He has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.
and none of it matters because the other side thinks the work of government is to do as little as possible for the people it fleeces.
And their propaganda has been so good for the last 60 years that even half the left believes it but think they’re immune to it. See motions to every thread in Lemmy
And yet the quality of life for Americans is still declining, while the wealth gap keeps growing.
Yep, and a bunch of the things Biden supporters want to tout are making this problem worse, because his economic legislation and climate legislation and healthcare legislation and all the rest is almost entirely just throwing taxpayer money at businesses and hoping it trickles down to us somehow
Narrator - It didn’t.
If at first you don’t succeed, give businesses more money and try again.
I would argue the quality has been improving as if late. But kind of hard to blame him for the fact that the world was gripped and massively disrupted a by a pandemic and the financial moves by the fed to stave off an even worse financial melt down led to high inflation. But we’re going in the right direction, even if it isn’t fast enough for some people.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people. The wage increases reported are mostly driven by top earners. It isn’t moving at the bottom. Longer lines than ever at food pantries. I remember when Democrats used to at least pretend to give a shit about that stuff.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people.
Been that way for a long time bud
And that’s also not true for the past year. Wages have out paced inflation.
Whose wages?
Even without answering that question let’s take a look at the 2023 numbers. According to BLS weekly wages went from 55k to 59k a seven percent increase. Inflation was 3.4. So we regained 3.6 percent.
The pandemic alone was worth 10 percent. And we’ve been left behind by the hundreds of points over the decades.
So while technically true, your statement is very misleading.
Given the congress he has to work with, one could argue he’s been a better President than Obama was.
He’s been a better president than Obama was.
It’s not particularly close in my opinion.
I’m hella biased, but the SAVE plan and not accruing interest on student loans as long as you make payments is a huge win.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have done this under Obama…
Edit: just wanted to mention that this restructuring for student loans had absolutely nothing to do with Congress
The SAVE plan and the rules around PSLF really do make medical school a lot more viable for people like me. Doctors get paid a pittance in residency, and the interest on medical school loans would add up really fast on the old income-driven repayment plans.
Trust me I fully understand.
I went to med school, finished back in 2018.
If I never step foot into a hospital again it’ll be too soon.
I work from home now as a cloud engineer for a large US-based mortgage company.
I’m very happy now. I’ve already made my piece that my $350,000 in loans can only be solved by making minimum payments for 20 years.
All that being said, a lot of people are in a different boat than myself.
Their loans are much more manageable and I’m really glad they’ll be able to pay them off because interest isn’t accruing.
Who knows? I make enough now that I’m actually going to have to sit down and calculate whether it’s worth it to pay the loans off myself or just make minimum payments for 20 years and have the rest forgiven.
The SAVE plan and interest no longer recruiting is the only reason these possibilities are there.
Otherwise I’d have to resign myself to making 20 years of minimum payments and hoping that forgiveness plan is still in place.
Obama was generally pretty terrible. Obamacare was a disaster and about the only good policies he had were around car emissions, which were significant but still. If you factor in the amount of political capital he had in 2009 it’s sad really.
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Some things never chnage
I agree too. Obama had charisma and was a great speaker, but policy wise Biden is much better.
If Obama was firmer many current problems would not exist today. But it is easier to say now.
Obama had charisma and was a great speaker,
And as we’re seeing now with Biden’s poll numbers, unfortunately, that’s all that matters. Doesn’t matter how many good things you do to help people, all that matters is whether you have charisma and a good media relations team.
People are so stupid. Maybe democracy was a mistake.
Maybe democracy was a mistake.
It probably works fine if the majority of your population doesn’t have either CTE from your sports programs, lead poisoning, or something above an 8th grade education.
Weird, I never see Record oil extraction on his list of accomplishments, I wonder why that is? 🤔
He’s been ok. Way better than that last guy though!
I feel that he is mostly honest and wants to do the right thing but he doesn’t always get it right. At least he tries.
If he didn’t run a campaign against Bernie, I’d agree. Bernie could have done wonders for this country.
If you ignore his genocide, maybe. Mussolini even made the trains run on time.
He hasn’t though. He busted a union. The economy for the working class is awful.
IIRC they eventually got everything or mostly everything they wanted.
You recall incorrectly.
