Forty-one percent of Biden supporters say they believe people who support the Republican party and its ideologies have become “so extreme in what they want that it is acceptable to use violence to stop them from achieving their goals.” Likewise, 38 percent of Trump supporters say it is OK to use violence to stop Democrats from achieving their goals.
My take - from the numbers - is that voting for the big two parties means encouraging violence and ensuring that any policy ever passed by your favored party will be rolled back at the earliest possible moment. You will never achieve any of the goals that your party promises you. You’re not even going to gain what you’re fighting for so hard.
Voting for milquetoast, boring folk who promise nothing means that you will reduce violence and, potentially, allow minimal policy gains on at least the basics - funding the government, ensuring national security, responding to crisises.
If you’re in an argument with something, and your mutual position is “over my dead body”, I’m not seeing the value in trying to bludgeon each other to death. In the case that you win, you’re probably not coming out of it in the best condition - and that’s assuming that you will win.
If your personality is to keep pushing it to that extreme, maybe you’re a person who should step back from politics and let cooler heads lead the way.
The goal of Trump and his allies on January 6th was to use violence to overthrow a lawful election. Unfortunately violence was required to stop them in their goal.
So yes, if the other side is using violence to try and overthrow a lawful election, it’s necessary and warranted to use violence to stop them.
Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who was being courted by the group, made that explicit last week when he declined to run: “If my candidacy in any way, shape or form would help Donald Trump become president again, then it is not the way forward.”
From a NY Times piece on the same subject. To be clear, I still don’t respect him.
Is this too much of a hijack? The NLP is basically dead anyway. If it is, I’ll drop it.
Looking at Christie’s statement, I don’t think he’s really coming out in favor of Biden the way he should, if that’s his attitude. One of Trump or Biden will be elected. My question, if Christie and other prominent never-Trumpers decided to come out strong for Biden, could they tilt the election? Could they make enough wavering Republicans make the switch to Biden?
PJ O’Roarke’s comment about Clinton being wrong within normal parameters was funny, but he said it on an obscure NPR game show. He could have been more effective if he wanted to be.
The risk is that some progressives would see this as meaning that Biden is GOP adjacent, and punish him by voting for a party like No Labels. Now that No Labels isn’t running, the risk is less, but there are other third parties that may get ballot access. We’ll see if they do.
Eh, some neo-Nazi groups endorsed Obama, and it didn’t hurt him. I think that most progressives are smart enough to just ignore Republicans endorsing Biden as meaningless noise.
Agreed, it seems like it’s more common on the right to jump on their own when they are endorsed by or work with someone on the left than vice versa. Probably one reason why there is no Democratic version of the Freedom Caucus.
Most, yes. A few thousand in each big swing state? Not sure. I don’t have a real strong opinion here and admit to straining a bit, in my last post, to say something relevant to No Labels.
Well, hopefully folks like Bernie Sanders also come out strong for Biden. And, what’s his name, the director guy. To me, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for our democracy and anyone with influence who agrees should be coming out hard for Biden.
In an election where large parts of the electorate think that both major-party candidates are too old, No Labels wanted to offer and alternative who was 82 years old?
No, they weren’t trying to get Lieberman to run. They were counting on his connections and experience in government to help them get a big name person to agree to be on the ticket.
Persuasion occurs in baby steps. Some would reflexively dismiss any Republican who endorsed Biden. What we need is a range of Trump opponents, some refusing to endorse Trump like Vice President Pence and Vice President Cheney, while others endorse Biden outright, with a range of performative reluctance. Admittedly, we could use a lot more GOP patriots on the coming out hard for Biden side.