A Majority of Voters Backing Biden Are Mostly Motivated by Stopping Trump — Poll
Only 27 percent of voters who plan to vote for Biden in the 2024 election say they genuinely like him as a candidate.
I have never whole heartedly supported the Democratic candidate (because I'm far more left than any of them have ever been), but I've always voted for them, because they're far better than the other option. This time they're just so far better than the other option, not because they are any better, but because the other option is so astoundingly worse. So, I guess, welcome to the club.
But I will say, Biden has been more progressive than any other candidate in my lifetime. Again, that's not saying much, but hey, it's better than nothing. He's just killing himself by supporting Israel.
(Repost of my comment from the same article in another community.)
The opinions of Biden seem to be all over the map, which is weird since he is the incumbent, and we all ought to know where he stands. There are lots of people (like you) who see the progressive things he has managed to get accomplished, even with a divided Congress in these past two years. Yet, there are others who perceive him as a right-of-center false choice.
He has always had trouble defining himself, which I think is part of the reason he was a perennial Presidential Primary loser. His stutter didn't help matters, nor his tendency to go off-script. But Trump's ascendancy gave him the perfect opportunity to create a definition, even if that definition is "Not Trump".
There is also a great deal of negative press out regarding Biden. Honestly if you look at policy and accomplishments he's done quite a lot of good things. It is an uphill battle of course with Congress and the Supreme Court being what they are. We are a big country and it takes constant action to push it to a more equitable place for the majority of us.
Frankly, I think Biden has done a lot to start that push. It will take a lot more though and we could backslide terribly if we don't keep pushing.
This is on purpose. Building confidence is hard. Destroying it is easy. Plenty of domestic and foreign actors are heavily invested in mudding Waters surrounding biden. In hopes of him failing. Their candidates getting elected. Which is turning out even easier for them seeing as our corporate publicly traded media is eagerly assisting them.
The fascists will fall in line and vote for whoever they're offered. Simply because they've been told the opposite would be worse. Unfortunately the Democratic party is much more a coalition party of many disparate groups many who don't see a lot of representation. Preferring to fall in love rather than falling in line. And they are Their Own Worst Enemy because of that.
And even though it's a low bar. If I didn't Administration has delivered some of the biggest wins for labor in the last 100 years. He certainly not perfect. But the alternatives are absolutely worse. The question is are we going to be able to get our s*** together and not let ourselves be manipulated again.
And that's okay.
With no aspirations toward better than "okay".
As opposed to last time, when I voted for Biden to stop trump
Or the time before that, when I voted for Kerry to stop Bush.
As far as I'm concerned we only have one legitimate party at the moment and that's the one I'm going to vote for.
But, even though Biden isn't nearly as progressive as I'd like, he still beats the brakes off of any other democratic president we've had other than Jimmy Carter, so I wouldn't say he's doing a bad job per se.
If he were running against a "rational" Republican I'd still vote for him, so I wouldn't say I'm motivated solely by my hatred for Trump.
Biden, DNC, establishment Democrats and Boomer Democrat voters: Okay guys we need to figure out who to elevate in the 2028 Republican primaries who's just as vile as Trump so those uppity leftists will have to keep voting for our pro-corporate asses.
Okay guys we need to figure out who to elevate in the 2028 Republican primaries
Not a single Dem has that power nor would have wished a GOP candidate as bad for America as Convicted Felon and Sex Offender Treason Trump.
who’s just as vile as Trump
I'm not expecting anyone as vile as Convicted Felon and Sex Offender Treason Trump although the GOP does have a knack for continually disappointing America with their bad candidates.
will have to keep voting for our pro-corporate asses.
Corporations must be super mad at "pro-corporate" Joe Biden for raising the minimum corporate tax rate from 0% to 15% even though tax rates are the single thing that matter above all else.
so those uppity leftists
The indispensible prerequisite for moving the Overton window to the left is for the GOP to lose elections. And leftist who doesn't understand that will automatically transform themselves into a perpetual Loser.
Not me. I’m motivated on making sure myself and all my loved ones get to continue to vote. Stopping Trump and voting for Biden just so happen to line up for that.
Exactly. "Voting for Biden just to stop trump" is a pretty meaningless statement.
At this point, I would say nearly all of them are, but then again, at this point- that’s all the reason one needs.
This is a DIRE situation we are in. It needs to be taken seriously.
