Yet when the people ask to not be owned by corporations, to have medical care, to not commit genocide, that all falls on deaf ears.
When wall Street wants something done, Biden jumps to it.
These are all sticking little plasters on the giant gaping wound and saying that you fixed it
i will never understand how people take the time to criticize biden when trump is the alternative. unless those people are actually troompa loompas/russians
“not be owned by corporations” LOL yea… go ahead and vote against biden and see how that “not be owned by corporations” works out for you…
Pointing out that Biden is fucked up and is committing genocide does not have anything to do with trump. I’m not entirely sure how you even got to trump from what I said. That seems like a reading comprehension issue on your part
Trump is fucking awful and would likely be worse than Biden in almost every way. No one, least of all me, said otherwise. That does not mean you can’t criticize Biden and the Democrats though. So not sure what your issue is but if you want to keep arguing a point I did not make then go for it and have fun.
If you want to address the actual issues plaguing the world then stop pretending that either trump or Biden are the right way forward.
pretending that either trump or Biden are the right way forward.
you typed a lot of shit to out yourself as a “bOtHsiDeSbAd” muppet. go ahead and keep shitting on biden для Родины!
Lol I’m not even close to Russian I just don’t like genocide and I don’t like the fact that most people in the states can’t generally afford to live properly. But sure because I point out that the Democrats, who I’ve voted for every single time since I’ve been able to vote, are also fucking up, that means I support Russia and trump. That makes a lot of sense.
Again, you guys need to figure out your reading comprehension
You will never win, they don’t want real discussion. They want to pretend this election would be “in the bag” if people were smart, like them.
They’re all great things to point out and discuss, during primary season.
Well they’re always relevant and worth discussing, but don’t make any sense in the context of the general election.
What are you trying to accomplish? Silence any criticism of Biden?
Do you really think that if everybody would just NOT TALK BAD about Biden he would get elected?
The Democrats had a wide open door here to inspire real change against the weakest candidate the Republicans have ever put up. TWICE. But instead of running somebody INSPIRING what did they do? They ran somebody who’s just NOT AS BAD as the Republican candidate.
In 2018 when AOC surprised everyone by winning her seat and Democratic socialism made a big splash and there were so much excitement, what did the established Democratic party do? They squashed that shit.
I don’t care about Biden, nobody does. I care about Democratic Socialism, and the Democrats don’t.
Expanding internet access in rural areas with the Build Back Better plan. That alone was a massive investment into our infrastructure.
I’m actually switching very soon to a fiber company that recently started covering my area and has only been active at all for a few years. They only have coverage in like three towns, and don’t cover all of any of them (mostly for obvious reasons related to local geography and where you reach the most people by running the lines).
Is there any info on who got funding for Internet in rural areas via Build Back Better? I’m curious if Biden is the reason they are a thing and we have any broadband Internet competition at all.
You can see of you qualify for the program : reconnect. It has a few reference to who has received funding. If you dig deeper, I’m sure you will find more info.
Biden made the big announcement as part of multiple packages at the time. The same plan that is suppose to put high speed rails on the east and west coasts.
I’ll have to dig deeper. It just seemed…convenient that a local fiber provider started up in 2021, started service in 2022 and has been slowly expanding through the region since.
Lol what about like the ten times they’ve done that before
I have family in rural NC , two different areas. Both have lived in those areas for 15 yrs. When AT&T pulled out due to not enough customers, they lost internet. The only option they had was 10 down, 1 up (advertised), for $65 a month.
Last year they got word AT&T, and several smaller name companies were moving out there. Now they get 300 down, 10 up for $50.
It’s hard to follow these anti-capitalist bourgeoisie, when they fold themselves backwards for mere nuggets at every election cycle.
It’s not even complete nuggets it’s week old table scraps, and they fain for them like it is the best thing in the world
Your blocking will not be in vain, comrade.
Cherry picking 🍒
And those cherries are so small and juiceless.
Yes, I also don’t understand how the US government works and have a keyboard!
Well that’s great then! When Trump and his gang of maniacs get in they won’t be able to accomplish anything because of how the US government works!
That’s so encouraging! Here I thought being President meant you could effect change.
I wawnt it all er nuthin! May be win the fashises win pee pool wheel see!
You’re literally doing an impression of moderate democrat voters. You know that right? They’re the ones getting everything they want and they’re regularly used as the reason why Biden can’t do X, Y, or Z because he’d lose their votes.
This is pure projection.
Wut u meen?
All of these things definitely were in the news, of course. They just don’t STAY in the news, and the public memory hole works fast.
Because they’re fucking bread crumbs. What you want us to hold a parade over credit card fees while housing, education, healthcare and food continue to become more expensive and Biden’s cabinet works to suppress wages? Neato.
They’re steps in the right direction, but in general I agree with the sentiment. We need much more drastic changes.
We need new leadership, these geriatric parasites aint gonna do shit to really change anything.
Their main job is to placate us while transferring nations wealth upwards. Looks at the national debt over last 30 years and nothing to show for it. Literally no infrastructure, no social support except for boomers/old. Everybody is also in more debt. Every major market is consolidated is being price gouged.
This shit don’t happen on its own folks. Somebody did this…
if by “new leadership” you mean “get the republicans out the senate and the house”, then yes. Jeesus. The president isn’t a god, you nutter.
While I fully agree with the sentiment of your comment, I need to remark that national debt is a non-issue. The central bank of the US, in this case the Federal Reserve, is the one and only entity in planet Earth with the power to create dollars at will. It doesn’t even need to print them, since money now is mostly digital, they can be created at a keystroke on a keyboard.
