Joe Biden campaign volunteers are quitting in "droves"
Joe Biden campaign volunteers are quitting in "droves"
A group of Biden's reelection campaign staff said in a letter that volunteers are upset with his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden's campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza, citing concerns that not shifting his policy on the issue could hurt his 2024 chances.
"Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict," the Medium letter read.
"It is not enough to merely be the alternative to Donald Trump," the campaigners continued. "The campaign has to shift the feeling in the pits of voters' stomachs, the same feeling that weighs on us every day as we fight for your reelection. The only way to do that is to call for a ceasefire."
Sure, still going to vote for Biden over Trump. All Biden has to do is not be Trump and he is the better option.
Sure, still going to vote for Biden over Trump
So am I. Because probably like you, voting for me is easy.
Takes less than 15 minutes even on presidential years.
Not everyone is so lucky. Some people are hours of waiting, presidential years we still hear about some places being five, eight, maybe even more hours wait
And because that is almost always caused by Republicans doing it to dem areas of their state...
We really, really need those votes. If we didn't, Republicans wouldn't try so hard to suppress them.
So while voting Biden is undoubtedly worth 15 minutes of my time, you have to ask yourself: is it enough for a single parent working two jobs they don't get PTO from to stand there for half a day.
It might have been enough when Trump was actively in office. But lots of people liked the idea of Biden four years ago a lot more than they do after his first 3 years in office.
And college students may need to drive many hours to their "home" where they are registered to vote. Which they might do "often" anyway, and like combine it with laundry, a meal, and an overnight stay, but still that all comes at the expense of homework time and exam prep, plus depending on the weather that drive may get more difficult. People like to blame college kids for not voting more, especially earlier in the primaries, as if somehow it is the youth that put DT into office back then!?
Your comment providing a deeper perspective is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you for sharing it.:-)
If Covid hadn't pushed vote by mail so hard in 2020, Biden would not have won. It was only because vote by mail increased voter engagement that Biden got it.
Engagement is going to be down in '24, vote by mail won't be the same option it was in lots of places, and that's going to make it a lot harder for Biden to win.
Ikr?? Voting is so easy in my state. I get the ballot in the mail, like everyone in my state. I get a voting guide. I vote then drop it off 15 mins from my house. Everyone can vote even if they’re working.
All Biden has to do is not be Trump and he is the better option.
That's all he has to do to get votes, but he needs a campaign staff. Can you imagine dedicating energy to work to get someone elected who you aren't exactly passionate about?
Maybe he doesn't need a campaign staff. He could keep his head down and just see what happens on election day. I'd almost welcome it.
I can because there are always more staffers, just like there are always new fools that decide to work for Trump. There isn't a union of staffers after all, so I'm not at all worried about a handful of them.
All Biden has to do is not be Trump and he is the better option.
Good news. That's the extent of Democrats' ambition.
Lol, ok then...
As will I, but I will also take every opportunity I have to try and make him be less of a trash person. As difficult of a task as it is.
its infuriating because all he has do is setup some shitty arbitrary line Israel already crossed such as barring support/arms sales to countries with high child casualty rates and he doesn't even have to mention Israel to sidestep the whole problem like a coward.
Some people get mad when the US plays world police, some when it doesn't. There is always something to be outraged about.
Personally I don't think a ceasefire is a good idea. Hamas will, again, turn around and commit more atrocities, as will Israel. It's delusional to think they will ever stop. No one in Hamas or the IDF will magically come to their senses.
So, for now I'm just waiting for the end result. Hamas is clearly losing and all we can do is hope something good comes of it.
This is the way
This thread is wild.. is it seriously shocking to people here that Biden campaigners (plurality young people) are upset about his response to the genocide in Gaza?? Yes, obviously we need to vote for him, but it’s crazy that criticism is labeled as astroturfing or attempts to sabotage his chances.
I really hate that every time someone criticizes him, some dumbass replies with "Yeah well Trump is way worse"
Yeah no shit lol, just because I hate the current president doesn't mean I'm automatically selecting the deranged orange.
Also why the fuck are people working for free lmao
Have you never spent your spare time contributing to something you care about? I spend time contributing to open source code and Wikipedia, previously I've spent time building stuff to make a local park nicer. I could definitely see myself spending time campaigning for a political party if I felt the future of my country depended on it.
When you're doing something like that, spending time on something you have a passion for together with others, it's typically more fun and fulfilling than tiresome. You should try it some time.
If you want to see any of your political goals come to fruition, volunteering is by far the best way to do that.
Volunteer for local campaigns often. Participate heavily. Consider becoming a citizen lobbyist.
I love the work I do for Citizens Climate Lobby, for instance.
