It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Hey, first, my apologies. I read your graphic as being in response to the OP, maybe I had my screen zoomed in a little but while my point still stands I think, it has more than a little bit different emphasis to it in that case.
Anyway, I wholeheartedly agree that the leader needs to LEAD. Which is why, regardless of partisan politicking, if Biden or his advisors assess that he is too weak to do the job anymore, for whatever reason (sickness, maybe he was poisoned even, I’m not trying to start a conspiracy here just saying that regardless of anything that would be his “fault”), then part of the job is that he step down in such a case?
Risking things is good and all, when done properly. But stepping down in such a case would not be “timidity”, so much as being genuinely honest with oneself about the realities of the particular situation under consideration. i.e. these aren’t merely butterflies in one’s stomach i.e. performance anxiety that needs to be overcome - this is real, actual risk assessment of pros vs. cons for each of the paths forward, and strategically picking the one that offers the highest likelihood of success.
Steadfastness is a virtue, but stubbornness is a weakness. Hold fast to what is true, not refuse to budge merely bc you have no capacity to do otherwise.
That’s okay, I understand. I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written here. I’m torn on him stepping down myself, so I get it. My response is really just aimed at the commentor above who is complaining about the Democrats for supreme court case results. It’s a Republican court, it’s nonsense. These are separate branches for a reason and they don’t share command structures, so even “the buck stops here” doesn’t apply. In a way, blaming the president for this is pushing the exact sort of ideology the Republicans want right now of a king, not a president. This supreme court was put in place by a man who was voted in by a very tiny majority in a few states. Biden didn’t fail in this case. We, the voters, failed. America, the people, failed.
Trump barely appointed those judges even, so much as Mitch McConnell held up their appointments so that the next, Republican, president could fill them.
At a guess, they seem to have been saying something like how the President should have pushed harder. Like if not on this exact issue, then on ending the special rules for filibustering, so as to be able to break through that Republican wall of obstructionism while the Dems had some amount of power. i.e. they are both bad, if not quite equally so, but the grown-ups i.e. tribal same-side are held to a higher level of responsibility than the children i.e. tribal other people-group bad. Which isn’t quite the same as saying that Dems are always wrong, just that they share in their level of responsibility too, for not fixing things.
And tbf this SCOTUS ruling on Monday seems to have been a game-changer. The excuse “but we can’t do anything about it” rings more hollow now, even if it was previously true.
Though it all seems a moot point anyway. At this point it looks like there’s an extremely good chance of Trump winning, or if by some freak occurrence not then as long as that ruling remains we’ll simply punt forward the end of democracy for another 4 years - which is itself a lie b/c from now on, democracy is already over, and instead of a President we now have elected emperors/god-kings. Man this is depressing:-(.
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
It’s hard to “dare greatly” when you need the votes from the downtrodden and also need campaign cash from the billionaires. In other words the Dems need something from the exploiters and from the exploited.
If the Dems please their voters, they will upset the superrich and the wannabe superrich (the temporarily embarrassed millionaires), who are their biggest and most reliable donors. The superrich give and they expect something in return. Those corporate revolving doors will not revolve themselves. Upset your money base and you can’t buy commercials or get “free” TV coverage on the billionaire-owned media.
So, upsetting the voting base is better for the Dems than upsetting the billionaires. If you disappoint your voters by falling short you can always say “the GOP stopped us, it’s not our fault, vote harder next time. Oh, and the GOP is even worse than us Dems, so where are you going to go, little ones?”
That’s the Dem strategy ever since the third way takeover.
That’s why the Dems are trash. The Dems will absolutely get a reckoning sooner or later.
The Dems cannot fail us, it is only us who can fail the Dems.
The Dems are the cold and timid souls. That’s why the Dems always voter shame and never say “I failed.”
Here’s a quote from the same man:
Hey, first, my apologies. I read your graphic as being in response to the OP, maybe I had my screen zoomed in a little but while my point still stands I think, it has more than a little bit different emphasis to it in that case.
Anyway, I wholeheartedly agree that the leader needs to LEAD. Which is why, regardless of partisan politicking, if Biden or his advisors assess that he is too weak to do the job anymore, for whatever reason (sickness, maybe he was poisoned even, I’m not trying to start a conspiracy here just saying that regardless of anything that would be his “fault”), then part of the job is that he step down in such a case?
Risking things is good and all, when done properly. But stepping down in such a case would not be “timidity”, so much as being genuinely honest with oneself about the realities of the particular situation under consideration. i.e. these aren’t merely butterflies in one’s stomach i.e. performance anxiety that needs to be overcome - this is real, actual risk assessment of pros vs. cons for each of the paths forward, and strategically picking the one that offers the highest likelihood of success.
Steadfastness is a virtue, but stubbornness is a weakness. Hold fast to what is true, not refuse to budge merely bc you have no capacity to do otherwise.
That’s okay, I understand. I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written here. I’m torn on him stepping down myself, so I get it. My response is really just aimed at the commentor above who is complaining about the Democrats for supreme court case results. It’s a Republican court, it’s nonsense. These are separate branches for a reason and they don’t share command structures, so even “the buck stops here” doesn’t apply. In a way, blaming the president for this is pushing the exact sort of ideology the Republicans want right now of a king, not a president. This supreme court was put in place by a man who was voted in by a very tiny majority in a few states. Biden didn’t fail in this case. We, the voters, failed. America, the people, failed.
Trump barely appointed those judges even, so much as Mitch McConnell held up their appointments so that the next, Republican, president could fill them.
At a guess, they seem to have been saying something like how the President should have pushed harder. Like if not on this exact issue, then on ending the special rules for filibustering, so as to be able to break through that Republican wall of obstructionism while the Dems had some amount of power. i.e. they are both bad, if not quite equally so, but the grown-ups i.e. tribal same-side are held to a higher level of responsibility than the children i.e. tribal other people-group bad. Which isn’t quite the same as saying that Dems are always wrong, just that they share in their level of responsibility too, for not fixing things.
And tbf this SCOTUS ruling on Monday seems to have been a game-changer. The excuse “but we can’t do anything about it” rings more hollow now, even if it was previously true.
Though it all seems a moot point anyway. At this point it looks like there’s an extremely good chance of Trump winning, or if by some freak occurrence not then as long as that ruling remains we’ll simply punt forward the end of democracy for another 4 years - which is itself a lie b/c from now on, democracy is already over, and instead of a President we now have elected emperors/god-kings. Man this is depressing:-(.
It’s hard to “dare greatly” when you need the votes from the downtrodden and also need campaign cash from the billionaires. In other words the Dems need something from the exploiters and from the exploited.
If the Dems please their voters, they will upset the superrich and the wannabe superrich (the temporarily embarrassed millionaires), who are their biggest and most reliable donors. The superrich give and they expect something in return. Those corporate revolving doors will not revolve themselves. Upset your money base and you can’t buy commercials or get “free” TV coverage on the billionaire-owned media.
So, upsetting the voting base is better for the Dems than upsetting the billionaires. If you disappoint your voters by falling short you can always say “the GOP stopped us, it’s not our fault, vote harder next time. Oh, and the GOP is even worse than us Dems, so where are you going to go, little ones?”
That’s the Dem strategy ever since the third way takeover.
That’s why the Dems are trash. The Dems will absolutely get a reckoning sooner or later.
The Dems cannot fail us, it is only us who can fail the Dems.
The Dems are the cold and timid souls. That’s why the Dems always voter shame and never say “I failed.”