tiggymalvern (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiggymalvern) wrote2024-11-06 09:16 pm
tiggymalvern) wrote2024-11-06 09:16 pm
Entry tags:
US politics
It was worse than I thought. I thought Trump would win because of the electoral college, but I was convinced he would lose the popular vote like he did in 2016.
Then we could say, 'Americans didn't want Donald Trump, he won because of an electoral quirk that rigs things in favour of conservatives.' This time we're stuck with no excuses - Americans really did choose a narcissistic, racist misogynistic criminal conman over a competent, qualified woman of colour.
And I am so fucking pissed off with Democratic self-sabotage. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a fantastic woman who spent a lifetime fighting and winning on behalf of women and minorities - and then she destroyed half of her life's work by refusing to retire, by insisting that she would be a Supreme Court Justice for life. That stubbornness on her part led directly to the overturning of Roe and the suffering and deaths of the women she'd spent her career protecting.
Biden should have understood he'd be a one term President. He should have announced that two years into his term. The Dems could have chosen their candidate in the usual way, via primaries. That candidate would not have been Kamala Harris. She was not a popular VP. We can argue all day over why she wasn't popular - whether it was racism, misogyny, her record as a prosecutor. It doesn't matter. Everyone knew she wasn't popular. The Dems would have run a candidate against Trump who stood a better chance of winning. And maybe that candidate would still have lost - maybe the conservative backlash against trans rights and diversity programs would still have given Trump the Presidency. But we can't ever know, because Biden was too stubborn to accept that he was too damn old. He withdrew when it was too late to run anyone except Kamala. And I have nothing against the woman - I like her. But the numbers had made it clear that most people didn't and that made her a bad candidate.
Nobody should be aspiring to be President at 85. Nobody should be serving as a Supreme Court Justice while they're dying of cancer. Learn to fucking retire and do it strategically, and give up your own personal power for the good of your goals and your country. Because right now Dems with all the best intentions seem to be handing the country to Republican extremists on a plate.
Then we could say, 'Americans didn't want Donald Trump, he won because of an electoral quirk that rigs things in favour of conservatives.' This time we're stuck with no excuses - Americans really did choose a narcissistic, racist misogynistic criminal conman over a competent, qualified woman of colour.
And I am so fucking pissed off with Democratic self-sabotage. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a fantastic woman who spent a lifetime fighting and winning on behalf of women and minorities - and then she destroyed half of her life's work by refusing to retire, by insisting that she would be a Supreme Court Justice for life. That stubbornness on her part led directly to the overturning of Roe and the suffering and deaths of the women she'd spent her career protecting.
Biden should have understood he'd be a one term President. He should have announced that two years into his term. The Dems could have chosen their candidate in the usual way, via primaries. That candidate would not have been Kamala Harris. She was not a popular VP. We can argue all day over why she wasn't popular - whether it was racism, misogyny, her record as a prosecutor. It doesn't matter. Everyone knew she wasn't popular. The Dems would have run a candidate against Trump who stood a better chance of winning. And maybe that candidate would still have lost - maybe the conservative backlash against trans rights and diversity programs would still have given Trump the Presidency. But we can't ever know, because Biden was too stubborn to accept that he was too damn old. He withdrew when it was too late to run anyone except Kamala. And I have nothing against the woman - I like her. But the numbers had made it clear that most people didn't and that made her a bad candidate.
Nobody should be aspiring to be President at 85. Nobody should be serving as a Supreme Court Justice while they're dying of cancer. Learn to fucking retire and do it strategically, and give up your own personal power for the good of your goals and your country. Because right now Dems with all the best intentions seem to be handing the country to Republican extremists on a plate.
no subject
I'm sick of elderly people in high level government at this point. No one should be a Senator, President, or Justice when they have severe medical or mental problems. I don't think Joe Biden could have won either, and he does seem to be less with it than he was four years ago. We had the same thing with Dianne Feinstein, who was getting confused during interviews and saying things opposite to what her staff had already released. And look, I don't want to be ageist! The simplest way to solve all these problems (well, maybe not the president one) would be to have term limits for Justices and Senators and House members. That would also solve the problem of representatives just running and staying forever and grabbing up power without actually getting any legislation done. Well, it might not solve it but it would help.
no subject
It would help for Congresspeople, who do seem to start younger, but then there's the progression from Congress to Senate to President. Does the term limit reset at each level? So you can have two terms in each house then President? But two terms of Senate is already 12 years. By the time they get to the top of that ladder, they could still be older than you'd like.
Term limits for Supreme Court justices would be simple, at least. But some kind of cap is clearly well overdue.