A career State Department official resigned from her post on Tuesday, saying she could no longer work for the Biden administration after it released a report concluding that Israel was not preventing the flow of aid to Gaza.
Stacy Gilbert, who served as a senior civilian-military advisor to the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), sent an email to staff saying she was resigning because she felt the State Department had made the wrong assessment, The Washington Post reported, citing officials who read the note.
The report was filed in response to President Joe Biden issuing a national security memorandum (NSM-20) in early February on whether the administration finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons do not violate either American or international law.
The report said there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel on several occasions had used American-supplied weapons “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law, but said it could not make a definitive assessment - enough to prevent the suspension of arms transfers.
Biden, what the fuck are you doing!? Can you do the right thing when it comes to genocide, please? Just hand the election over to trump on a silver platter. How hard is it to… not support genocide? Wtf
The Democrat’s strategy to appeal to their base really seems to be, “Look, we’re not as bad at the other guys.” And they really aren’t realizing that that isn’t enough, because it’s not just about Israel/Palestine anymore. I really don’t think the people who are also repeating this party line (including the ones on Lemmy) are realizing how out of touch this sentiment is especially the younger Millennials/Gen Z.
I’ve seen my friends get attacked, arrested, and get criminal records from the university encampments and protests, and nothing was done to protect them. In their eyes, Trump would never protect them, but neither did Biden or any other Democrat in power. How can they be trusted to protect the people in the future? Seen from this lens, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that there might be people out there who find voting for Biden unpalatable.
I’ve been saying for a long time that Democrats basically sell themselves on the idea that you should be afraid that the Republican might win, and vote for them to prevent that. Sometimes they get something done, often only after compromising heavily, but for the most part that’s not the message they’re selling on.
To put it another way, if someone asks you why they should vote Dem instead of third party, the answer isn’t about how great the Dems are and why they deserve your vote it’s about why you should be scared that the GOP might win. It didn’t work in 2016 because most didn’t actually think Trump might win and it did in 2020 because they knew he could.
It might work this time (I’d give it better than even odds, even given the Israel/Gaza stuff is going to hurt Biden some), but eventually it won’t and when it fails and we get another GOP president the Dems won’t win another election for a while - either we immediately fall into Christo-fascist super-Nazism and there are no more elections where we could vote for Dems or we don’t and Dems are at a loss on what to do for votes.
Democrats basically sell themselves on the idea that you should be afraid that the Republican might win, and vote for them to prevent that.
Pathetically, that’s what Republicans said for the 4 years Trump was in office. “Please overlook his faults, a Democrat would be worse!”
Our current political structure and the two party system makes even the best politician look feeble.
I’m not sure how to do it but represent.us proposes to fix it in the near future (if we all bought in, I suppose).One thing that sticks out on that sit is that whether all of voters agree or very few of us agree on a policy there’s about a 30% chance of the policy becoming law.
It goes without saying that the rich and corporations benefit from the current system. It will be tough to change. And makes our system pretty pathetic in practice.
It’s one of the first modern democracies and as a result, I think needs a major update. It’s way too hard to get things done, filibustering is too easy, money has an outsized influence on politicians and elections due to lobbying, there’s no real way to recall certain powerful leaders (from the President to Congressmen to judges), lifetime appointments were an interesting idea but terrible in practice, and all the compromises made for slave states, including the Senate and electoral college, need to go. When are the devs going to put out a new patch?
Oh, and gerrymandering needs to be stopped. Almost forgot that one.
Not the first, and won’t be the last.
Article mentions 5 other State Department employees have left over Biden’s support of a genocide while pretending it’s not a genocide.
It’s not to late to ditch him for a candidate that represents the values of dem voters. And regardless of who it is, they probably have a better chance of stopping trump.
Sunk cost fallacy is a terrible way to run a political party, but especially when the stakes are this high.
Even if we win and get four more years of this, it’s not winning, it’s just losing less. Which is why Biden’s numbers are so bad, he doesn’t inspire voters due to his words and actions.
