I'm no fan of Biden (though I did and will vote for him) but that's not what happened. He did not bust the unions, the 12 unions still exist. He broke a strike, which is the intended purpose of the Railway Labor Act of 1926.
The law he put before congress to force a resolution to the three year negotiation deadlock would have guaranteed the workers 7 days of sick leave per year (they wanted 15). It passed the House but the Senate knocked it down to 1 day, with a 14% immediate pay increase and an additional 25% over the next five years.
Biden continued negotiate for the unions to get the sick days. They don't all have them yet, but at this point 61% of the workers do have 4 short notice paid sick days with the option to trade three personal days for an additional 3 short notice sick days. Negotiations are still happening, the Biden administration is still part of them.
The Ohio derailment disaster was not a result of worker error (or lack of sick days) but lack of maintenance regulations, which was not something that was being negotiated at that time.
2 is kinda irrelevant in the context of the election though. If you think Biden supports them too much wait until you see the alternative. Trump doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to say “Palestinians need our help”. He strikes me as the guy who’ll say “See? This is why I’m writing a new Muslim ban”
Agree, but that looks like it's starting to turn as well
Honest question, where have you seen this?
All I've seen is talk about possibly maybe telling them to stop genociding. Other than that it's business as usual. The whole siding with Israel at the ICJ trial isn't a great look
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't his Administration forced to continue those by SCotUS?
Some, but he's also put some effort of his own on being seen as 'tough on the border' due to increased migration.
A stupid decision, but a predictable one considering the hand-wringing our population goes through every fucking time there's a bump in scary furriners coming in to this land which our ancestors were born i-oh, wait
I think the DNC finally discovered Lemmy. There's been a huge uptick of VBNMW and "how dare anyone question Biden" posts. Voters can be critical of Biden and the Dems and still vote for them to "stop Trump". Even though Trump is merely a symptom of the crappy system we have.
Edit: also, calling the far left nut jobs isn't going to win any of them over.
yeah and im a big supporter (well relative to what I see on the internets) but obviously all of it is not attributable to him. All the same there have been more things that actually improve my quality of life over what any other president has done in my lifetime and all in one term with an adversarial congress. I loved obama but man he wasted a nice majority trying to play fair with a bunch of known cheaters.
Also it's been proven presidential policy has little to do with economic outcome and unemployment rates. Honestly any president other than Trump probably would've caused an economic upturn due to the unpredictability of Trump. Also the pandemic being SOMEWHAT over has more to do with unemployment than Biden.
He's actually done the exact opposite when he directly refused to supply Ukraine with long range missiles early in the conflict, when they had the manpower and logistics to attack Russia directly. But instead he doomed Ukraine to a war of attrition what they can't possibly hope to win without a serious import of soldiers (which isn't happening). Biden handed Ukraine to Russia.
hindsight is 20-20, and even then i’m not sure that would have been the right choice
back then we there were a lot of people legitimately very worried that russia would use nukes if they felt “cheated”… international diplomacy is a tricky shit show of a game. who knows what would have happened
If you want leftists to vote for dems, despite dems pissing on leftists at every possible chance and yelling at leftists to fall in line, I'll show you how.
Point out that voting will never, ever, ever move the democrat party to the left. You cannot vote the party harder to the left.
Point out that Republicans are going to remain fascists.
Point out that voting third party is a spoiler vote and will result in fascists winning.
Point out that the actual way to move to the left is to unionize and organize at the grassroots level, to apply bottom-up pressure on the top.
The answer is not to pretend that Biden is anything other than a Neoliberal Capitalist. Leftists will correctly point out that Biden is still a lukewarm neoliberal maintaining the status quo, and feel further alienated by being told they should love him anyways. That just encourages voter apathy.
My local democratic party texted me to ask me to consider running for office (I live in a very deep red state). I laugh at the idea, because I'm pretty sure that they don't want a pro-2A anarchist and Satanist running under their name. My wife nixed the idea because she doesn't want us to get firebombed.
My local democratic party texted me to ask me to consider running for office (I live in a very deep red state). I laugh at the idea, because I’m pretty sure that they don’t want a pro-2A anarchist and Satanist running under their name. My wife nixed the idea because she doesn’t want us to get firebombed.
You should run dude. I'm dead ass serious. You can win rural districts where dickless corporate bootlicking democrats can't.
