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this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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You do realize that Biden can't just declare things into law, right?
For the first two years, Biden had a Democratic House that could theoretically pass anything he wanted, but a Senate which was split nearly 50-50. If they didn't get every vote, they could fail to pass a bill. And this doesn't even get into the filibuster which would tank bills unless 60 votes were reached or the fact that Manchin and Sinema frequently acted to sink Democratic bills despite technically being Democrats. Biden could put some pressure on them, but his options were limited. It's not like he could hold a gun to their heads and force them to vote on favor of bills
Since January, Biden has had a Democratic Senate with a razor thin margin and a Republican House. This threw even more wrenches in the works.
And then there's the Supreme Court. Thanks to Mitch McConnell, Trump, and the Republicans, the Supreme Court has a huge conservative majority. So Biden can try to take action for things like forgiving student loans, but then Republicans sue, the case ends up in the Supreme Court and the conservative justices rule that Biden isn't allowed to do this by law. (He's managed to find a way to forgive some loans even if it wasn't as much as he wanted to do.)
Putting all the blame on Biden and saying "he didn't fulfill all his promises" is disingenuous. He hasn't exactly had the Congress and Supreme Court that could support what he wanted to do. Could he have done everything anyway and proclaimed that he makes the laws now? Perhaps, but then he'd be a fascist dictator and not working within our political system - exactly the type of thing that Trump wants to do and is properly criticized for.
It's funny, the student loan thing was literally decided by the supreme Court reiterating that executive branch rulemaking can't be done capriciously, and people are still pushing this patently false idea that Biden can legalize pot with the stroke of his pen.
Right. And Biden still managed to get some student loan forgiveness through.
I get people being upset when politicians don't fulfill all their promises, but campaign promises tend to be aspirational statements. Once the politician gets into office, they run into the cold hard reality of how the government works.
This happens with every politician. It would be interesting to see all the promises that politicians from Reagan on made to see how well they kept them. I know there are some sites that track this, but I'm not sure they go that far back. It would be interesting to see if Biden is on par, ahead, or behind the average Presidential promises fulfilled.
I’ll give him credit for fighting for student loans (though he chose a stupid strategy and doesn’t seem to understand basic aspects of negotiation?), I give him zero credit for fighting for a minimum raise increase because of “the parliamentarian”….??
These two things are not the same and are regulated by different laws. By your logic we could conclude that Biden couldn’t do anything.
It’s also important to note that Biden used the weakest legal reasoning available to him when canceling student load debt. Debtor advocates were very critical of him at the time for doing that because it increased the likelihood it would be shot down in court.
Buddy, you seem to misunderstand something here. I'm not trying to convince you of anything. If you want to believe Biden deserves your vote go nuts. It makes no difference to me.
But I'm telling you as someone who voted for him in the 2020 general: Fuck Joe Biden. Do whatever you want with that information. But trust no amount of these excuses will change my mind. I was already angry I had to give him a chance in 2020 after people voted for him in the primaries specifically to fuck over progressive and leftist efforts. I held up my end of the bargain. Biden and the people who elected him in the primaries did not.
Fuck Joe Biden for screwing up the BBB. Fuck Joe Biden for negotiating down from $50k student loan forgiveness. Fuck Joe Biden for waiting until after the midterms to fuck over the rail workers. Fuck Joe Biden for blocking the strike. Fuck Joe Biden for supporting Israel against our wishes.
For someone who needs the votes of people like me to win the 2024 general election he sure ain't fucking acting like it. He can go fuck himself along with everyone who voted for him in the primaries.
Ok, so I get that you are privileged enough that you can probably ride out Trumpist fascism without much real damage, at least for a while. Just understand that there are many vulnerable people who will be seriously harmed by your decision to do anything besides voting for Biden. This isn't dooming or trying to scare you into a vote, it's a simple statement of fact.
If you are fine with that moral liability, then carry on.
