I hope DUers will keep in mind as we get closer to the 2024 election

[highplainsdem]

that Democrats attacking President Biden is something Republicans will celebrate.

We're not likely to see him seriously challenged by a candidate to his left...and if he is, that's also likely to hurt our chances of beating Republicans in 2024.

I've always enjoyed the "herding cats" analogy for the difficulty of uniting Dems. Lots of our best politicians have made that comparison.

But we have a Democrat in the White House now, and we should all be thankful for that. He denied Trump a second term in 2020, and right now he's clearly our best bet to beat Trump, if he's the nominee, in 2024. Also our best bet to beat anyone else who might be the Republican nominee.

Yes, Joe Biden is old. But he's in good health, and we don't have any likely younger candidates who are better. And with his age comes wisdom, and with all those years in government comes the political expertise that we desperately need now.

I can understand people wanting their top issues to be his at all times. But it isn't possible for any president to do everything we want, on every issue, in a short period of time. Still, he's a great man and a great liberal, and we have no reason to doubt his good will and his devotion to our causes.

Like it or not, it's true that

1) politics is the art of the possible, and

2) the perfect is the enemy of the good.

So I hope we'll appreciate Joe Biden more than criticize him.

You know there are Republicans reading forums like DU, looking for any signs of weakness in Democratic support for Biden.

And with AI, it will be easier than ever for them to exploit any weaknesses. They can pretend to be supporters of any of the issues that concern us, and can probably find a chatbot to spew out messages worded like something a liberal advocate would write, but focusing on some point where they think Biden failed. Republicans have done this sort of thing in the past, and AI will make it easier in the future.

I hope we won't be divided so we add to the arguments against him.

He isn't a perfect president - we'd never agree on what that means anyway - but he's a very good one.

I support Joe Biden.

[dalton99a]

1. You might WANT a fancier and sexier vehicle, but the one we have runs well and is what we NEED.

Proven, reliable, and effective

[Alice Kramden]

31. Hear, hear! n/t

[LiberaBlueDem]

2. Biden will live to be 102

And in his later years will be revered for his accomplishments

My only problem with him is that he is not a socialist. He could do so much more for working people.

[Upthevibe]

25. LiberaBlueDem ............

Your "only problem with him is that he is not a socialist?......He could do so much more for working people."

I think we need a super majority to do a lot of what I'd like to do for working people. How in the world could he ever be elected if he was a socialist? Right-wingers LOVE to throw around the word "socialist" to scare people.

Your post makes no sense to me...

[Alice Kramden]

29. I think they meant Democratic Socialist

Like Bernie

[Bobstandard]

47. Still. nt

[soldierant]

55. He could BE a socia;ist without ever using the word.

Most people, especially "conservatives" have no idea what "socialist" is anyway.

But I do aree we need bigger majorities to accomplish a lot of things which need to be accomplished.

[Alice Kramden]

28. I support the longevity prediction

And second the acknowledgment for his excellent accomplishments

[highplainsdem]

60. +1,000,000

[LiberalFighter]

38. To get more accomplished, Joe needs a House and Senate that can pass the legislation.

It is not going to happen with Republicans in control of the House. Or some in the Senate that block legislation.

[bluestarone]

45. I think a HUGE add that states ALL the GOOD things we wanted to pass, THEN

Add ALL the RETHUGLICON names to it, stating these rich people STOPPED us all from getting them!!!

[LiberalFighter]

67. It is all a matter timing for the ads that will be produced.

[highplainsdem]

61. Yes. Something his critics need to keep in mind.

[Recycle_Guru]

80. not with our current senate and house he couldn't

[murielm99]

3. Politics is the art of compromise. n/t

[twodogsbarking]

4. I hope the DU website doesn't go down.

[WarGamer]

13. Before 2020... DU Admins pretty much said there's a steel fence and a moat around DU

A CYBER fence and moat...

[Aristus]

5. I'm voting Biden/Harris next year come Hell or high water.

Anyone who tries to stop me better be square with God first.

