abelard
Player Valuation: £35m
In a safe state, maybe not. In a swing state, I would really struggle with it. Perhaps reluctantly.
You probably think this is very petulant and naive of me, but it has nothing to do with Sanders.
I would struggle with it because I think the decision has consequences which go far beyond 2020. The Democratic Party has not thought beyond the next Presidential election in a long time, and this abdication of strategy has been a disaster. Choosing Biden would represent doubling down on all of the short-sightedness and indifference and incompetence and mindless subservience to hack talking points that has brought them here to begin with. Even if he won, very little would change. Virtually none of Trump's legislation would be repealed. The tax cuts will remain, Health care will still be appalling, carbon emissions will continue as usual, inequality will spiral, and the influence of money in politics will worsen. Corruption will remain every bit as rampant as under Trump - and not because of incompetence but by design. Enabling all of this has been Biden's function throughout his career. It will also further demoralise and demotivate an entire generation of young people away from politics. And it might well kill off for good the desperately needed grassroots and state-level organisation that the Party has neglected for a decade, but which is beginning to recover despite the efforts of those in charge to suppress it.
Given that many here seem to take it as a personal insult whenever I criticise the Democrats or their candidates, I suspect there is limited awareness of just how unpopular the Party actually is. The Democrats are disliked not because everyday Americans are brainwashed deplorable chuds clinging to guns and religion, but because most Americans actually have a far better understand of the Party's limitations and failures than its core supporters do.
As dangerous as Trump is, we are actually very lucky in a way, because the fascism that has been latent in America for a long time is a gaping own goal, and Trump is mostly too lazy to kick the ball over the line. The Democrats in their current form would have been utterly powerless to prevent this. I don't think we'll be so lucky the next time. A Biden victory in 2020 would be winning the battle and losing the war. The medium term effects could well be fatal. The Party needs to change dramatically if it is going to survive - but the whole point of someone like Biden is to prevent that from ever happening.
Sadly, given the power of wealthy donors and corporate money over the Party, and the relentless greed, careerism and malice of those who run it, nothing will change so long as those who want better have nowhere else to go. Not turning out is the only way that someone like me (were I American) has being heard.
I don't even dislike Biden personally - I mean, he's outrageously corrupt and has devoted his life to making the country and the planet significantly worse but they're pretty much all like that. I almost feel sorry for him, because he is so clearly out of his depth at this point, and he should really just be retired and resting at home.
Not since 2015, though hopefully they're a bit wiser now