Funny, that's precisely how I view the people who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries. Where's your ire for them?
So who you voting for then?
Definitely not trump or Biden. If a decent 3rd party candidate shows I'll go that route otherwise I'll just write in.
Gotcha, well that sounds pretty worthless.
Sounds like people should have made a better choice in the 2020 primaries then.
Who cares, dude? Waste your vote.
Be happy knowing that you had a hand in making Trump part 2 fascist boogaloo a reality.
No blame for the people who elected another procorporate trash candidate who's going to lose the general election then huh?
Incumbent Presidents don't often step down and let a party primary process occur. I don't like the situation any more than you do I just know the stakes and am clear minded on what my choices are.
I am too: I'm not voting for Biden or Trump. If that upsets you tell the people who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries they were selfish pieces of shit.
Sure I'll go get their names off of the registry. 🙄
No need. There's plenty right here in this comment section.
You're angry because you're ignorant, and because of that, you're threatening to not vote for the best option in the general election out of spite. Not voting or voting for anyone but Biden is an effective vote for his opponent, which at this time appears to be Trump. So you honestly think that there is anyone else currently running that you think would better represent your interests than the guy that had actually tried to do just that without the needed support?
You can hate the guy all you want, but check in on the reasons you listed and gain a better understanding of the situation around them so you can see how far off you are.
How about in just a high level way, explain how someone could have realistically handled those situations in a better way that would have benefits the country better. Student Loans, Rail Strike, and Israel, how would you have pleased everyone?
Call it whatever you want. But Biden is depending on a lot of votes from people like me to win the 2024 election. Would you rather deal with us or MAGA?
If you don't vote for the front runner on the Democratic ticket in the general, then there's no difference. If you're even considering, at this stage, not voting for the assumed candidate, Biden, then you're no better than maga. I'm not out here to convince you that he's great. I'm just saying you threw some blanket, bullshit reasons out, then act like there's a better choice. In reality, there's not. You can piss and moan all you want, but the general election is not the place to take a stand.
Is this your idea of a functional democracy?
I didn't say it's a good thing, but it's reality.
Then it's not worth defending.
I doubt I'm going to change your mind at all, but I just want to let you know your information about the rail strike is incorrect. Biden did help secure sick pay for those workers, here's part of the statement from the IBEW:
"We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers."
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
The student loan aid was also legally blocked by Congress, and the military budgets were also passed by Congress. There's no magic wand to a lot of the problems you seem to have with Biden, unfortunately. He isn't the sole authority in the US govt.
This is the unfortunate danger of populism generally. Bernie promised big things with no clear nor realistic path to delivering them, and people who are political rookies think he would have been solely capable of achieving those things through fervent advocacy or belief alone.
Sweeping populist rhetoric slams into actual reality with similar velocity whether it's Trump's or Sanders' when actually put into office. Very similarly to how Trump being elected in 2016 didn't magically erect a giant border wall, Sanders being elected would not have resulted in us getting single payer healthcare, changed every long-term military alliance we had with others, eliminated the military industrial complex, nor canceled all student loans.
These things are all from a position of "well, the politician just didn't believe enough!" and no matter how fervent the belief, it takes a long time to affect change in the American system. Even illegally and forcefully turning America completely fascist is a multi-term project, which is why we don't have grand fuhrer trump this moment.
Because those people don't have a basic understanding of how the 3 branches of government actually work.
If I'm elected to congress I'll work towards passing a law mandating all licensed broadcasters run 24 hour marathons of School House Rock and other "USA civics edutainment for children" shows on a set date every year.
That doesn't justify anyone voting for Biden over Bernie or the other options in the 2020 primaries.
I voted Bernie in the primary, and then (as reasonable adult) voted Biden in the general.
Clinton was president 30 years ago and Biden is to the right of Clinton. Three decades of reasonable adulting has pushed us towards fascism.
