‘This debate should be a wakeup call for the Democratic party:’ Young voters react to Trump-Biden debate

46 comments

1. It’s a wake up call for the DNC and top Democrats who didn’t care until now. Most normal people could already tell Biden was declining or too old to run this election.

2. I’m not sure what this has to do with young voters specifically. People across the age spectrum are having the same reaction. 

3. I recall earlier this week and the past 3 years all of the mainstream was saying Biden is sharp and on top of his game. Were they possibly… lying to everyone???!

4. The Democrats alarm clock has been going off since 2016. MFs just keep hitting the snooze button.

5. I don’t care who is the nominee. Vote blue no mater who!

6. If you think Biden is too old just remember Kamala will become president when he becomes unable to govern. No matter how bad you think he did it should still be a no-brainer. We cannot allow a second Trump presidency.

7. It’s crucial to understand that it’s NOT TOO LATE to replace Joe. The Democratic Party has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to young, popular, capable politicians. Just off the top of my head, Whitmer, Shapiro, Warnock, Newsom- any of these would be far better choices. And they are still available!

8. This is solely on Biden now! This is selfish to stay in the race after last night. His staff needs to make it clear that its over but its up to him make the right decision for the country.

9. The DNC did this. No other serious candidate ran against him. Same thing in 2016, all the help Clinton got when we knew she was a weak candidate.

   The process has become too top down. A coronation instead of a choice. This is what happens.

10. Why isn’t the story about Trump lies and his failure to answer a simple question?

11. There are a lot of stupid takes out there, so I figured I would share mine. Nothing really matters. The sides are so entrenched that these debates are pretty much meaningless. What Trump was saying was absolutely nuts. Like coo coo for coca puffs crazy and anyone who says that believes that Trump is better because his delivery was better while he lied and said crazy shit, well, they were never going to be convinced anyway.

    The substance of what Biden said, but his delivery was absolutely horrible and made him look completely lost.

    That all being said, I doubt there are really people on the fence about these two. There are people who may not want to admit who they support. People that were swayed by the overturning of Roe aren’t going to suddenly vote for former President Rapist Felon. People that think Biden has a magic anti-inflation button weren’t going to be swayed by the his factual answers even if he came out vigorous and youthful.

    Americans have the memories of goldfish and this is going to go down the memory hole like everything else. Sure, it’s more fodder for Fox News but that’s preaching to the already converted.

    If it weren’t for how extreme Trump is and the chasm between these two candidates policy wise, this would be a death blow for Biden. But, like so many things post Trump 45, nothing moves the needle for or against. We just stay in our polarized fox holes.

12. It’s a no brainer. Biden is an old man and he’s up against the literal anti christ. If you think having an old man for president is bad wait until we get trump 2.

13. There are eligible voters in this election that were ten years old when Trump last took office. I’m sure the debate really invigorated them to vote for Biden and save democracy. /s

14. Wonder how they would feel if people shared that most folks thought Romney beat Obama in the debates

15. I don’t care if we have to prop up a rotting carcass with an intricate series of wires and pulleys and vote it into office.

    We cannot let the insurrectionist rapist win.

16. I’m 45 and more interested in the VP debate tbh. I don’t know if either of these guys are going to make it to 2028 and if they don’t? They’ll be it. I think Harris will stay the course and the GOP is all in on Peoject 2025. I think everyone has picked teams by now anyway. So the spotlight needs to be the VPs

17. The president himself doesn’t matter as much as the people they put in charge of the government and I trust Biden’s people way more than the nazis, Christian extremists and criminals Trump is around.

18. This is what happens when you’re touting an ideology from 30 years ago and refuse to encourage rising stars from within your ranks.

19. I don’t get why they even did this? Not a single person went into watching this still trying to decide between Trump or Biden. You’ve had your mind set on which one for years now. Its unfortunate that this is what the American people are given, both being far too old to be running for office at this point, but another Trump term would like literally abolish free democracy in our country. It’s either that, or someone who was never a very good public speaker not being able to string a few sentences together…at the end of the day neither candidate is ideal, but I’ll take the babbling old guy over fascism any day of the week.

20. I’ve been a huge Biden defender, but the Democratic Party needs a new candidate and needs one immediately.

    The optics of this debate are not something you can spin. Biden just proved all the “senile” propaganda right on prime time tv. It’s done. That image is going to stick in voters minds more than any policy or even the threat of Trump.

    Respectfully elect a new nominee in the convention, flip the script, undermine the right wing propaganda over the last ten years by replacing the candidate and win this.

    There is LITERALLY nothing to lose atm, Biden’s already lost.

21. 2016 should have been a wake up call but it wasn’t because they are deaf to their voters

22. Biden should have never been an option. He was the lesser of two evil choices in 2020.

    Why can’t we have someone who isn’t from the same group of old white dudes?

