever since then.

The best decisions happen in aggregates of multiple shareholders of diverse backgrounds who want to get shit done. Not like shareholders who want to fire people to increase the stock price like in business, actual experts who don't play games with the lives of others. Lula and Biden are the prime examples of this. They aren't Superman micromanagers.


 

Gergar12

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And there goes the republican party:


Watch towards the end, this analyst who I always watch(Peter Zeihan) states Trump will lose for wanting to do away with general elections where independents are the only ones with real sway, and that's their only source of power. Interesting theory.