As long as the national debt is denominated in USD, which it is, the US will never have a problem with debt payments, it could literally pay it all back early tomorrow pressing a keyboard 3 times, and it would cost taxpayers a grand total of $0.
Debt is simply a useful tool for other reasons, like being able to control the interest rate of loans the economy (as we saw during the recent increase enacted to attempt fighting inflation), but public expenditure isn’t reliant on debt or even on taxes, since the government can create an arbitrarily large amount of dollars. The desirable amount to be created should be discussed with scientific evidence in hand, or even modulated over time responding to the markets and the situation of the economy and inflation, but debt is absolutely not a limit on public expenditure. The US could create as many dollars as desired to pay for infrastructure or social support (as it did during the very successful new deal, or the pandemic cheques, or rescuing silicon valley banks).
Yes national debt is not a problem for the state printing money… Make no mistake that it is has impact on people responsible for paying it.
Where is this cavalier attitude coming from?
Who do you think pays the interrest and where do you think that money goes?
Again, it’s not cavalier attitude, I’m at least as much of a leftist as you are, it’s just an explanation of the economics of the state and the public sector.
Who pays the interest? The government. Where does that money go? A combination of private sector of this country and others, and the public sector of other countries, basically anyone who wants to buy public debt. Myself included btw. I’m not paying interest on my country’s debt, my country is paying me interest on the debt I purchased from it.
I’m purely talking about public debt, not private debt. Unless someone in the private sector can get indebted in a currency they create and control, then they can’t pay for it immediately and without cost. It’s just that when people discuss the problem of national debt they’re usually talking about the debt of the public sector.
You are still missing the point.
Government has only one way to raise revenue, taxes. Taxes are paid mostly by working people, ie middle aged. Most of public debt is owned by the wealthy and old.
So public debt is transfer of money from working middle aged wager slaves to the wealthy owner elites.
What benefit did working people get from this national debt? None.
So while you point stands, public debt does not matter for the federal government.
You pretending like it has no impact on the people paying taxes is rather naive take on how it actually works.
It is an extraction racket, no amount of modern monetary theory bullshit explains away the economic toll that is imposed on the working people.
We are clearly suffering from it as we talking right now. QoL is going down, this is a direct result of failed fiscal and monetary policy.
Ya, basically Biden is only able to solve minor first world problems instead of any sort of meaningful attempt on any of the several huge issues.
This isn’t all his fault, he’s not a king and can’t do whatever he wants, but I also don’t often find my own managers all that happy with me when all I can say I’ve accomplished is minor, non-critical tasks and haven’t even started on the major work they want accomplished. Making a report look nicer and fixing the break room coffee machine isn’t going to cover for failing to launch our latest product. Americans are right to be disappointed in their government and we should be disappointed in our media for failing to stick to larger issues.
I’m more disappointed in the people who keep voting conservative blockers into the senate and house than I am that biden won’t circumvent them.
I’m disappointed in them and fucking livid at shitbags like Sinema who run on a platform and gleefully give the middle finger to everyone while they do the exact opposite once in office.
This isn’t an accident. The same thing happened during Obama’s presidency.
People don’t want to face facts: The Democrat party is filled to the brim with pro-corporate trash.
Especially since Biden was brought into that position to do precisely that. Do some pet projects but not challenge the underlying root issues of inequality and peoples economic situation. Because that would be against the interests of the billionaire “donors” of the Dems and Reps.
“pet projects”? 🤦♂️ jfc you people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
Yes. They are pet projects compared to what other presidents have achieved and what is needed to change the country to an economically, socially and ecologically sustainable new status quo. Biden is preventing that change together with his DNC buddies who want to make sure the inequality in the US stays, the interests of the super rich are kept and the white upper class remains in power.
BIDEN is preventing change? 🤦♂️ jfc you people.
Why do you limit yourself and your political demands to the little box given to you instead of demanding to see the horizon?
He could have stayed out of the rail strike, he could have not gone around congress to ship weapons to Israel and he could have told Yellen not to make suppression of worker wages her goal.
You’re trying to deflect blame away from him as if we’re all expecting him to do things he can’t. Biden isn’t acting in our interests and it should come as no surprise that means we’re not interested in voting for him again.
Always beware of the fact, that the only thing hindering an all-out revolution is your fear of losing the scraps they throw at you. Gore Vidal
Blame congress for 99% of that. The president doesn’t have as much power as people seem to think they do.
Trump’s going to make this a dictatorship if he’s president
Biden can’t do anything slightly meaningful because the presidency doesn’t have as much power as people thing it does.
I know this will get downvoted to hell, but jesus the hypocrisy of these sort of statements blows my mind.
The difference is that Biden is following the rules of office, while Trump has said he’s going to blatantly disregard them.
It’s not hypocrisy. Republicans first tried to overthrow the government in the 1930s. They’ve aimed at ending democracy for a century at least. The reason Trump can do it has nothing to do with presidential powers. And everything to do with fascists in Congress. Who would support it.
That you think it’s some sort of failing of Democrats or Biden. Just speaks to a completed lack of understanding, and no desire to engage with reality. That’s why you’ll be down voted.
That you think it’s some sort of failing of Democrats or Biden. Just speaks to a completed lack of understanding, and no desire to engage with reality. That’s why you’ll be down voted.
It’s rich for you to evaluate my desire to engage with reality from a person who’s trying to defend a party that produces 80 year old candidates from the primaries and then wondering why young people won’t vote. Historians are going to have a field day dissecting your delusions.
I’m not defending them. I criticize them often. What I am doing, is commenting on your childish behavior.
I know why young people don’t vote. Especially those that have been radicalized like yourself. With no strategic/critical thinking skills. Ain’t none of em good.