23. Ugly truths here, coming from an Australian who watched the debate:

    * Trump was coherent, Biden was not. (And before you get mad: Everything Trump said was bullshit, but I understood the bullshit he was saying. I could barely understand Biden, even though i’m sure I would have agreed with him if I could.)
    * Although Trump and Biden are only a couple years apart in age, they felt like 20 years apart in presence. Biden looks, sounds and feels TOO OLD. In all ways: body language, posture, tone, oration etc etc. Now being merely “old” in itself isnt necessarily a negative-dealbreaker. But Biden felt TOO OLD, to the point of parody. Trump seemed like an energetic spring chicken besides him.
    * Trump nailed his performance. Biden failed his performance, badly. Debate is as much (if not more) about performance as it is substance.
    * Nobody will actually care what Biden has to say if he puts them to sleep while he’s trying to say it. On the contrary, everyone cares what Trumps saying (as shown by the angry/spirited reactions everywhere) because people are actually listening and paying attention to him. Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries are a good analogy here for me: They might both actually be talking and saying amazing things, but Nancy puts me to sleep while saying it, whereas Hakeem has my full attention the whole time.
    * The walk away, final impression of the debate for me:
    * 1- Biden’s too old for this game.
    * 2- Trump, was still the same Trump you already love or hate.
    * 3- Biden wasnt the Biden he needed to be tonight.

    Lots of comments on here with their people in the sand, it seems. If I was in the Trump camp id be thrilled by tonight, and if I was in the Biden camp i’d be very worried.

    If I was in the Trump camp, id tell Trump not to do any more debates and let tonight be the ‘final image’ the public get to see of Biden in a debate – because its an ugly image of a man who clearly is too old for the job. And Democrats are now getting palpably nervous, and going to eat themselves from within after witnessing this uncomfortable truth and wondering wtf to do now.

    If I was in the Biden camp, i’d be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do another debate and risk having this happen again? Or skip any more debates so it cant happen again, but leave *this* to be his debate swan song?

24. D’s: “We fumbled the most important election in US history, so vote for us!”

    or: “OK Biden’s a dub, so let our undemocratic superdelegates choose his replacement for you because we know what we’re doing”

25. None of this is shocking, there are primaries and people choose the candidate with the most experience and the most money.

    If you want a younger candidate, you’re gonna have to choose someone you’ve never heard of before. It’s the only way to get a non-geriatric person in office.

26. Policies > People

27. It’s a no brainer because President Biden supports NATO and our allies.. Trump does not support NATO or our allies. There is a reason that all U.S. Presidents (except Trump) are called, the Leader of the Free World. Trump has cast his lot against America and her allies and has aligned himself with our adversaries. I won’t bet against the American people, nor will I support the man (Trump) who betrayed her.

28. It sucks but Biden is still the only way to go. Jan 6th should be enough to make Trump a non-choice in everyone’s mind. He got away with that, what will he do if he is freshly in office again and doesn’t like something?

29. The main thing that will keep Biden from stepping down are the people around him. His advisors, political staff, they all rely on Biden for their positions of power. By asking him to step down they would in essence be asking themselves to step down as well. It’s just not likely to happen.

    It’s going to have to come from someone like his wife Jill, maybe Obama. There are only a few people that could tell Joe what he needs to hear and him actually listen.

30. America lost in this debate but you should still vote against Trump if you want a future. 

31. I get no joy in saying “I told you so”. The DNC is a feckless pack of political parasites, hell-bent on pushing only their own donor-friendly Clintocrats at the cost of democracy itself. Biden’s performance is only the tip of the shitberg.

    Progressives have been trying to save Democrats from themselves for decades. As the GOP was tightening its degenerate spiral into Christo-fascism and conspiracy theory — and as its core demographic of old white people gathered their slow march to the grave — the DNC had ample opportunity to invest in young blood and lean into the progressive politics of generations X through Z. Once-progressive politics — legalization of marijuana, queer rights, socialized healthcare, sane sentencing, etc — are now no longer fringe ideologies and are core to mainstream politics.

    But no. The DNC went so far as to fund Republicans in counties where Progressive candidates have been running. They’ve gone out of their way to starve the left wing of the party of funds and support, even as they’ve mounted increasingly successful grassroots campaigns and formed a solid caucus in D.C. Hell, the last Democratic candidate anybody actually wanted to vote *for* was Obama, and he had to mount a grassroots assault on the DNC to primary their chosen favorite, Hillary.

    This business with Biden is the inevitable result of all this stupidity. It will only get worse.

32. The same sole savior bullshit is what kept RBG on her seat and gave the Supreme Court to the conservatives. Biden needed to go during the primaries

33. Concierge: Hello this is your wake up call

    Democrats: Can you try again after the election?

