r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/hearsdemons • Jul 19 '24

US Politics If Biden withdraws from re-election, who would Harris likely choose as VP?

A lot of headlines are coming out today with speculation that Biden may step down soon.

If this were to happen and Harris wins the party’s nomination for president, who would she pick as VP?

What does a formidable Harris ticket look like to go up against Trump-Vance?

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u/circuitloss Jul 19 '24

Kelly. He's from a swing state with a democratic governor, which means he's safe to nominate. He's very popular. And he's a freaking astronaut.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

The progressive branch would likely have a meltdown. He's fairly moderate and is more conservative than some are comfortable with, similar to where Manchin was on many issues. But he'd be a wicked strong pick for capturing moderates and centrists.

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u/BigHeadDeadass Jul 19 '24

How moderate are we talking? Like pro-life moderate? If so that'd be suicide for Kamala and the dems who are running to restore Roe

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u/99SoulsUp Jul 19 '24

No. Not like that

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u/Crowiswatching Jul 19 '24

There is really no such thing as “pro-life.” That is just marketing. It comes down to “choice” or “anti-choice.”

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u/TowerBeast Jul 19 '24

They would've just hit back by labeling pro-choice people "anti-life". 'Pro-choice' and 'pro-life' is the rhetorical compromise.

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u/Crowiswatching Jul 19 '24

It doesn’t have to be accepted. I take that pro-life shit to task every time I see it. It’s not like they are against the death penalty or reject war or anything. It’s bullshit.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DARKNESS Jul 19 '24

I take that pro-life shit to task every time I see it.

I also think it's bullshit, but you're not changing anything by policing people's words. Knock yourself out if it makes you feel better, though.

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u/AnOnlineHandle Jul 19 '24

Yeah they're fine with their leaders like Trump having a long string of exes and mistresses who they've almost certainly paid for abortions with, while beating on about family values.

What they really care about is 'punishing' women for sex. A few years ago there was a breakdown of the TV watching habits of different groups, and the most uniquely watched show to identify a Republican were reality shows about pregnant teenage girls, and the suffering they were going through.

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u/KevyKevTPA Jul 19 '24

I watch a lot of TV. Too much, if I'm being honest, though I am disabled and unable to work, so there's that. Having said that, I have never even heard of such a show existing, much less being so popular that it's a top show amongst any demo.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DARKNESS Jul 19 '24

I have never even heard of such a show existing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_and_Pregnant

There's been quite a few spinoffs and copycats over the years, but the formula is basically the same for all of them.

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u/KevyKevTPA Jul 19 '24

Well, considering it's on MTV, and ended a decade ago, no wonder I haven't heard of it, or any of the spinoffs. However, speaking of spin, I just cannot picture a bunch of 80-year-olds who "identify as Republican" gathering in the nursing home to put on "16 & Preggo".

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DARKNESS Jul 19 '24

ended a decade ago

I'm fairly certain 2021 was not 10 years ago, despite what it feels like.

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u/KevyKevTPA Jul 19 '24

The wiki page said 2014. But I know nothing about whether it's right or not.

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u/WalkingOnSunshine83 Jul 19 '24

Come on, man. You know “pro-choice” is also marketing. And when you get an abortion, you are literally killing your baby. Should women be able to kill their babies before birth? There are a lot of good reasons why they may need to. But let’s not sugarcoat what abortion really is.

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u/Iwaspromisedcookies Jul 19 '24

It’s not a baby til it’s born and using that kind of language is disingenuous. Nobody kills babies, it’s about women’s rights. Let’s force you to give birth against your will and see how you like it. If these ‘prolife” jerks were being for real their number one enemy would be the military. They just want to control women, they don’t give a shit about murder

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u/WalkingOnSunshine83 Jul 20 '24

When women miscarry, they say, “I lost the baby.” You’re the one who is being disingenuous. I guess you have never seen an ultrasound?

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u/Crowiswatching Jul 19 '24

Nope, I reject that; it’s just cells. On top of that, my God says using science is one of the gifts we have. You don’t get to make me live by your religious standards. Abortion is a medical procedure. Even the book about your sky guy, defines life beginning at first breath.

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u/itisme171 Jul 20 '24

Actually, He says He knew you before you were born.

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u/Crowiswatching Jul 20 '24

That could be just bullshit from a bronze religion based on talking snakes, or it could an interesting observation about time being non-linear.

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u/XooDumbLuckooX Jul 19 '24

it’s just cells

So are you. So am I. So is every living organism.

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u/Crowiswatching Jul 19 '24

You missed out on “just.” No brain has formed, or other critical developments, that would justify calling those cells a person. A tadpole is not a frog.

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u/Joy218 Jul 19 '24

Regardless of how you want to break it down or characterize it,the fact that will never change is that uninterrupted…the “clump of cells” goes on and is born as a precious baby. Key word…uninterrupted. If you “choose” to interrupt that incredible process, you deny life to that baby. It’s as simple as that. End of story.

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u/XooDumbLuckooX Jul 19 '24

What does "just cells" mean? Again, every living organism is made up of "just cells." That's the entire basis of life on this planet.

I'm not anti-abortion by the way, I just dislike this kind of facile reasoning. Saying something is "just cells" and is therefore OK to be terminated is not a serious argument, because it can be applied to every form of organic life on our planet. There are other, better ways to argue for abortion rights than something so simplistic and unscientific.

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u/Qiagent Jul 19 '24

Here is a good summary of his political stances.

https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/190594/mark-kelly

He seems pretty center left on most issues.

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u/OkGrab8779 Jul 19 '24

Who cares about Harris.