I’m not defending them. I criticize them often.
Bulllllllshit. I can tell from your comment lecturing young people and leftists is where all your focus is.
Take that energy to moderate voters electing procorporate trash in the primaries. Those are the people who lack strategy.
And Trump will take credit for it all and his idiot believers will eat it up.
In the exact same way Biden took credit for people returning to work after covid
Then why y’all so scared of Trump winning?
Can I answer for someone outside the US?
The only reason why I might be OK with Trump winning is that, perhaps, if you experience “fascism light” at the hand of an absolute dimwitted toddler, the damage might be reversible.
Just think about that… Any country wishing to destabilise the US, and destroy trust with allies, etc. Trump is peeeeerfect.
except, we’ve already done that. That was Trump 1.0
Trump 2.0 includes Project 2025, which is hard core, far right extremism. The Handmaid’s Tale level of fascism.
Because tr-mp is evil.
I don’t even understand how your question follows the post at all.
If things are so good, why do people want to change it
Wouldn’t Trump being elected change that? You don’t even make sense.
because trump supporters are fucking stupid
Their vote still counts the same as yours. Calling them stupid does nothing nor explains anything. It’s a thought stopping comment. Do better.
okay. trump supporters support a fucking verified con-man rapist who also happens to be a convicted felon. and yet they still support him.
what the fuck further “explanation” do you need? are you a trump supporter?
“thought stopping comment” GTFO that’s trump’s entire fucking platform: don’t fucking think, just do as i say
and “do better”? how about this: go fuck yourself
So much anger. You should get some therapy.
so little response. you should get some “how to support your point” lessons
but thank you for demonstrating my original point that trump voters are fucking stupid
goddamn fucking right i’m angry
That’s a comment stopper. Do better.
I really hope the irony of this comment wasn’t missed by cumskin_genocide
Very dry, I’m dying 😂
you asked the question. don’t whine when you don’t like the answer.
Forgive me for wanting an intelligent answer and not the slop you usually get on the internet
Okay
This is sealioning right here. Not when I stop you from dragging me off the point.
Okay.
Because Trump will roll everything back and cause worse working and living conditions for minority groups, while compelling the GOP to push for extended term limits, arresting opponents and outspoken individuals under false pretenses and plain lies, and embolden the worst people we have in this country.
Now, you’re turn: Challenge me. If you want others to do better we sure as hell will expect that of you. Answer your own question.
If you want others to do better we sure as hell will expect that of you. Answer your own question.
*crickets chirping*
Pretty typical in my experience. If you want them to reply you often need to leave some crack in your reasoning that their cultish little minds can latch onto and run with to the absolute disregard of literally everything else.
Spit straight facts? Normally the only reply you’ll get is one made to get under your skin, if they make any attempt at all.
GOP play book rule number whatever: Make your opponents spend the time and energy necessary to dispute you. Then ignore that and attack their character.
As a single father of two girls, because Trump appointed judges to the Supreme Court who decided to repeal Roe vs Wade. Because he refused to accept the outcome of an election and maintains to this day that he is the duly elected President of the United States. Because he illegally interfered with military aid Congress had apportioned to Ukraine because Zelensky was unwilling to announce investigations into Hunter Biden. The man has lived his whole life with a silver spoon so far up his ass it tickles his tonsils, but he has you convinced he is on your side.
Trump is a corrupt authoritarian hack who only wants the power of the office, he doesn’t give a shit about anyone else.
But any criticism of Mango Mussolini is “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as if deep-throating his cock is the normal state of affairs and any dissent is treason.
Because there are a ton of single issue voters who ignore all of the good he’s done because of the Israel thing, despite the fact that Trump would be exponentially worse.
There’s no US politician that has any chance of being elected that would be any better about Israel. It all comes down to two things: Israel is our only real ally in the Middle East and AIPAC.
They could literally be building camps to gas Muslims and expanding their plans beyond Gaza and we’d likely still support them regardless of which party is in office at the time.
Yeah, I was going to point that out, but someone would have inevitably mentioned Bernie.
Because of the sheer number of stupid/greedy people on the country
Maybe you should round them up and put them into camps.
Look out everyone, we’ve got a master edge lord in our midst!
Oh how original! No one has ever made that dumbass comparison before in the history of the internet! You must be so proud!
But it’s BlUe mAgA which is why I support red maga winning! /s
Break this down for me. I’m an idiot. What are you trying to say?
He’s saying that all criticism from his left is actually from his right.
There’s some dipshits that call Democrats Blue maga in a desperate last ditch effort to bring legitimacy to the notion that “both sides are the same”. Either because they want Trump to win or because they believe they’re an anime protagonist and they can will a third option into being. The /s means I’m sarcastically supporting that notion.
No we call you that because you spend all your energy fighting us instead of working to rid the Democrat party of pro-corporate trash.
instead of working to rid the Democrat party of pro-corporate trash.
So how is that done exactly? By hiring hitmen?
I think a great first step would be to stop spending all your energy lecturing leftists and go after the people who vote for this procorporate trash in the primaries. At the very least it would convince me you’re actually interested in solving the problem and not just trying to get people to kick the can for your benefit.
First, what exactly do you mean by “going after”? Again, do I have to break their legs or what?
And most importantly second, where are those people? Because I’ve seen exactly none on Lemmy or Reddit. I would like to argue with someone who actually thinks Biden deserved the candidacy over others like Bernie, but they’re definitely not here and I wouldn’t even know where to “look” for them. I do what I can on the social I use.
First, what exactly do you mean by “going after”? Again, do I have to break their legs or what?
Lol I love how when I propose this people’s reading comprehension just falls off a cliff. Like they’re going ham on lecturing leftists and young people for their voting habits but super confused about what they could do with moderate voters.