    Concierge: Very well

34. I do not give a single shit about how the media has smeared Biden. Are we seriously supposed to believe *TRUMP,* who tried to overthrow our country, is better? I’m still voting Biden so that I can vote in the future for yet another president.

    I also don’t give a shit about debates. They often go badly. Check out /r/WhatBidenHasDone to see his actual helpful policies. Trump accomplished literally zero in his presidency, and zero that anyone can name off the top of their head ( except killing food stamps and destroying the Supreme Court).

35. I fucking called it.

    I fucking called it the day it was announced. This debate was an awful idea. Who actually thinks biden is a good speaker? He hasnt been for a while. The narrative before was, “Trumps a felon moderates leaning towards Biden. Biden is softly favored to win the election.” Biden stood to gain almost nothing from this debate and everything to lose. Now the narrative is “Trump is still an asshole but biden looks like he almost has full blown dementia , hes mumbling, hes rambling, hes doesnt really know where he is.” Thats the narrative now unless something major happens before the election.

    Now its going to be nothing but clips of biden acting his age, and there is nothing wrong with that. The man is 81. Hes doing great for 81. I dont hold that against him. I hope im doing that well at 81. But its too old to be running for president.

    Im voting for biden. There’s nothing that will stop me from voting for biden. But not because I like him but because trump cannot be allowed near the oval office. I would vote for an empty chair for 4 years. Or a ham sandwich.

    Why the actual fuck did he agree to this debate. Im not saying hes not intelligent. Im not saying hes not a kind person. Im not saying I dont trust him to make the right decision. But the guy has absolutely no vitality or charisma left. He looks tired and winded and you can barely understand him.

    Im sorry hes too old to win running for president.

    Fuck.

36. As increasingly disconcerting as last night became, I still believe Biden is a good person and cares about doing right by the people. It’s still a no-brainer in terms of choosing Biden over the idiot.

    Given what we saw last night, though, the thought that kept hitting me was that this election is more about protecting the office from tyranny than simply choosing the better candidate. It wasn’t all that different in 2020, but Biden appeared far stronger and mentally agile four years ago than he did last night.

    If this were more apparent two years ago there would have been time to groom a replacement from within. With only a few months to go, Biden has to stay at the top of the ticket, and hopefully the next four years will be spent making sure we’re not painted into the same corner ever again.

    With November in mind, how things are framed will determine whether or not we can keep a convicted felon, sexual predator, and inveterate fraud from destroying our country from within through sheer incompetence, greed, and the willingness to sell the powers of the President to the highest bidder.

    I think the message moving forward needs to be centered on Team vs. Individual:

    You’re not voting for Biden. You’re voting for everyone who will help Biden.

    Otherwise you’re voting for everyone who will help the other guy.

37. Lol, Biden for sure underperformed but why is it always only the Democrats that have to worry about their candidates? Trump started out stronger but pretty quickly faded into nonsense.

    Must be really nice to be a member of a party with zero-expectations of the people who represent them.

38. There is no way Biden would make it through a second term if he somehow was reelected in this condition.

39. IMO, the Biden campaign needs to do **everything possible** to elevate and showcase his younger and very talented Cabinet and administrators/advisors — and make it so people feel like they are voting for the political equivalent of the Justice League, MCU Civil War group taking on Thanos, or 1992 Men’s Olympic basketball team.

    His message needs to be that he is the wise, deliberate and experienced core of “Team Biden” but that when people vote for him, they are actually voting for his entire group of smart, capable, and motivated public servants. People need to feel like they are getting the full package instead of just having to choose between two guys in isolation.

40. Old man rivers vs the actual devil…

41. They are both old, confused men. One is just better at spewing bullshit due to a lifetime of practice. People won’t see beyond this, unfortunately.
    We are fucked.

42. We ALL knew this was coming. Biden can’t speak off the cuff, and he’s WAY too old. Trump can’t speak without lying or rambling. It was a complete shit show where everyone saw the WORST of both candidates. We should dump them BOTH and nominate folks who are actually going to have the cognitive ability to govern.

43. It’s Joe versus actual Christo fascism. How is this even a debate?

44. It has come out that Biden was sick last night. That impacted his performance a lot. Sometimes when you are sick it is hard to even get out of bed let alone debate someone. You need to keep this in mind.

    Joe Biden was great the debate. It is important to vote for him in November.

45. God I wish the democrat leadership after winning with Biden in 2020 immediately started searching for a younger successor to mold to replace him.

    Like god I know traditionally we let the sitting president run again, but I don’t want to vote for someone simply because I don’t like the other guy again.

46. I am sooo thankful for the 2 party system. /s

    Ranked choice voting
    Non-partisan primaries
    Competitive districts with no partisan gerrymandering
    Get money out of politics
    Teach civics in HS