Liberal till I DIE, motherfuckers!…

[ananda]

23. Same!

!!!

[Alice Kramden]

30. It's imperative

And that is not hyperbole

[bluestarone]

46. Right there with you!

[littlemissmartypants]

63. Hear! Hear!

[calimary]

68. Here!

This is an Absolute.

[highplainsdem]

84. +1,000,000

[Tetrachloride]

6. I support Joe Biden

[erronis]

7. Expect to see the russian/libertarian/repuglicon trolls firing up soon

I'm just rewatching Active Measures about how the USSRussians/putin put trump into the presidency.

They've learned a lot since 2016 and will be re-applying and improving their tactics.

Open society and democracy are damned hard to defend against an evil set of enemies.

[Bobstandard]

48. Worry more about Kushner's Saudis

They’re ratcheting up the price of oil to make gas at the pump more expensive in order to hurt us/Biden.

[senseandsensibility]

8. IF we pump up young voters

by showing them what he has accomplished for them, plus the absolutely horrible policies of R's that virtually none of them agree with, we should be in good shape.

[Cha]

9. Very Well Done, hpd.. TY!

[Mister Ed]

10. Biden has proven to be the most progressive president since FDR.

Anyone can talk a good game on progressive policy, but Biden has actually been getting it done. And he continues to get it done.

In this crucial election year, progressives should not allow themselves to be lured by any of the left-wing Pied Pipers who are likely to appear.

[betsuni]

27. +1

[honest.abe]

11. Well said.

[Sky Jewels]

12. I think there will be a lot of unity because:

- Trump is likely to be the nominee. That will light a fire under Democrats and Independents to coalesce around our candidate like nothing else.
- Biden won't have any serious challengers for the nomination.
- Bernie is supporting Biden.
- Dobbs has massively pissed women off. We are out for blood and know the importance of voting for Democrats to protect or regain our rights.
- Even though Biden is quite old, Gen Z will turn out like they did in 2020 and give him 60+ percent support. Plus there are millions more of them of voting age now and fewer Silents and Boomers (who tend to be more significantly more conservative on average when compared to those born after 1996...yes, that's a generalization, many exceptions, blah blah...)

[wnylib]

37. A lot of those Boomer exceptions are here in DU, including myself.

[Sky Jewels]

49. Yup.

I missed being a Boomer by a year or two, and my age cohort (born mid-60s) turned out to be very conservative (in general), which sucks.

[wnylib]

52. I'm an early boomer, born in the fall of 1949.

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

54. We can't rely just on current (D)s and demographics

to win the next election. We need to expand and bring more to our vote, even if not a (D)

I worked actively during the elections, and know personally the potential votes out there. Keeping abortion out of it (where many (I) and (R) agree with women's right to choose), even if we were to dissuade (R)s from voting for crazy would be a great benefit. Here in W PA, even straight line (R)s didn't vote for mini Trump Mastriano - 66% of (R)s didn't vote for him even though everything else was straight (R) ticket and thank God we have Josh Shapiro. We also have traditional "working class" people that we can pull our way.

...of this last point, I got 1 of three strikes to being banned here because apparently being introspective wrt the working class is a RW talking point :/

[Laura PourMeADrink]

77. Yup, any hint of introspection not allowed !

[redqueen]

70. How many Gen Z ppl do you talk to?

I would definitely not count them as a lock. At all.

[Sky Jewels]

73. I've got two Gen Z kids. I know a lot of them.

They're awesome -- smart, progressive, globally minded, not religious, and they see through political propaganda, unlike many older people. And they've got an outstanding record of support for Democrats. They went for Biden by 65 percent! So I really don't understand the knee-jerk bashing of Gen Z that goes on around here. They (and Black women) have saved our asses the last three elections.

