broccoli rob: and that’s before getting to all the “available means” against fascism that all the Democrats have been elected the past few cycles have refused to use. there’s people who haven’t been fighting the good fight here, but it’s not the base.

sorry but this is just wrong. yes, there’s a bad faith media feeding frenzy. but *fifty million* people watched Biden sputter his way through that debate. it is not a creation of the media, it is a real problem.

I don’t like to embrace doomerism but I’m pretty sure the moment we took on this narrative as a true “concern” Biden needed to disprove, especially party leadership, we were fucked.

I don't think "we" took on anything. We're getting hammered by "questions" about Biden's viability as a candidate by every media outlet because they want to scuttle his campaign. That they're using a spoonful of truth to do it makes it extremely effective but they could just as easily do it to Trump

they absolutely could not just as easily do it to Trump

Because his support is more hardened and his base and party would rally behind him, right?

because his base is more ideologically heterodox and he has positioned himself as an opponent of the mainstream media for a decade

No part of it is that the media attacks wouldn’t find traction or people willing to embrace them from Trump’s own side?

what I’m saying is that the reaction by Trump’s base to media attacks is the output of ideological and demographic factors that you can’t just replicate on the left

But it is a difference in the reaction of the base (I assume you include party officials in that) which makes the difference?

Trump’s base expects that he will rubber-stamp whatever policy that hurts the people they hate that crosses his desk, and he’s proven capable of that. Biden’s base expects a competent political leader, and he can’t even competently remember where he is after the sun goes down.

Which under normal circumstances is a laudable attribute and why I’m on the side I am. In the face of fascism if we’re not fighting it by any available means including “being less principled” we’re not doing our job.

ok but given the choice between “change the minds of millions of your own voters to get them to set their principles aside” and “change your party’s nominee”, which is the more reasonable task?

and that’s before getting to all the “available means” against fascism that all the Democrats have been elected the past few cycles have refused to use. there’s people who haven’t been fighting the good fight here, but it’s not the base.

I do not care who fucked up last year. I don’t care what other people did or didn’t do in this fight. Is Trump an existential threat who must be stopped? Good let’s stop making it less likely through internecine knife fights. If you don’t think he is? I’m glad you have that luxury I guess.

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