Some people will be miserable no matter who is running

  • Cagi@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Some people think criticizing is the same thing as not supporting.

    If you want things to get better, you have to honestly and critically examine your leaders, not blindly support them and pretend they are flawless. Shutting down criticism is short-sighted nonsense and will only lead to worse candidates in the future.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      Right. The problem with the current political atmosphere in America is that only one of the two parties is actually self-critical. The other is a cult of personality that can do no wrong. They set the reality from the top, and everyone below falls in line.

      Only one side of the political aisle in the US will ever actually admit they were wrong about something instead of doubling down on it. Only one side will, at this point, admit defeat even.

      In a Real Politik sense, this is a weakness.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Even Fox was calling out the tone after Trump was shot. They acknowledged Trump himself has used language akin to encouraging violence on many occasions, while the worst the left has done is label him a fascist - a mostly accurate term. Yet, people had been praising those violent remarks while calling out democrats, even after discovering the shooter was a devout Republican.

        There is no introspection among them.

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          even after discovering the shooter was a devout Republican.

          Was he? He’d voted in what, one election as a registered Republican and made one tiny donation to ActBlue. I doubt he was a terribly devout anything politically. I suspect once more about him becomes public it’s going to be about fame seeking.rather than a political message. After all his name is going to be in the history books, and would have been there more prominently if he’d landed the shot.

          • Katana314@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            They interviewed his colleagues at school and they were adamant that he was very much on the conservative side.

            • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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              4 months ago

              Then why target Trump? Surely he wrote some kind of something about his goal there? I doubt he thought killing Trump would trigger the meteoric rise of a “true” conservative leader who would mobilize the right under Trump’s martyrdom and that no one would notice his political affiliation in the process.

              • Katana314@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                You can ask him, if you’d like…

                The working theory is that he was part of Project 2025, and felt betrayed (as all of Trump’s former supporters have been) when he disavowed himself of involvement in it (as he pretty much had to since it was terrorism).

                It’s a stupid pattern. Trump claims he supports X with no plan to support X, then when talking to X’s opponents, says he opposes X; then does nothing either way unless it benefits him. Millions of people are only slowly figuring this out.

                • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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                  4 months ago

                  You can ask him, if you’d like…

                  Let me just pull out my Ouija board, though I’ve never been the best with it…

                  The working theory is that he was part of Project 2025, and felt betrayed (as all of Trump’s former supporters have been) when he disavowed himself of involvement in it (as he pretty much had to since it was terrorism).

                  A 20 year old community college student was “part of” Project 2025? In what context do you mean here?

                  Like I said, I suspect the 20 year old community college student that had voted as a Republican in exactly one election and made exactly one small donation to a Democrat PAC was probably not stewed into a murderous rage against the presidential candidate that is the de facto cult leader of the party he was registered as for political reasons.

                  Supposedly his final social media post was a message on Steam reading: “July 13th will be my debut, watch how it goes” That feels much more like chasing notoriety than a political manifesto.

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                4 months ago

                Go ask a psychologist, there are a billion fucking reasons for a human to snap and do irrational shit.

                People don’t even need to snap to be consistently irrational.

    • Qwazpoi@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Exactly. Those in the highest positions of power should damn well have criticism. The argument otherwise seems to imply that accountability and transparency have no place in American politics

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s funny how the tribalism of those demanding unwavering support of The Chief is very much a walk back from the spirit of Democracy (“they represent us”) and into Monarchy (“we owe fealty to them”).

        The less Democratic a country is - and hence the less representative its leaders are - the worse this shit is.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The reality of the situation is the time for that is November 6th and later (or during the primaries or the last 4 years).

      For the months between the primary concluding and the general election concluding, if you support the candidate, then criticism is a distraction that undermines the goal of getting them elected.

      So you are free to criticize of course, but it’s a practical concern to be aware of that you are convincing others to not vote at all or vote against the candidate.

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    We’re electing a president, not a monarch. Nobody is above criticism, and there’s a weird segment of people who act like criticism from the left exists only to help the right.

    Like, I actually saw someone say we shouldn’t do it because it’s too nuanced for the average voter, and sorry but I don’t do paternalism like that. If reading criticism of how a candidate isn’t far enough left makes you vote further right, that’s a basic political literacy problem.

    • Zachariah@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I mean, we could focus on defeating the GOP and the day after the election results come in start using social pressure to guide our elected officials. If the criticism risks the GOP seizing even more power, it might be counterproductive to your goals even if the criticism is valid.

      • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        Any good faith criticism of the Dem candidate should be obvious in its criticisms that R policies are inherently worse. For example, Harris’ record as DA is worth criticizing, but any bad decisions related to imprisoning people is going to be a million times worse under Trump, as Project 2025 shows.

        • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          Any good faith criticism of the Dem candidate should be obvious in its criticisms that R policies are inherently worse.

          Your argument would be great if we didn’t live in the reality presented below. There are too many people sitting on the fence who legitimately cannot discern between a mediocre candidate and a career conman, criminal rapist. Where you see nuance, others see “she’s no better than Trump”.

          Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20240721200927/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/elections/polls-president.html

          I like Harris as much as I like Biden, which is not at all, but the alternative is the very real possibility of the end of America.

          • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            4 months ago

            For my money those charts will look very different after the next debate.

            There’s also not a combination of words that’s going to convince me leftists criticizing Dems are going to kill America. Even if Trump gets elected, you are missing every potential lesson if what you take away is “leftists too mean.”

        • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          Exactly this. On this platform and elsewhere, there is a lot of well-meaning criticism but there are many agents of chaos or narrative pushers that disguise themselves as genuine criticism. I try to interact genuinely and give an opportunity to demonstrate that they are looking for a constructive path forward for the party.

      • Queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        Well, last time we pushed Biden left it was called too soon after election, give them time to form a plan. Form a cabinet, figure out policies.

        Then it was midterms. Questioning the policies for misterm gives Republicans a win. They have to keep these conservative polices set by the last Republican to win over Republican voters.

        Then it’s 2024. Questioning policies is a win for Republicans. They need to win this election, and then we can push them left.

        I’m hoping it ends with a younger nominee.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s a lot easier to criticize the Democratic Party if the GOP is first discarded as useless trash and gets no votes in an election. Then we can decide who among our progressive candidates actually has the best approach forward.

        Yet I keep seeing this thought assumed, that a 100% blue vote would “give them too much unchecked power”. This is the difference: We have a party while the GOP has a person. A bullet 2 inches to the right would have destroyed their whole movement.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Because when all those people do is criticize Democrats, sabotage outreach efforts, and don’t put any time or effort into defeating fascists, then it is very obvious where they stand.

      Like I get it - huffing farts from time to time is great. But you gotta take a break and mix some productive advocacy and outreach if you actually care about Democracy instead of just smelling farts.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Maybe I’m super cynical, but does that really matter on Lemmy and the platforms connected to it?

      Like, who’s reading this comment section that’s actually on the fence about going out and voting for a Harris ticket? It has to be a miniscule fraction.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    4 months ago

    Probably, but misogyny and racism is easier to call out than defending an old man who shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car, let alone a country.

    And Trump is still too damn old, even ignoring the fact that he’s a repugnant human being to boot.

    • zik@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Trump’s very obviously much less mentally competent than Biden. Biden rambled a couple of times. Trump rarely forms a coherent sentence at all.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’ll say that Biden sounds less competent at a glance. Like if you watch and go through his mental process, you understand how the mistake he made happened but you know the substance of what he was trying to say.

        Usually Trump says stuff that, on the surface, sounds like maybe something but if you try to think about it it makes no sense.

  • blazera@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I was a major biden naysayer. Id always love more but this was a huge ask that was answered. Lets kick republican ass

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The positive take would be to start with the “Trump is too old for 4 more years as a President” memes.

    Instead we have these “those who don’t instantly bend the knee are against us” memes that, frankly, have quite the wiff of the typical Far-Right/Foreign Propaganda Op purposefully sowing division on the Left.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      🤖 posting the “Anti-Harris Memes are an Op by the Far Right” 🤝 🤖 posting “Anyone complaining about Anti-Harris memes is an Op by the Far Right”

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Good point: good old Stupidity is also a valid explanation for having a knee-jerk reaction of starting fights with those whose help you need.

    • hatedbad@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 months ago

      from your own link, that’s only because she’s the least bipartisan dem in the senate.

      govtrack’s “left-right ideology” ranking is flawed, it doesn’t look at the content of the bills at all. in govtrack’s own words the ideology ranking “may be measuring something else, perhaps something more closely related to partisan-ness”.

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I don’t know.

    I really dislike Harris. She’s probably the bottom of my pick list for the nominee and a Dem President.