I’m upset too, but there is more than one issue in the world. These people need to put things in perspective. If Trump wins, America is literally over.
Just so we're clear, the source for this article is an anonymous post to Medium that claims to be from 17 staffers.
This is not "news"
https://medium.com/@BidenHQforCeasefireNow/dear-president-biden-we-need-a-ceasefire-now-f48b732b2433
And it didn't even provide any evidence that volunteers were quitting in droves.
17 does not equal droves
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Nice try though to ignore the issue.
Gotta love the abusive-relationship mechanic from the dems.
"Yes, I'm a toxic piece of shit, but without me you'll be starving on the streets. So stop complaining, make me a sandwich, and tell me you love me. Now."
And anyone suggesting that maybe they should leave anyway... is smeared as just wanting to drive victims into homelessness and prostitution.
If you want people to vote for you, be good enough to vote for on your own merits.
If you're struggling to get votes despite your opponent being literally Trump, then you need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden’s campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza
Surly they couldn't be lying about being campaign staffers, could they? I suppose they have to remain anonymous to protect themselves from violent and deranged Biden cultists.
"Fake news!"
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Nice try though to ignore the issue.
Excuse the world for being inherently suspicious of efforts that make space for letting Trump back into the White House after "letting the establishment learn their lesson" worked so outstandingly well in 2016.
Nobody's ignoring the issue, they're rightfully questioning the motives of the people who are stoking the flames on the issue.
This smells like #WalkAway psyop bullshit. Anon letter on Medium as a source, lol please.
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Nice try though to ignore the issue.
I jumped to conclusions, at least someone has confirmed it's legit. Wasn't ignoring it but the astroturfing "Anon outside any verifiable or published source says" is a problem that keeps recurring.
They are entitled to their opinions, and I'm not even in disagreement - the entire conflict is an abomination and horrendous... but I'm curious who they'd vote for otherwise. No one worth talking about in US politics would chart a different course.
It's good to see that people are putting pressure on Biden to do the right thing vis-a-vis Israel and Gaza. I think it's the right thing to do and I've been so disillusioned to see American democracy reduced to a booster contest between soulless ghouls that must never be challenged or questioned™.
It's not at all surprising to see toxic, bad-faith rhetoric deployed in his defense, tho. If there's one thing I can count on from the Dem establishment is that when faced with unsolicited input from young people, out comes the reductionist rhetoric about how anything that isn't ball-slobbering of their candidate and whatever the party has handed down as its agenda is a vote for fascism.
As it did in 2016, the Democrats are going through energetic disagreements over their future direction as a party- and as it did in 2016, the establishment is going to have to decide whether it can afford to alienate its younger/leftier constituency in order to chase votes to the center
The problem is that younger people often don't vote. So chasing their votes is a losing strat. Younger citizens need to actually get out there and make sure that they are casting votes, otherwise they will continue to not be taken seriously
I'm sure if younger people were given a reason to give a shit they'd come out and vote. Even the candidates that are supposed to be more relatable to younger voters(Dems) have tone deaf talking points that revolve around the stock market, unemployment, gas prices, and inflation, none of which are an accurate metric that would define economic opportunity for the youth. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.
well he fired all the staffers who admitted to cannabis use even though he promised not to
hard to work and get the job done with someone who flip flops on everything he says probably quit too
So I can't volunteer for a campaign if I smoke weed?
Hmm, let me see. Ceasefire in a country that has nothing to do with us and doesn't effect us in the slightest
OR
We elect a literal fascist who actually admitted he will be a dictator and use the military against his enemies at home
Tough choice
I'm sorry that pushing for Biden to be a better person is such a problem for you. Trump is a monster, but that doesn't mean we should ignore everything Biden does and pretend he's perfect.
that doesn’t mean we should ignore everything Biden does and pretend he’s perfect.
who is doing that? where?
He’s not perfect. He’s like getting 6 hours of sleep, tolerable. Trump is like getting 45 minutes of sleep a week, concerning and dangerous. 8 hours of sleep isn’t on the ballot and probably won’t be next time either
Oh shut the fuck up, that’s not what any of this even is, not to mention it’s not about being a “better person”. There is far more complexity to this whole mess. This shit doesn’t start nor end with Biden.
Your other responses in comments are just as shortsighted and simplistic, but go off ig
"Genocide is fine if it doesn't happen to me" is not a take I was expecting to see being upvoted.
Uh... Israel is killing Gazans using American-made weapons right now.
Ceasefire in a country that has nothing to do with us and doesn't effect us in the slightest
a brutal lie in the first part, a gross lie in the second part. mind you, I'm not pushing for any of the two octogenarian that will be elected.
A group of staffers working on President Joe Biden's reelection campaign warned the president that his volunteers are quitting "in droves" over his handling of Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip.
