Another day in the New York Times' all-hands-on-deck campaign to get Biden off the Democratic ticket.
Also another day when the nation's most important news organization demonstrates a profound lack of integrity, by refusing to acknowledge its activism or explain who's behind it and why.
@dangillmor Why did the DNC run a president who's had such consistently low approval numbers for so long?
Seriously - Why?
But wouldn't the right-wing media demonize any Democratic president? There is so much partisanship in US politics right now that any president's approval numbers will be rather low. Doesn't make much sense to compare present-day approval numbers to numbers from back in the day.
@Mab_813 @dangillmor The only president in the last 20 years that's had lower numbers than Biden is Trump, but Trump has also had better numbers than Biden.
Dems put themselves in this position, and are reacting by blaming the voters for expecting too much.
https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx
I know but I don't think any other Dem president would have better numbers right now. Also it was the voters who chose Biden in 2020 and 2024 in the primaries, so why blame the party?
I live in a country where parties choose the candidates for president and prime minister without any input from voters or ordinary party members (in most cases). It makes much more sense for blaming the parties here in Austria for having the wrong candidates, compared to the US, where people actually have a say in that.
@Mab_813 The US isn't that much different. To do well in the primaries, a candidate needs money from big donors. So before individual voters get a chance to have any say, the big donors decide who to support.
Larry Lessig has some TED talks about this, if you'd like more information.
https://youtu.be/mw2z9lV3W1g?si=S-3-xLcFKyD0Mqef
The thing that is most bizarre about the US system is that parties aren't actually regulated, and aren't an official part of the system. Our Constitution doesn't mention them. They formed and subverted our system after it was created. At some point they stopped being about ideology and became shadow corporations that sell policy to donors, and sell tribalism to voters. Their primaries even happen at taxpayer expense, making parties look official when they just private non-profit corporations, accountable to no one.
Other countries formed their proportional representation systems after seeing the problem that parties caused in the US. But we never fixed it.
Dan Gillmor
Grumble
Mab_813