Background: I supported Bernie in the 2016 primaries; I ended up voting for Hillary. In 2020, Biden wasn’t even my 3rd pick in the Primaries (Warren, Sanders, maybe Buttigieg and even Steyer.). I still voted Biden, despite a clear lack of enthusiasm because I know how much easier it is to break and corrupt things than to simply maintain it or build upon a trillion-piece puzzle.
Overall, Biden has been a pretty great President if only for one simple fact: The genuine experience and expertise of his cabinet. When I think of Donnie, I think of Bill Barr, Richard Spencer, Mike Pompeo, and other scum of his cabinet. These people are psychopathic, smarter than Trump, and dangerous. While they’re incompetent in their actual roles, they leveraged their offices to incredibly nefarious ends.
The true stars of Biden’s administration has been his advisors and cabinet: Blinken, Yellen, Garland, Austin, Kirby, Bill Burns, Jake Sullivan, etc. These are the people that keep the machine running. Who actually take advice from reputable experts in respective fields, like Dr. Fauci.
So yes, given the bigger picture, Biden has been a great President; partly because of stability; partly because of contrast with chaos.
And folks, yes, it’s campaign season now. Expect a massive influx of ads and opinion pieces and a general attempt to drum up energy and awareness to a crucial election. Don’t shoot yourselves in the foot; the right has massive megaphones of propaganda they’re using every single fucking day to distort reality. Don’t be afraid to push back.
Don’t forget Betsy Devos, the education secretary who’s essentially never gone through public education, daughter of billionaire Edgar Prince.
A secretary of transportation Elaine Chao married to freakin Mitch McConnell of all people.
A Postmaster General Louis DeJoy with no experience at USPS who owns delivery companies that directly compete and contract with them who hasn’t been ousted yet…
People rag on Joe’s purported poor mental capabilities, but his power is from having effective, competent people in his cabinet who are not merely sycophantic conservative donors.
I knew I’d forget a bunch of terrible people… There were so many…
Don’t forget the blatant nepotism and incompetence from Ivanka and Kushner, etc.
If we gaslight ourselves hard enough, maybe we’ll be happy.
You’re gaslighting yourself in the other way. There are two kinds of low information voters. The first kind uncritically worship their “side” because they’re misinformed about the vices. The second kind are cynical and critical no matter what, even when policies help them, because they’re misinformed about the virtues. The right tends to do the first, the left tends to do the second.
There’s a reason why the most informed left leaning people are the most strongly in support of Biden. Including people like Bernie Sanders and AOC, both of who have praised him for governing progressively.
Quite possible the most logically astute comment here, and lo and behold- downvoted by the outraged hive-mind.
Go figure.
Meanwhile you’re a high information voter because you accept articles such as this one at face value as well as the opinions of politicians saying their side is doing a good job?
Look, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a low information voter. People are busy, and reading endlessly about politics is an unproductive hobby, just one of many out there.
But it is absolutely true that the most critical people on the left tend to be extremely vague on the specifics. Because they don’t know the specifics. And being baseline critical allows them to protect their ego. “Those powerful elites won’t fool me!” And don’t get me wrong, powerful elites are trying to fool you. But one of the ways they do that is by convincing you that nothing ever gets better. Nothing is worth supporting. That every policy is as bad as any other. Everything that looks good is actually secretly bad.
Here’s an example. Lack of competition and enshittification is frequently in the news. Inevitably, someone will comment that “both sides” are corporate shills, and it’ll get a ton of upvotes. Anyone who knows anything about the current FTC knows that that’s insane. In a shocking move, Biden appointed a young progressive firebrand as the head of the FTC, Lina Khan. She literally wrote the academic article starting the super progressive New Brandeis school of anti-trust. This new FTC has been sometimes clumsy, but super aggressive against corporations. This was an olive branch to the far left. And it’s one of the many reasons why progressives who are paying attention begrudgingly appreciate Biden.
That’s nice and shows that we should continue to apply pressure so that they continue to put more progressive people and policies into practice.
Totally agree. But pressure is both positive and negative. It means rewarding good policy, not just criticizing everything. Biden has made many moves to satisfy progressives. But if none of it matters electorally, why even try? Why not go back to pandering to centrists and conservatives?
I reward them with my guaranteed vote, which happens to be guaranteed because the alternative is worse.