“A group”? Two people said a thing? Well lets blast it out there like it’s fuckin’ true! FFS.
This is a garbage article. Newsweek is digging for clicks and does not give a shit about America. Just like all the corporate news sewers: CNN, NBC, ABC, WaPo, NYT who covered Trump relentlessly and repeated whatever insanity he spewed as if he were not a demented rapist fraud who can’t stop lying.
Fuck newsweek for this, whatever they are now is just twitter with a masthead.
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Way more than two people. Nice try though to ignore the issue.
What issue? That unpaid interns or those one step below are not agreeing with long-term political decisions that were practically made before they were born and only understand the surface of the subject?
Yeah, thanks. I think I'll just ignore those as well if I were in a position of power, and you would too.
What is this "moral responsibility," and why is it just now relevant? There were, are, and will be much bigger and worse issues, like climate change, but no one is talking about moral responsibility and blasting the ones who are in charge like it is happening right now with the Israel/Palestine crisis.
Maybe it is just the age of massive misinformation and propaganda campaigns from all sides (some are engaging much more than others) with which I have a problem. Because, in the end, I applaud people who stand up for what they think is right, like those interns. It just comes across as too selective to be a principle. I mean, the Israel/Palestine issue has been ongoing for what? 50 years? It's not even the first hot phase or siege of Gaza. And then you start working in politics and then you became aware of the politics and stopped working there? What?
Do you really have no other choice but one of those two over there?
We really have no other choice
Their system automatically makes a winner of the biggest party. In any country that uses that system, it automatically leads to two main parties alternating in power. The advantage is that you don't need "messy" and "unstable" coalitions, but can have strong leadership with a solid base instead. Except that perhaps string leadership is a dangerous thing to have in many cases, and except that if the balance tends towards 50/50, you can easily have problems getting anything done.
It's the structure of our "first past the post" system. Basically, each party gets one representative on the presidential ticket. The two major parties have primaries where the top candidates compete in a vote within themselves, and the winner gets put on the presidential ticket for that party.
The obvious problem with that is that the party convention picks the candidate, not the voters. So it's possible to buy a party's candidate or for the conventions to snub popular choice in favor of not shaking things up too much in the status quo.
The latter point, the democratic party picking lukewarm candidates that are moderate at best because the establishment doesn't want to disturb the status quo, has been a problem for a long time and is a major reason democrat voters don't go to the polls.
Yup, so sayeth both sides of America's one-party system.
People are afraid to back anyone but the big two. They say things like "throwing your vote away" and "you're letting them win" if you don't vote one of the big 2.
I understand their point, but we need a systemic change to our political system for the kind of change we want to happen to actually happen.
"throwing your vote away" and "you're letting them win"
For the two parties in power, what's better than convincing people that this is true? Actually making this true.
This isn't just a thing that's "said." It's actually the case, and it's been proven both statistically and experimentally. The system has been crafted specifically to cause that outcome, reinforced over decades to ensure that there are no other viable opportunities for choice.
A third party would have to win an absolutely massive percentage of the vote; Ross Perot in 1992 did better than any non-major-party candidate in the prior 80 years or any year since, he won nearly 20% of the popular vote, but took exactly zero electoral votes. (By contrast, a major party politician could conceivably game the electoral college—that is, get exactly 270 electoral votes—and take office with just 23% of the popular vote.) In fact, no third party candidate has taken any electoral votes since 1968; and no third party has beaten the trailing major party since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, who still only came in second.
"The system is perfectly designed to produce the results it's producing." If it never produces a third party victory, that's because it can't.
Unfortunately, to have any hope of changing it, we have to vote for the people who actually want to keep having elections.
Which makes sense. Campaign volunteers tend to skew younger, and the younger demographic really cares about the Israel/Palestine debacle.
But, again, what are they going to do? Campaign for "no President has done more for Israel" Trump?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/16/politics/trump-american-jews-israel/index.html
But, again, what are they going to do? Campaign for “no President has done more for Israel” Trump?
Not campaign at all. Which I'm sure someone here will interpret as being identical to campaigning for Trump.
Per Biden himself, there are 50 others who can beat Trump. So, if Biden withdrew his candidacy- like he promised he would last time, there’s zero risk.
In fact, I would say not doing so is the greater risk.
I guarantee all fifty of those other people would also support Israel.
The neat part about America is that it doesn't care what you think, and will do heinous shit regardless. But you still have to vote or you're a bad person.
Yes, it is indeed a choice between eating shit and being flayed alive.
Like yes...i might survive eating shit, and I definitely don't want to be flayed alive, but wow...what a choice to have to make. Rock The Vote, 2024. Lol.