Anyway, what would you say to the people who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries? Are you willing to call them out for being selfish pieces of shit?
Umm...got any sources for these claims?
And also what's the answer? To waste your vote on someone who has no chance in a first past the pole system? To whine on the Internet?
Ah you answered my last question: the answer is for everyone to get bigly angry on the Internet at people who didn't want Bernie. That'll solve it. 🤷
There were lots of other people running.
Give me one good reason why someone would vote for Biden over everybody else in the 2020 primaries.
Lots of people did vote for someone else in the 2020 primaries. This good variety of candidates that you claim existed only existed in the early rounds. Once Super Tuesday arrived, it was practically Bernie and Biden (everyone else was so far behind in vote percentages that they might as well not even been on the ballots). After Super Tuesday, the field narrowed even further to be exactly Bernie and Biden in the last remaining contests.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries
So, why would someone vote for Biden over Bernie in these contests you're asking? It's simple; they liked Biden more than Bernie.
Alright. Why did they like Biden more than Bernie?
There's any number of reasons for that. I didn't like Biden at all but off of the top of my head:
I could go on further, but you should understand the themes here.
As an aside, despite not being overwhelmingly delighted with Biden's presidency, I am happy to not have the daily pants shitting, diaper-baby in the whitehouse headlines that we had during Trump's four years...and the competency with which Biden largely handled one of the only federal programs I cared about in 2020 (i.e. the distribution of COVID vaccinations) was refreshing after 4 years of complete and utter idiocy in the executive branch.
Yes. The theme is "I don't like progressive or leftist candidates." They voted for Biden to fuck over our efforts. They are not our allies. They are fighting us out in the open.
To just see every voter in the 2020 primary as being in the "anti-progressive" camp is to eliminate their possibility for them to change their mind.
We shouldn't throw them under the bus, but rather seek to persuade them to our side.
If you look at the first two (or somewhat all three) points I raised about why someone might vote Biden over Bernie they are basically based upon perception. Perceptions are moveable. People who voted for Biden in the 2020 primary aren't a lost cause. In many cases, they were persuaded by propaganda that they thought wasn't propaganda because it was coming from purportedly liberal sources (I think of MSNBC in particular).
I never said that. I said people voted for Biden specifically to fuck over progressives and leftists. Your own reasons why someone would choose Biden over every other candidate demonstrated this perfectly. You're right, not every voter in the 2020 primaries was a selfish piece of shit. But every person who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries was absolutely a selfish piece of shit.
They have no incentive to move when their candidate wins the primary and the general elections.
I don't think that's 100% correct. Maybe some of the political insiders directly around Biden see Biden as "their guy"...many voters (myself included) do not see politicians as much of anything except a vehicle for the policies they want in government.
In my opinion, the incentive to move their views winds up being...reality unfolding before their eyes. You see the people in office now and what they're capable of, and you see what policy positions are and aren't working...and your perceptions about what is and isn't possible with certain policies, or certain politicians or even certain political parties...changes.
Hell, dude, the great progressive hope FDR wasn't exactly a leftist until he realized what a shitty shit burger of a situation the country was in when he took office. People and even politicians change.
Clinton's presidency was 30 years ago. Biden is to the right of Clinton. We've moved precisely nowhere.
Yes. In the form of losing general elections.
Biden isn't to the right of Clinton no matter how much you want to keep insisting that's true.
But regardless of the Democrats the other party exists. Reagan was popular amongst basically everyone that voted, Democrats lost three general elections in a row which led to the advent of third way Democrats like Clinton in the first place. Biden losing will not lead to a more progressive candidate winning next election cycle. But it's very possible that it may lead us further toward fascism.
Lol prove it.
Removed, rule 3, keep it civil.
Awww, you're not up for the mental gymnastics necessary to continue gaslighting people into thinking Biden is anything but a right of center procorporate piece of shit? Boohoo.
Nah you're just a dumb troll and I've run out of troll pellets.