The progressive vote is hardly guaranteed. It’s fickle, hyper critical, divided, which enervates us as a voting bloc. Conservatives are the most reliable voters, and, surprise surprise, they wield outsized political power.
Are all this “wow Biden was actually the greatest president ever but we didn’t notice” news that started floating around a part of his upcoming election campaign?
I was curious because of how unashamedly propagandist this article is. So I clicked on the author link. It seems this is the only article he’s ever written for this website (I hesitate to call it a news outlet). Also, it says he’s a former republican political consultant now working for the Lincoln Project. That’s apparently the name of a moderate republican PAC that is trying to fight Trumpism.
So why would a political news website outright publish propaganda from a PAC without any commentary? I’ve never heard of the new republic before, but they seem to be an otherwise unremarkable progressive political magazine. I couldn’t say whether the new republic is getting paid by the PAC to publish this, or whether they just took it because it generally aligns with their own stated political views. I will say that, although it is mentioned at the bottom that the author currently works for the Lincoln Project, I had to really look for that. it also wasn’t clear to me at first this was a PAC. So in my opinion, proper journalistic ethical standards are not being upheld here.
Given the article’s origins, it’s pretty safe to say none of this is genuine. These are moderate republicans who hate Trump, trying desperately to destroy Trumpism. If they truly believed their own article they’d be democrats. And if you’re here wondering if the article is worth reading, I’d say it is practically fully content-free. It’s all just hopium.
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Good to know, thanks. I’m not too familiar with the American news media, although I know there’s a lot of it around. I checked them briefly and they didn’t seem all too different from e.g. Huffington Post or other similar sites, which is why I called them unremarkable. It’s interesting to see they have a long history.
I don’t think this materially affects any of my conclusions on the article itself though.
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You know it! I’m just thinking what’s the point? I don’t like Biden, but I gotta vote for him anyway cause the alternative is way worse. I DO NOT want to go back to seeing 24/7 news feeds about Trump doing something worse each day or playing golf for the nth time.
You know one of the few things I liked about Biden was that I was able to go days or sometimes weeks without hearing anything about him. Campaign seasons suck.
Yes, the Biden presidency has been blissfully “boring”. I might have hoped for better, but I’ll settle for stagnant compared to 2016-2020.
You find genocide boring?
Stop confusing democrats/liberals with leftists.
Democrats will probably almost universally agree that he’s been a good president. Tribalism is a hell of a drug.
It’s the leftists that won’t. And speaking as a leftist, he’s done a lot better than I thought he was going to. He ended up pushing for more progressive ideas than I thought he would. Good for him. He’s been stymied by the courts and his own party on some of them. And that why I, as a leftist, think the democratic party is still (less) trash. They had a majority for two years. Did some stuff. Could have done more. You can be all “but but Manchin/Sinema” all you want, but I’ll bet all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket, than if Manchin and Sinema were to announce that yes, they’d vote to abolish the filibuster, there would be two other democratic senators who would come out and say no. And that’s fine as it relates to their world view. They’re liberals. They’re not leftists.
Tell me about your leftist policy beliefs.
Dude blocked the strike, fucked the BBB and is supporting genocide.
Fuck Joe Biden.
Eh, I’m of two minds about the strike. On the one hand, he got the rail workers their sick days after the fact. On the other, he really pissed me off and threw labor under the bus by making it illegal (again) for them to strike. You can’t be a pro labor president and take away labors most powerful tool.
I don’t know anything about the BBB.
100% with you on Gaza.
the fact he made it illegal tells any leftist all we have to know
Your patriarchal assumptions of “he” are very telling
Is Biden not a “he”?
EDIT: Not trying to be a smartass I genuinely don’t understand what they’re trying to say here.
The person I was replying to originally said:
the fact he made it illegal tells any leftist all he has to know
They edited it after I commented without saying anything.
Ohhhhh ok. Appreciate the context thanks.
On the one hand, he got the rail workers their sick days after the fact.
They were fighting for 15 sick days. How many did each of the 12 unions get?
Still the best president we’ve had since Obama
Obama is the only decent president I can name since wwii
Sounds like someone’s family wedding wasn’t droned.
