Who's the challenger?

Candy - nice point, but the first sentence in this thread was name calling, so it was doomed. 

"Doomed" how? The non-children here actually answered the question.

The question should be who are the democrats going to put up when Biden drops our 

Well, I think the MAGAs are afraid of looking like apostates if they name a challenger,,,even though my question is who that challenger will be, not whether or not they like him. But it may be that in MAGA land, even mentioning the name of the usurper is a treasonous offense.

A recent ABC poll puts the Turd even farther out in front than before--something like 51% for it, 21% for Florida Man, and single digits for everyone else. This despite the Turd's recent deranged sounding off in and out of court. It's still baffling to me...the worse this guy looks, the more popular he gets. Maybe that's why his rivals aren't getting any traction.

Maybe I could ask a different question. Do you think the RepubliQ want to pick a candidate for his ability to beat Biden, rather than how adored he is by the drooling base? Or do you think they're pretty much helpless in that regard? Because the base really, really wants their hero to get out there again, felonies be damned.

Non-children, Tom.

How many of the violent BLM protestors are running for president and supported by half the people in the Democratic party to do so?       Right wing violence being endorsed as a politcal platform is worse.    Way worse.

But on the other hand.....Joe Biden stammered at the press conference.     

yeah, thats bullshit.

Kevin, in response to your last paragraph, I'd suggest Adolph Hitler.  His 'admirers' were helpless in a sense (and ill-informed, politically captive, etc.).  And he was able to mount and film those parades, children and adults cheering and saluting, which I think there is some terminology that describes this type of thing, when people blindlessly go with 'the group' out of fear of being singled out, punished in some way, etc.  I was going to say 'group think', but I don't think that's it.  Anyway, you probably get where I'm going.  

Candy

I believe that "groupthink" (one word) is indeed the word you're looking for. I've also seen the terms "herd mentality" and "mass delusion" to describe the phenomenon. Unfortunately, as social animals, we want to go with the group and will change our professed opinions--even against our nature--to fit in.

If you want a real eye-opener, look up Solomon Asch's (1956) classic experiment on group persuasion, which has since been replicated hundreds of times. Several such studies were performed in the late 1940s and the 1950s, partially to try to explain how the German people could have so blindly conformed--with the hope that it could be demonstrated that they were uniquely docile or cooperative or conformist or amoral or something. The opposite conclusion was always reached, though--with frighteningly little persuasion, we, too, will happily turn into Nazis.

You want to try your own experiment, try voicing an unpopular opinion in the midst of a social gathering and feel how the temperature in the room drops--and how you absorb everyone else's reactions and automatically think, "Maybe I'm wrong." It takes guts to hang on to the truth--or your sincere opinion--when everyone around you disagrees. For almost everyone, it becomes easier to just go along.

Kevin, I think I actually participated in such a Solomon Asch type experiment:  In about 1966 or '67 I was taking courses at XXX University (later named University of XXX) as part of my Nursing education.  One course was Psychology 101.  One day the instructor (I think he was a TA) announced the opportunity for anyone to earn a few credits by taking part in an activity (can't recall if he called it an experiment or study or what).  I was always open to gaining credits for little effort on my part so of course I signed on.  Was told to report to a classroom at such and such day and time.

Got there, and there two guys and myself.  Wish I could recall the details better, but the 'activity' consisted of the three of us being shown statements or something, with which we either agreed or disagreed, or said this or that to be true.  Seems like we wore earphones and pushed buttons, but I may be making that up.  Anyway, nothing complex, or difficult, nothing to do with the psychology course curriculum.  Somehow we knew how each other answered.  The order of us answering had something to do with it, I'm pretty sure. 

So began the test.  As we responded, I detected quiet 'snickering' by the other two.  Did it affect me?  YES!  I second guessed some answers based on theirs, at first.  I remember at some point realizing that this was a set up of some sort, and I started sticking with my answers.  But I remember feeling kind of embarrassed or shameful or something.  

I don't remember any informed consent; we were given no debriefing, just "thanks and credits will be added to your grades" something like that.  I realized later the other two were probably confederates of the instructor with me as the subject to study 'conformity.'  Have no idea what was done with the data.  Grrr.  It had to be highly unethically done in several ways, which is why I didn't name the University here.  Decades later I had some classes in ethics, served on the hospital ethics committee, etc., so I know a lot more now than I did then, times 100%.  But I've never heard of Solomon Asch etc., so thanks for that.  Very interesting.  And to think, I was a lab rat!

Candy