President Joe Biden promised Black voters Wednesday that he would appoint progressives to the US Supreme Court if elected to a second term, suggesting he expects vacancies on the high court over the next four years.

“The next president, they’re going to be able to appoint a couple justices, and I’ll be damned — if in fact we’re able to change some of the justices when they retire and put in really progressive judges like we’ve always had, tell me that won’t change your life,” he said during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.

It was as explicit a warning as Biden could offer about the stakes of the upcoming election, and a clear reminder that some of the nine justices have entered their seventies.

Clarence Thomas is 75 and Samuel Alito is 74; both are conservative and appointed by Republican presidents. Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal who was nominated by President Barack Obama, turns 70 next month.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Biden’s going to need everyone’s help. Turn the Senate and the House super Blue. Even if you hate Biden because of Israeli support, vote for your Rep and Senator that can deal with this corruption. Add to the bench until the traitors Thomas and Alito become irrelevant. Revise the number of Senate and House seats.

    • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Even if you hate Biden because of Israeli support,

      Trump said that “he (Trump) fully support’s Israel’s Gaza genocide.”

      Anything Biden can do, Trump can (and would) do worse.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you.

        Biden: I can support Israel’s killing of people in Gaza Trump: I will deport anyone that supports Palestine

      • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Having been around awhile, it’s so weird that people are trying to make the case that a republican presidency could be a good thing for… just about any country in the middle east. Not saying that any party is going to spend much time on it, but it’s just a weird stretch.

        • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Because people are that fucking gullible.

          It’s irrelevant what’s happened or is happening unless it comes from timtok/Facebook/lemmy/reddit post.

          Not voting for Biden is exactly what they want to achieve and people who haven’t read past titles are their target.

        • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Nobody thinks Trump will be good for the Middle East. They are just trying to pressure Biden to actually change his policy. The idea is he’ll change course if he sees it’s not popular and could threaten his election. I say publically it’ll make a difference because I don’t want Biden to support a genocide and it’s the only tool I have, but I doubt it will. I’m sure they’re all like me and live in a blue state, which means we’re useless for the electoral college. He needs to try to get purple states.

          • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            I’m sure they’re all like me and live in a blue state

            And I’m sure that 70% of them are shills paid by the Kremlin to take down Biden so they can get Trump elected again.

            • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              Nah, I think genocides are just legitimately unpopular, especially among the youth who are probably overly represented on online media.

          • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I don’t think it’s even just the red/blue state issue. I haven’t seen many in a prime voting demographic who care about this issue and the ones that do care are concerned in terms of wasting taxpayer money. The overlap between demographics who aren’t statistically likely to vote anyways and people who are concerned about this issue is looking like it may be pretty damning.

            • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              Ya, but he shouldn’t turn away the youth vote imo. They had bigger than normal turnout in 2020 and they mostly went to him. It was still a small percentage of what the youth vote could’ve been if they got off their ass, but I think it still matters. It seems a risky gambit to abandon them for more reliable voting blocks that are also more hustorically conservative, especially if it means supporting a genocide and geographically and diplomatically isolating the US against the world. I have a feeling if you give the youth reasons to come out, they will.

              I also feel like Gen Z is more political than past demographic, at least the ones I’ve talked to have been. But I might be all wrong here. Elections surprise even the pundits and analysts, so who could know after 2016.

      • makyo@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        The craziest thing to me are those further leftists threatening to abandon Biden and let Trump walk in.

        I mean, they can complain and oppose the democrats all they want but they should also never ever forget that today’s GOP is just the latest incarnation of the leftist’s longtime fascist enemy. Keeping them from power is and always has been a top priority.

        • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Right? it’s like saying “I wanted chicken, not beef, but all we have is chicken… So I’m just gonna eat the pellets in the Rat Poison bottle instead!”

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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          6 months ago

          I think that the majority of those are either accelerationists and/or state/political actors. Accelerationists soundly believe that the ends justify the means and think, despite a clear lack of solid evidence (and contrary evidence ex. Spain), that making things worse will force people to act to make things better. Mass repression and genocide of LGBTQ+ and POC are acceptable losses to reach Utopia… despite that literally never being the outcome at any point in recorded human history.

