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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.
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.
Agreed. Many appear to be attending foreign colleges which . . . well, makes sense, sort of.
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.
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?
Now give me single payer healthcare/Medicare for All, and I'll be a happy camper.
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.
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.
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 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 inaction that causes us to regress as a nation every time a Republican takes office.
In response, 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.
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.
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 🤝
No worries. I didn’t take it personally. My justification was for the sake of clarity, not defense. I appreciate the apology, even though it wasn’t necessary. Have a good one!
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.
amendments require the states agreeing, and the states do NOT like to agree on things anymore.
The bullshit appointed Supreme Court.
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?
Reading comprehension, you don't have it. Bye Felecia.
Buddy, I just spelled it out for you: We don’t have medicare for all or something similar because Democrats refused to make it happen during Obama’s term. This was the Democrats fault.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'll note that in 2016 the U.S. elected a petulant 5-year-old pretending to have a magic wand, so...
So we should do the same again?
We're very close to having one of those 5-year-olds with a magic wand get elected soon.
It's time for you to realize that the dynamics that you think are in place aren't, or don't work the way you expect them to. Maybe you should listen to some of the people you dismiss so easily.
Or maybe you and others on this thread should just go ahead and downvote anything that doesn't agree with you... and lose again.
I can't believe asking for how we'd pay for proposed policy changes and what they think the long term effects of their proposed policies will be is now controversial.
What a time to be alive.
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.
The president doesn't have the power to do any of that.
This document should cover many of the points, so it'll be referred to a lot.
None of these were serious policy proposals, but intentionally glib, tossed-off ideas. The idea is that most non-political-nerds (I am one, no insult intended) don't pay attention to policy details. Tossing out hollow policy proposals that nevertheless excite people is only one possible tactic to address the important truth: Democrats need to get better at big-picture messaging, because they're failing to inspire people.
That's the thing though, you tossed out ideas that should matter to the American people if Democrats proposed them only to be opposed by Republicans, but we see that already has happened, and as far as I can tell, folks don't care.
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.
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.
But don't you think getting the 10 commandments in our classrooms will make things soo much better? 🙃
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
