Activists from around the country told The Intercept that they will advocate for an anti-war agenda at the convention in August and withhold their vote in November unless an adequate candidate steps up, listing policy priorities such as support for a permanent ceasefire and standing up to the pro-Israel lobby as it intervenes in Democratic primaries. Even as the Biden campaign insists that he will not step aside, many Democrats appear to be lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate, with some Democratic governors being floated as well.
“My number one criteria for any candidate is opposing the genocide in Gaza,” said Saad Farooq, an uncommitted voter in Massachusetts. Farooq said it was unlikely that the Democratic National Committee would select any candidate who took a stance against Israel’s ongoing war, and that he would support Green Party candidate Jill Stein if she were to appear on the ballot in Massachusetts.
Will Dawson, an uncommitted voter in Washington, D.C., named several factors that could get him to switch his vote from the Green Party’s Stein to another politician. First on his list is a promise to call for an immediate ceasefire and fighting the influence of the pro-Israel lobby and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Congress.
“This candidate would also ideally work toward pulling further away from the Israeli colonial project over time, with the goal being repealing our absurd financial support, ending the foreign interest agency of AIPAC, and pushing for a nation-wide boycott a la [South Africa] during their apartheid,” Dawson wrote.
The candidate would also have to push to reform the Supreme Court, he added. “The candidate would have to promise to both push for justice impeachment, and expand the courts,” Dawson said.“If a replacement candidate met both of these requirements, I would absolutely consider switching my vote from Jill Stein. Hell, I might even knock doors/canvass for them!”
Didn’t really bury it because I don’t agree with that analysis and it’s not part of the poll.
If they’re polling similar to him with 39%-71% of the people not knowing who the candidate is that means their floor is where Biden is.
…it’s not part of the poll.
That quote comes directly from the poll you linked.
…that means their floor is where Biden is.
That’s a specious conclusion you’re jumping to because it supports your biases. With out more information it’s more likely that once the respondents know who the candidates are the overall responses will fall in line with the population averages and the candidates polling results will be the same as they are now.
All we can confidently conclude for now is “39%-71% of people polled don’t know who the candidates in the polls were”.
It doesn’t come from the poll, it comes from an analysis of the results of the poll.
Also, if your best candidate is polling at the same level as an unknown, generic member of the same party, then your best candidate is a nobody.
Just as a devils advocate when we talk about replacing Biden at this late stage.
Since the advent of the modern primary election system in 1972, an incumbent president has never been defeated by a primary challenger, though every president who faced a strong primary challenge went on to be defeated in the general election.
Source: Primary challenge
Swapping Biden out to find someone that can poll better than a guy who plans to end elections, setup death camps, take away all reproductive rights (abortion, birth control, IVF), as well as rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, shouldn’t even be an issue. Unless you’re part of the cult, it seems like an easy choice between freedom, or the fall of the Republic.
I was using the same language as the OP when referring to the poll, but if you feel better about yourself now good job.
You draw a pretty extreme conclusion about the polling of a generic candidate. Honestly it sounds like another specious conclusion that’s been drawn because it agrees with a bias. I’m open to being wring and am interested in how you came up with it.
This CNN article has some pretty interesting discussion about generic candidates. The general consensus seems to be that generic candidates simply indicate a party preference rather than a judgment about a particular candidate.
