Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ā€˜uncommittedā€™ in Michiganā€™s primary on Tuesday

Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.

ā€œItā€™s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote thatā€™s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,ā€ she said on Sunday during an interview on CNNā€™s State of the Union. ā€œA second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.ā€

Whitmer, who is a co-chair of Bidenā€™s 2024 campaign, also said she wasnā€™t sure what to expect when it came to the protest vote.

Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who is the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress, urged Democrats last week to vote ā€œuncommittedā€ in Michiganā€™s 27 February primary.

  • whoelectroplateuntil@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Right, exactly. Sure, the Dems have a bunch of formal structure, and yes, you can participate in it, and if you persuade the decision makers inside the party (who are industry tools more often than not), then yes, you can have an influence. But if you want to challenge them on something genuinely democratic, like calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, which 76% of the Democratic base is in support of, then all of a sudden the elitist liberalism comes out and we all have to get in line behind our august statespeople, who know infinitely better than us measly citizensā€¦

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Itā€™s what Bernie has been saying for decades.

      The first step is replacing neoliberals with progressives. We canā€™t fix anything while theyā€™re in power, because theyā€™re the problem

      Which is why the DNC fights harder against progressives than republicans. Losing to republicans just isnā€™t a big deal to them, they know in 4-8 years theyā€™ll be in power again, and theyā€™ll be a shit ton of donations to Dems because of it.

      If they lose to progressivesā€¦

      That could be the end of the gravy train forever.

      The more people understand that, the sooner it happens.

      Thatā€™s why the neoliberals demand absolutely loyalty to Biden.

      • whoelectroplateuntil@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        The DNC has the state infrastructure and most federal and state-level campaigns tied so deeply into their infrastructure thereā€™s no real hope of replacing them.

        Local politics are a tiny bit more open-ended, but again, the stakes are lower and local governments are explicity subordinate to states. Cities and counties canā€™t do much if the state doesnā€™t like it.

        I have no idea how you fix this situation up, but as I see it, whatever the solution is has to look like making the DNC and its infrastructure obsolete. I donā€™t see this happening inside the Democratic Party.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The DNC has the state infrastructure

          ā€¦

          The DNC is not the state partiesā€¦

          The state parties exist independent of the DNC, but due to how funding is supposed to trickle down, the state parties do kind of have to listen to them.

          And while the state parties are in charge of their primary votes, the DNC can choose to ignore them.

          Which is what happened when NH Dems refused to break NH state law so that Biden wouldnā€™t have to lose the first primary after NH picked progressive over party favorite in 2016 and 2020.

          Itā€™s confusing, but please try to learn more about our poltical system.

          Iā€™m noticing lots of Bidens supporters are incredibly opinionated, they just donā€™t know what theyā€™re talking about about. When they do, they finally start understanding how fucked up we are and that if we dont act soon itā€™s too late.

          Itā€™s hard enough when one party is antidemocratic, if both areā€¦

          • whoelectroplateuntil@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            The DNC is not the state partiesā€¦

            The state parties exist independent of the DNC, but due to how funding is supposed to trickle down, the state parties do kind of have to listen to them.

            Right, theyā€™re formally separate, I know. The DNC intentionally uses their version of the power of the purse to control state parties. Like you said. They donā€™t need perfect control as long as they can starve any campaign they donā€™t like of funding.