But sure I’ll play along and pretend “go after” wasn’t clear in this context.
Here’s an example: Every time you have the urge to tell a leftist what to do on lemmy immediately log out. Go log into facebook. (Sign up if you don’t have an account). Find some Boomer who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries and tell them that was a stupid decision.
I spend more energy jerking off than talking to you. If you mean the incendiary way I talk down to people like you, that’s because I have fire on speed dial and “fuck off” just doesn’t cut it these days.
PS -> I’m not a democrat. inb4: I’m not a Trump supporter either.
I spend more energy jerking off than talking to you. If you mean the incendiary way I talk down to people like you, that’s because I have fire on speed dial and “fuck off” just doesn’t cut it these days.
Great. Redirect that energy towards the people who keep voting for pro-corporate trash in the primaries.
Bars
Negotiating drug prices for Medicare. That’s a huge caveat, especially since this guy is tweeting this info out. Medicare is only available if you’re over 65.
Like why lie?
Lie?
You mean understand how progress happens over a long period of time against intractable evangelical zealots who, helpfully, are also batshit crazy and rich?
You want a five line recap of beneficial policies in 50 words or less with no context or qualifications. Ok. No, no, it’s a valid point that the drug price cap affects the most vulnerable on medicare. Would you also like to see those discussions and how they played out across the months to get that far? No. You would not.
“Lie.” Please. Get in there and make it happen or understand the people who are already doing it are making the kind of progress we haven’t seen since the GOP became the GQP (including the Tea Party Fuckwits).
Is it not enough? Are those mean ol’ liberals keeping the abundance of universal happiness from happening for (checks notes) genocidal . . . wtf . . . really? Geno- wow. Ok . . . genocidal reasons? Well, when you have your favorite orange rapist back in power you’ll be super stoked at all the progress you’ve been denied these whole . . year-and-a-half . . . of a friendly Congress.
Everyone wants everything and thinks it’s just simple to build new policies and procedures in the middle of their constant attack and destruction by republiQans. And it does not now, nor has it ever, worked that way.
“Lie.” Ffs.
prolly because it is a twatter sound bite, not a proper policy white paper.
Wait is The medical one true?
The problem with those is the maggat adherents in the repuglican ranks. Get rid of those and good things will happen
Biden has made significant progress for the average person during his presidency, which is disheartening given the potential for even greater impact. It seems he knows that simply meeting basic expectations will be enough to outdo previous leaders.
Calling mr 34 felonies a leader is a bit of a stretch.
Leading us to our doom is a type of leadership, right?
fair lol
Now give me single payer healthcare/Medicare for All, and I’ll be a happy camper.
He can’t do that.
People keep saying the things Biden have been doing are weak, half measures, but they have no idea what he’s actually capable of doing without Congress.
He literally tried to wipe away a significant amount of student debt. He tried to fulfill that promise without Congress. The Supreme Court stopped it.
Honestly I think the entirety of the last 10 years of complete government failure should be tied back to the almost totally non-functional legislature.
The president can’t pass laws. The supreme court would matter far less, if we weren’t trying to creatively reinterpret ancient laws and applying them to technology and culture that didn’t even exist at the time they were written. Instead of updating and clarifying any of those laws, the supreme court has been allowed to effectively make policy by continually shifting interpretations of a static and obsolete set of laws that Congress should have updated 20 years ago. Several times courts have effectively changed policy by saying ‘the law doesn’t mean that, go write an actual law for that, don’t just make shit up’ and then Congress just doesn’t react at all.
If you look back at history, constitutional amendments were relatively regular up until recently. Can anyone imagine our current government passing an amendment for anything at all? Even the most minor tweak would be impossible in this Congress. Several of our major ‘wins’ were mere court cases and like we found out with abortion, what the court gives, the court can take away. Anything about our current day to day life that exists solely based on a court ruling we should be fighting to codify into law, but we all seem to recognize how futile that task is.
Funny how often Democrats try to do things that will definitely fail but then with things they actually can change there’s always some bullshit excuse.
We don’t have medicare for all or something similar because Democrats refused to make it happen during Obama’s term. That combined with the kid gloves they took to the financial sector during the financial crisis disillusioned a lot of people. Most Democrat politicians are corrupt pro-corporate trash.
Because there wasn’t support for it. Sure it has pretty broad public support. But our elected officials don’t. It’s not a bullshit excuse. It sucks but it’s true. And acting like a child certainly won’t fix it.
Because there wasn’t support for it. Sure it has pretty broad public support. But our elected officials don’t. It’s not a bullshit excuse.
Those elected officials were Democrats. You’re just proving my point. When the power is out of their hands you’re like “Omg they want to and if you just vote harder they’ll totally do it!” but then when the power is in their hands you just shrug and say “They didn’t support it.”
Yes, I know they don’t support it. That’s why I’m not voting for them.
And that’s why they aren’t voting for it. No one is proving your point. And no it’s not just Democrats. Whatever conspiracy pit you frequent, you need to get out.
Are you a bot? It seems like you just lost the entire context of the conversation. Let me remind you.
Me:
We don’t have medicare for all or something similar because Democrats refused to make it happen during Obama’s term.
You:
Because there wasn’t support for it.
Me:
Yes, I know they don’t support it. That’s why I’m not voting for them.
You:
And no it’s not just Democrats.
Are you following along now Siri?
The bullshit appointed Supreme Court.
We need more Democrats in Congress for that. A third of the Senate and all of the House are up for election in November. Attendance at the polls is crucial for down-ballot candidates just the same as presidential.
