Yes, I can see the difference between “letting this fear effect me” and “not letting this fear affect me.”
Can you tell the difference between:
Look out, there’s a flaming semi barreling directly at you! and
Excuse me, but I thought you might want to know that there’s a large truck heading your way, and it’s on fire. Generally speaking, the consequences of being hit by a large truck that’s on fire are not good, so please consider getting out of the way.
Of course you can. But it shouldn’t matter.
The impression I get from you is that you’d consider voting for Biden if only someone explained why in a nice, soothing voice. Kind of like this:
Do better than what? You don’t want Joe Biden to be president, and he probably won’t be. You want to send a message to the Democrats, and that only works if Biden loses. If you sit out the election, and Biden wins anyway, then the message is that you can (and will) safely be ignored.
Sure, what you really wanted was someone who isn’t Biden or Trump to win, but since that’s not actually an option at this point, surely “Biden loses to Trump” is your second best outcome? Otherwise, what’s the point of making a protest vote?
Here is an article talking about polling. As it is, polls indicate that Presidents Trump and Cleveland will be the two non-consecutive terms presidents. So maybe we can answer the OP this way, why is Biden trailing behind Trump in the polls?
Simply put, because Democrats have not effectively convinced the population of the big gap between the two candidates in terms of how good/suitable/mature/upright they are. There are perhaps 10-20% of American voters who have not yet been convinced that Biden is, in fact, a light-year better than Trump.
You can argue that this is unfair to Democrats. You can argue that voters are dumb and blind. You can argue that Biden is gold and Trump is shit. And you might even be right. But until or unless the D’s effectively sell their message to this 10-20% of voters, Biden is in serious danger of losing. And a lot of Ds are living in straight-up denial about this.
Because he isn’t? Or because the results are within the margin of error?
That’s not the case everywhere, but let’s look at today’s take on these polls by Forbes—which is not exactly the most Democratically-leaning of publications:
Of course anti-autocracy voters would prefer to see Biden with a comfortable lead.
But that’s not the way US Presidential politics have worked for several cycles. It’s always close–both polls and actual votes.
Again, US Presidential politics don’t work that way anymore. In recent decades it’s always been close.
Some voters want entertainment above all–Trump wins there. Some voters want white supremacy–implicit if not explicit–above all. Trump wins there, too. Some voters want to keep their billions with no taxes. Trump wins those voters as well.
Some voters want action on the climate, on infrastructure, and on personal liberties. Some voters see the American experiment as being worth continuing–another way of saying that they believe that the consent of the governed is crucial to government, and free and fair elections must be preserved. Some voters are willing to give up entertainment, white supremacy, and taxes that hit the working class harder than the top 1%.
But their numbers are not yet great enough to give Biden a commanding lead. This may shift as we get closer to November.
You are again attributing motives to someone’s comments that you’re not in a position to know. Knock it off. You’ll receive a formal warning for doing it again.
This entire premise seems very idiosyncratic. It doesn’t map well onto reality.
So what if you meet someone who thinks Biden is “perfect”? Why should that meeting change the way you use your vote?
You seem to be claiming that large numbers of voters are so delicate that they simply can’t abide the thought that some people like or admire Biden. I just don’t see evidence that you are correct about this.
^ This.
I get that some people are very, very focused on whether or not others agree with them that Biden is A Simply Terrible Person. And I hope that such people are able to find peace of mind. It must be painful to have one’s own mental state so dependent on the opinions of others.
But truly: what matters in an election is the outcome. Which people had which emotions is beside the point.
The other issues is that bread-and-butter matters hit people in the pocketbook harder than almost anything else.
Right now, everyone knows the Democrats are the better party at protecting LGBT rights, upholding democracy, etc. The problem is that those things don’t feel like much comfort when inflation has made many groceries cost twice as much as before and the federal minimum wage remains stuck at $7.25 an hour.
I read of one couple that had to spend over $30,000 on daycare annually for their kids. Telling them that Democrats will use the right pronouns in referring to them doesn’t help much.
The fact that this makes America want the Republicans in charge, the guys who are hell bent on making sure MW stays at $7.25 is why America is to blame. The last two R presidents left us with the two worst economies since the Great Depression and America can’t wait to put their asses back in charge after the D presidents spend years trying to dig us out of the mess they were handed.
This country is full of idiots. Think of how dumb the average American is… half the population is dumber than that, and eager to prove it.
I have been reading your posts, and you don’t seem all that fussed about the possibility of a second Trump administration. Perhaps Biden isn’t the only person with a messaging problem?
Really? Because it sounds to me like you’re in the land of “There should be a better choice on the ballot.”
You sound like a thoughtful person and it’s clear no one here (or anywhere else) is going to persuade you to vote for Biden. That’s fine – if you’re in a deep blue state, it’s true that your vote has virtually no consequence.
But do you understand why the thought of people like you in purple states terrifies people like us – people who are convinced that another Trump presidency will effectively end the US as we know it? And if it happens, why none of us will give a fuck about you communicating your true political will?
But I don’t even think that that would be enough. The only thing that will be satisfactory is an explanation of why one should walk on the sidewalk rather than the street regardless of the presence of trucks, flaming or otherwise. And so we can patiently explain how the how there is more shade on the sidewalk and you and admire the houses more easily. But then he accurately points out that there is also dogshit on the sidewalk, and so until we call someone to get the dog shit cleaned up he will stay where he is in protest. Pointing out that even if we all agree that the dog shit needs to be cleaned up, there is no way that that can happen before he gets hit by the truck is unpersuasive and is equated with being a pro-dog-shit, sidewalk loving, alarmist.