Here's the secret code: Don't run as a Democrat. Run as an independent.
We need people like you to run though, it's hard to vote for it if nobody is running to represent the platform. Especially at the local level where it can make a big difference.
Im not American but thinking about getting my citizenship before 2032ish (so out of this voting cycle and maybe the next) actually, the more I hear about voting for a third party is a waste, the more tempting it is. Not saying that because I'm trying to be an edge lord, or a trump supporter, or whatever else I'm sure someone will accuse me of - but because if your policy dept is so out of ideas that all you have is "vote for us or else... ...you... will have voted for someone else. And they might be bad. Neener neener" then surely anything except the Biden/Trump dichotomy has got to be worth a try?
Then to top it all that my vote won't make a difference, to either party, it's just pro forma so we can flip between blue Reagan and red Reagan every 8 years like normal... like - how is that not an invitation to want to fuck the system and look at third parties?
If there was no point in voting for a third party because the I didn't have to hold my nose because Democrats smelled good then you'd have no argument from me.
Voting for third party presently is voting for a spearhead with no spear. There's no mass movement for it, thus no pressure to actually stand up to the massive DNC or GOP. That's why leftists need to touch grass and organize, so that third party can be viable.
Getting the order wrong means more GOP fascism in office, getting the order right means an actual third party becomes viable.
Part of the issue that drives us to point out what Biden has done is that we often get a response of "BOTH sides are fascists and exactly the same, so why should I care?", which then must be refuted.
The answer to that kind of framing isn't to show how good the dems are, but how bad the Republicans are. Again, the dems are not interested in appealing to leftists in any way, so again, this kind of posturing is what encourages leftist voter apathy.
If a leftist says both sides are the same, show how much worse Republicans treat anyone that isn't a cishet white male over the age of 35, and how legitimately dangerous they can be for our loved ones that aren't in that category, even if they are.
Nah, what you want to point out is that Biden winning is the most accelerationist outcome due to how few would accept his victory and how much the Republicans will attempt to sabotage the results.Trump winning will just usher in fascism without any fight.
The only way to move the party to the left is to get more involved. Whining that they aren't reaching out won't achieve anything. A party is made up of people. Want the party to move more left and reach out further left? Be one of those people in the party and do it yourself, don't expect others to do it for you.
No, a party is an interest group. Both major US parties act in the interest of the bourgeoisie and the US voting system is designed to make it hard to contend that. Until you guys discover representational voting on a national level, the democracy will falter.
The only way to move the party to the left is to get more involved. Whining that they aren’t reaching out won’t achieve anything. A party is made up of people. Want the party to move more left and reach out further left? Be one of those people in the party and do it yourself, don’t expect others to do it for you.
Yep. And work outside of it.
But mostly be involved and become a leader in your community. Find ways to engage with people, identify their needs, and address them.
People love making this argument until you actually show up and get bullied for not showing up sooner then bullied for having different priorities than the herd then bullied for not supporting the milquetoast candidate at the moment.
Dems are just as faschie, even at the local level. You can't move people left who are just as religious about their mid right position as christofascists are theirs.
The wealthy DNC donors pick and choose who makes up the party at the federal level. You may get an upset local win against a Neoliberal dem, but the party is the way it is by design.
Voting will move the party left, if people vote for that. But they don't because leftists are a tiny, fringe political minority. That's why Biden is in office and not Bernie.
Voting will not move the party left. The only reason the dems are in power at all, is because the vast amounts of wealth of Capitalists support them. There's no bottom-up pressure. Even if Bernie was in office, he'd have to fight tooth and nail with the democrats to get things done, not just the Republicans.
I have been to every size of town and city all over the US and it doesn't appear leftists a fringe minority. The people that accurately labels themselves as a leftist is probably a minority, but many many people are adherents of left wing views, but with no accessible way to push or vote for their ideals. People will support socialist policies without realizing as well, like guaranteeing healthcare or housing for all. People's ideas of politics are all over the place in the US.
You can also lobby your local government. Look them up, book a 30 minute appointment, dress the part show up and make your pitch. Sure it will barely bump the needle but if normies start doing this it can start to nudge that needle a little
Even just calling your local politicians can nudge that needle.
Sooo many people think electoralism is is just casting your vote every 4 years when it's necessary to vote twice a year and stay in contact with your politicians.
