No one voted for them when they were campainging by themselves in 2020 - 0 delegates won.
2024 primaries were shut down - so no one voted them again. They wouldn't have won the primaries if the primaries were held.
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The fact that you mention they have been voted for because they were the second person on the ticket that won the presidential election is exactly what is wrong with the US. They only managed to win by association and now they hope to fail-upwards solely on name recognition (gained through association!)
In the US you don't win on merit anymore, now the game is:
1. get a small win by association
2. use the newly gained name recognition to fail upwards
To a reasonably informed outsider the entire US political system looks like a cynical dirty circus.
I have no horse in the political race; I only wish for the US to be strong, since I see it as a shining beacon for many good in the world.
That said, you mentioned the ridiculousness of one side, with completely ignoring what has happened on the other. So let me list some of the hard to believe details regarding that other side:
- the current presidential candidate has not won a single delegate in the primaries in 2020
- in 2020 they have had an attrocious performance while campaigning
- they've been a steady stream of cringe and embarrassment for the US in their public appearances for the last 4 years
- in 2024 the primaries have been shut down, only for this candidate to be hot-swapped in!
... so now as an opposition to the ridiculous orange candidate that you described on the other side, you now have a candidate that no one has voted for!
How is that a democracy?
Your entire two-party political system is rigged and you should own up to it, or not engage with it at all.
One thing I learned repeatedly while dealing with a chronic health condition is to never assume that you're "about to beat it". I've had that feeling about 1000 times now, and telling that to my family and friends just made me sound like an idiot, since I would invariably regress again.
Now I'm at a point I would only be fine with saying this if I didn't have any issues after a prolonged interval.