You know, one thing I haven’t been able to find was how prominent the drone program was during the Bush administration. While Obama’s admin had more drone strike kills in like 1 year than did the whole of the Bush admin, one also has to question how many of the damned things were flying and launching missile strikes with civvie casualties during the Bush admin. If anyone has info on that, I’d like to read up.
Also, more drone strikes during 45 and 46 each than 44, too. But somehow this always gets glossed over. I don’t understand that.
I thought it was mostly about the prevalence of the technology. Bush was still in the era where we bombed family weddings.
Yeah. Drones allow for more targeted strikes. Drone warfare is scary and all, but is not like more civilians would have been alive today had Obama opted for more traditional strategies.
You can of course say America has no business intervening abroad in the first place. Fair enough, but by the time Obama entered into power the damage was already done. Anyone who thinks this is easy should take another look at Afghanistan.
America has gotten itself in a really shitty position. There’s no way of entering the white house and not leave with blood on your hands. But this whole Obama drone narrative is just willfully ignorant.
Underrated comment
Just Say It, Democrats: An Israeli life is worth a hundredfold its weight in Palestinian lives
I’m not a Dem because I don’t even live in the states but I’ll say it if it keeps you from spreading this inaccurate, unhelpful and nearsighted rhetoric. I’m honestly tired of hearing it.
it must be so tough for you to keep hearing about how the IDF is handling this conflict and about that manifests in terms of human lives
you truly are a brave little soldier for reading some posts on the internet about it, and certainly far braver than all the people who are like, actually living it as their day-to-day experience
Oh yeah, I’m tough and brave because I said I’m annoyed. Type harder, keyboard warrior. You’re certainly helping people from that armchair of yours.
Funny how this is your second comment in this thread that’s just as inflammatory and inaccurate as the first. I’m willing to bet it’s a trend with you spewing all this bullshit.
What exactly is your stance here? That the invasion isn’t resulting in the needless deaths of countless civilians and the destruction of Gazan infrastructure? Or that that is happening, but that it’s okay?
Why would I need to take a stance here at all? What is your point with that?
I’m saying that the way you’re framing this whole ordeal lacking sensibility on the matter to paint an entire political party as some draconian death panel, when in reality, the presidency is supporting a political partnership during high tensions and made a tough decision. Why is there a need to pivot this with some unhelpful, inaccurate and inflammatory rhetoric? And what’s more, now you’re accusing others of shit they have not said or even implied.
So, really, what is your deal? Of all the valid reclamations, why is reframing and putting words in people’s mouths your go-to strategy? That is my point.
Why would I need to take a stance here at all?
I think this question might have caused my brain to short circuit. You can’t disagree with somebody unless you disagree with them about something. I cannot for the life of me fathom how you could possibly ever think otherwise.
the presidency is supporting a political partnership during high tensions and made a tough decision
When the thing we’re talking about is continuing to aggressively fund a regime currently attempting a genocide, this is a comically lenient way of phrasing things.
Why is there a need to pivot this with some unhelpful, inaccurate and inflammatory rhetoric?
Pivot from what? What are you talking about? The vast majority of your reply borders on word soup, and mostly consists of doing the thing you’re currently accusing me of doing.
So, really, what is your deal?
That writing an article about how great of a guy Biden is while the most pressing thing going on at this very moment is how he won’t stop indirectly funding a genocide is ghoulish and repugnant.
If we’re standing together on the street and I point out the guy currently kicking a puppy and start telling you about how much of a nice guy he is, how could you conclude anything about me other than the fact I don’t care about the puppy?
This article is sick.
I think this question might have caused my brain to short circuit.
Yeah, because you expect a certain answer and I’m not giving you that. I’m telling you that I’m not playing your game because I’m calling you out. Your rhetoric sucks.
continuing to aggressively fund a regime currently attempting a genocide
You know what’s also comically biased? Pretending that that’s all they’re doing, but go off.
The vast majority of your reply borders on word soup … and mostly consists of doing the thing you’re currently accusing me of doing.