Vote in November, or be ready to accept what a Republican President, Congress, and SCOTUS decide for you.
We need more Democrats in Congress for that. A third of the Senate and all of the House are up for election in November. Attendance at the polls is crucial for down-ballot candidates just the same as presidential.
What guarantees can you give us they won’t “fumble” the ball like they did during Obama’s presidency? If they do will you finally acknowledge the fucking problem?
There’s none, other than the guarantee that Republicans will take the ball as far as they can in the opposite direction if we don’t vote. When was the last time a team won a game by walking off the field?
There’s none
Thanks for admitting that Democrat politicians are corrupt pro-corporate trash. Come up with a winning strategy and I’ll come back to the field.
Man! I love when people reduce the nuanced complexities of modern politics to a team sport. That’s just such a great way to reframe any issue to an us or them context.
And, when you get right down to it, that’s really what this world needs: more acceptance and enforcement of norms that pit half of us against the other half.
Ah! Progress!
I agree that polarization is a real problem. The only reason I continued to use the analogy from the previous commenter was to maintain consistency in conversation.
However, there are only two parties that are capable of winning this election. Believing otherwise is distraction, not progress.
You are sadly correct. My comment was not meant, in particular, to call you or your habits out, but a cynical snipe at all of us. Apologies if it came across negative, cos that’s also not gonna help any 🤝
The thing that stinks is
A) the electoral college makes it so only 4 or 5 states really matter
B) there’s an amnesia about trump from the never trump republicans. My dad is conservative but didn’t vote trump. He thought he was an asshole. Now my dad talks about how Biden is crooked, and the only reason people hate trump is because, and his words, “orange man bad”.
C) puritanical leftists have valid reasons to not like Biden, but they are willing to blow up the system as they always have. I say puritanical because I know there are pragmatic leftists who exercise restraint in their actions.
In 2020, the suburban vote was a critical win for Biden. I’m hoping for the best, but I’m starting to sit with the fact that Trump has a decent, if not likely, chance of winning in 2020.
The Electoral College has nothing to do with congressional elections.
The rest of your points can be addressed by providing information to those who are misinformed or disenfranchised. Abstaining may not be a vote for Trump, but it’s a refusal to stand in his way.
Right they’re talking about Congress. There’s still issues with districting though.
You vote for your Senators and House Representatives directly. The Electoral College has nothing to do with that.
Each state has two Senate seats, voted on statewide. Districting does not affect that vote.
Districting issues may make some votes less likely to make a difference in the House vote in specific districts in Republican states. That’s all the more reason to get as many Democrats to vote as possible.
The average Democratic voting representation for congressional elections is less than 50%. We constantly complain about the repercussions of our own inaction.
C) is the one that is gonna be the razor’s edge on this stuff. Reasonable people will vote for Biden, but it’s the people that don’t feel like voting will matter or people who are dying on the hill of a single issue who are potentially going to fuck us and the entire rest of the world by not voting.
I plan on voting for Biden because it’s the right thing to do for all Americans and our allies, and I really don’t want to be a tailgunner if Trump breaks up NATO and all the men get drafted for a world war to save Europe or Asia-Pacific again. Preventing assholes domestically and abroad from destroying peaceful countries would be nice.
is the one that is gonna be the razor’s edge on this stuff. Reasonable people will vote for Biden
Funny, because whenever we say “Biden should have done Y not X” you all say “If he hadn’t then moderate democrats and some Republicans won’t vote for him.” They vote for him because they get what they want. Yet somehow we’re unreasonable when we refuse to vote for him when we don’t get what we want.
You’re trying to hold leftists to a higher standard and it’s bullshit.
It’s the exact same standard. Do you really think all votes for Trump are going to be from supporters? Most of them will be from Republicans who don’t want a Democratic President.
There’s a saying- Democrats need to fall in love, Republicans need to fall in line. It’s that mentality of action that causes us to regress as a nation every time a Republican takes office.
In turn, Democratic candidates move closer to center to capture more of the active voters, having the exact opposite effect that is intended by abstention.
It’s the exact same standard.
If it were the same standard then excusing Biden for catering to moderate voters because otherwise they’d abandon him would never happen. Either your reading comprehension is shit or you’re just plain lying. Moderate Democrat voters are getting everything they want. Leftists are getting bread crumbs and talking about abstaining from voting. You should be going after Moderate Democrat voters for being greedy. Not telling leftists they need to shut up and be grateful they’re getting bread crumbs.
But don’t you think getting the 10 commandments in our classrooms will make things soo much better? 🙃
which is disheartening given the potential for even greater impact
What potential? Without Congress or the Supreme Court, what potential things could Biden be doing that would have “greater” impact that he isn’t doing?
Something that doesn’t require a new law, and won’t be shot down by a hostile conservative court?
Please give me examples.
Without Congress or the Supreme Court
Pretty sure the potential lies in changing this.
Vote. Not just for president, but for every office you’re able to. Because this shit isn’t just “Trump did it!” or “Biden didn’t do enough!” It’s also the legislators, and a lot of the judiciary they approved (and probably pushed during the Trump administration). Not to mention all the state and local reps that initiate most of the policies that affect people.
It basically all starts with Congress. We could fix so much shit if we ever managed to get a real majority (not 48 Dems and two ‘not technically Republicans’)
We could fix so much shit if we ever managed to get a real majority
We would just change it to “we could fix so much shit if we ever managed to get a supermajority.”
And then redefine “supermajority” to mean 67.
They can’t give you any examples and neither can the dorkuses downvoting you. Biden has accomplished a lot with the maggats playing the “I don’t wanna” game whenever a dem is in office. He not only had to dig us out of the hole the orange menace left us in, he also has to cure cancer, be the first human to step on Mars, etc and even then people will find something to bitch about.