I started going to school board meetings recently and have had a few people shocked at me just being a dude with a young child in, the district showing up to see how things run, sure it's boring as hell but I had established a report with one of the members(long story) so him seeing me at the meeting was encouraging to him.
Of course you can vote a party harder to the left. You just can't be lazy about it. So many you people sit there and wait until a presidential election and then complain. That's not what you do you have to start early. You have to find candidates and nurture them you have to vote in primaries you have to work on elections. You want change you got to make the change. Most leftists don't do that. They'd rather sit back and wait.
You cannot vote a party to the left. I do vote, especially for leftist candidates in local elections, but the DNC exists as it does because of large, wealthy Capitalists influencing it via donations, same as the GOP. Even if Bernie won, which I would have loved, he would have had to fight tooth and nail against the Democrats to get anything done.
So theoretically people on the left have done this work and have fielded Marianne Williamson, Dean Phillips, and (at one time) Kennedy. What happens when states simply don't hold primaries?
The fact that you can say all of that yet still come back to electoral politics as anything other than a charade and a farce is mind boggling..
Playing within the limited rules set by those in power to give the little people the illusion of choice is NEVER going to change anything of any substance.
I don't think you read my whole point. Voting won't bring positive change, just prevent negative change. Positive change comes from actually touching grass and unionizing, organizing, and building up bottom-up movements.
Besides impeding fascism, his reforms on student loans mean I'll be debt-free with $0 payments in 10 years. That is a material improvement of my life that I am infinitely grateful for.
But I still think he's a piece of shit for aiding and abetting a genocide and would vote for another candidate if I meaningfully could.
If a particular leftist isn't rational enough to recognize the important of impeding the progress of fascism, at any level possible, its a vote that can probably be missed.
If you have the power to impeded fascism in any way, and you choose not to do so, I'm don't believe you are a leftist.
I'm a leftist and I vote for dems, at least at the federal level or if a republican actually stands a chance of winning, and it isn't a leftist vs an incumbent dem.
Not only that, but Putin has essentially started a 2nd cold war, with Iran and China as allies. This has not been prevented, the US is just helping fight it while they can (Trump clearly won't, and it's clear GQP majority in congress has stopped a big portion of this aid).
In regards to "saved democracy", the US should look to Europe to save its own. It is because of coalitions based democracy based on a plurality of parties that values compromises even if each party has their own goals, that reactionary populism has been denied because of its inability to compromise or make promises that could be trusted. In Europe, third party votes matter, and party shenanigans to keep candidates out by dividing votes during primaries is not a thing. Europe is still susceptible, but not as much. At least manage to stop a near century of gerrymandering, can the US at least do that?
Unemployment is measured as people who are eligible and looking for work but not employed. People who have left the workforce for reasons other than getting laid off/fired (like quitting to take care of a sick family member) or people who have given up looking for work are not counted, even if they want a job. It's measured by a CPS survey of 60,000 households, and I doubt it includes homeless people (or anyone without a permanent address).
I've heard the opposition party claim the unemployment is under-counted during the Obama, Trump, and Biden years by excluding job seekers who have given up on finding employment. That's probably true, but if it is it has probably been pretty consistently under-counted for decades by both parties.
People that give up are no longer "unemployed", which is why they aren't counted. They wouldn't even count in the labor force either, which is the sum of unemployed and employed people.
Unemployment is a meaningless statistic due to the weird definition. The more useful statistic is #of jobs divided by total population, which peaked in 1970 and has been declining fairly consistently ever since
In the Current Population Survey, people are classified as unemployed if they meet all of the following criteria:
They were not employed during the survey reference week.
They were available for work during the survey reference week, except for temporary illness.
They made at least one specific, active effort to find a job during the 4-week period ending with the survey reference week (see active job search methods) OR they were temporarily laid off and expecting to be recalled to their job.
Done an hour of DoorDash or whatever? Homeless? Not unemployed. It's very much a meaningless stat and governments around the world game it all the time.
Housing prices are out of control where I'm at. Prices have tripled in 5 years, and the interest hikes haven't brought them down, so it's gotten even worse.
I'm not sure what's the case now, but I keenly remember how Obama "decreased" unemployment by having lots of people being counted as "out of the job market" instead, hence they were not counted for the official unemployment figure.