Quote me, do it. If we’re doing the same thing I want to see exactly what you mean with examples. Because it seems to me that you don’t want to understand and you’re now reaching and deflecting. I was very clear with what I meant in my previous comment. I can’t help you if you don’t want to read it carefully and earnestly.
he won’t stop indirectly funding a genocide is ghoulish and repugnant
But that’s not what you wrote. You are blaming Democrats as a whole for a political decision, essentially calling every one of them a panel murderers. And now have shifted to single-handedly blaming Biden for this funding when there has been clear bipartisan support. How is it that I’m more informed on this as a foreigner? You see how you’re not the one being consistent? And I can quote you if you want although I think it’s very clear.
the guy currently kicking a puppy
The guy kicking the puppy is in Israel. The people who gave that guy the boots he’s using to kick that puppy with with are in the USA. Ultimately, who is really to blame for kicking the puppy? Why do you need to blame people in the US directly for what people in Israel are doing on their own volition by taking advantage of the situation? The people in the US are currently telling them that enough is enough. Do you see what I mean by pivoting or pinning the blame on someone else? Do you see what you’re doing?
This article is sick.
Nah, you want to make it seem sick to advance your agenda by discrediting it completely based on some unrelated issue. How disingenuous is that.
What do you think Trump/the GOP’s ratio would be?
You are aware it is possible to criticize a party you intend to vote for, yes?
Centrists are aware, but they don’t want to stop supporting genocide.
Guess we’ll find out when it’s his turn?
congrats, better than a wannabe fascist dictator is now being great
Always a choice between a giant douche, and a turd sandwich!
So many butthurt socialists!
I used to think this as well. I was wrong. Even if Biden is reelected, there will be considerable work that will need to be done to halt our gradual descent into fascism. We need systemic change to our political and economic institutions to ensure they are fundamentally inclusive institutions. We must ensure majority rule in our democracy and enact socialist policies to both regulate and claim ownership of our economy. If we allow the flaws in our democracy and neoliberalism ideology to remain in place, then we will inevitably create an even larger fascist movement.
When Bernie lost the Democrat primary in 2016, I told my friend that they were being butt hurt over it when they didn’t want to support Hillary. Now, it’s obvious to me that so much more was at stake than just the aspirations of Bernie supporters. The people in the Republican party’s base that are knowingly supporting fascism didn’t spring up from the ground. Their attitudes and values were shaped by the neoliberal society we’ve been living under.
If we don’t show people a better society to live under while we have the chance, they will build a worse one. Not because they’re evil or unreachable. It’s because people are prone to internalize the flaws of their society as values. They are in a sense, working with the tools they’ve been given, but to everyone’s detriment. We must course correct as quickly as possible while we still have a democracy.
I think a lot of people are legitimately concerned about Biden’s ability to navigate us out of this situation. We cannot neoliberal our way out of fascism, as neoliberalism is how we got here. However Biden is the option we have at this point, so we need to vote for him in 2024 so we can at least have a chance to vote in a socialist in 2028.
Socialism will never work in America. Period. End of story. It’s well documented and researched fact. It’s barely only ever worked in smaller nations with considerably smaller populations.
This has been going on for years and for years the entire notion of a functioning socialist system in America has been proven to be a farce.
What we need is to put a stop to the pursuit of infinite growth and the pursuit of endless profits. The capitalist class doesn’t want this because it would end their way of lives, they won’t let it happen, there’s no reason it wouldnt work.
they won’t let it happen
They are certainly incentivized to try to stop us. As long as we have a democracy we have a chance at enacting socialist policies. They wouldn’t be backing the Republican’s fascist takeover if they already had total power.
I agree I just meant they use all their power against any socialist movements both domestic and abroad I used the term won’t let it happen as in won’t let it happen on their watch as they have largely been alowed to rule unopposed for over a century but it seems that from one generation to the next they have taken more and more from those at the bottom and it seems that they’re reaching the tipping point where their tower is starting to crumble. ✌️
It’s well documented and researched fact.
This has been going on for years and for years the entire notion of a functioning socialist system in America has been proven to be a farce.
Then show sources.
It’s barely only ever worked in smaller nations with considerably smaller populations.
This inherently contradicts your argument. There is no principle, that has been proven with any math or science, that says the inclusive institutions that make up social democracies elsewhere in the world do not scale to a country the size of the US.