Man, it's like - every president for the past four decades has been in a shit eating contest, and Biden is the least shit-eating so far - is 'he eats too much shit' really the issue you want to make central to his candidacy? Especially when most voters are in favor of continuing to eat shit, for god knows what fucking reason?
I'm tired of this black mirror episode, can we go back to the 90's please?
If idiots are too fucking stupid to vote for Biden, because of a religious war...well, it kind of fits in with the past decade of idiocracy. You get what you fucking deserve.
Yeah but the rest of us don’t deserve it
That's the great part about democracy: Everyone gets the consequences of bad decisions!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Biden has faced immense pressure from members of his own party over the United States' policies in light of the surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in roughly 240 hostages, including some Americans.
In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden's campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza, citing concerns that not shifting his policy on the issue could hurt his 2024 chances.
"Like so many others, we continue to be devastated by Hamas's attack against Israeli civilians on October 7th—it was a vile assault, one that touched the consciousness of the country," the letter read.
"Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict," the Medium letter read.
The staffers' letter comes on the same day a U.S. Department of Education policy adviser told the Associated Press that they submitted their resignation in protest of the president's handling of the war in Gaza.
According to the progressive Working Families Party, 64 members of Congress—all Democrats—have also called for a ceasefire or cessation of Israel's military actions in Gaza.
The original article contains 693 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Though I agree that Biden should be punished for what he's doing there, I would please like to remind everyone that the alternative guy would probably just chose to "nuke Gaza or something, problem solved, right?" Or some other insanity like that. Please please, vote Biden, as bad as he is
Here's the thing: Politics is dead.
You know what else has broad popular support?
Medicare for All
Free college
Well funded public housing
There's a much longer list, but you get the idea. It's not what both parties are the same ... it's that Democrats use the same tired excuses for not doing what is popular and needed.
In 2024 not only are we going to be asked to once again ignore that Democrats are unable to fulfill the most basic functions of a political party, but we're going to be told we need to vote for somebody who tacitly approved of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
That's a bridge too far for me. Saying that the other guy is worse may be true, but it still doesn't take away the reality that the Democratic nominate for POTUS is a genocidal monster.
Getting a free pass for not being Donald Trump isn't likely to work twice. Biden isn't walking into this election running against Trump's miserable failure of a presidency, he's running on his record now. And his record is shit. It's a record of going "Well, my hands are tied" when it's time to help Americans but also having unlimited will and political capital to send our money to fund a genocide. It's a record of not cancelling student loans, not legalizing marijuana, not meaningfully addressing climate change, not doing anything about healthcare, not doing anything about education. Biden's presidency has been one that primarily is about chiding the left, calling us idiots and demanding our votes while flat-out telling us he's not gonna do anything we ask and that we should be grateful that he's not gonna send the army to kill us like Trump said he would.
Republicans would also support Israel. All these people who are leaving Biden aren't doing anyone any favors, including the Palestinians.
Nobody left democrats. It's just that Biden might lose his nomination (unless American elections don't work that way for the sitting president.. I am just an outsider)
So is he handing the republicans the presidency this year or what? Honest question.
Yup. Pretty much.
It feels exactly like the Hilary campaign in ‘16 felt like.
The fuck?? No it absolutely does not feel like 16. You are commenting the wildest shit in this post, how many goddamn shit takes you got??? My favorite was when you started crying about “the cult of Biden”
There was not two important proxy wars in ‘16, Trump wasn’t drowning in legal battles, democracy wasn’t hanging by a thread with a party front runner publicly speaking of a dictatorship, so many things are wildly different both internally and externally to the nation.
What does feel like ‘16? People underestimating the danger of Trump (in part thanks to big corps like cbs that spotlight trumps bullshit to normalize it and make money on the clicks), overall unsatisfying candidates, what else???
Even the legal connection is incomparable between literal insurrection and an attack on the voice of the people and the peaceful transfer of power, stealing and sharing top fucking secret docs like specs on our nuclear subs with any fucker who pays to visit MAL and…… Hillary using a private email server.
Ya just like 2016!!!
Get a fucking grip
Folks don't want Genocidal Joe. Anyone supporting him is supporting the sleep walking to fascism.
Yes because clearly whomever else runs won't put our troops into Gaza instead? Oh? You want to vote 3rd party? Lol. You just voted for Trump. I'd tell you that you're throwing your vote away, but I won't. There will be plenty of time for that. When we're in the concentration camp.
For those who's not voting for Joe or won't vote because of Biden position, reminder that you can still vote, and pick the candidates that AIPAC is financing against within downballots.
However, I will vote for Joe Biden because we live in the FPTP system, and I plan to vote out AIPAC endorsed candidates on the downballot. I'm voting in people that has naunces which means I will not support people who do hate Jewish people.