*The* most important reason for Biden

[zaj]

... after electability.

Joe Biden is in by far the best position to overcome any military resistance to Trump trying to hold onto power. Biden, having been VP, will have the stature and relationships to navigate a worst case scenario.

Sadly, worst case is imaginable now.

Link to tweet

[uawchild]

1. We have a winner! Best crazy conspiracy distraction!

C'mon man, aren't there more important issues to be discussing in our Democratic Primary than crazy conspiracy theories that the military will back Trump in an actual coup?

This is just too silly. Trump trolls us with saying he deserves 2 extra years and we fall for it? Nah.

Don't feed Trump the Troll.

[zaj]

4. When Pelosi is reflecting on refusing to surrender power...

... not sure how this is a crazy conspiracy theory anymore.

I would be +1'ing you if this were '08, '12. But we are not living in those times.

[DownriverDem]

2. Exactly

If trump won't leave, Biden can send in the Military to drag him out. trump does not want to run against Biden. We are not seeing that folks 55 and up are moving to Biden. Biden/Harris would be a great ticket.

[Indygram]

3. That CNN SSRS poll says Beto O'Rourke is more electable against Trump

Even though Biden leads in polls for the nomination, it doesn't mean he is the most electable. I don't believe he is. I believe the only reason so many are jumping on his bandwagon is because they assume that if Obama chose him as VP it must have been because they agreed on things.

I used to think he was the most electable too, but I don't anymore.

[saidsimplesimon]

5. Fear is not a motivator for me.

The coup has already happened with the selection of IT. We need a course correction if this nation is to survive a slippery slope into a dictatorship by a party and/or individual.

[zaj]

8. What is IT?

[saidsimplesimon]

9. Longer version, the Orange One squatting

on our WH. I avoid using Its birth name. It's is a childish jester on my part, if you can, indulge my idiosyncrasies.

[KPN]

6. What?! This is ridiculous. Let's not go Alex Jones here.

Geesh.

[zaj]

7. Pelosi is grappling with this issue...

We have a president who seeks to be a dictator.

We have a 30% of the population who buys any argument for holding on to power.

If we have a 2000, 2004 or even 2016 type close election...it's hardly a conspiracy theory to ask what would generals think.

This is how democracies die... We have seen it all over the world.

It's neive to put your head in the sand and not think about difficult questions in a measured way.

That's certainly my goal.

My point is that Biden, having been VP, will have the stature and relationships to navigate a worst case scenario.

Sadly, worst case is imaginable now.

[peggysue2]

10. I would truly like to believe that this is all crazy conspiracy nonsense

However, we're living through a period where every norm has been shattered, an election has been thrown to a maniac through foreign intrusion and where the Rule of Law has been stomped on with absolute glee.

Does it really take a leap of imagination to visualize Donald Trump refusing to cede power?

Not really.

Within these distorted parameters (the time in which we're living), being prepared for the incredible isn't crazed but prudent.

[Gothmog]

11. I agree with your analysis

[athena]

12. I am mystified by the level of Biden support here.

Biden is a centrist. He is all about compromising with Republicans. DUers hate compromise. So why all these pro-Biden posts? I can imagine some support on DU for a centrist, but not this much. The only explanation I can come up with is that he is an older white male, which is the demographic that dominates DU. That one fact completely explains the level of visceral Hillary hatred that we observed here in 2016 (which helped give us President Trump) and the irrational love for Biden now.

https://prospect.org/article/fearful-democrats-and-false-allure-policy-centrism

The current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden, is basing his candidacy on the proposition that he will be able to win over significant numbers of Republican voters, once they see that he's more moderate than other Democrats and realize what a repellent human being Donald Trump is.

The only problem with that theory is that there is no reason to believe it's true. Trump’s approval from Republican voters is at a near-perfect 90 percent, according to Gallup, and it isn't like they haven’t gotten a good enough look at him to realize who he is. Their elected officials have proven time and time again that there is literally nothing Trump could do that would make them turn their backs on him; the one or two who felt that they might, like former Senator Jeff Flake, did it only when they were on their way to retirement.

But Joe Biden has faith in the GOP. “This is not the Republican Party,” he says, testifying to his bond with “my Republican friends in the House and Senate.” Once Trump is gone, they’ll revert to their old responsible selves and become reasonable again. Just like they were when Biden was vice president and they pursued a strategy of total opposition to everything Barack Obama wanted to do, capping it off by refusing to allow his nomination to a vacant Supreme Court seat to even get a hearing. Those Republicans are the ones who are supposedly going to join with President Biden in a spirit of bipartisan compromise to do what is best for the country.

https://newrepublic.com/article/145199/joe-biden-wants-compromise-progressives-dont-want-hear-it

He said that “today it takes more courage to engage in compromise to achieve consensus on both sides.” And distancing himself gently from his own side, he noted that the left “came after me because I didn’t insist on everything” in raising taxes on the wealthy. “Guys, the wealthy are as patriotic as the poor,” he said. “I know Bernie doesn’t like me saying that, but they are.”