This is a DIRE situation we are in. It needs to be taken seriously.
in every single election cycle, it's always been that red maga falls in line while blue maga shames everyone into voting for a guy that is 99% same as the red maga guy, but, of course, that naturally doesn't work; if you look at people's behavior now, compared to before, the situation appears the same because everyone's doing the same thing.
if the situation were truly dire; then people would behave accordingly; but they're not.
if the situation were truly dire; then people would behave accordingly; but they’re not.
That's a completely false assumption.
[How they made Germany great again: The Nazi social media campaign of 1932]
Biden said he's going to be a dictator for 99% of day one?
ROFL.
.ml.
One day the USA will get a president that has more to offer than not being his opponent.
No they won't, their lesser evil bullshit will keep creating a progressively larger evil. So there will always be a boogeyman to sell.
What if Trump loses and runs in 2028?
If Trump gets a sound thrashing, losing the Republicans seats in the process, the rats will flee the sinking ship.
Like increasing the minimum tax on corporations from 0% to 15% while needing 2 Dem senators who later left the party for being too leftwing?
And that day is upon you now.
I know I am. I mean it it's not like I would vote for any Republican because I have yet to see one that lines up with my philosophy. And since we have a shitty to party system, I can't reasonably expect to be able to have a voice by voting for anybody else, so I have no choice but to compromise by voting for the lesser of two bastards. We seriously need ranked voting in this country so badly. It's not a perfect system, but it's so much better than what we're doing now.
Of course. He'd never win if not for the alternative being a fascist convicted of multiple kinds of fraud.
Hell, he almost didn't the first time around and that was WITHOUT being a willing participant in numerous crimes against humanity!
Im not American but doesnt everyone usually vote to keep the worst out not the best one in?
Kinda... mostly because the best ones never become candidates. The parties push the candidates that serve the interests of the partys donors then try to convince the voters they actually care.
Most elections are a choice between two mediocre candidates.
With the current state of the Republican party, it's truly about getting more of them out of power. Unless you're a white Christofascist bootlicker.
I used to mainly vote third party as a protest vote for both sides to do better. Didn't matter the party, really.
I voted for Obama out of genuinely wanting him in office. I thought he was decent overall but he did disappoint me.
I voted for Biden purely to keep Trump out of office. Even so, I think Biden has largely been a better President than Obama was, though the Gaza/Israel thing is really testing that. I would love to have a more progressive choice, but any time I am disappointed in Biden, I just remind myself the alternative and I would crawl across a mile of broken glass to vote for him.
So I would anecdotally say this election is outside the norm.
So I would anecdotally say this election is outside the norm.
If you mean "unique in 240 years of American history" I agree.
So I would anecdotally say this election is outside the norm.
as will be the next, and the one after that, as well as all of the ones following; meanwhile you'll continue crawling over broken glass and giving a pass to ongoing genocides because you believe it's better than the alternative somehow without realizing there's one alternative.
no one knows the right answer, but there are plenty of wrong answers and 2 of those have been placed before and you're told that you must select one.
40% of voting-eligible Americans simply don’t vote at all.
I mean Boomer Democrat voters could sit down and ask themselves "Is voting for a geriatric establishment white man really the move in the 2020 primaries if we want those "young" (read: anyone under the age of 65) voters to engage in politics"
But they won't because even though they vote Democrat they're still Boomers. And Boomers can't handle not getting their way.
If you have a non proportional system where parties don't make coalitions, there's no other choice (unless you live in a region where a specific party always wins with a majority of the votes, then do what you want).
Wasn't the case with Obama, as one easy example
Well, millennials voted for Obama because he genuinely inspired hope. Then we saw how he governed and it killed our entire generation's sense of hope.
Not true at all. Some of them are actively trying to get the worst one in.
I generally like Biden and I’m still more motivated by voting against trump. I’m amazed on a daily basis how many ignorant school shooter wannabes roam around here chanting fantasies without any basis in reality convincing themselves that they aren’t culpable if they don’t accept reality.
Yes. Please do be motivated by stopping Trump!
And especially don't be demotivated to go voting because you don't like the alternative.
this is every election since ive been old enough to vote in them
I honestly wonder what I'd do if a non-maga candidate replaced trump. Not vote for them, but I might vote for a third party at that point. Unless something changes, it wouldn't much matter; my voter registration is in a place that is very comfortably red so I'm not going to be able to change that.
You can still affect local elections, which arguably will have a greater impact on your day to day life anyway.
I live in a similar red area and democrats need to come back here for the local change to happen. More than half of local seats only have a Republican option. There are almost as many Libertarians running as democrats. The democrats gave up on way too many rural areas.