    But it’s not like a gaping sore of a liability the way Biden was.

    I’m excited the conversation can finally shift to “Trump fell asleep during his own convention? Doesn’t he seem tired in his speech?”

    I think it being a woman nominee is an interesting newsworthy discussion point at a time when the other party is actively working to harm women - even if she’s the last of the many other qualified women I’d rather see in the position.

    I don’t like her, I don’t like listening to her nonsensical off the cuff statements, I thought she did very poorly in the 2020 campaign, I am anxious about a law enforcement politician as President in a system with too much Presidential power over the Justice department.

    But in spite of all that, I just don’t care enough to push back strongly on her.

    She’s boring in the neoliberal way we’ve gotten used to, but she’s not addled and she’s not a neo-Nazi, and with an interesting VP pick she’s a ticket I could potentially even be excited about four months from now instead of watching her be put into a nursing home as the October surprise.

    I’d love to see an actual competitive open convention, but barring that I’m just going to accept a turd sandwich that’s palatable, as even that seemed like a stretch a week ago, and I’ll take what I can get.

    • AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social
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      4 months ago

      If you’d like something to be excited about consider how much psychological damage losing an election to a woman of color will do to not just trump, but Bannon and miller.

      I’d love for them to feel their ideology so rejected that they give up and finish drinking themselves to death.

      • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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        4 months ago

        If you’d like something to be excited about consider how much psychological damage losing an election to a woman of color will do to not just trump, but Bannon and miller.

        Hell, there’s a part of my cold, cold heart that will be warmed to know that Hillary Clinton might live to see a woman become POTUS, and that woman will not be a Clinton.

    • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      I don’t like Harris at all. She’s just more status quo. We need big changes. Climate crisis is looming.

      The more salient point though, is that I don’t think she is the candidate to beat Trump. She just isn’t very likable. She’s not inspiring anyone.

      We need someone with some juice to beat Trump. We need a candidate that gets people excited.

      • kromem@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        She doesn’t need to be inspiring. She just needs to not be half dead.

        I think people are underestimating just how weak of a candidate Trump has become.

        It just wasn’t really able to be capitalized on because we were doing a whole “the emperor has clothes” thing on the left so the left media couldn’t point out Trump running around naked.

        He’s old and tired. And there’s now 4 months to show him as not only a fascist, but a half dead one that’s meandering and weak.

        He was only able to cosplay as a strongman when his opponent was literally presenting with Parkinson’s. Against a younger person the narrative immediately becomes “old man yells at clouds” and his BS can be rebranded as ‘confused.’

      • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m firmly of the opinion that no positive change will happen in time unless it’s at the point of a sword.

        And I’m still backing Harris. The Democratics would never permit a progressive to run, but at least this way we have a chance at 8 years before fascism wins. With Biden, we would have been lucky to get 4.

        And who knows, maybe she’ll pick a progressive VP to maintain the appearance of being for the working class!

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I agree. But there’s not enough time to get momentum on any of the other front runners. She has the biggest name without a lot of negativity from Right propaganda (Newsom).

        She’s our candidate. Any kind of run off is going to waste time and probably fragment the party. I’ll vote for Harris. Not as happily as I would even the old and faltering Biden that dropped out. But I’ll fall in line and vote for her, and promote her to others.

        Because it’s our best chance.

  • Cowbob12@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    This whole debate among the American left just feels to me as a big sign of “letting perfect be the enemy of good”

  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    I’m sure the Russians already have their list of alliterative agitprop ready to test on .ml before pushing the best ones to prod on Reddit and Facebook.

  • fantasyocean@lemmy.myserv.one
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    4 months ago

    And I will remain blind to them. America is about to live in the context of the Coconut Lady. (I will support whoever gets the nomination at the end of the DNC.)

    • InternetUser2012@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      I would support a steaming pile of Biden’s dogs shit over that old as fuck racist rapist with 34 felonies. VOTE

      • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        What policies will this shit provide for the everyday American?

        Its not a convicted felon and has taken 0 human rights away. Vote for the cleanest shit!

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        This attitude almost got Biden nominated, which would have guaranteed a Trump presidency.

        You have to force Democrats to be good enough to actually win.

  • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    What will the tankies use to justify not voting now?

    Probably her prosecution of Marijuana possession.

      • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s like politicians aren’t allowed to evolve on thier policies over time …

        • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          I doubt Biden wasn’t going to stop Israel from annexing Palestine, either. Remember his “red line” they blew past? They’re basically equal on genocide, except for some words by Biden. With Kamala, I’m not sure yet, so she’s got that going for her.

          • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            She came out early in favor of a ceasefire. As VP, she is complicit, but she’s ultimately powerless to change it. As a result I don’t hold her responsible. I doubt that there will be much publically said, as Biden will be president until January 20th at Noon, but given her being a former prosecutor, she clearly respects the law. And I am going to assume international law, she’s a strong woman, and I feel that she’s not going to cowtow to Israel, in my opinion.

            Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner has openly called for the opening of the Palestinian beaches and then a construction of a Trump Tower. You can call that equal if you want. Biden has been at least slowing offensive aid packages, Netanyahu is very upset and has been openly condemning it as Biden being pro Hamas. Imagine Biden, famed Zionist, being pro Hamas.

            https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2024-06-27/ty-article/a-dizzying-pace-then-a-drop-how-u-s-arms-shipments-to-israel-slowed-down/00000190-59b6-dc65-abff-79bff9b10000

          • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Additionally, we know Trump’s position of the illegal settlements during Trump’s last administration.

            Look into Pompeo Doctrine. It’s the throwing out of the long-standing position that settlements are inconsistent with international law.

            If you are seriously still considering Biden and Trump equal on this after I have given you verification and the actual truth, then you aren’t worthy of further discussion and you aren’t arguing in good faith, either you are a Tankie or a Russian Troll or a bot.

            https://www.axios.com/2024/02/23/israel-settlements-blinken-pompeo-trump-illegal

            ссыкло

            • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              Biden doesn’t care about the illegal settlements either. He says he does, but he hasn’t done anything to change the fact that they’re increasing, nor the facts on the ground in terms of settler violence. He put out a few sanctions on like 4 guys, ignoring all the others, and sanctioned one military unit, which is still getting money because of the billions of dollars we give the rest of their government. They need to sanction the whole government like they do Russia for Ukraine, or at least high up government officials or business leaders. Otherwise, it’s just for show, like shouting ACAB while arresting one bad cop, and then giving the rest of the corrupt department money, military vehicles, and promotions.

              Rhetorically, they say different things, sure, but in terms of how things affect Palestinians, they’re basically the same. Biden just wrings his hands and shakes his head more before giving Israel the weapons and money, while Trump high fives them. Either way the genocide progresses at the same rate. They can’t bomb them any faster without ruining the rest of the international cover they have, or ruining the land they want to take with nuclear radiation.

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I wonder if all those rampant anti Biden astroturfers are going to create new accounts to dump on Harris, or if they’ll just continue on.

  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    I mean, there are valid reasons to be anti-Harris, she’s still a right-winger. Leftists aren’t going to be happy voting for any right-winger by default.

    Harris could take a firm anti-genocide stance, or promise something big and popular like Medicare for All, which would see increased voter turnout from the Left. However, given her track record, I doubt she would pivot in this direction, instead focusing on being a younger and healthier Joe Biden, essentially. That should make liberals more likely to turn out, so still a net-gain for the Dems.

    It’s really too early to tell.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Yes, then dropped out before the Primaries. This was during a time when there were other candidates like Bernie and Warren pushing hard for it. We will see if she takes this back up, or tries to maintain a “younger Biden” approach.

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      Harris called for a ceasefire in Gaza in March. She co-sponsored Bernie’s Medicare for All bill. She spent most of her VP term focusing on abortion rights. She pushed for Marijuana rescheduling, which is still ongoing. She checks all the boxes for me.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        We will have to see where she moves her campaign. America in 2024 is not America in 2020, where progressive policies were salient. Now, the bar has been lowered to “no genocide,” yet genocide is still a popular DNC position, despite the wishes of the electorate.

        Kamala may try to run her campaign on big hope and promises, ie progressive policies and toning down the warhawkish Biden foreign policy, but given the right-wing trajectory of the DNC she may try to focus on garnering establishment support now that she has essentially been handed the nomination.

        Only time will tell.

  • AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Thus far I’ve only seen memes over people salty about Biden making the right decision talking about rhetoric switching to Kamala. In fact I’ve seen several now.

    It’s like you want something to push back against so bad you need to make it!

    Edit:

    Yeah I was wrong… Jimmydoreisalefty is spamming anti Kamala memes right when Russia starts their 9-5 shifts like it’s his job… Oh wait