You can actually see the growth in the latter number correlated with the fall in the former if you look at the graphs with the data from back then.
You're not wrong, and they don't usually qualify for unemployment. Also "border secured" is a joke, the reason they're catching more is because the traffic level is unprecedented. The number I keep hearing is 15 million during his presidency.
What does that mean though. Concentration camps for undocumented People? Kids in cages? You think that's a good thing? People are dying in US camps, and you're presenting that as a 'haha gotcha liberals they DO kill migrants'
Fuck that.
Also genocide. Never forget that Biden is aiding and abetting a genocide. Don't fucking look away because he's your guy, motherfuckers
There's plenty to complain about, but the significant thing is that every one of those things that are complained about are specifically as bad or worse with his opposition. It would be different if any of it were "Biden aids Israel who is committing genocide, but Trump is against aid to Israel!" or "Biden keeps kids in cages at the border, but Trump would get the border handled more humanely!" Trump unequivocally supports Israel curb-stomping Palestine, and Trump made a lot of the changes that put kids in cages, and his rhetoric suggests he only plans on hitting immigrants harder.
But I get it, there is plenty to complain about with Biden, not least of which is aiding genocide. The meme, though, is concerning the argument that Biden has done nothing while in office, which is clearly not true.
Yup. He has put more immigrants behind bars in makeshift concentration camps than any other president. Inspirational stuff. And supporting genocide? Good old Amerikkkan values right there, some real 20th century stuff from this decrepit ghoul.
'But the other side is worse'
I'm fully aware that the other side is basically Trump, and Trump will be the end of democracy. A nightmare for everyone but a very select few. A totalitarian moron driven by the worst US politics has to offer. It will be the end of civil liberties.
But don't let Biden slither away with any of the shit he's pulling.
So I don't disagree that we need to get less chosey and start voting for the lesser evil at the very least (not even american here bu the UK also has a choice between fuckwad A and B right now) But the bar for 'extreme leftists' has now gotten so low that depending on the company simply suggesting that we shouldn't leave people to die on the street will get you classified as 'extreme leftist'
If you're not voting for Biden you're not progressive enough. Progress doesn't happen in leaps and bounds. We have to fight for every inch while rowing against the current. A vote for Trump or staying home in protest sends us off a fucking waterfall.
edit: I'm going to be real with you and a lot of you aren't going to like it. The amount of downvotes I am getting is suspicious. Anyone who claims to be progressive but would shit on what I just said is a fucking liar. Fite me.
No, leaving people to die on the street is a leftist thing. Because “intersectionality” promised social justice for everyone but all the left is doing is playing a defensive game of identity politics defined by the right, and any mention that labor and social benefits should accrue to everyone will get shut down. I once had a SJ group tell me that the food deserts in my poor white rural area are the result of racism and I needed to politely STFU about how goddamn fucked we are for missing the forest for the trees.
With the jackass before him setting bar so low, Joe could have just redecorated the oval office and I'd have considered it a win. Its a bummer Doing The Job like a damn adult doesn't get enough ink ..
Doing the job badly got a ton of coverage but the large majority of the supporters of the guy who did a bad job don't care enough about competence to change their vote unfortunately.
it was never about competence for the CHUD candidate, it was about offending their enemies. Note how much poorer trump supporters were after a single term of Trump's presidency - they didn't care, would happily pay for some jackass who will persecute foreigners and take women's rights away.
This doesn't even mention many of the infrastructure programs that help people directly - the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, American Rescue Plan Act, WIIN, WIFIA, and probably more that I don't know about. There is so much work in water lines and roads/bridges because of Biden.
Let's not forget he took over in Jan. 2021. Accelerating vaccine rollout was on his watch:
"With COVID-19 surging and vaccinations off to a slow start, President-elect Joe Biden will rapidly release most available vaccine doses to protect more people, his office said Friday, a reversal of Trump administration policies."
Definitely positive. Every member of my family is maximally vaxxed and boosted and nobody has ended in the hospital despite occasionally catching covid. We appreciate the speed of the rollout.
I've seen some 'if you don't vote Biden you're giving a vote to Trump' Democrats touting a 'secure border' as being a positive for Biden. Trying to get 1moderates I guess?