With any luck (and a lot of hard work) we will have Biden for a second term and then a dem to replace him in 2028 so at least 12 years of the adults running things. Then maybe we can get some shit done and stop trying to tread water at best.
and then a dem to replace him in 2028
HRC will win the primaries in 2028 and we’ll be having the same argument we’re having now. Pro-corporate trash isn’t doing the trick.
Biden could fix everything and walk on water and they’d still hate for some bullshit that isn’t true or above their room temp iq.
He could get caught trying.
He could frame a big-picture vision of what he and Democrats value, expressed in terms that speak to Americans emotionally. He could push for policies that Republicans and the Supreme Kangaroo Court will shoot down, and then go to the American people and blame them for taking away good things that everybody wants.
The student-loan debt relief effort had about 1 1/2 of those things. The rest of the time he tends to talk about particular bills and policies. Republicans can stop those, and those things become dead letters, but dreams and hopes are evergreen.
Shame on you for saying that! I’m sure you’ll be downvoted.
He’s boring and uninspirational and isn’t accomplishing anything of note… but you should not question any of that!
Just rah-rah until defeated, and repeat.
It takes immense amounts of time and effort to bring new items like this forwards, so each item you choose to do means time and money that can’t be used bringing a different policy forwards.
Based on that why should Biden waste his time developing and bringing forward policies that the Republicans are obviously going to immediately shoot down, it just prevents him from being able to work on things that might actually get passed
No, it really doesn’t. I can think them up by the dozens. If they’re not going to pass, there’s no reason to lay all the groundwork. But they’re still good for rhetorical purposes.
Dozens? Off the top of your head? Name a dozen, for science.
- Build a giant net on the border with Canada to keep geese out.
- Make Friday part of the weekend.
- Give every new baby a chocolate eclair.
- Issue bulletproof vests to all citizens to help survive mass shootings.
- No more speed limits in Interstate highways. (Okay, absurd ones are harder to think of than real issues that people care about.)
- Cheaper health care.
- Cheaper housing.
- Cheaper groceries.
- Cheaper fuel.
- Codify reproductive freedom in law.
- Hold the media accountable to the truth.
- Ban insider trading in Congress.
- Ensure that people have secure jobs, with dignity.
Details, schmetails. The post is a complaint by Robert Reich that voters aren’t paying attention to details. And ITT, plenty of Lemmings pointing out that Biden can’t pass very many policy proposals, anyway. The idea is to sell the perception that Democrats understand and care about issues facing Americans.
The big picture comes first to get Democrats elected, then get down to the details.
This document should cover many of the points, so it’ll be referred to a lot.
The president doesn’t have the power to do any of that.
This is how you end up with poorly thought out legislation.
I’m doing 1000 calculations in my head and they’re all wrong
How? Or, why does it matter? It’s not going to pass the House.
Because any president doing this immediately comes across as a 5 year old pretending to have a magic wand.
I’m looking at the list of a dozen items you made - you can’t just say “I want this” and not have a detailed plan for how it’s meant to be executed - where the money comes from, what effects it’s expected to have, etc.
When you are proposing legislation that you know won’t be able to be made into law, you’re just virtue signaling since even you believe there’s no real-world impact. People are even frustrated with Bidens attempts as they are - I’ve definitely read frustrated comments here talking about how Bidens approach to relieving student debt is so poorly thought out that nobody will actually benefit.
Sure you can think up the tag line line liner title for each item but what about all the details? How will they work the restrictions the requirements the funding. How much of that requires large amounts of work just to be shutdown and tossed by the Republicans
This is why Democrats struggle so badly, so I’ll say it straight up: It’s about sales. Reich is complaining that the public doesn’t lose its shit over arcane policy details. Yeah, sit down for this truth bomb (/s): That’s human nature. It’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s not good. It’s just the way it is. Complaining about it won’t help, or change the content of headlines.
So somebody asks for examples of what can Biden do when he’s blocked by Congress? I say: Sell, sell, sell. Get in the PR game. Put on a show that the people in the cheap seats can enjoy. (That is a metaphor for a rhetorical spectacle that even politically unengaged citizens will hear about.) Show everybody that the problem is in Congress.
What do the details matter? The headline is all that people will hear, and Republicans will block it, anyway. He needs to sell the perception that Democrats are trying. The details can come later, after they get the votes.
Maybe we could start by not aiding a genocide? Just spitballing here…
I’m just glad he’s not using a sharpie to write “finish them” on bombs instead of pushing for a cease fire.
You mean the bombs Biden shipped to Israel? Did the sharpie make them extra deadly or something?
Lol bud all Biden’s “resistance” to Bibi is going to disappear the moment the election results come in. And you’ll still defend Biden anyway.
Significant progress is disheartening. Ok.
Tough room.
Lemmy is full of those childish people I met in college.
I suspect it’s also full of foreign agents acting on bad motives. That and children for whom this is their first election, who are caught up on ideals instead of slow and steady progress.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.
- MLK Jr
Our climate is being destroyed irrevocably, wealth inequality is at record levels, and our corrupt government is completely up for sale and unwilling to represent the people. Corporate-run America is in a death spiral, and geriatric neoliberals are leading the charge. Foreign agents would tell Americans to slowly and steadily continue down this ruinous path as the rest of the world leaves us behind. But red blooded Americans understand how this isn’t sustainable for any length of time. Gradual incrementalism is a far cry from our salvation.
Agreed. Many appear to be attending foreign colleges which . . . well, makes sense, sort of.
I wawnt ever thang I wawnt. If it isint all I wawnt it isint gud enuff.