Trump isn't much different than any generic Republican. Bush was far worse than him.
LMFAO. Bush was terrible. Convicted Felon and Sex Offender Treason Trump has been rated the worst president in history by historians. Biden was ranked the 14th best BTW
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/19/presidents-survey-trump-ranks-last-biden-14th
Water is wet.
The electoral college is the electoral college
I'm just done "trusting" Republicans in general. Romney seems to be the only one left that has a moral compass (that doesn't just point to "Nazi Jesus"). Even then I don't believe he'd give a damn about the poorest among us as long as he could point to record stock prices and low unemployment.
I mean...no shit?
Only the best current reason. When frump is out of the picture for good we can focus on other things
Also it is no reflection at all on Biden that he happens to be running against the person whom historians have ranked as the worst president in American history. Biden is ranks as 14th best president out of 46.
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/19/presidents-survey-trump-ranks-last-biden-14th
James Buchanan fans everywhere are overjoyed
You think it will be any better then?
Cant say. Nobody can read the future for good or bad. I just prefer to be optimistic rather than not. All i can say is that the current choices are all there is and, as always, the lesser of two evils is what we have to work with
there hasn't been an election where it wasn't choosing the least bad person.
I think as candidates Clinton, W. Bush, Gore, Obama, McCain had sincere support overshadowing the need to stop some particular bad person instead. As misguided as I think it is, Trump voters also are all about Trump less than stopping Biden. I can't personally remember a race where "the other side must be stopped" as pretty much the sole consideration among the voters until the Trump era.
Yes, third party candidates are dismissed in a self fulfilling prophecy, but also that reality drives most reasonable would-be third party candidates to one of the viable parties, generally leaving third party candidates that wouldn't be that popular anyway.
I think as candidates Clinton, W. Bush, Gore, Obama, McCain had sincere support
Joe Biden was better and more progressive than literally every one of those guys. It's not Biden's fault that you haven't been paying much attention.
I can’t personally remember a race where “the other side must be stopped” as pretty much the sole consideration among the voters until the Trump era.
I can't personally remember a president who has achieved more progress than Joe Biden, and I can remember every president starting with Nixon.
I can’t personally remember a race where “the other side must be stopped” as pretty much the sole consideration among the voters until the Trump era.
The Kerry '04 campaign might as well have been "Anyone But Bush", and it went down in flames as a result. Every time Kerry was pressed on any kind of progressive-ish sounding issue, he ran to the right for fear of spooking the moderate centrist voter. Every time Bush was pressed on his conservative bona fides, he just pointed to 9/11 and said "I kept us safe" and the news media ate that shit up.
In the end, you had the Strong MAGA Security candidate in Bush and the flaky swish liberal candidate in Kerry. Kerry lost by 3M votes and 35 ECs, dwarfing the Bush/Gore defeat. Then he slunk back to the Senate and triangulated votes with John McCain for the next eight years.
I was genuinely excited for Obama. I strongly supported him during the primary, was thrilled he won, and was very hopeful when he was elected.
Quickly disappointed not long after, but at least when he was first being elected it was definitely a "I really like this candidate and am hopeful they'll live up to their promises."
Obama's first go around felt pretty legit.
"A majority of voters backing Biden are mostly motivated by the greatest threat America and the western world has ever faced."
Goddamn right....I'm got down with the dumbass ship in Florida but I'm cancelling out one vote for the end of America....
Well it worked the first time around...
Thanks Democrats. Hopefully you risking everything to stroke this dudes ego doesn't give the Republicans control forever. Exact same shit as 2016. I have no choice but to vote for Biden. I wonder whom the democratic party will pick next, probably Mayor Pete, and it'll then be another vote for Pete to save democracy.
Biden has done so much fucking shit for the average american (which is saying something thanks to the Do Nothing fascists)
First US president to join the union workers ON THE PICKET LINE In many ways we have handled this world-wide inflation shit better than any other in the G7 nations Unemployment numbers are at record lows, .01 lower than any other time in the past 10 years at one point in january and april of last year and since then has only risen around 0.3-4 points, removed healthcare related debt from credit scores
I could go on and on, but instead, others have already done so for me (and these aren't even super recent):
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-biden-accomplishment-data/
Him joining a picket line for a photo op is kinda cancelled out by signing that bill that blocked the rail workers from striking.
Cancelled out? I remember when I was 14 and everything seemed simple.