To be honest, it’s USA policy to support Israel whatever they do since 1970. No president would have changed that, especially not trump. At least they’re allegedly pressuring Israel government to come to a peace treaty.
In the long term it’s bad for Israel because they are now pariah of the world but for the us too because being friend with a state accused of doing genocide and violating multiple international law is bad reputation.
So it’s possible they are really trying to pressure Israel into respecting basic human right.
You don't include that stuff in a list of good deeds, numbnuts. And you're american, if you don't like bombing places, you're in the wrong country because there isn't a president in like a hundred years who aint been doing that.
I'm just saying it aint much of an observation. You're america, you haven't had a president who wasn't bombing another country in at least 80 years now. The Great Satan isn't gonna stop bombing, that's fucking retarded. You need to focus on what's going on at home before you can get control over that. Cuz your country is a total fuckhole just in case you don't realise. So what has he done AT HOME that's objectionable? If you want to make a point, that's the one to make.
edit: Oh, Arabic writing, I apologize for speaking to you like you were an American. my bad
You don't need to listen to far right nutjobs. They were never going to vote for any Democrat candidate.
You do need to listen to us far left "nutjobs" if you think you need our votes.
EDIT: Goddamn for a group that loves to call us "childish " moderates really don't appreciate being told they can't get what they want on their own and have to gasp cooperate with others.
That’s the problem with the far left. They let perfect be the enemy of progress. It really doesn’t need a second thought. The voting system is broken, third parties will never hold significant federal power until it’s fixed, and even then, itll probably not make a damn bit of difference because the far left can’t get over themselves long enough to reach a compromise. Hold your nose and quit with the infighting, and maybe something might get better.
There isn't leftward progress, just a steady liberal trend. Biden is great if you're a liberal, he's been doing exactly what he said he would, even if he hasn't gotten everything he wants done. But for an actual leftist? Jack shit to move America to Socialism.
The leftist reason to vote for Biden is because he isn't a fascist, that's it. Biden is still just a Capitalist and won't move America anywhere to the left. In case you haven't noticed, the far left have been holding their noses and voting liberal for as long as there's been leftists.
The actual way to move America to the left is pressure from grassroots movements like Unionization.
He's done exactly nothing to move America to the left. If someone is a leftist, they understandably want a leftist to represent them, correct? Just like liberals like yourself can be happy with what Biden has done as a liberal, leftists can be upset that he isn't moving anything leftward.
I say this as a leftist that never expected him to do anything at all and voted for him over Trump, leftward movement comes from pressure from below, not from federal elections anyways.
"Low unemployment" isn't a useful metric when the minimum wage isn't enough to live on, and the implication that people should be grateful for "low unemployment" is insulting to people who work full time and still can't afford food and housing.
Its counterproductive to cite unemployment numbers when trying to rally support for current representatives, unless you can also show that wages are increasing.
Simply referring to the number of jobs that exist feels dismissive and alienating. Instead, you'd get a stronger propaganda effect by citing the number of GOOD jobs that exist - jobs that pay a living wage.
🎶
Private property's inherently theft
And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left
And every politician, every cop on the street
Protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite
🎶
It's just from a comedy song, but it's always funny to see people more concerned about people mentioning pedophiles in power than they are the pedophiles in power. 🤷
If you don't think private property is theft then you won't have a problem with this piece of paper that says I own your living room and you have to pay me rent for it.
Just FYI to a bunch of commenters here...complaining about something that he successfully did actually doesn't dispute the post showing all the stuff he did. If you're mad about how low insulin prices got you're proving the point.
Yeah, but it's about messaging and PR. Many people perceive Trump to do better especially on economy, even though more debt is added to the national debt during his last presidency. People tend to prioritise economy more than other issues; and Biden isn't doing anything to market himself and his administration that they're do better on handling the economy.
I too would love to see those stats OP uses to claim a win. Apprehensions are up because illegal crossings are at an all time high second year running and even once someone is apprehended they are released into the United States, often with Fed issued phone to report into their “probation” office source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/29/us/illegal-border-crossings-data.html This meme was written by someone who dislikes Republicans so much they are finding any reason to cheer Biden, like maybe he wouldn't stink if he wasn’t such trash, this feels like trying to blast him with axe spray, my disgust has only increased.