The problem is with the Silents (who are a dwindling but very conservative --yes, in general--voting bloc), the Boomers (also dwindling but still a huge chunk of the electorate; generally better than Silents but still not so hot, yes, in general, many exceptions, blah blah) and my stupid age cohort, old Gen Xers, born mid-to-late 60s and indoctrinated on Reaganism in our youth. Again, exceptions abound, including myself.

[redqueen]

74. Mine are both gen z

Solid lefties as are most of their friends, but also completely cynical about politics and convinced that there is no left wing representation in the US

[Sky Jewels]

75. Mine are very progressive too, as are their friends.

I won't say they're enthusiastic about the Democratic party, and they don't like Biden, because they see both as too centrist and corporate and not doing enough about climate change, etc., but they do show up to vote D because they know there's no alternative and it's very important to defeat Republican fascists.

[redqueen]

76. Yeah mine seem to be surrounded by doomers

and those ppl are spreading their negativity. I keep hyping up my favorites like Katie Porter and Sheldon Whitehouse to try to convince them there is reason to hope. Mine are committed to voting but so many of their friends seem to have just given up.

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

79. There is a huge perception problem with the party

"The problem is with the Silents"

25% of people identified as Democrat, 25% as Republican and 49% Independent.

https://www.axios.com/2023/04/17/poll-americans-independent-republican-democrat

We should have a HUGE amount of support among the moderates, but don't. Not because we don't strive for everyone and what's right, but because of platform priorities. Nearly half the country are "Silents", and the polls still have us at a break even. What does that say? We're losing the messaging.

Gen Z won't "save us", especially since people get more conservative as they live in the real world.

[Sky Jewels]

81. I was referring to the Silent Generation members.

They were born late 1920s-1945, so they're currently late 70s to late 90s. They have traditionally been quite conservative. Again, that's a generalization and plenty of exceptions exist, including my 90-year-old mother.

Also, Millennials aren't moving as hard right as previous generations did at the same point. Republicans are out of step with the under-45 crowd, and an entire generation is being molded to vote Democratic (more than 65 percent of Gen Z voted for Biden). The Republicans are going to have an uphill battle to win over enough of them to maintain power as the decades go by.

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

82. Apologies, I read that wrong

[Sky Jewels]

83. no worries...

[elocs]

14. Like "herding cats" is so accurate a description when it comes to Democrats.

I hope that's something our youngest voters can change if they can grasp that American partisan politics is binary with the winner of nearly every election being either the Democratic or the Republican candidate, or Liberal vs. Conservative. If voters on the Left in every state had turned out and voted in the numbers they have for Hillary in '16, we would never have had Trump. That might be an interesting "what if" novel. What might have been.

There will never be a perfect president for everyone.

[usonian]

15. In one graphic:

[question everything]

16. It is not the age. It is the voters want to be entertained

When I lived in California, the then Republican mayor of Los Angeles lost the gubernatorial primaries because he was pro choice and pro gays.

A year later, when the Democratic governor was recalled, the one who was elected among 37 or 137 candidates, I don't remember, was... Arnold Schwarzenegger. Pro choice and pro gays.

Eight years ago, in September 2015 I met with family in Chicago and we talked about Trump who just declared and I predicted that he would be elected. Why? I was thinking of Schwarzenegger.

Voters are attracted to celebrities, to unusual candidates. They don't care about policies and economy and health care in general. They are looking for fireworks.

And this is the problem that we have now. We are not talking about "kitchen table" issues. We know that the economy is doing well, we know that many jobs were added in the past three years but all polls tell us that voters say that the economy is bad.

They listen to what the news media and their social media report about "polls." Oh, and the price of gasoline and mortgage rates, never mind that more than 145 million traveled this weekend by air and by car.

I confess, I have no idea what is in the Build Better and the Beat Inflation acts. I am not even sure that these are the correct terms and I should know (will I be banned from DU?)

We need to break them down to real issues, that can be talked at the kitchen table.

Can we talk to Social Security recipients in red states how their payments are safe?

Can we point to specific clinics in rural areas? About old schools that attract new teachers?