Biden is fucking awesome. The more progressive president since LBJ if not FDR.
No kidding? Lol
Biden is not my favorite, but it’s that or fascism.
Only reason he won the primary in 2020. Idealists don't do well against fascists but moderates are inoffensive enough to
It's a dangerous game, as Biden's not bringing anything to the table on his own. Hillary lost in 2016 with a 10-pt plunge in support, because of the Comey October Surprise. Biden could easily suffer the same fate, if his lackluster supporters get spooked a few weeks before the general election.
Aye, this is me
Honest motives
I mean, yeah.
Duh
Yes, Democrats know this and are taking the opportunity to move to the right.
I'm okay with that.
Anything but trump. Next term I do expect Biden to really kick around hard as hell gave nothing to lose, kick Israeli govt to the curb, kick the right-wing extremist religious out of the government, that sort of thing
You know what my main problem with Joe Biden is? I'm 37, he's what? 79? I've been a citizen of the United States longer than he has. He's spent the last three generations in either congress or the white house, and the people who do that don't live in the same reality as the rest of us. Too many of the laws outright don't apply to them, either because there are literal exceptions or "we don't enforce that on them." Joe Biden doesn't know the first fucking thing about being an American because he hasn't ever actually done it.
Joe Biden doesn’t know the first fucking thing about being an American because he hasn’t ever actually done it.
His family struggled a lot when he grew up in a blue collar town, moved so his dad could find steady work, but still were definitely middle class. Then he worked his way through college and law school.
We can say his decades in Congress and the presidency have corrupted him, but the idea that he hasn't ever actually been "a real American" (the way you are using it) is an outright lie.
You know who hasn't? The billionaire who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth, schooled with other wealthy people in NYC, then was gifted a huge amount of to start, and then spent their entire career screwing the blue collar worker to line his own pockets.
If Biden has never been a "real American," then how do we describe Trump's lack of real Americaness?
You know what my main problem with Joe Biden is?
He's not Putin's choice? He gave billionaires a tax increase instead of tax cut?
Joe Biden doesn’t know the first fucking thing about being an American because he hasn’t ever actually done it.
You mean despite being the only US Senator who rode the bus to work every day?
Joe Biden knows way more about being an American than you seem to.
[Remarks by President Biden on Democracy and Freedom | Normandy, France]
Too many of the laws outright don’t apply to them
Which specific law does not apply to Joe Biden? You simply made that up. His son was just found guilty on a charge that almost no other person in America would even be charged with.
Biden
a Catholic president with a prosecutor for a vice president
the last four years have consisted of abortion rights being stripped, Cop City built to train police to subjugate citizens by razing a national forest, workers protested and were told to stop on threat of their livelihood with no change in worker's rights or higher wages, immigration policies have deteriorated, food cost are astronomical and inflation is rising on everything without stopping, journalism is dying due to corporate buyout with journalist being silenced
but Biden who is a career politician going on almost half a century now who is running against a career donor is progressive
when was he ever progressive? what about Harris? have either of these two been progressive at any point in their careers?
Biden worked on laws and policies that would put people in jail and Harris worked her career enforcing such laws
If a Catholic and a Prosecutor with a resume of putting the citizens in their proper places is progressive then yes we are truly fisted in the ass and gaped with no chance in hell
Now do Trump.
Trump: He's also evil and I'm not voting for him either.
Shit take
Cop city? How the hell are you managing to make your mental stretch that wide that you include local Atlanta issues to criticize president biden?
Biden during the last election said he would try to get the police under control and he ran on a green platform
cops getting a whole city built for them so they can train to keep citizens subjugated while razing a national forest to do so with Biden not saying or even trying to do anything not even making it a talking point during speeches this current election
not to mention this current policing and the current environmental issues that need attention in this country are in part due to bills he had a hand in such as the crime bill
so yes him as president and before that as a career politician do criticize Biden
Atlanta is 1 of nearly 100 cop cities being built. All of which will be trained by the IDF
You are laughably misinformed.
and that is why we the people will lose this election as well
we either stop supporting bad candidates from any party or we get stuck with them
why the fuck does any want four years of Trump or Biden is wild
Both are too old and both are set on taking us way back in time
already lost women's rights and worker's rights
how much do y'all want to lose?
guess we will see in the next four years what we get to lose next already getting to the point crossing state borders is difficult
what state border is difficult to cross, honest question
I guess Alaska. Or hawaii. Lol
This guy is going to “both sides” himself into a right-wing dictatorship.