Oh, we’re playing the evolved monkeys throwing shit at other groups of evolved monkeys!!! So much fun. Hey you can name your nationality and I’ll take a shit on your people, okay?
Yeah, even if you're somehow pro-genocide, he's not doing anything to stop this conflict from escalating into a full war in the middle east. Something Trump even managed to avoid doing despite doing some really stupid shit.
As in, they supplied Ukraine with military aid? That's like saying US military aid/sales from 1939 to 1941 to the allies prevented negotiations in Europe and prolonged WW2.
I thinks it more that the politics of the terminally online are an anti-west, anti-hegemony, feedback loop. Since Biden doesn't support the destruction of capitalism then these things don't matter and everything wrong with the world is his fault.
I'm sorry I don't agree. We've seen this before. We can see the trails we know who it benefits. There's a concentrated effort going on right now and people are falling for it the same as they did in 2016.
Not sure who you think The Left™ is but we're mostly angry about him supporting genocide. I guess because he did so those good things we should just ignore that?
Israel indiscriminately bombed 80% of homes in Gaza as well as hospitals and schools where people were seeking refuge, killing upwards of 24,000 people, 12,000 of which were children. The casualties used to be counted by the hospitals but after Israel bombed and destroyed many of them and put the others out of order, there is no mechanism for the casualties to be counted, so hundreds are dying and no one is able to keep track. The official numbers were based off the bodies that reached the hospitals so they are missing all of those who couldn't be recovered from under the rubble, which are a large number because people recovering victims are doing it barehanded with no tools or vehicles. Israel cut off water, food, and medical aid from reaching Gaza. People have died from starvation, illness, and are being forced to ration water 2 liters a person per day for bathing, drinking, and washing meaning there is risk of death from dehydration.
The United States provided Israel with unlimited bombs in order to conduct this genocide. The US also provided direct military support by stationing its aircraft carrier near gaza in the Mediterranean in order to ward off any intervention against the genocide. Joe Biden bypassed congress in order to provide Israel the weapons and funding, not to mislead you that congress would have done anything differently, the entire United States government is genocidal.
People do not understand diplomacy or war , don't care about informing themselves or understanding nuance, and like acting and feeling smart. Most of this criticism is purely emotional.
The US and Israel have a very tight strategic relationship and part of it is the US delivering weapons to them. Now the Israelis are annihilating Gaza/Palestine because of the Hamas, and many are demanding a "ceasefire" and holding the US responsible for not stopping the weapons deliveries.
Now, there's certainly a lot to criticize about Israel's lack of care against civilian casualties. However, the calls for a ceasefire agreement with the Hamas, who literally do not care about anything other than sowing chaos and discord and destroying Israel, is naive at best and completely dumb and malicious at worst.
If the US stops all weapons deliveries, the Hamas will just recoup and continue to harass Israel. It should be noted as well that the Hamas have shown time and time again to not care about their own population and that they just love using them for their personal gain, especially in international appearances (like this "Genocide Joe" circle jerk).
Because of Israel's lack of care for civilians the US is now, at least according to the media, putting more and more pressure on Israel to watch human rights if they want to keep the endless weapons supplies.
It's quite a complicated topic and I'm not an expert myself, but many takes on it out there just completely disregard reality in favor of catchy slogans and appeals to emotion.
We should be expecting better from Biden. We should be critical when he does evil things. He is definitely the superior candidate over Trump, but to blindly just accept the atrocities that he's contributed to is an insane position to take.
You do know that it’s the people demanding and fighting for those things right? Biden only did the minimum while ignoring the peoples actual needs. He answers to his sponsors and his sponsors only. He spent billions on Ukraine and Israel while ignoring the millions of Americans who are worse off now than they were 4-8 years ago. No one is denying what he did. We’re saying it wasn’t enough.
Fuck off fascist Zionist. From the river to the sea!
No communist thinks modern day Russia is communist. Your being disingenuous and I bet you would rather allow liberal fascism on her than socialist views you disagree with. Typical liberal censoring communism because it challenges uour brainwashed reality.
You probably shouldn't open with unemployment rate to "prove" that a president did something since they have nothing to do with that. Also, great job both sidesing the far left and far right, oh enlightened centrist.
Far right narratives has convinced you that Keynesian economic policy doesn't exist and that the government is not the steward of the economy. Far left narratives also ignore the existence of Keynesian economic policy since it's a viable alternative to the things that the monetized socialists are telling you.