We’ve had numerous social programs over the years and economic regulations that are in line with socialist policies. Medicare, Obama Care, social security, and even things like public drinking fountains are all examples of this. We have laws on the books against monopolies and the government oversees corporate mergers. Unions used to be a powerful force for workers rights. While they are not full collective ownership of the means of the production, they are a step in the right direction and are in the middle of a resurgence thanks to Biden. Our society has already benefited from socialism despite people painstakingly refusing to acknowledge that.
The idea that socialism cannot work in America is an internalized value people pick up from living in our neoliberal society. It has nothing to do with historical, political, or economic facts.
ROFL! Always a manifesto of nonsense from you people.
We’re don’t here.
This article covers the concept of internalizing our society’s flaws as values. I highly recommend you read it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/donald-trump-americans-us-culture-republican
Also, I recommend Robert Reich’s youtube channel. It should give you the context to reevaluate assumptions about society.
And if you need someone spicier then there is always Vaush.
“Actually you poors are having an amazing time and everything is great, you’re just too stupid to realize it.”
On average, wage growth has outstripped inflation in the last 2.5 years, so most people are better off, income-wise: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
Unemployment is near historic lows as well: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE
Stock market is currently insane, but that’s probably just an AI bubble.
How many middle class people do you know with 2 jobs and no stock options?
Not so subtle reminder that YOU are not immune to propaganda.
Also propaganda doesn’t come exclusively from newspapers and magazines.
The best form of propaganda in the last couple of decades has been word of mouth.
Don’t trust anyone to tell you what to think. Look at the facts and only the facts.
Facts aren’t facts though.
Both sides of Covid had their facts, and after a few years, both sides had to admit they were wrong about certain things.
I think the other problem with only looking at facts is that it ignores the context.
Take 9/11 for example, the fact was terrorists attacked America, end of story.
But it misses the bigger picture; why did they attack America? There are no “facts” here. We can speculate, or we could take them at their word.
What an incredibly stupid take. There were hundreds of people trying to figure out why terrorists attacked America. There were books and scientific papers written about it. Just because you never looked into it doesn’t mean there’s no data.
You’re arguing against the concept of truth because you’re too lazy to pursue it.
You’re missing the point. I could explain it, but you’re acting like an asshole. There is nothing I said to warrant such an abrasive response.
It offends me when people argue against the concept of knowledge.
I did no such thing. In fact, what I was doing was marking a line and making it more distinct.
Epistemology is important to me, but there isn’t one epistemology, there are epistemologies. If you want to take it to the extreme, the only thing we can be certain of is that we are conscious. That is the only thing which cannot be an illusion.
Also, you claim your feelings were hurt because you thought someone had a different opinion about something.
The irony is that your actions are antithetical to gaining knowledge. Instead of being curious, you assumed you were right, got emotional, strawmanned my position and then acted like an asshole.
Your actions are also antithetical to sharing knowledge. If you were right, most people wouldn’t listen to what you were saying because you’ve just disrespected them.
Biden has been a fine president, but notably failed to do a number of things that are important to me such as legalizing marijuana, codifying into law RvW, ending Citizen’s United, increasing the minimum wage, etc. I like Joe Biden, and he’s way better than the other guy, but I wouldn’t say “great”.
Then vote Democrat across the board. He needs a majority in both the House and Senate for some of those, and a super majority to go against the Supreme Court afaik.
Voting matters. If you want results, Biden needs the numbers.
You mean like all those other times Democrats had majorities and, checks notes, delivered milquetoast Republican bills?
You mean that one time for 3 months during Obamas term, where they were focused on trying to get Healthcare reform in? Because there’s no other time in recent history where the dems controlled both houses with a dem potus
Yeah actually, because what we got was a repackaged healthcare bill that was written by none other than Obama’s presidential opponent Mitt Romney. It was a fucking godsend to insurance companies and hasn’t actually improved health outcomes for the average American. In fact if the current burnout working people in the Healthcare profession is anything to go by, this age of insurance is diametrically opposed to serving the public.
Or we could talk about Clinton’s pull yourself up by your boots straps impact on social safety nets and gutting of Wall Street and bank regulations maybe?
Don’t forget railroad buster Biden and Israel apologist Biden.
Still better than “million American deaths due to incompetence and pushing psuedo-science” trump though, don’t get me wrong.
Keep in mind, the Biden administration continued to negotiate on the unions behalf until the companies capitulated and gave sick days. The rail unions celebrated the victory and gave Biden credit.