This is literally how moderate Democrat voters are and you all tell us to cater to them in every single election.
I dawnt unnerstand. Wat u meen?
Moderates:
Biden has no power, he’s just a president!
Also moderates:
Look at these good things that happened while Biden was in office, he did this!
Biden:
Fuck congress, I’ll go around them if it’s something I want like supporting a genocide or violating human rights at our borders
Are you serious?
When Dem Congress goes his way, the common parlance is that the president, as leader of the Dems, gets the credit as “he did it”. If you want to be pedantic, no he didn’t directly do it. It’s just common parlance to give the president credit for the things he pushes for.
He can ask the Dem House of Reps and Dem senators to do things, but that is not the same. If Congress says no, there’s very little he can do. The President does not have absolute control - to pass legislation takes Congress.
Or things like banning Non-Compete clauses. That was a government agency, which gets appointments. Biden didn’t directly make that decision, it came from his (or other presidents) appointments.
Then you have Executive Action (EA) which can be used for some things. You can’t use EA for all things. But EAs are not laws, they can be undone by the next president lickity split.
You’re responding to either a troll or “progressive” who will find any reason to be disappointed and abstain from voting for a Dem. Don’t bother.
As long as other people learn then I’m happy to do it.
It’s much appreciated. There are people who would be swindled by these people if someone like you didn’t call them out.
There are some things, what you linked twice is emergency action. Another is executive action. But you can’t pass laws, pass a budget, etc without Congress.
It’s gotta suck knowing you will still be voting for him in November.
I sure as fuck won’t. If your dog pisses on the floor and you give him a treat the dog’s going to think you wanted to piss on the floor again. That’s exactly what would happen if people re-elect Biden. Either start holding your own politicians accountable or quit punching at the people that are
I hope you enjoy Trump then.
You should have held your politicians accountable and we wouldn’t be in this mess
Likewise.
I don’t have any politicians if you are assuming I’m republican.
Even worse, someone who doesn’t vote.
Eh, I could live in one of the ~45 states where we already know what the result is…
Everybody wants to act like we don’t know what votes mean these days. The sad truth is if you’re not in a battleground, it doesn’t matter who you vote for as president.
Even 08 Obama that flipped a bunch of states, he already had it in the bag without them.
Good thing there’s more than just a presidential race, then. In fact, you can vote in non-presidential races every year (depending on local elections). At the very least every two.
Yeah, battleground states are important in presidential races… but every state matters in congressional and state/local races.
Yep, there’s even elections in non presidential years!
What’s unfortunate is with a Dem presidential candidate like Biden that people aren’t excited about, is it makes the down ballot races less likely to win in red states. 08 Obama was fucking huge in that respect, and I’m feeling old now that it’s apparently ancient history and no one remember.
Hell, even just 2020 there was that effect because people wanted trump gone and Biden was still an unknown to most Dems nationwide.
Lots of people believed last primary and the promised Biden made.
It’s hard to get that goodwill back from voters.
It’s hard to get that goodwill back from voters.
Agreed. Most of these people don’t understand lots of people still remember the ways Democrats fucked us over during Obama’s term.
- No public option in the ACA
- Kid gloves for the financial sector while people were losing their homes
- Huge surveillance expansion
And more.
Banning medical debt from credit reports
Negotiating drug prices
He’s only able to do these because he opposes universal healthcare. He wants people to die of lack of access to healthcare (70,000 per year) or lack of insurance (45,000 per year). What do dead people, or people who can’t afford to be diagnosed, or people who can’t afford necessary procedures care about their credit reports or drugs they can’t get prescribed? Why would anyone cheer a horribly policy?
As if the media aren’t congratulating him enough on his “tough red line” for Israel’s genocide that they somehow never break. Ever the victims, Democrats in power are.
Let’s not bash progress in pursuit of perfection. These policies are directly impacting me in the positive, which is more than we could say for the previous president.
Let’s not celebrate inaction on matters that mean life or death to people. None of the above have helped me, or anyone less fortunate than me.
Thus the false internet-leftist is revealed. “Me first!”
As opposed to you who in no way benefit from Biden being re-elected?
Huh? no evidence of that, or opinion on that is described in my comment. Why are you making things up?
I’m focused on the words they used. This isn’t about their opinion on a political candidate, it’s their (in my opinion) flawed, antithetical position on the benefits of the self, not the group.
Candidly, I strongly do not want trump to be president, as I have at risk folks in my family and community.
I want the best available outcome for them, in an otherwise polluted system.
The person I replied to made it about themselves. If they are allowed to say “I think this is good because it helped me”, why am I not allowed to say it’s not good because it didn’t help me? Are you admitting that Democrats are “me first”?
Also, conveniently leaving off the more important part of the sentence, aren’t you?
No goalposts my friend, you wrote what you think, and that’s yours.
Typical nothing answer.
I’m not answering any query. I’m replying that your words stand as they are, and that’s conclusive.
None of the above have helped me, or anyone less fortunate than me.
What? This is completely stupid. Of course lowered drug and removing medical debt will help people poorer than you. Those are exactly the people most harmed by medical debt and high drug prices.
Starting to think accounts online that prominently advertise themselves as communists might not actually be commenting in good faith.
removing medical debt
He didn’t do that. This isn’t what it says. You are the one arguing in bad faith. Why lie? He would not do this, because it would harm his corporate backers in the medical industry. He did not remove any medical debt. Hell, he won’t even do the much less impressive thing and remove student debt.
It was shorthand for the thing we were already talking about “removing medical debt from credit reporting”. So yeah, you’re a bad faith troll.
The gEnOSiDe DemoCRATz part, if not the username, gave it away immediately.
