Updated: 1/19/2024 Update 2/12/24 Updated re RFK JR 3 31 24
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4564375-democrats-rfk-jr-biden-trump-2024/.
Student Loan Forgiveness: Biden Approves Another Nearly $5 Billion In Debt Relief For 74,000 Borrowers (forbes.com)
Excellent analysis where third parties have influenced election outcomes and coult in 2024. https://thehill.com/opinion/4308326-matthews-how-a-third-party-candidate-could-create-political-chaos/
Reposted Nov. 26, 2023 As Biden is showing weakness from younger voters, getting a message to them becomes ever harder. Update from prior posting.: 11/24-26/23 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-bidens-standing-hits-new-lows-israel-hamas-war-rcna125251How to communicate with young voters who get their news from social media like Chinese related TikTok, instead of even cable and broadcast means that communicators need to meet them where they are. The message should be clear: ID their issues and point out how the GOP would fail them and how Democrats would and have tried to help. The other fear is that out of a " plague on both your houses", younger voters would vote for some third-party candidate. It Isn’t Just TikTok: Americans Like Other Chinese-Owned Apps Too | Wilson Center
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/no-labels-exposed-heres-a-list-of-donors-funding-its-effort-to-disrupt-the-2024-race/?fbclid=IwAR2i9xlb8z3TDNW_Fpi8OM5mpgCBsoLczPbhqI73S4H8uOEuCwrxwlYMyZ0
Two can play that game regarding messaging, but Democrats should get their game face on. and then flood Gen Z's preferred social media platforms with messages refuting the negative messages they are hearing. I wonder if there is any effort on the part of the DNC or Biden campaign organizations to do that. The messaging should not be difficult for Biden forces to construct: If Gen Z is concerned about student loans, gun violence, social justice, choice, gender issues, climate range, the GOP and the Trumpsters have a terrible record. If freedom to vent and voice their protests, Trump actually wants to put out of business media that does not support him and if there are demonstrations, he wants to use the active military to put demonstrations down, invoking the insurrection act on day one.
(Update: 1 14 2024: Dave Williams, Colorado GOP Chair and now candidate for the House seat in Colorado vacated by Rep. Lamborn, made national news with a campaign slogan running earlier for Lamborn's seat (and lost) that he incorporated in his name as "Dave Lets go Brandon Williams" which was disallowed by the Colorado Supreme Court. The "Let's go, Brandon" slogan was standing for F...K Joe Biden. In response, the Biden campaign (per MNBC, Jen Psaki, says the counter meme of "Dark Brandon" is gaining traction with the TikTok generation. https://www.tiktok.com/channel/dark-brandon-meme?lang=en) That is indeed fighting fire with fire. Laser eye, aviator glasses Biden strikes back.
While it was not immediately obvious, Biden put pressure on Israel to agree to the hostage exchange, [paise fighting to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, called for a two-state solution (consistently and firmly even before Netanyahu was in power), and even per some independent media reports, opposed the IDF extending military action to southern Gaza.
Remarks by President Biden on the Release of Hostages from Gaza | The White House He had been listening all along and attempting to free hostages and get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Biden faces a warning sign from younger voters critical to his coalition | CNN Politics
Poll: Biden’s standing hits new lows amid Israel-Hamas war (nbcnews.com)
US Warns Israel AheaBidd of Next Phase of War in Gaza (newsweek.com) Biden is listening.
