This year they literally canceled the presidential primary in several states so, no, we don’t have a primary every four years.

Radical consolidation of the media industry has largely killed independent journalism. There is a long list of media personalities who were taken off the air for daring to speak the truth. Anchors are selected to represent the establishment perspective on everything. Media ownership and the establishment work together to dominate the narrative. For profit or non-profit is irrelevant. PBS is now as captured as the private networks.

New media caught the establishment by surprise and did manage to make inroads, but that has largely been brought under control. Democrats and Republicans cooperated long enough to pressure social media companies to tweak the algorithm to direct viewers to “trustworthy” news sources, a group that laughably includes FOX News and MS-NBC and excludes independent news providers.

Electing Biden can’t preserve democracy where none exists. There was that study out of Stanford that showed zero statistical correlation between the policy desires of voters and what legislation gets passed. We have the facade of democracy, but no actual democracy.

What we do have is the fight for Democracy, and that fight has a much better chance under Biden than Trump. That’s not a minor distinction. I will not get behind allowing the Democratic establishment to portray itself as the defender of Democracy. They are democracy’s enemies, and they are my enemies. The entire fight for democracy in an age of media manipulation is a fight to pull back that curtain. That fight doesn’t stop because of Trump.

Well, at least in the states where they didn’t succeed in keeping everyone else off the ballot.

There was no real primary. Even 2020 wasn’t a real primary. The fix is in with mainstream media and the major outlets taking their queues from the establishment.

The idea that we have an actual democracy is laughable, and the Democratic party does everything in their power to keep it that way. Biden won in 2020 because the establishment picked him and the media did as they were told. There is no democracy without an independent press.

Biden is a better choice than Trump for a multitude of reasons, but not saving democracy.

Then let’s hold a primary.

We can still get back to democracy. This isn’t democracy. Did you even read my comment btw? This knee jerk canned response isn’t even human.

the only one who decides if he continues is Biden.

Got it.

Biden is who we need to vote for to keep our democracy.

Um, what? Vote Biden to save Democracy, and fuck you if you want a different candidate.

I’ll vote for Biden’s corpse in 2028 if it’s still the only way to keep Trump out of the Whitehouse, but give up the “save Democracy” schtick. That ship has sailed. Democracy is dead, and it’s not just the Republican’s fault.

The term “court packing” has a very specific meaning. It refers to adding seats to the supreme court to shift the balance.

Why not both?

It’s hardly unthinkable. Half the party has been thinking it, now the other half is waking up.

I like the part of the election cycle when some good things are allowed to happen.

I don’t even blame Biden for waiting. Americans have such short memories that getting elected means having to hold some things in reserve, and getting reelected or passing the office on are genuinely important factors. It just sucks that people had to wait.

Congrats to everyone helped by this!

Dems also changed their minds one actually supporting the incumbents here.

This has never been a standard they apply to progressives.

With Hillary weighing in on the side of AIPAC to endorse the challenger, I’d say that the establishment is pretty comfortable taking AIPAC’s money.

Not everyone was a D, at least not the voters. There was a massive push to reregister a lot of Republicans and Independents as Democrats.

I am so damn tired of the bad guys winning. Voters in this country are ignorant as fuck so money beats all.

Of course they will go right on supporting them too.

Sarah Palin was really a trend setter for congesional Republican women.

Republicans are working on it in the US.

There would have to be some kind of currently unforseen breakthroughs before something like that would be even remotely possible. In all likelihood, quantum computing would stay in specialized data centers. For the problems quantum would solve, there is really no advantage to having it local anyways.

I remember them saying all the same exact things in the early 2000s after a slew of widespread disasters. Security will never be a higher priority than whatever cool new thing they want to sell.

Applicability of the 2nd amendment is highly selective. All it took for Reagan to push through gun control in California was the Black Panthers arming themselves.

It’s not about the money, it’s about the power it gives them over everyone else. There is no appreciable difference between the life of someone with a billion dollars and someone with ten billion. However, making entire nations bend to their will and give them even more money is a pleasure of it’s own. It makes their tiny little peckers stand up just a little bit straighter.