Application for block is approved. ka-chunk
What an incredibly self-centered and damaging thing to say.
These policies may not be helping you right now. But they are helping millions. And they aren’t making future change harder to enact than before. On the contrary, it sets the status quo a little bit more positive, making future improvements look like less of a drastic change.
Don’t EVER bash progress. Bash inaction and bash negative side effects.
I’m sure that’s very easy to say when you are comfortable, have health coverage, and are likely white.
Much less easy if you are poor, homeless, an asylum-seeker, immigrant, Palestinian, live in a climate-affected area…
Also, I care much more about those less fortunate than me than I do myself. The person I responded to was the one to make it about themselves. I’m the one talking about those who are being ignored, while you are the one ignoring them. Don’t talk to me about “damaging”.
Bite my shiny metal ass, Voladya
Something good happened to someone. You said “Bad, not me!!” instead of “Great, now this!”.
That is bad.
I’m just going to repost this because you are continuing to ignore the people that actually matter here.
Much less easy if you are poor, homeless, an asylum-seeker, immigrant, Palestinian, live in a climate-affected area…
Because there is nothing “great” about any of this. None of this fixes any of the problems, which is great for comfortable people like you.
That is bad.
Troll
More Americans have Healthcare than ever before thanks to The American Rescue Plan.
Biden’s initiatives have housed 1.2 million homeless people, and climbing.
I was formerly homeless and didn’t have Healthcare. If Biden was president then, I would have been in a much better spot.
How about you? You sound like you have never been homeless and have no idea what it’s like.
If only politics were about policy and not popularity.
Yeah. But they’re not. Usually.
Interestingly that’s more a function of media more than politics. Political movement “in a vacuum” doesn’t require popularity. But since we have put political power in the hands of everyone vs a king or whatever, the media is the ocean in which politics “swims”.
Capping credit card fees? At what, 25%?
35% APR, compounded DAILY?
What fees are we talking about? They’re already cash-it-here high. It’s there something worse than that? Is the president making their interest remain at a reasonable amount above prime?
Now THAT WOULD be a cap worth bragging about.
Interest is not a fee technically
Hence the question in the comment you’re replying to: “What fees are we talking about?”
Choose not to answer that, did you? Figures. Because I’ll bet it’s a fucking DROP IN THE BUCKET to what those bastards charge regularly.
Late fees. 32 dollar industry average prior to the cap. Down to 8 dollars. Which is relatively reasonable?
But I get what you’re saying, it is a veritable drop in the bucket compared to interest rates charged. But those are different things. And with the limitations imposed with a Republican led House, an essentially tied Senate well below the threshold to overrule a filibuster, capping interest rates federally is nigh impossible.
Additionally, max interest rates are set at the state level. So if you don’t like your interest rate, THAT’S NOT THE PRESIDENT, vote in state and local elections! And for federal banks? That shit is controlled by an independent bureau within the Treasury department. And they are appointed every 5 years. And the current guy is already trying to make shit more fair but they really only enforce the laws that exist from Congress. But if Trump wins, I bet you will find a grifter is his place if you check project 2025.
Actually, on that note, I check the 920 page manifesto of project 2025, on page 705 it states the following.
Merging Functions. The new Administration should establish a more stream-lined bank and supervision by supporting legislation to merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Reserve’s non-monetary supervisory and regulatory functions. U.S. banking law remains stuck in the 1930s regarding which functions finan-cial companies should perform. It was never a good idea either to restrict banks to taking deposits and making loans or to prevent investment banks from taking deposits. Doing so makes markets less stable. All financial intermediaries function by pooling the financial resources of those who want to save and funneling them to others that are willing and able to pay for additional funds. This underlying principle should guide U.S. financial laws. Policymakers should create new charters for financial firms that eliminate activity restrictions and reduce regulations in return for straightforward higher equity or risk-retention standards. Ultimately, these charters would replace government regulation with competition and market discipline, thereby lowering the risk of future financial crises and improving the ability of individuals to create wealth.
The above basically outlines how they want to fold all these bureaus together and allow deposit banks and investment banks to be one in the same. Sounds good on paper, until you remember that’s like half the cause of the great depression. And when you have fewer eyes on more problems, even with the best intentions, which I doubt they have, shit hits the fan and hard. So yea. I think Biden has generally better policy there.
Vote for the most progressive candidate you have available to you. Knock doors. Motivate as many as you can.
If you don’t like who got to be the candidate? Well, you should have gotten out the vote for the one you liked when the primaries happen.
But oops, we have this whole incumbent thing! And typically a sitting president will go unchallenged by his own party. Only Crystal Grifter Marianne Williamson and some dude named Doug that no one was interested in voting for were running against Biden.
I’m not saying it’s absolutely perfect, but you really can only play the cards as they are dealt.
Quality fucking post.
I am genuinely worried about Trump, but I think appealing to facts and figures and obscure laws or small “hard to see how it helps me” accomplishments isn’t the way to get Biden back in office.
I’m not sure what is the way.
Yeah.
Oh look at you, the brains of the operation here. Do you know what the Republicans would have capped it at? NOTHING AT ALL. Do you know why the Democrats can’t deliver the perfect policies you demand? Because they have to fight against the other side tooth and nail to get anything through at all. Do you think the Republicans would be forgiving student loan debt right now? News flash: hell no. Do you have complaints about the way loans are being forgiven, oh of that I have no doubt. Do you know why you have those complaints? Because the Republicans are always chipping away and fighting against at every good thing that happens.
You’d be that spoiled brat whose single mother comes home after working her ass off all day, and throws a fit because she made potato soup again when you wanted hamburgers, wouldn’t you?