Who is this candidate? Pick one and start saying their name! Would Sanders take the nomination? Whoever it is, you’ll need their cooperation at least, so find your duck and get it in the row.
I don’t mean to yell at you, it is frustrating and humiliating for the average citizen, and it’s going to get worse.
Losing less is still better than losing more and if we’re too late we have to accept that and look beyond the vote to damage control in the coming years. Yes, asking each other to “hold your nose and vote” sucks, but we’ve got to pair it with the idea that protest and disobedience and local government action is going to be an important factor for years to come, no matter who is president.
and if we’re too late
That argument worked in 2016, it’s been 8 years of trump…
If the party can’t find a single better candidate, than maybe there should be different people leading it?
But pick any of the 49 senators that caucus with Dems (I’m not counting Manchin, he’d probably be just as hard to elect as Biden) and they’d all have a better shot.
Hell, AOC would get every single Dem vote that can’t hold their nose for Biden. And while some “moderates” would campaign against her like they did Obama, as we saw back then increased turnout more than makes up for those conservatives who constantly claim compromise always means giving them exactly what they ask for Maybe less, but never more.
The main voter block this election will be under 40, we can’t keep catering to boomers because our politicians are so old they can’t realize their grandkids are now the biggest demographic.
We’ll always be little kids to an 82 year old.
Biden is part of the old boys club where all the monied interests hang out. If you think AOC will get their support you’re not thinking of the current USA. Politics in USA is owned by corporations and I haven’t seen her back corps, why would they back her?
If you think AOC will get their support
Bernie showed us you don’t need them if voters support you…
He ran a competitive race against Hillary and she had corporate donors and the full weight of the party. Hell, her campaign manager controlled DNC purse strings during the primary against Bernie.
Biden might have needed a billion last election. And he’s projected to need 2 billion this year
But that’s not how much it takes for a popular candidate to run a campaign, that’s how much it costs to convince Americans Biden is better than trump and they should hold their nose and vote Biden even tho he’s an 82 year old conservative genocide enthusiast who disagrees with most of his own party’s platform.
You don’t need corporate donations to convince Dem voters to vote for someone they agree with.
And the moderates tried to protest vote Republican against Obama for being “too progressive”. Do you remember how that worked out?
Progressives are the future of the party, and this election most voters will be Millenials or younger.
It’s cheaper if the people want what we’re selling
I remember this, but Bernie failed to get his own party to support him as a candidate, is that not so?
Pick 2016 or 2020.
But I’ve explained both already today, and I’m 90% sure it was in this comment chain…
So pick one or look at my post history for both.
No, Biden has the brand recognition and is the party’s best chance to win. His administration does do a terrible job of selling the good things he is doing and he is shooting himself in the foot by not following through on his ‘red line’ with Rafah, but that isn’t enough of a negative to outweigh the lnown factor.
It sucks that winning a first past the post election based on the electoral college is how it works instead of something like ranked choice, but that is where we are at.
Biden isn’t going to win dude. He’s losing, hard L style right now.
Its not an issue with fptp, its not strategic voting.
He’s a shitty candidate that was always a comprise/ most-least preferred candidate and he’s not going to win.
Continuing to make the arguments that we need to stick with Biden is basically arguing to give the election to Trump.
He’s a shitty candidate [who] was always a [compromise?]/ most-least preferred candidate and he’s not going to win.
Shitty compared to whom? To the leading republican? Are you high?
“Generic Democrat” polls 12 points higher than Biden.
You are leaving 12 points on the table with Biden. Interestingly, this is also the differential polling error associated with a Biden/ Trump head to head.
12 points is about the number Biden needs to be leading Trump to be ‘confident’ in victory. So quite literally “Any generic Democrat” is a less shitty candidate than Biden.
So what’s your solution? Who has a better shot at winning the election in November if they started campaigning today? I want a specific name and why you think it would work. You know better than everyone, this should be easy for you (everyone else, watch for this sidestep and refusal to actually answer or back up anything).