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I hate most of the Democratic party. I fear the Republican party. So yeah I’ll be holding my nose and voting D.

      • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        That would be a decent protest. Have all the frustrated D voters wear a clothespin on their nose when they go to vote for the lesser evil.

        Could actually get more people off the couch. Frustrated progressive voters would want to increase the ratio of “nose plug voters” to more effectively send their message to Biden while also helping kick out the Republicans.

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          6 months ago

          I really like this idea! If enough people did it the media would absolutely pick up on it and amplify it.

          Of course that does put people in red states in danger as they’re announcing to everyone who can see them who they’re voting for. :(

      • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        I’ll be counting on you as a Canadian :)

        It’s easy to fall into a defeatist attitude with how fucked up everything is, but change starts with a belief that things can be changed.

        • Mossheart@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          Things can always be changed.

          On the other hand, challenging worse hasn’t gone well lately…

          Spoken as a defeated Canadian who watched any hope of home ownership evaporate in the last 4 years.

    • sgtgig@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I just want the GOP to get absolutely pummeled for once so we can move the overton window back in the right direction. No I don’t like the dems. Yes I will vote for them every time as they represent the closest to what I want.

      • Facebones@reddthat.com
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        6 months ago

        Voting dem still moves the overton window right. “Vote blue no matter who” rewards them time after time for sprinting right chasing voters that were never going to vote for him while becoming too right even for centrists

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        And theres only one party that has outlawed RCV in certain areas. We aren’t getting RCV without 2 things:

        -Primary moderates and elect progressive Democrats at every level we can -A Democratic supermajority in Congress

        • barsquid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          STAR, score, or approval! Not sure why people are obsessed with ranked, they must love curing ballots and being prevented from tallying districts individually?

          100% would rather have ranked over FPTP, just to be clear. FPTP is toxic garbage.

          • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Not sure why people are obsessed with ranked, they must love curing ballots and being prevented from tallying districts individually?

            No need to be hostile to them. RCV is pedalled very hard, so naturally people who’ve heard about alternative voting systems will know it first.

          • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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            Is there good videos on STAR or score like there is ranked or approval? I first heard about alternative voting systems from that one stick figure YouTube guy. Not sure if he’s made any other election based videos I’ve missed or if other people have made equally good ones about other voting systems.

          • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Because those still encourage strategic voting. With RCV, you can vote your conscious and be certain that it won’t backfire and help your enemies.

            • barsquid@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              I’d rather a voting system maximize voter satisfaction than minimize strategic voting. And I’d rather have people exhaust their ballots intentionally than accidentally.

              What are STAR voters going to do, give everyone either all or no points? Their votes might not be counted in the final round, that’s their choice.

                • barsquid@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  I mean, you can look at the mathematical simulations of the models or you can argue over the semantics. STAR discourages voting strategically somewhat by having two stages. If that is not enough, even voting purely strategically it has higher voter satisfaction than ranked.

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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              6 months ago

              I remain highly skeptical if the idea that many people would engage in strategic voting unless it’s extremely obvious how to do it.

      • xmunk
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        6 months ago

        Boo RCV - we should just go parliamentary and stop direct election of the executive branch!

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          We’d need a constitutional convention. Or the largest amendment we’ve ever had. RCV can be done simply by the states.

          • xmunk
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            6 months ago

            Yea, if RCV is all we can get I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good… and hopefully with RCV we could get better leadership… but it’d be wonderful if we could get off direct executive elections.

            • Logi@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Perhaps with RCV (or whatever) you can elect leadership that will allow that.

          • xmunk
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            6 months ago

            The UK has shitty FPTP like we have here but their government never deadlocks. The US government can fail in a very special way where the president can be reduced to only being able to veto legislation while trying not to be impeached and it’s fucking dumb.

            We need a government that’s both representative and functional and there’s a reason why modern nations have looked at directly elected executives and parliamentary system and vastly preferred the latter.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      People need to remember that Biden merely supports Israel, Trump would have nuked Palestine off the face of the Earth by now.

    • venusaur@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Biden should be scared of losing his job or he has no incentive to do what the people want.

    • venusaur@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      You have a list of senators and house reps that will keep Biden and potentially Trump in check?