• jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    8 months ago

    Because nobody tells someone at that power level what to do.

    They can choose, on their own, not to run like Johnson did in 1968. But no outside influence can or should tell a President they can’t run.

    • livus@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      I thought the whole point of having a democracy was people got to choose their leaders.

      If you’re saying leaders become too powerful to reject, that’s troubling.

      • FanciestPants@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The people had the opportunity to choose during the primary whether they wanted to vote for someone else who holds mostly similar views (e.g. the same political party) to their own, or the person currently doing the job. There weren’t a lot of people from the same political party that offered themselves up as challengers to the person currently doing the job, for a variety of reasons. Our system heavily favors the person currently doing the job in our primary elections, but challenges have been made before, just not this time.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        8 months ago

        You get to choose, between the Republican nominee and the Democratic nominee.

        If you vote Libertarian, you are helping Biden by taking away a Trump vote.

        If you vote Green, you are helping Trump by taking away a Biden vote.

        • livus@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          To clarify, the above wasn’t some kind of rhetorical question. I’m not American and am not asking for voting guidance.

          You seemed to be saying that once a politician gets to a position of power, voters are no longer allowed to try to influence their decisions around whether to run, be the nominee etc.

          That seems problematic to me, and against the basic principles of democracy, so I’m querying it.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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            8 months ago

            Incumbent politicians have multiple advantages, but if you don’t want them then the choice is to vote for their opponent or not vote, which really is the same thing.

            • livus@kbin.social
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              8 months ago

              That seems really anti-democracy. If an incumbent performs poorly or breaks promises there should be mechanisms for people to ask to select another candidate to represent them.

              • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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                8 months ago

                There is, it’s called “voting”. But you aren’t just going to remove someone as a candidate because you don’t like them, that’s undemocratic.

                • livus@kbin.social
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                  8 months ago

                  But didn’t you just say they can’t vote for non-Biden democrats?

                  I feel like either I completely misunderstood your initial comment about Presidents having so much power, or else you’re misunderstanding what I’m asking.

                  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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                    8 months ago

                    They can, it’s pointless, but they can. Nobody is going to sufficiently challenge the de facto leader of the party.

                    See all the primaries so far, on both sides.

    • Minotaur@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      If you think no one tells Joe Biden what he should be doing on the daily you might be more demented than he is.

        • Minotaur@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Well… they also do that.

          Also, even taking that statement as literal - is that supposed to be a good thing? “Despite his staff and advisors urging him to not run again, in a bid for power he is again!”

          • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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            8 months ago

            How is it that there are all these people who have nothing to do with political office in their daily lives who know all the personal conversations and thoughts of the inner circles of the presidency?

            • Minotaur@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              Are you unaware of the extremely basic fact that essentially every president in US history has relied incredibly strongly on a wide team of advisors and cabinet members.

              They teach you that in middle school civics. Did you think the presidency was like in a movie where it’s just one guy who decides to do everything he does? Do you think Biden sits there with a calculator running the numbers??

              • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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                8 months ago

                Certain flanks of the party saying he shouldn’t but not putting up anyone who should is hardly a consensus, plus to assume it’s ‘a bid for power’, like some kind of movie super villain here, totally not like something someone who would try and prevent congressional certification of the election would do.

                I do tire of these threads, ‘Trump is evil incarnate and must be stopped by… scattering votes for the only viably running candidate all over the map?’.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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            8 months ago

            It’s not “in a bid for power”, it’s to block Trump. If Trump weren’t running Biden would likely dust off his hands, go “My work here is done!” and quietly retire at the end of his term.

            https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-not-sure-he-would-seek-re-election-if-trump-was-not-2023-12-05/

            If something happened to take Trump out of the race, especially between now and the conventions in July and August, I think Biden would bow out, but he won’t as long as Trump is around.