The rail unions celebrated the victory and gave Biden credit.
There is a huge difference between union leaders and what they say on behalf of it’s members and the rank and file members themselves. Kneecapping rank and files power, their only power which is to withhold their labor, is not something that is celebrated.
The President cannot unilaterally do any of those things.
And the things he could do unilaterally (student loan forgiveness), he absolutely tried to do , but was cockblocked.
Absolutely. I mean, it’s utterly fascinating that people think the President can somehow overturn a Supreme Court decision (Citizens United). The civic literacy in this country is fucking awful, and it’s clear that a huge portion of our electorate doesn’t know or understand anything more complicated than a one-line soundbyte.
Honestly?
He has been fine, on the balance.I don’t like that he’s gone around Congress to sell weapons to Israel. The Palestine genocide is horrible, and it’s disgusting that he’s not doing everything he can to put a stop to it.
Side note: I know. The U.S. is morally contorting itself to replenish Israel’s weapons stocks because the U.S. needs Israel to be a regional bully to keep Iran and its proxies/the major oil suppliers in check while the U.S. and its European allies decarbonize their economies to a point where U.S. oil can supply them without causing domestic oil prices to spike. The U.S. doesn’t want Russia supplying them, so supporting a genocidal regime is the only palatable option - and Israel knows this, so they’re forcing the U.S. to be complicit.
But Biden leads the state dept, no? Why are their diplomats blocking the U.N. from stepping in as a peacekeeping force? He has other options than to be a pawn.Anyway.
My real problem is the Democratic Party. Polling shows that the average voter supports way more liberal policies than political parties do. But politicians tend to vote with economic elites, rather than the average person. And in this cherry-picked example, you can see voter turnout massively increased when people think their values are being represented (2018: Marijuana legalization, 2022: Abortion Rights.)Democrats had a majority in 2021/2022. They had the trifecta. They controlled the legislative and the executive.
They could have strengthened the VRA. They could have fixed campaign finance. They could have expanded the Supreme Court. They could have tried to do something about gerrymandering. (I know, states rights. Blech.) They could have rebalanced the House of Representatives. They could have made the temporary tax cuts for low earners under TCJA permanent, and’s made the permanent tax cuts for high earners temporary. They could have codified abortion rights. They could have amended the ACA to make it better. They could have forgiven student loans before it became a political mess.Nah. They whined about Manchin and Sinema – candidates their national and local parties supported. Said that’s why they couldn’t get anything meaningful done. Then they lost the house and now it’s just clown shoes all over again.
It’s not all the Democrats fault. Under the current system, it’s significantly easier to court a few monied interests – corporations that can chuck unlimited donations, or wealthy patrons that can spin up a PAC and launder their personal funds to you. It is easier. More money means they can devote more effort to court voters, spin narratives of good vs evil and how this election is the most important one. ‘It may be the last if we don’t vote blue no matter who!’
They didn’t fully create this system, but they are benefiting from it. They cater to the wealthy, make excuses to the voters for why they don’t do anything, and try just hard enough that they don’t lose elections. It’s why they chase the thin margins in “the middle” rather than disaffected liberal voters. So they can preserve a decaying status quo, rather than change it.Biden is the most prominent Democrat right now. All things being equal, he owns the Democratic Party’s failure to lead. And that includes their lack of action in 2021/2022 His successes are marred by the party’s failures. A referendum on him is as much a referendum on the Democratic Party as it is anything else. At least in my opinion.
I assume most others, regardless of whether or not they blame Biden or the party, feel the same. It might be a bit hasty to assume civic illiteracy if someone doesn’t take the time to name the individual sources of their frustration.
Well the only thing stopping a president from doing something is the will of the civil service to do it and the will of Congress to impeach them. Trump proved that. Why are we still playing gentlemen’s rules?
Trump is hardly notable for just doing things. Monroe told Europe to fuck off in the Americas or else with zero approval or power to enforce it. Jackson proved that by forcibly removing Indians from their lands. Lincoln did lots of questionable things during the Civil War. FDR basically joined WWII without congressional approval. Reagan managed to have people commit treason and have congress grant them immunity. Bush created gtmo as a prison camp. Obama proved it with the gulf drilling moratorium.
So again with my question. Why is it suddenly so important for Biden?
