President Biden on Friday delivered a ferocious condemnation of Donald J. Trump, his likely 2024 opponent, warning in searing language that the former president had directed an insurrection and would aim to undo the nation’s bedrock democracy if he returned to power.

On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Mr. Trump’s supporters, Mr. Biden framed the coming election as a choice between a candidate devoted to upholding America’s centuries-old ideals and a chaos agent willing to discard them for his personal benefit.

“There’s no confusion about who Trump is or what he intends to do,” Mr. Biden warned in a speech at a community college not far from Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, where George Washington commanded troops during the Revolutionary War. Exhorting supporters to prepare to vote this fall, he said: “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question is: Who are we?”

In an intensely personal address that at one point nearly led Mr. Biden to curse Mr. Trump by name, the president compared his rival to foreign autocrats who rule by fiat and lies. He said Mr. Trump had failed the basic test of American leaders, to trust the people to choose their elected officials and abide by their decisions.

“We must be clear,” Mr. Biden said. “Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”

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  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The “Saving Democracy” messaging is not going to reach people at all. Also, not being Trump is not good enough also. This is going to be rough if Democracy rests on the shoulders of the current leader enabling genocide.

    • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Not being Trump is the best you’re going to get. I guess you’ll just have to choose if the guy you vote for to destroy Palestine also plans to destroy the USA.

      • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        People should just brace for the worst outcome. Biden losing to someone saying “Day 1 Dictator” is pretty crazy but extremely possible. Trump is good at framing things being better under his run, and people care about their material needs being met.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Trump is good at framing things being better under his run, and people care about their material needs being met.

          Too bad those same people can’t see how severely they’re being lied to by Trump.

    • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I detest loudly what is happening to the Palestinians. But people like you are willing to let their own nation fall into fascism for people half a world away. Letting Trump win will absolutely not help the Palestinians, and in fact could make things worse as a Trump-led administration tells the IDF, “Hey, need any help slaughtering civilians?”

      • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This nation has fallen into fascism way before Trump. This nation is built on it. Arms dealer nation full of psychopaths who enabled the lesser of two evils until they got two choices of genocide on the ballot. It isn’t harm reduction for the people who are already dead. Better put that energy into getting Biden to stop losing to a man calling himself a dictator.

        • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So just let the world burn? Take the Black Pill and succumb to the end of the world? The end of all we know? The end of us? Coward. Raise your head and scream out against oblivion, cry out in defiance of fate. Where’s your rage, your anger? You choose to go silently into that cold dark night, I however will go down kicking and screaming.

        • Prophet@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’ve been having the same thoughts. I think liberals, especially white liberals, are scared of a Trump presidency because, for once, the fallout might come down on them. They don’t have to be scared of a Biden presidency, because their lives can continue on as they have been. So then they attack you for saying that the US is already a fascist state, even though it already is for anyone who isn’t white and straight.

          • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You get it. Most of the saving of democracy comes down to being comfortability and not actual democracy or even fixing systematic issues. The saving democracy has terms and conditions anyway depending on who you are. My black experience isn’t the same as theirs. I could vote for Biden and he still would increase police funding like he did last time.

          • Anomaline@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Uhh

            Please do not invoke my rights as an excuse to let Trump take away more of my rights. What the fuck.

            • Prophet@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              This comment is so shitty and condescending and completely devoid of intelligence. It reads the same as “Please do not invoke my white privilege as an excuse to let Trump take away my white privilege.” Liberals love to act like they care about issues but comments like these come off so self-centered. I don’t live in some fantasy world where a second Trump presidency is better than a second Biden presidency, but liberals are so adamant that it has to be Biden. Why aren’t liberals outraged that the DNC is forcing an unpopular candidate down our throats again? The most common response I see is “it’s complicated” but it’s not fucking complicated in the slightest, liberals just want to be comfortable and they’ll gladly roll over and take it from anyone who promises them to at least use lube. Yes I’m talking about you.

      • mrnotoriousman@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Lemmy doesn’t care about Ukraine anymore. Half the people on here are on some moral high horse like there is a chance that the US wouldn’t be supporting Israel if someone else was in power. Not that it’s okay I think we shouldn’t be sending shit there or supporting what they are doing at all but that’s reality of the situation.

        • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          I mean, speak for yourself. Plenty of people care about Ukraine, there’s just no controversy there other than Putin being an asshole. But there’s no legitimate wing of American political discourse that is pro-Putin. It’s just completely obvious that he’s the bad guy and the propaganda never worked wholesale on the American population that he was a good guy. Israeli propaganda has been much more effective on creating a false dichotomy of opinion.

          • mrnotoriousman@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            But there’s no legitimate wing of American political discourse that is pro-Putin.

            You must not be American because if you were you’d know the GOP is very much pro-putin and behind holding up further aid for Ukraine.

    • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      It should be enough. But I fear that you’re right. Everyone here is pretty much on the same page, but Lemmy does not represent the average voter mentality in America.

    • hark@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. People will see this so-called “democracy” and wonder if it’s even worth saving. The only choices we’re given are if we want things to get worse slower or faster.