It’s so nice to be leaving another historic, traumatic crisis and entering another depressing normal, where we get to live out our tedious, soul crushing lives while we await the next crisis.

“the bourgeois parties… [and] the Nazis who they collaborated with,” implying a distinction.

A distinction without a difference. Whether explicitly bourgeois parties or not, the Nazis and SPD were both vehemently opposed to the ideology of the KPD, and those two parties received a majority of the votes in the 1932 election.

Working class people can and did support bourgeois parties…

And do, still. By the millions, in every election. Or, at least, if not explicitly bourgeois parties, parties that are based on some form is liberal ideology, not necessarily in opposition to bourgeois interests, and that often are aggressively opposed to Marxism-Leninism.

And yes, the bourgeois parties hated the Marxist-Leninists much more than the Nazis who they collaborated with.

You say “the bourgeois parties,” but that’s all the parties besides the KPD. That’s more than 80% of German voters in 1932. After the depression, the war, the austerity, more people still voted for the SPD, and all the other parties, than the KPD. Those voters couldn’t all be members of the capitalist class. In fact, I’m pretty darn certain they were mostly working class people.

There were a number of objectively conservative parties that backed Hindenburg: Catholic Centre Party, BVP, DVP, and DStP.

That’s true, which means there was no possibility of a coalition being formed that involved the KPD, regardless of SPD’s feelings about the KPD. Believe me, I’m not denying that the SPD hated the KPD. I’m certain of it, and it looks like so did every other party. My point is that the KPD hated the SPD, and all those other parties, at least as much. That’s the thing about Marxist-Leninists, they excel at making people hate them, and they’re perfectly content to be completely on their own, politically and ideologically isolated from everyone else. A plurality of German voters literally chose Nazis over the MLs. Even today, I think there are more people who hate MLs than hate Nazis, and that’s saying something because A LOT of people really hate Nazis, rightfully so.

Did take companies long to stop pretending like they care.

I think they care, I just think they care more about maximum profits. A lot of people believe that maximizing profits and meeting our climate goals are not incompatible goals. Personally, I’m skeptical, to say the least. Regardless of my skepticism, however, the world’s leaders, many of the world’s experts, and most people have decided we should proceed as though the two goals are not mutually exclusive. I guess only time will tell if they’re right or not.

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party never managed to win a majority in a national election; instead, it was helped into office by conservatives who were more terrified of real socialism than they were of Hitler’s “national socialism.”

Are the social democrats the “conservatives” in this scenario? If so, was it really the social democrats who refused to work with the communists, or was it the communists who refused to work with the social democrats? The communists had no love for the SPD after they helped put down the Spartacist uprising in 1919, and many communists, even today, blame the SPD for the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. So, I don’t think there’s much validity to the implication that the social democrats and the communists could have formed a coalition if only the social democrats hadn’t been so terrified of “real socialism.” Also, not everyone sees Marxism-Leninism as “real socialism.” I’m not sure there is consensus on what constitutes “real socialism,” with every socialist faction believing only their socialism is the real socialism.

There are various strategies you could use for any of the three, with various levels of timeframe involved and chance of success and all, but “let Trump come to power” is not a real good solution to any of them, to me.

Probably not. I don’t know what the right strategies are, assuming they exist at all, but, yeah, that’s probably not it.

And, also, are totally uninterested in any leftist causes more strategic or logical than this weird and counterproductive single quixotic stand in this general election

Can you give me an example of a strategic or logical leftist cause?

Lots of people just don’t vote if they don’t like their options.

Do you think those voters like their options now?

See, this confuses me. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I mean there must be a reason Biden came out on top in the 2020 primaries, but all the time liberals tell me they would vote for a houseplant over Donald Trump. Literally any Democratic candidate would pass the test of not being Trump, so why couldn’t any candidate win?

Obama and John McCain, or Obama and Mitt Romney, I think were all considered pretty respectable by most Americans, especially compared to our current options.

It’s about responding to somewhat opposing public safety concerns. As someone else pointed out in this thread, when protestors are allowed to wear masks they are more likely to commit illegal acts, even violent ones. SARS-CoV-2 is no longer a novel virus. There is now significant immunity in the population and our COVID treatments are much improved, meaning the virus no longer constitutes a public health emergency.

Trying to demonize one option because you don’t think it’s perfect is just muddying the waters and subjecting us to decades of more of the shit sandwich we have now while we debate which alternative is flawless (hint: none of them are).

I really have been quite surprised over the past eight years or so by how opposed so many people are to any kind of change. I suppose it’s because the status quo is working well enough for them, and, I mean, good for them, but I hope they can recognize that not all of us are so lucky.

I really don’t think it would work at this point, but if I were to pick someone to replace Biden it wouldn’t be Gavin Newsom, it would be Andy Beshear. But that’s just it, this country is so divided we can’t find a consensus candidate.

Float a candidate under 60 and they win riotous support from Democrats and undecideds.

But who would that be? Do you remember the 2020 primaries? They started out with 29 candidates, the most since the modern primaries began back in 1972, and several of them were under 60, including Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kamala Harris. Only Pete Buttigieg won any delegates (29 out of a possible 3,979). The Democrats have had many years to find a younger candidate who could unify the party. No such candidate has emerged, that I’m aware of, and so Biden, at 81 years old and showing signs of rapid cognitive decline, ran essentially unopposed in this year’s primaries.

The Constitution mandates a maximum of two terms for a President. If he wins, he can’t run again.

I know, I didn’t mean to imply that the Democrats would try to run Biden again, only that they might try to run a similarly “weak” candidate in 2028, believing that the American people will vote for the candidate simply because they are Democrat and not Republican. I think that would be a mistake.

Is it really feasible to replace Biden at this point? I didn’t watch the debate last night but from what I’ve heard it was not good for Biden. Nonetheless, I think Biden remains the Democrats’ best option. They’re just going to have to rely on the electorate recognizing that Biden is still the better of the two choices, as pathetic as that reality may be. However, even if that strategy is somehow successful, again, and Biden does manage to get reelected, the Democrats MUST nominate a better candidate in 2028. I don’t think the Democrats can continue with their strategy of just being better than terrible, indefinitely.

Most Americans plan to watch the Biden-Trump debate

Why?

Why did anyone watch this debate? Were you expecting to learn something new? Are you on the fence and hoping this would help you make up your mind? I mean, the Trump people are going to vote for Trump, and the Biden people are going to vote for Biden, regardless, so it seems like a complete waste of time.