You’re really good at claiming (almost to a point of preference) that Biden will lose and why we shouldn’t support them but not once have you provided anything of value that people can take action on. Everything you post appears to be designed to make people more apathetic and less likely to be involved, why is that?
Its not my job to give you a solution. I just need you to be real about the probability of failure of the strategy that you seem to be pot-committed to. And to be clear, we haven’t had a convention yet, so there is still time to change.
I’m offering you an analysis that makes a conclusion, that based on current polling, Biden can’t win this election. You might find it unpalatable, but that’s not my problem. Hope is a false
But this isn’t new news’. Biden has been struggling in this way for over a year, before Israel/ Gaza became hot. Biden’s chances have gone from “rough” to “very unlikely”. He’s actively working to distance himself from the positions of his base. Instead of rejecting Trump’s policy positions, he adopts them. Biden is catering to a non-existent center. It seems like he genuinely thinks that some republican voters are going to show up for him. There is 0 evidence from the previous three elections that any voters are convertible.
On the other side, maybe he gets laughed at, but Trump is going to the places that voters are and trying to get them (the sneaker thing, libertarian convention). Trump is trying to win this election. You win elections post 2016 by growing a base and driving them out to vote. It worked for Trump in 2016. It worked for Biden in 2020: Biden took on the most progressive platform in recent history to grow his base to include progressives.
Whats Biden’s platform in 2024? I don’t know about you but I have no fucking clue based on the campaigns messaging. Its all, just like you are parroting here, about how bad Trump is. And while you might find that convincing enough, there are obviously enough voters out there (about 12%) who don’t and that you can’t win the election without.
So I’m sorry. It hurts if he’s your hucklebee, but the guy can’t win right now. He’s statistically lost at this point. If beating Trump really is your goal, then you need to come up with a better candidate. Continuing to push for Biden when he can’t win dooms us all.
You keep saying Biden needs to be replaced but there’s literally no candidate to replace him with that beats Trump. If you’re so sure we need to ditch Biden, and you’re not advocating for Trump to win, it seems pretty fair to ask what you think should happen. Until you do that it’s pretty clear you’re just spewing bullshit in bad faith.
Until you do that it’s pretty clear you’re just spewing bullshit in bad faith.
Sigh… Just because some one is pointing out the flaws in your approach to electoralism doesn’t mean they are acting in bad faith. Pretending that everyone who has a perspective you disagree with is out to get you is a poor way to go through life.
Recognizing that Biden can’t win is step one. There really is no point in a discussion around alternatives until that point is accepted. We can’t turn this ship until collectively, people understand that this guy isn’t going to win the election. It has to show up in mass, in the polling, and in the collective conversation.
As far as determining an alternative, there is a straightforward mechanism for that. Its called a convention, and conveniently, there is already one scheduled. Supreme court decided post 2016 that Dem’s can do whatever the fuck they want. So delegates go to the convention unaffiliated and we figure it out there.
It really doesn’t matter who the nominee is, so long as its neither Biden or Hillary. Any generic Democratic governor or senator will do fine. Trump is deeply unpopular. The problem we’re up against is that some how, Biden has managed his presidency in such a way as to be more unpopular than Trump.
And I’m telling you, there is no viable candidate you can nominate that has a better chance than Biden. “Generic Democrat” isn’t a candidate. Who’s polling better and is willing to run?
It’s not to late to ditch him for a candidate that represents the values of dem voters. And regardless of who it is, they probably have a better chance of stopping trump.
I’ve been saying this for months. Years even. If you want Trump to lose, its not going to be with Biden.
If you want Trump to lose, its not going to be with Biden.
…again. Trump has already lost to Biden once in 2020. If anything Biden has a 100% track record of beating Trump in presidential elections. Trump has a 100% loss rate against Biden in Presidential elections.
Biden wasn’t supporting a genocide of the Palestinian people in 2020.
Things are different for incumbents than they are for challengers, especially those without a recent track record.
In 2020, right now in terms of days till voting day, Biden had something like a 15 point lead on Trump.