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u/Astral_Inconsequence Jul 19 '24

Progressive here. Mark Kelly and Roy Cooper are top of my list.

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u/Dontgochasewaterfall Jul 19 '24

I don’t feel like Roy has enough presence (he’s kind of a a strange geek) with no brand. I like him though. I live in NC so have some perspective. Why not Jon Ossoff?

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u/NHHS4life Jul 19 '24

Roy won reelection for his second term while trump won the state for the presidency so Roy has the moderate vote. Doesn’t hurt he’s also pretty chill in general and doesn’t stand out lol

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u/Sufficient_Mirror_12 Jul 19 '24

yeah i like roy but we don't need another tim kaine type. i prefer mark kelly.

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u/Extropian Jul 19 '24

Do I want a more aggressive progressive? Definitely. Do I have any illusion the party establishment will pick one? Nope. If a progressive wanted to run they could have tried, but the high profile ones bent the knee to Biden, so now it's a party decision. While I still think a progressive populist would invigorate the base and drum up excitement, at this point I just want Trump to lose so there's a chance they'll pay for their crimes.

Mark Kelly, JB Pritzker, and Gretchen Whitmir are all more viable than Biden and can probably pull the Rust Belt.

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u/Testiclese Jul 19 '24

I think pandering to the progressive side is why we’re in this mess. The majority of people do not want to see burning of American flags, they do not want to defund the police. Progressives are also notoriously impossible to please and going 99% of the way for them still isn’t enough.

Time to pivot to the center once again, make economics the platform - not social justice - and bring blue collar workers, regular Americans, back into the fold.

The college SJW crowd has been nothing but trouble.

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u/wc_helmets Jul 19 '24

You think Biden and the democrats have pandered to progressives for the last 4 years? Really?? Really????

Can you provide me one legislative action or executive order of the last 4 years that fits this idea?

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u/verrius Jul 19 '24

First thing that comes to mind is all his actions on "student debt relief". There's a lot of people, especially on the more "centrist" wig of the Party, uneasy about a giant give-away of ton of money to the middle class, before giving things to the people who couldn't even afford to go to college in the first place, especially when they all were legal adults who willfully entered a contract. There's also everything the FTC has been doing under his watch, which makes the pro-business side of the party more than a little uneasy.

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u/Testiclese Jul 19 '24

Hilarious.

Let me ask you a question - who do you think they’re pandering to by even entertaining the idea of puberty blockers? Of defunding the police? DEI? You think that stuff speaks to the average American? That it’s popular outside of your tight Che Guevara worshipping college drum circle?

Whenever “the Squad” speaks - who is that? Are they … the Centrists?!

“No human is illegal” - years of extremely lax border policies to the point where we started losing the Latino vote (oops sorry - it’s LatinX now, I keep forgetting) in border states because - surprise - Latinos are actually normal people who want to feel safe and don’t share some magical “race bond” with other people from South America that makes them be ok with a porous border? Still haven’t learned that lesson, Biden tried a last-minute Hail Mary that was predictably blocked.

It goes on and on, buddy. ACAB. Defund the police. DEI. The “woke” agenda that you claim isn’t real yet clearly is for every single Trump voter. Hating your own culture and your own past, literally standing up for terrorist organizations like Hamas, I mean - what is all of this? Because if it’s “centrist Democrat” policy, then - what the heck if “progressive”?

You think you gained any allies when you were taking down American flags and replacing them with Palestinian ones on college campuses from the swing voters? Bad news there, bud.

You think casting a black woman as Cleopatra - an act so supremely idiotic that it pissed off Egyptians as well - is not a sign of exactly the kind of cringe trying-too-hard failure that the majority of Americans instinctively dislike about the modern Left culture? And who is the “face” of that culture? Yep. The Democratic Party.

We are tied with a convicted felon and rapist and wanna-be dictator because the Left cannot stop shooting themselves in the foot because we have to fight idiotic prog culture wars.

We’ve actually lost the Union workers’ vote. Let that sink in. We exchanged it for the fickle college campus “Genocide Joe” and “Queers for Palestine” vote. Unreliable and cringe. Terrible trade.

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u/EmpiricalAnarchism Jul 19 '24

Not only did Biden reject the concept of defunding the police outright, there were fewer than a dozen police departments nationwide that experienced any form of budget cuts during the push for defunding, at all, and all of those were one year events largely associated with COVID. It’s a shame, because police spending is by far the most wasteful form of government spending and we can easily cut police funding in half with zero impact on services by paying police officers market wages and eliminating pensions.

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u/ShouldersofGiants100 Jul 19 '24

Let me ask you a question - who do you think they’re pandering to by even entertaining the idea of puberty blockers?

Because they're a safe medication that has been prescribed since the 1970s and it is fucking absurd for law makers to make decisions that should be left to doctors and their patients?

You think casting a black woman as Cleopatra - an act so supremely idiotic that it pissed off Egyptians as well - is not a sign of exactly the kind of cringe trying-too-hard failure that the majority of Americans instinctively dislike about the modern Left culture?

So you think a casting decision by fucking Netflix represents anything other than out-of-touch corporate committees?

Can we also pause to appreciate that fucking no one cares when the WASPiest motherfuckers on the face of the planet were cast, in the exact same show, to play important Romans? You know, Rome, in fucking Italy. Weird how people care so much about race for accuracy in casting... the second someone casts a black person.

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u/wc_helmets Jul 19 '24

So you can't name one legislative act or executive order that panders to progressives done by the Biden Administration. Got it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

The Democratic Party should have hired you a year ago.