So I wrote a rap (the lyrics at least)...with apologies to Ari Melber, who honors Tne Beat. The implied message is to those who might be Biden voters but who throw their vote away to a third party, or minor candidate on the basis of being pure at heart, on certain issues, protesting, or just being contrary or going along with peers.. a vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for Trump. Don't be stupid and elect him. He will not fix your student loans;, he will not keep politicians out of your bedroom and your health care choices; in fact, if you get angry, he'll just sick the active US army on your demonstrations. Before long, we would look like every other country, Russia, China, and Hong Kong, run by an authoritarian or a dictator. I may have had fun writing it, but the message is just darn serious. None of these candidates who are not part of the political party two party majors have a chance to be in the White House because the system, the electoral college, winner-take-all all state by state requires a large number of states to even show a blip in the electoral college. Where the damage is in a swing state in a close election, votes against Biden could swing a state or two to Trump since Biden's votes would be split among two or more while Trump's vote remains steady. Then in a close electoral count, as is predicted, in 2024, one or two states could make the difference one way or the other. It has happened within the past 23 years. Imagine if Nader in Florida had not taken votes from environmentalist Al Gore. Gore's loss set the environmental movement back years.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-nader-cost-gore-an-election/2015/ Hillary ran into another buzz saw in Jill Stein. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had won that election instead of Trump. Jill Stein's Ties to Vladimir Putin Explained (newsweek.com)
Update: 11/20/2023 Whether the plight of the Palestinians will be an issue a year from now is unknown. The obvious unconcern for their safety by the IDF has hit a sympathetic vibe among younger voters. However, much depends upon the progress made in the two-state solution and Biden's support of that for years and if he can engineer that, as well as to credit for his wisdom and skills. Also, the participation by neo-Nazis in pro-Palestinian demonstrations should be a red flag to university students that are supposedly educated about history. They are being played by some ugly forces. In short, much can happen between now and November 2024. Neo-Nazis and the Far-Right Are Trying to Hijack Pro-Palestine Protests (vice.com) Trump has also called to ban Gaza refugees from immigrating to the US and well as his history of stoking Islamaphobia. That is the contrast that Biden can make. Opinion | A short history of President Trump’s anti-Muslim bigotry - The Washington Post
Here is what is disturbing: Trump's party is full of White Christian nationalists, anti-semites, and eeo Nazis.. It comes with the package of racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim, and Trump just announced he plans to instate a Muslim ban." Undocumented immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country", he recently opined. Hispanics take note. That one is straight out of the neo-Nazi playbook. He also promises to put undocumented immigrants in concentration-like camps while at the same time, using the FBI and DOJ to get revenge on those who oppose him after he replaces them with loyalists to him, not to the rule of law, or the Constitution, which he plans to rewrite. Want to vent your ire at Trump's policies? His most recent comment should put a chill up your backs: He wants to use the active military to put down protests against him. He tried that in Lafayette Square in the Black Lives Matter unrest, but Gen. Mark Milley revolted and refused to let him use active military for a domestic political purpose. Trump has called Milley a traitor and called for him to be executed and he would appoint a yes person to the Joint Chief chair.,
From my December 16 posting: A word to those on the left from one who is hardly viewed as right-wing on civil rights and domestic issues. This initiative from the extremists on the right has nothing to do with the immorality of war; it is a political strategy to give them more power and an anti-democratic ideology. Playing their game of Putin love/isolationist/ appeasement will only lead to the possibility of getting ourselves involved in a hotter, wider war, not with a proxy like Ukraine, but actively ourselves. If we reduce our defense budget by the 10% Ukraine is costing us, do you really think the savings will be applied to domestic social programs instead of reducing taxes on the rich? Do not be played. The reason we are in this position now is because of a power-mad hyper-nationalist Putin, determined to recreate an empire they lost in ending the Cold War. Putin’s plan for a new Russian Empire includes both Ukraine and Belarus - Atlantic Council
Trump called his political opponents 'vermin' echoing language used by Hitler : NPR
Trump's anti-immigrant comments draw rebuke | CNN Politics
Trump Threatens Wide Use of Military Force Against Protesters (voanews.com)
Trump Suggests That Mark Milley Deserves Execution - The Atlantic
My rap on a third party theme follows
Listen my
children and you will hear
my fervent fear
to what you adhere
of hopes you are given more choices not just
of only two candidates who now do appear.
You long for some
younger, more genders, you say
so vote for
Jill Stein or others in play.
Your hope is
eternal, with goals aimed to save
us from greed and an earth
that is near its last day..
If that’s what you
think, consider this thought:
A vote for third
parties will leave you distraught.
Instead, they might cause Trump to win a key state
and make what you
hoped instead what you hate.
"Too moral to vote ",is your foolish boast?
So at home you stay, making Biden toast.
As students of
history, you should be aware
that third
party spoilers like Nader and Stein
caused Clinton
and Gore, to lose by a hair,
and
handing the White House to antagonists’ care..
MAGAS and
Trump care not for more Green.
His party thinks
debts that you think are obscene.
you owe them. You signed them. The law stands above.
Your choice of
your health care or whoever you love
are no longer
the freedoms you once thought supreme.
Your urge to protest when Trump is the head, ,
as dictator Trump , had already said,
“his” army he orders will stop you instead.
because by that
time democracy is dead.
