Before I forget: Pete Buttigieg. Or maybe now would be a really good time to bring forth AOC? Yeah so they don’t like it, but they may like life under Trump even worse, so… anyway it’s a thought? Or get creative, fucking put in Liz Cheney or fucking Mitt fucking Romney 🤮, rather than Trump. In any case, the article brought up some really great points, I thought, namely that Harris is the only one who legally would be able to access the giant war chest that was prepared for the incumbent, plus she would become the incumbent if he were to step down, allowing the entire world to assess her capabilities to govern the USA prior to voting. I get that she is nobody’s first thought to actually run on her own, but this scenario put forth is more than a little different, for a variety of reasons.

Understand that these pieces cause real damage to his chances if he isn’t replaced, so you’d best have even 1 person in mind.

I’m sorry, but I really do not understand this. We agree so much, so I am going to go out on a limb and let myself be vulnerable here, and push to ask for clarification. Maybe you are sea-lioning me, but okay I’ll give it a genuine chance. Preemptively I need to say that I may be insensitive in my wording at times too - these are highly emotional matters and my zeal for truth can be a bit much for some. So here goes: it sounds like you are saying that we need to all collectively (a) lie and (b) actively cover up the truth, so that we say that we cannot see what we see with our very own eyes, for the sake of winning? Don’t get me wrong, sometimes that’s mandatory I suppose - the Anne Frank scenario - but what I mean here is not whether it’s okay or not, but whether that thinking applies here.

Young people especially have seen the debate already, or clips of it (see e.g. this one) - the cat is out of that bag already? By openly acknowledging and actually dealing with the situation, we might stand a chance. Otherwise, just like vs. Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump will win, yet again, and with the stakes far higher this time? This is also a little bit reminiscent of RBG’s situation: she had the opportunity to step down, but chose not to? Well, perhaps that’s not such a good comparison after all. Anyway, hypothetically, if Biden is not okay, then he “needs” to step down… right - what is wrong with that logical formulation, let’s say that we presume that the first part is a given?

And if Biden is okay, well then, the best time to have proved that was during the debate (if he gets tired easily, maybe don’t fly around the world right before it? except supposedly that was literally weeks prior and he did have lots of time to rest?!), but the second best time is right the fucking now, is it not?! Hold a press conference and stand up for 3 hours straight making cogent points the entire time - PROVE to us all that he’s not sliding into dementia, but that it really, truly, honestly, genuinely was merely a bad day? We all have those after all, that part is true… the real concern is whether that is merely an excuse to cover up for the reality that that was not the case?

i.e., if your argument is that we’re going to pretend to vote for Biden, while in reality we are actually voting for Harris, then what is the harm in bringing her forth now, letting everyone see how capable she would be, and thus assuaging people’s fears? Otherwise it’s just more lies, more bullshit, and thereby more people - especially the youth and the halfway independents (including a handful of conservatives who will jump at the chance to vote for almost anyone other than Biden, but they would prefer not-Trump, though they also would hesitate to pick Harris, or Biden at his current age) - that will not turn up at the polls. Then watch as we all blame them for not voting, and collectively forgetting that we had the opportunity to try to earn their votes, but chose not to. People can downvote me and talk back here that I am not screaming “blue no matter who” loudly enough for their tastes… but our Fedi echo-chamber cannot force those people to vote how “we” may want? So it comes down to: at what point would we rather have Hillary Biden lose, than to see Trump Trump win?

Well, that’s one interpretation anyway, that the article explores in much greater depth than I am capable of covering personally. It’s not like I can do anything about any of this personally, I just thought it was interesting is all.

So it’s a bad idea because it’s a bad idea. Got it.

Personally, I think it’s the only way to have any real chance for positive change on Capitol Hill. Nobody’s really voting for Biden; they’re voting against Trump. Give the disenfranchised masses a candidate they don’t hate, one who takes a clear stance against genocide, is under 70, and is mentally able, and the many, many voters who threw up their hands in a chorus of “why bother?” will suddenly have a reason to care again. All Trump’s rhetoric about how old and dementia-ridden his opponent is would suddenly get thrown back in his face.