Can someone explain US politics to me why there's a media storm asking Biden to step down but not Trump? It feels like a huge double standard to me but honestly I'm not following that closely for the sake of my mental health so it could just be ignorance on my part.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
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No one is suggesting Trump step down because his base idolizes him. Like false prophet kind of shit. It’s scary, if I’m being honest. How can one convince a fanatic that they are wrong?
Pretty fair. The Biden base mostly don't love Biden they just want to back the perceived best bet to beat Trump. When Biden stops being that they want him out.
If the Republican party picked someone other than Trump a significant fraction of voters would still side with him splitting the vote ensuring the Democrats win.
When he went to Miami to be indicted he was disappointed because not a single person showed up. Hard to square with all these supposed super fans. Grateful Dead or Phish had more loyal fans. It really shatters this die hard fan myth he’s got going.
Trump supporters don't care that he's obviously impaired. They LIKE that he's out of his mind.
Trump is not showing his age in quite the same way as Biden. He is performing the way his base expects him to. His base expects him to lie constantly, because they believe those lies. All the things that you, as an outside observer, view as disqualifying are things Republicans are actively seeking out in candidates.
On the other hand, Democratic voters in this country were told all year long that these concerns over Biden's age were overblown, then it all came crashing down in 90 minutes. Democrats expected more. That's why there's this consternation on one side only.
The primary issue is that democrats unfortunately are the party of everyone from the center right to far left, so there is much more infighting. Additionally, they tend to hold those in their own party accountable, whereas the republican party will circle the wagons around just about any clown, regardless of misdeeds.
Besides Biden being the incumbent, Republicans will never ask Trump to step down, no matter what. Dems on the other hand do not think of Biden as their god-emperor and the DNC is now beginning to worry (far too late) if Biden can actually win against Trump.
Notice that many of the stories you see about this refer to the debate but not if Biden can actually win or not. The debate is not what is causing Biden to lose dem votes. Any story that says the debate is the reason for this is probably misleading at best, because I doubt they mention that Trump was lying the entire debate.
Because our media is a bunch of sensationalist assholes run by billionaires and megacorps.
Also those billionaires own the newspapers and media websites.
Exactly
Trump's a fascist demagogue who sees this election as his coronation. He's delusional, and his party and supporters all share in his delusions.
Biden has to appeal to the people still grounded in reality, people who still think critically and expect their leaders to do more than angrily shout slurs. That makes his base a lot less likely to fall in line.
So one reason that everyone is glossing over is that republicans had a legit primary.
Trump is an extremely well known quantity. Republicans had a large variety of options to replace him. These were real candidates; There were multiple senators and governors who would be considered real candidates in a more traditional election. The entire political spectrum that makes up the republican party was represented.
Given all those options, republicans still chose Trump. They 100 percent knew what they were getting into.
On the other hand the Democratic establishment collectively chose to not challenge Biden. There were exactly three choices: Biden, a no name house member, and a woman most famous for trying to stop a hurricane with spirit energy. The extent of Joe Biden's mental and physical decline was also hidden from the public to the point where bringing it up would largely get you attacked for being a MAGA republican.
The end result is that a lot of voters feel blindsided and gaslit when it comes to Biden, while Trump is exactly the asshole he portrays himself as.
I watched the debate with friends. We're all liberals. We were all extremely upset over Biden's performance. However during one of his more lucid moments, he brought up how Trump cheated on his pregnant wife with a pornstar. As he was talking, Trump grinned and shrugged. Even though what he did was objectively awful, the entire room burst out laughing. I feel like the election kind of has that energy.
It's a matter of expectations.
The media (and people generally) expect Republicans to be shitty and grab power whenever, however possible. They expect the Democrats to act like the principled good guys, and do the "right thing".
This is the kind of leadership he needs to show to convince everyone he's still viable, but a letter on it's own is not going to cut it.
I hear he called in on Morning Joe as well, I need to run that down.
Edit Found the clip:
This is more like a tantrum than the kind of leadership to convince me he's viable