(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 2024 won't be about candidates, it'll be about ideology [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-25 It's obviously too early to be consumed with head-to-heads given that the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, likely faces more criminal indictments and it's impossible to say who will prevail in the GOP primary. But bottom line, Biden is certainly holding his own for now, and his favorable rating in Civiqs tracking exceeds Trump's, should he become the Republican nominee. BIDEN CIVIQS TRACKING x Civiqs Results TRUMP CIVIQS TRACKING x Civiqs Results But frankly, all of this polling discussion misses the point that we truly are in a "battle for the soul of the nation," as Biden puts it. In that sense, every candidate takes on more meaning by virtue of their party identification than a simple assessment of the favorability rating might suggest. As Biden is fond of saying, "Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative." The alternative right now is trending nothing short of fascist, as this sampling of headlines from the last 24 hours alone demonstrates: North Dakota governor signs law banning nearly all abortions Texas agriculture commissioner orders employees to wear clothes “consistent with their biological gender” Montana transgender lawmaker silenced for third day; protesters interrupt House proceedings They are just the tip of the iceberg. In Ohio, Republican lawmakers are trying to raise the threshold for voters to amend the state constitution in order to prevent voters from enshrining their abortion rights via ballot measure. Tennessee Republicans ignited a firestorm two weeks ago when they expelled two of their Black male colleagues for joining gun violence protests inside the statehouse chambers. A third lawmaker, a white woman, was spared expulsion by one vote. On Monday, President Biden met with the 'Tennessee three' in the Oval Office, calling their ouster "shocking," and adding that “nothing is guaranteed about our democracy — every generation has to fight for it.” Biden echoed the theme in his announcement video. "Every generation of Americans have faced a moment when they have to defend democracy," he said. "This is our moment." Indeed, democracy was on the ballot in 2022. In exit polling, 44% of voters cited the future of democracy as their primary motivation for voting—second only to inflation. Just like in the ‘22 midterms, the 2024 battle lines will be fought on the defense of our personal freedoms in the face of a Republican Party that no longer believes in the right to self-determination. To the extent that Biden and Democrats are able to make that contrast clear, they will defy polling expectations and prevail—much like they did last cycle. Markos and Kerry are joined by Aaron Rupar today to discuss what he is seeing in the right-wing media landscape. Rupar is an independent journalist whose Public Notice Substack is a must-read for those who want to know how truly outrageous the conservative movement is. We are addicted to his Twitter account, with its never-ending stream of Republican lunacy all captured on video. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/25/2165830/-2024-is-a-battle-about-ideology-not-about-candidates Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/