Has the Infrastructure bill already been implemented? Can we point to a bridge under repair; to roads that tend to be flooded and are now being repaired? And do we have signs there showing that this is done thanks to "the government?"

Perhaps Biden should have surrogates who are more animated to explain these specific items?

We elected Biden because he was not Trump. The voters got tired of all the "fireworks" that never stopped and wanted a mild mannered replacement who would not take our breath away. Who would restore our ship of state to an even keel. But now the voters have rested and are ready for new excitements. So let's give it to them.

Call Hollywood, they know how to deliver messages with excitement. "Frozen" princess Elsa? Barbi?. And why not Schwarzenegger? Or another motion picture hero that the "Macho Men" admire?

Sadly it is about form over substance. We have to accept this.

OK, start your fire..

[Alice Kramden]

32. The media coverage is a problem

They ignore meaningful issues and put a spotlight on aberrant behavior - which *defines* the entire Republican party

[wnylib]

40. Then we need to attract media attention in a way that shows

what we've done and will do.

[Bobstandard]

50. We need to draw dramatic contrast

“Republcans don’t care whether pregnant women live or die.”

“Republicans don’t care if you’re a victim of gun violence.”

“Republicans don’t care if your job goes away as long as their billionaire buddies are happy.”

“Republicans don’t care if your job is exported.”

“Republicans hate unions because they don’t want you to get an even break”

Our side has to ratchet up the rhetoric. That’s what penetrates in the current media climate.

Don’t agree? Think of the current, concrete examples you could easily give about each statement.

[wnylib]

53. Yes, agree.

[summer_in_TX]

57. Dems too often start proudly touting a list of programs.

But values trump good programs any day of the week. Yes, the good programs reflect our values. But we need to make our values very explicit, and specifically tie programs to those values.

Framing is critical, and for decades the GOP had the simple frame of family values (which conveyed the ideas of conservative Judeo-Christian morality, traditional roles for men and women, and opposition to abortion), government spending was out of control (shrink the government but expand the military, deregulation and trickle-down economics would create prosperity, and no new taxes. Their simple mantra was echoed over and over by every GOP member of the Administration, Congress, state legislatures, etc. Their message discipline ensured Americans knew what they believed.

Democrats tendency to brag on all their good programs to help people caused listeners to lose sight of the values, the message was jumbled.

One reason we won in 2020 is that Joe Biden is great about communicating our values and tying policy proposals and accomplishments to them. But to win more Senate, House, and state legislative and gubernatorial races so our policies can be adopted, we need to get much better at framing.

Here's a couple of my frames and just a few of the ideas that fit within them.

• Democracy (an end to gerrymandering, fair elections, expanding voting opportunities for all, one person one vote, the strength and value of a pluralistic society) at home and abroad (support for Ukraine/opposition to authoritarian governments and their expansion).
•Freedom (to organize for better wages and working conditions for a better life for themselves and their families, for women to decide their own futures and whether or when to have children, to be able to read freely without banning of books, to educate all Americans with historically factual and inclusive information)

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. Speaking of herding cats

?si=pgEypkoIlQDx8P9i

I read tuna was involved.

BTW, I remember a fair amount of nay saying about Clinton in 2016.

[liberalla]

44. Oh, I love that!

It's been a while since I've seen it! Thanks!

[highplainsdem]

56. Thanks! Always loved that commercial! Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Herders

[thesquanderer]

62. re: "I remember a fair amount of nay saying about Clinton in 2016"

Yes... and also about Biden in 2020.

And heck, about Obama in 2008.

[c-rational]

18. Joe Biden is a great President who has accomplished more than he gets credit for.

[Shermann]

19. I'll take that over boasts of accomplishments not actually achieved! nt

[NBachers]

20. 100%

[ancianita]

21. Very important now more than ever. Thanks for your post!

[Prairie_Seagull]

22. I support President Joe Biden hpd.

[Lonestarblue]

24. I think Biden has been a great president. He has accomplished more in his first two years than

Trump did in four years or would ever. Trump had two dubious accomplishments. The first was a huge tax cut that benefitted mostly those in the top 1% of income, including himself, and added enormous debt to our national debt total. His second accomplishment was stacking the Supreme Court with right-wing religious extremists who are happy to ignore all precedent and replace Constitutional law with laws based on their personal evangelical religious beliefs.