Biden barely won going into election day with a massive lead.
Its 2024. Biden lags Trump by 3-6 points.
Its over. Biden loses. He can’t make up that kind of polling deficit.
Biden wasn’t supporting a genocide of the Palestinian people in 2020.
Trump is also a supporter of Israel. Trump (and GOP lawmakers) actively criticized Biden for stopping delivery of weapons to Israel. So Trump comes out looking no better than Biden on Gaza.
Things are different for incumbents than they are for challengers, especially those without a recent track record.
Biden was in the Executive Branch for VP for 8 years and was in the US Senate for 36 years. Trump has 4 years as an twice impeached President.
Its over. Biden loses. He can’t make up that kind of polling deficit.
Thats funny, that’s what people said in Hilary’s favor, and then Trump won. So which is it?
Thats funny, that’s what people said in Hilary’s favor, and then Trump won. So which is it?
You might consider that those were the same people who have been telling you to not worry about/ apologizing for Biden.
The world isn’t a monolith. There were plenty of people, myself included, saying in 2016 that Trump had a far better shot than they were being led to believe.
You might consider that those were the same people who have been telling you to not worry about/ apologizing for Biden.
No, they’re the same people saying the polls conclude Trump is a shoe in that you are citing yourself.
Bro you don’t know who I’m citing. I’ve been doing ground up analysis on polling data for years. Biden showed a 12 point polling deficit to Trump in 2020, and hasn’t led (unweighted) in 15 months.
But remember, we’re still supposed to vote for Biden even though his own cabinet members have lost faith in him. Because otherwise we get Nazi Trump.
Remind me again, is this what a functional, healthy, democracy looks like? The institutions that form our “political parties” are rotten to the core. The ideals don’t need to die, but the corrupt groups who stifle actual change and progress need to.
Who is claiming we live in a functional, healthy, democracy? Sounds like a straw man to me.
The people who claim that voting will solve our problems. You know, like all the Dems saying “well you have to vote!”. If we were in a functional healthy democracy, sure. In this current farce? Nah. That’s just feeding the slow deline of our nation. Will it possibly let Nazi Trump win? Sure. But we’re already in a corporate oligarchy anyways, we might as well throw the mask off and admit to it. Trump winning is the least of our problems when the Tree of Liberty is already diseased and rotting away.
We can either keep the current system on life support and keep the farce going for a few more elections/decades, or we can pull the plug and admit that the system as it is today has failed and needs to be reworked.
But go ahead, act like “voting for the lesser of two evils”(which has been a thing for decades now) really matters and is enacting any real change.
Remind me again how many of our basic rights keep getting swept away? And before you start the usual “well it’s the Republicans fault!” speil, consider if they would be able to do the same bullshit if the democratic party had any real teeth and didn’t just roll over conveniently every time. We have words for that: accomplices and enablers.
The system is rotten to the core and until we admit that, we aren’t going anywheres. It’s a prisoners dilemma and we’re all fighting for our self comfort instead of the greater good.
spoiler
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Mass protests. Civil disobedience. The kinda of things that ended slavery and helped raise women’s rights. The things we used to do instead of sitting down and just taking it. Look at the French: they stage months/years long protests. Now check their labor laws and compare it to the US. Where would you rather work?
It’s not going to end until people accept that this change won’t be easy and won’t happen taking the easy way. It’s going to be a shit ton of uphill battles. But that’s the only way to take power back from the oppressors: you demand it.
You think Biden could keep his course of actions up if a large percentage of citizens were out on the streets protesting? I’m asking you to hold your elected representatives accountable. And if they arent doing as they should, you should damn well make it known. Not go “well, he’s not gonna do what I want, but he’s not a Nazi”. DONT ROLL OVER AND TAKE IT.
Do you realize how much you can slow the government down just by calling your representatives? Even if you don’t talk to them, every secretary and assistant taking calls instead of doing other things slows them down. Keep calling. Don’t stop. Send in letters. Show up to meetings whenever possible. Be visible and make your voice heard.