The Railroad Union was all him. He can raise the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors. He could have ended the Remain in Mexico program. He could have set the DOJ to monopoly breaking. He could have stopped supplying Israel. He could direct HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs…
The list goes on.
On top of Edward Teach’s comment, you also raised the issue of the railroad union. Guess what?
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
Biden did the right thing once again, and also managed to avoid a national logistics disaster. Please stop operating off of vibes.
Yeah that’s what everyone was afraid of, that people would just reference the Union’s own victory lap. The Unions called it a major victory but the actual union membership did not want that. They literally just wanted the ability to call in sick without being fired and to end the points system. Neither of which they got. The “short notice sick days” are scheduled a month in advance. And I sure hope they manage to schedule all of their sickness a month out, and within 7 days out of 365. None of Biden’s legislative promises appeared either because why keeping working on them after this victory lap?
The suits all got a pat on the back and the workers got fucked. Different day, Same America.
Also, it was never a national logistics disaster. We wouldn’t be the first country to have our logistics system go on strike. And we won’t be the last.
So just to be clear here, the union is taking a victory lap for getting what it wanted, but the union is also mad that it didn’t get what it wanted? Can you help me to understand where I can get more information about this pre-scheduled sick time?
I do also just want to note that my understanding is that the president does not make legislation, can you also point me to where he promised to do that?
The Union Leadership is taking a victory lap. The Union itself was and is furious about it. It’s not that complicated. And his promises are in the press release linked in the comment. As for how to find out about those sick days being a trap? You kind of have to ask the railroaders themselves. Nobody is covering the fact that the days still count against their points system, have to be scheduled, and that not all railroaders have them. The companies gave them mostly to people that don’t actually run the trains or do critical track work. So what most of us think of as a railroad worker, still doesn’t even have sick days. I hate to send people to reddit but r/railroading has been a good source through all this.
I get what you’re saying here but there must be SOMEONE reporting on this? I don’t know any railroaders so I can’t really ask them, you must understand though that it’s hard for me to agree with someone based on a “trust me bro”, especially on the internet. I also read the entire press release again for what it’s worth, they seem to have only stated that Biden was pressuring lawmakers to, well, make laws. Here’s the entirety of Biden’s thing:
I share workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care for a sick family member,” Biden said. “I have pressed legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office and will continue to do so.
Seems pretty reasonable? Idk, all that said I am in support of expanded workers rights and if this is indeed the case I hope it gets more attention soon and can be corrected, because 4 pre-scheduled sick days is pretty stupid lol. I promise I’m not being disingenuous, I’m just really not stoked about the idea of another Trump term and people seem to want to do nothing but yeet us off that cliff. Biden has been a better president than I expected and I’d like to keep democracy goin ya know?
He can raise the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors.
He could have ended the Remain in Mexico program.
Done, and confirmed by SCOTUS.
He could direct HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs…
Done.
So let’s rewrite your comment, given the things that you apparently didn’t know actually happened:
The Railroad Union was all him. He raised the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors. He ended the Remain in Mexico program. He could have set the DOJ to monopoly breaking. He could have stopped supplying Israel. He directed HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs… The list goes on…
Yeah, it has a slightly different flavor when you actually…you know…pay attention to things.
Oh, yeah paying attention. Like when he banned Asylum seekers at the border. Effectively forcing them to remain in Mexico or in another dangerous country. They can use the CBP One app to apply from their home country, however this requires them to stay in the dangerous country to do so. He effectively continued the program while officially ending it. Don’t believe me? check out this Dissent from the court currently hearing it.
The Biden administration’s “Pathways Rule” before us in this appeal is not meaningfully different from the prior administration’s rules that were backhanded by my two colleagues. This new rule looks like the Trump administration’s Port of Entry Rule and Transit Rule got together, had a baby, and then dolled it up in a stylish modern outfit, complete with a phone app.
-Van Dyke, Ninth Circuit Appeals; East Bay Sancuatry Covenent V. Biden
And that HUD link is about them giving developers money. I want HUD to buy the office building, convert it, and rent it out at cost. That’s how we’re going to put a hole in the rental market bubble. Not by asking to them to please charge less.
As far as the minimum wage thing, I missed that. but it is a torrent of information, that you’re not getting all of either.