Over and over, we heard that infrastructure week was coming. And healthcare week—the greatest and cheapest healthcare ever. Even the small amount of the border wall he built at great expense to US taxpayers started falling down before he was even out of office—and Mexico most assuredly never paid for it as he promised. Trump was, and is, nothing more than a big bag of gas that talks a lot and does nothing productive.

[vlyons]

26. Biden is a wonderful president.

He has surprised me with his excellence, humor, and abilities. He's got my vote.

[Alice Kramden]

33. Huge appreciation and support for Joe and Dr. Jill

And kudos to their resilience in the midst of all the terrible and unfair media coverage - I never saw a President so horribly maligned

[Lunabell]

34. Joe Biden is a good man and has been good for this country.

He's been a fighter against these kkkrazy GQPers and I like that.

[Ferrets are Cool]

35. "And with AI, it will be easier than ever for them to exploit any weaknesses. "

Or manufacture. That is what I fear more than anything.

[PortTack]

36. Anyone that talks about wanting someone younger, needs to seriously question their motives

Joseph R Biden will go down in history as one of the best. Look at what he’s managed to accomplish despite the gqp.

Why is young and unknown better?

[betsuni]

41. +1

[Hermit-The-Prog]

39. Choices in 2024: President Joe Biden or Putin-loving radicalized Republicans.

[Pathwalker]

42. My family is ridin' with Biden. 4 votes here for Biden/ Harris 2024!

n/t

[Septua]

43. Which Democrats are attacking him?

The Z generation and Millennials?

And irregardless, if Democrats have the opportunity to vote and use the opportunity to vote for the Democratic nominee, be it Biden or someone else, the Democrat will win.

Trump's 2016 win wasn't a win, rather an electoral fluke. Hillary lost too many swing states. She won the popular vote by 2%. Joe won the 2020 popular vote by 4%. The majority of the country, albeit a small percentage, does not want Trump as president or probably any Republican.

If Joe could catch some luck and inflation turns around, he'll will be a shoo-in..."It's the economy, stupid."

Why the polls keep showing Trump and Biden in a dead heat, beats me. The majority of people do NOT want Trump for another term and never will.

[betsuni]

51. K&R

[brer cat]

58. Well said.

[FlyingPiggy]

59. I'm all in for Biden. And for the love of God, NO 3rd PARTIES!!!!!

F@CK OFF CORNELL!!! 🖕🏼 🖕🏼

[orangecrush]

64. "Yes, Joe Biden is old"

"He isn't a perfect president"

No, he isn't, and yes, he is.

[brooklynite]

65. Which Democrats are attacking Joe Biden?

[Trueblue Texan]

66. About the age thing...

I just want to point out that Trump is old, too! Furthermore, unlike Biden, Trump actually demonstrates many traits of a demented person, not to mention an incredibly stupid, immoral, and reckless human being.

Not only does Joe Biden have sterling morals, he also has a brilliant mind and decades of valuable experience, not to mention a record of success in leading this nation back to its former position as a global superpower.

I don't think Democrats, or anyone who cares about our future as a nation should say anything remotely negative about Biden because it will be distorted and exploited by the Right to be used as a weapon in the 2024 election. We must protect our future as a nation while we still have one!

[Pototan]

69. I agree 100%

I couldn't have said this better, myself.

You captured my feelings, exactly.

[sheshe2]

71. Recommend!

Thank you, hpd.

[MustLoveBeagles]

72. K&R

[rdchili96]

78. ...

As someone who supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary and Biden in the primaries in 2016 and 2020, but voted for Hillary and Biden in the general elections of those years, no need to remind me lol.