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/politics/elizabeth-warren-joe-biden-history-bankruptcy-bill/index.html

But when asked last week whether the former vice president was "too cozy" with Wall Street, the Massachusetts senator was unusually direct, noting that their "disagreement is a matter of public record."

"At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country were trying to put the squeeze on millions of hardworking families who are in bankruptcy because of medical problems, job losses, divorce and death in the family, there was nobody to stand up for them," Warren said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on the same day that Biden officially announced his candidacy.

And then, with a single sentence, Warren opened up a new chapter in the campaign: "I got in that fight because they just didn't have anyone, and Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies."

[zaj]

13. Warren is my favorite, but...

... Biden seems best positioned to win.

He is a centrist just like Hillary. Just like Obama.

And gender plays a much bigger role than I ever imagined.

And it's likely most prominent among the voters in states that will decided the election.

[athena]

14. Obama was not a centrist. He did not run as a centrist. People didn't see him as a centrist.

It was young people, and the desire for "Change", that elected Obama. It was not this, "Let's go back to the old days and get along with Republicans" message that Biden is promoting.

To believe that Biden is "best positioned to win", you must have bought into the myth that the most important voters are the white men in the Midwest who voted for Trump in 2016. If you really think that those white men will not vote for Trump in 2020, and that women and minorities will happily put aside our own desire to be represented at the top levels of government and instead work our asses off to elect another white man, you are deeply mistaken. This kind of attitude will give up a second Trump term.

By the way, Hillary won three million more votes than Trump in 2016. Women's excitement in 2018 gave us the largest number of Democratic women in Congress. The fact that Trump is president is a sick reason to argue that we should avoid supporting women and minority candidates.

Everyone who attacked Hillary on DU in 2016 claimed that they would love to vote for Elizabeth Warren but she wasn't running. Now, "I would vote for Elizabeth Warren but she can't win" seems to be the new sexist excuse to vote for a white male. Sexism gave us Trump in 2016; it will give us Trump in 2020.

[zaj]

15. I agree with most of what you say.

I don't think it's sexism exactly. It's a recognition (or perhaps better called "fear&quot that sexism of others will drive needed votes away.

I believe you are justified to disagree with my views, to fight the sexism that I fear is more powerful than I understood, to prove cautionary voters like me wrong and to uplift all the women running.

We can disagree on strategy, but we definitely don't disagree on the outcomes we want.

[athena]

17. Thank you for the reasoned response. I used to think so, too, but I don't any more.

Before Hillary decided to run for president, I thought she shouldn't run because the sexism that would unleash would be ugly and potentially result in a Republican president. But her "loss" was so unfair, so offensive, and so sexist that women are now really angry. Before November 2016, lots of women took it for granted that Hillary would win, so they (especially young women) made statements suggesting that we live in a post-sexist society and that a woman becoming president would not be exciting or new. Can you even imagine a liberal woman saying that now?

Women are tired of being second-class citizens. That's why women were such a strong force in the midterms. If the candidate is Warren or Harris, I believe there will be huge excitement among women, and this time, many of us who couldn't be bothered to go out and campaign for Hillary will do so for Warren or Harris. If the candidate is a white male, it will be much harder to convince women to put aside their concerns to make calls and knock on doors for the candidate. Women make up the majority of election volunteers. It's a mistake to take them for granted.

Another reason to support someone like Warren over someone like Biden is that after two terms of a president, Americans tend to elect someone with the opposite personality. The majority of Americans are fed up with Trump. Warren's personality is the opposite of Trump's. She is his exact opposite: she is a woman; she is thin; she is good-looking; she is intelligent and thoughtful; she is a policy wonk; she is bold; she is well-spoken, she is civilized. If you like Warren, I suggest you reconsider your belief that she can't win this election.

[zaj]

18. She is doing well... Making progress

[zaj]

16. I was a Hillary supporter all through 2016

And wished Warren was the nominee instead.

I didn't support Bernie.

[athena]

19. I shouldn't have accused you of sexism.

I'm sorry. There was no reason to make that assumption.

However, I disagree that the sexism of the majority of Americans is a good reason to support male candidates. The majority of Americans are also racist, but it would have been a mistake to avoid supporting Obama in 2008 for that reason. The way to fight sexism is for all of us to speak out against sexism whenever we hear it. I don't know your gender, but men are particularly well-positioned to fight against sexism: a sexist is more likely to listen to a man than a woman. (For the same reason, it's important for white people to speak out when we hear someone say something racist.) Imagine Warren or Harris being the Democratic nominee. If all of us on DU would defend her as loudly as we can against sexist attacks, that would make a big difference. Sexism isn't something that is insurmountable. If we wanted to, we could end it very quickly.

[robbedvoter]

20. You mean, like he did when he was in office and they stole it from Hillary?

Yeah, I am full of confidence! 🙄 He is the guy who voted NO on taking OBL down.