Carl Beijer

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Trump's second term and the fallacy of lesser evil voting

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Trump's second term and the fallacy of lesser evil voting

Wouldn't we be better off if Trump's second term were almost over than if a Trump revenge term were about to begin?

Nov 12, 2023
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The last week of polls on the 2024 presidential election should be prompting some serious déjà vu if you have any memory of 2016. On one hand, Joe Biden’s current job approval rating (37%) is lower at this point in his first term than any president since Jimmy Carter. On the other hand, a steady onslaught of head-to-heads from the NYT, Morning Consult, Marquette, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, CNN, Emerson, Data for Progress, and Bloomberg have shown Biden losing to Republicans in crucial battleground states and in the general election. And on yet another hand (so I guess the third one), Democrats are deep denial about all of this; even Biden himself flat-out rejects what the polls are saying.

If past is precedent then there’s good reason to believe that this is a replay of what happened eight years ago: a Republican victory delivered by an opposition that couldn’t recognize its own weakness. This is a solid argument against renominating Biden, as socialists like Nathan J. Robinson have pointed out. What interests me, however, is how this situation has also created a novel argument against lesser-evil voting.

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