Meanwhile in the real world, Keynesian economic policy (are we calling it "Bidenomics" now?) worked very well from the New Deal up to the Energy Crisis of the 70s. Don't want people to think that oil dependency is an economic weakness so bring on Ronald Reagan and supply side economics!
The New Deal had actual government works programs. If the government isn't increasing employment themselves, then they're merely suggesting to the private sector that they should hire more people.
The unemployment graph makes no sense to count as a win. It's clearly the covid spike ending and the trend line returning to normal. There's also economists that will argue unemployment below about 5% is actually a bad sign.
Question: If I don't think he's the absolute perfect being (as many on the far right view Trump) does that make me a far left nutjob? Does critiquing him make me an extremist? Is me saying he could and should have done more saying he did nothing significant in office?
The problem is you're making it a black and white issue. The only people who that are those far-flung nutjobs you critique.
I mean, these are all excellent policies. But I feel like they put the policy cart before the horse as they don't address any of the major issues this country has been facing for decades.
Healthcare? Still worse from Trump. But sure people aren't dying from rationing insulin they can't afford.
Military Spending? Worth it to protect Ukraine, but why are we increasing an already inflated budget we can't afford?
Minimum wage increasing for the first time in decades? How about student debt is forgiven for only the most vulnerable.
Public education?
Higher education?
Inflation?
Job security?
Voting rights?
Abortion?
Expanding the Supreme Court?
I'm not saying this administration hasn't done good for this country. And I'm certainly not saying the alternative would be better.
What I'm saying is that this countries house is on fire and you want us to clap when all the Biden admin has done is turn on the garden hose.
Sure we're "moving in the right direction" - but for the last 20 years the US keeps moving backwards much faster than it can move forward. Building this country back brick by brick doesn't do much when it keeps getting bulldozed.
If the Biden admin wants people to vote for them in droves, pulling the corporate hand out of their ass to enact some immediate and much needed changes through executive orders would be a fucking slam dunk. We all watched as the previous administration used the "unitary executive" theory to pass a bunch of horseshit we all now have to deal with, but when it comes to actual progress this admin doesn't want to take that path when it's the only one that will lead to actual long term systemic change.
We all watched as the previous administration used the “unitary executive” theory to pass a bunch of horseshit we all now have to deal with, but when it comes to actual progress this admin doesn’t want to take that path when it’s the only one that will lead to actual long term systemic change.
The part you're not mentioning is where SCotUS slaps down the Democrats trying to help people in broad strokes and allows the objectively evil GOP policies that hurt people & pollute our environment.
See student loan forgiveness for the latest example.
Oh 100%. It's what I mean when I say we can't build up brick by brick when the country keeps getting bulldozed.
Student Loan forgiveness is a great example! But I feel abortion magically becoming a state issue is the best example since the Supreme Court made that decision despite established "stare decisis" doctrine, AND the fact that the last time we had a big disagreement about "states rights" it lead to a fucking Civil War. (According to the GOP that war was about states rights after all.)
this like saying eating shit is a better option than starving. One is just slower, but it's still going to kill you.
Are you right that biden is better than trump? yes. Are you wrong in that, that is an argument for Biden? absolutely fucking wrong. that is an argument for-not-trump... of which there are hundreds of millions of people in the US that are both not-trump and eligible to president. there are at least "50 other democrats", per Your-Dear-Leader-Himself that can absolutely beat trump.
the question isn't if Biden is better than trump- we're still in the primaries. The question is, is Biden the best possible democrat candidate. to which that's an emphatic "Lol, no."
If we can't criticize our guy, how is that a functioning democracy? I don't approve of him but since when did my approval matter when it came to my vote?
May I ask you: then why are you here, in [email protected], if you do not enjoy the back-and-forth of political discourse? I was ecstatic when Lemmy 0.19 arrived and I could finally block Hexbear, and just now I blocked all of Lemmygrad as well, rather than start that whole process again of dealing with toxic commenters.
Granted, the Fediverse makes it difficult by showing everything by default, thereby putting the onus on you to have to block what you do not want to see, but if you blocked this community then you wouldn't have to see such things ever again? Maybe that's a note for the future development where some communities could be made to be opt-in rather than visible to everyone by default.
Ok, this is decent. But then we are still drilling and pumping oil and gas at record setting levels, more-so than any other nation on earth. Oil and Gas industry is still heavily subsidized, while subsidies and benefits for renewables have been taken away.
And to top it off, the absolute gimme of Joe Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline through Appalachia.
So basically, as soon as he did the bare minimum with Keystone to pacify the vocal environmental activists on that project, he went right back to business as usual, and then goes beyond by rewarding Manchin with a new pipeline that violates every environmental safety standard imaginable in a mad rush to just “get it done”.
I’m going to have to chalk this up as a net negative for Genocide Joe.
We (the world) quietly changed the goal posts of the energy transition from low-carbon goals to energy security ones. If the US didn't have it's oil production capacity, the west and especially Europe would be at the absolute whim of a handful of pretty shitty countries and having a pretty average time...
It all leaves a very sour taste in everyone's mouths, but can be largely seen as a short term security win.
Oooh another iteration from a Terrible Trump supporter. It's almost like you live off of marketing strategies and bad ideas rather than rational thoughts.
The irrationality here stems from you. I’m pointing out facts regarding Biden’s conduct. As an environmentally conscious leftist, I’m claiming he has done piss poor in this area, and have listed here some facts to support that claim.
This isn’t a “marketing strategy”, and you jumping to this conclusion is a disturbing signal of the pervasive destruction of late stage capitalism, and the brain rot endemic to neoliberal thinking.
You think keystone is enough on the environmental front? Does that cross off your little checkbox item for faux progressive action by the executive to justify a second term?
Such gish gallop. I don’t have all day, but a few:
Those 20 million poor Americans are still on the hook for their student loan debts.
The proxy war with Russia is still ongoing, Russia was never planning to and still has no plans to roll through Europe, and Genocide Joe’s administration is foaming at the mouth to ramp up the cold war with China.
Also missed most of the benefits of the IRA which can be directly attributed for significant investment in renewable energy projects. A local project that already broke ground by the time the IRA passed actually greatly expanded scope to best take advantage of the federal dollars newly available. The IRA basically single-handedly placed the US in a position to dominate wind and solar for the next decade.
It is however difficult to put that into the perspective of the average household. Biden did some very good things at the regional and national levels but he really failed to make his case to individuals. Every promise for individuals was broken
All you prove here is that he's done something. I would thank his staff for this first and foremost. In the wake of rising fascism and a escalating climate crisis, however - it's not nearly enough and he's failing as a leader especially.
Unless you count Congress as his staff, he had also gotten a big climate bill passed and signed, a big infrastructure bill passed and signed, a gun control bill passed and signed...just doesn't seem like the party he is the leader of, and the staff he is a leader of, would all be so successful if he was a bad leader.
Anyone can say "not successful ENOUGH" but given the political circumstances he has surprised me with getting more passed than I thought he could and I don't really see how people say differently unless they have impossible expectations.
If he gets the child tax credit bill passed that's even more, and Trump just trashed the border security bill so it probably can't pass anymore but anything like that would be beyond my wildest dreams to get through a Republican House.
dont get me wrong bidens just going to maintain the neolib status quo which is comparatively marginally better than wannabe hitler but i refuse to line up to a suck an old warmongers dick whos enabling a genocide in palestine just because this system is broken and fucking sucks.
Anytime someone whines about lemmy not getting widespread adoption I'm linking this comment section. Cesspool of a community. Go touch some fucking grass lol.
And 99% of these are being skirted by local governments with no penalty because Joe is a senile geriatric whose accomplishments exist only on paper. The Biden administration has done literally nothing to stop a murderous Neo-Nazi movement from gaining millions of followers in the country. I voted for him in 2020 with gritted teeth and I don't think there's anything he could do to earn my vote again
Nope 😊! Funny how not voting for someone isn't a vote for the other person (no matter how hard you people try to gaslight yourselves I to believing otherwise)
Hitler is in Russia currently trying to take the largest country in Europe, and biden's opponent wants to help him. I'm not the biggest Biden fan, but unfortunately, there is no better alternative. Your best bet is 2028. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Putin is not currently aiding in a genocide. Biden is. Biden is therefore worse than Putin. This is not remotely debatable. Say what you will of Russias war, it isn't a genocide, and therefore isn't as bad as US support of Israel.