this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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This whole crushing it narrative... Are we going to pretend like all working Americans aren't struggling?
Like sure Biden as corpse is better than Trump but he's not more likeable and he isn't doing a good job.
And, this is despite a senate where Sinema and Manchin supposely give democrats a razor slim majority, but in reality they block almost everything. And, despite a congress that is currently republican controlled and block even the things their constituents want because they don't want to let Biden have a win.
In what way (other than Gaza) is he not doing a good job?
Student loans have not been canceled
Non-Competes are still in effect
We still have the world's highest prison population.
Landlords are still price fixing and rent is still out of control
Amazon, Google and apple nor any other large companies have been broken up with antitrust
Despite giving the IRS funding, the rich are still not paying taxes
Allowing Medicare to negotiate was pretty great. I'll give you that.
"In what way (other than Gaza) is he not doing a good job?"
I don't know if you've been to America or met most Americans, but most of us are really struggling. There's a housing crisis. Most people can't afford to live on their own. There's a ton of food insecurity. Education is abysmal. I mean the whole thing's just fucked. This pretending things are really good right now and gaslighting Americans and trying to shame them into voting for Biden is part of the problem by the way.
And the reason for all of that is the GOP blocking or sabotaging every single effort to improve things, and then blaming the Dems, and it convinced a LOT of people.
That's partially true. But some of the time it was just the Dems holding it up like manchin or Cinema. Also Biden'l has also not put things forward that he said he would. Like when he had the majority in the Senate in the house he did not try to pack the court. The negative things we've seen in the last 4 years are from the supreme Court that Biden never tried to pack despite claiming he would.
I hate the Republicans just as much as you do, maybe more honestly. All I'm saying is the Dems suck too. They're basically trying to hand this election the Trump like they did in 2016.
Oh 100%
Manchin and Cinema are Dem in name only, their actions are GOP at every turn.
Don't forget, 3 of the 5 SCOTUS were appointed by Trump, so everything happening with them now is from that and Biden doesn't have power to stop that.
And either way, both Dem and GOP are Right Wing parties and their goals are more or less to maintain the status quo, benefit corporations and elites, keep power, etc.
Neither party has interests or incentives to truly progress things that benefit people, except in maybe a scrap or two to get votes.
We don't really have a government by the people and FOR the people right now. If we did we would have Ranked Choice Voting, no more Electoral College BS, no more Gerrymandering, Voting Day would be a federal holiday, mail in ballots would be universal and accepted, etc etc etc.
Friendly stranger. I do not know what we disagree on.
The only thing I can see is I think Biden should have done more to pack the court and for not doing that. He is now partially responsible for the things we were seeing come from them. I've seen people arguing that doing so when he had that slim majority in the Senate wouldn't have been effective and been political suicide but I disagree. I think a lot more people would be willing to vote for him if he had done it. I would be much more enthused about this candidate if you had done it. I believe the real reason he didn't is because he didn't want to. I don't believe there is a way for us to prove this one way or the other. I respect your opinion. I just disagree with it.
I believe we want the same things. My original comment was only to point out that a lot of people are acting like Biden is doing all the things we want and is actually good instead of just a less right-wing candidate. I just want more straightforward and honest communication around this.
My original comment is just saying I do not like this false narrative that Biden is killing it when he is really not doing much good and continuing a lot of evil. Totally agree, he's better than Trump and I think that should just be the end of our messaging. We're honestly the Democratic party needs to find a way to make someone else the nominee. I don't think if we stay coarse the Dems win.
Some have.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes
The problem is being worked on, the solution wasn't instantaneous.
Not yet, these things take time. The final antitrust case against AT&T lasted 8 years, and it was only one of many. The antitrust case against IBM lasted almost 13 years.
Again, these things take time.
So... something that has been happening since at least the Reagan years wasn't turned around in 4, so Biden's doing a bad job?
Most student loans have not been canceled claiming that student loans have been canceled. It's just ingenuous and again it's the whole fake Biden is killing it narrative. Be honest.
Non-Competes are still in effect that ruling does not go into effect until September at the earliest and it is subject to many Court challenges before it will probably not happen. Regardless, it has not happened yet.
You say the problem is being worked on in these things take time for multiple things. In other words, Biden has not done anything on these fronts. You cannot give Biden credit for something that he has not done lol.
This is what I mean. Biden is milk toast at best. He's really just slowing our rate of decline more than he is actually doing a good job. The insistence that he is killing it or doing a good job when he is not and people are suffering is a bad strategy politically.
This giant list of things that turns out to be bs is the kind of thing making people more disillusioned. Stuff like this lowers voter turnout. Democrats lose when voter turnout is low. Do you see where this gets bad?
What an idiotic thing to say.
You should look up that expression because you're misusing it.
I don't think it's an idiotic thing to say. I think you're an idiot for dismissing it without reason.
I'm not going to waste my time with you
If you don't think it's an idiotic thing to say, you're an idiot.
"If something extremely complex and time consuming isn't already 100% done to my satisfaction, nothing has been done."
Do you know that some things take time? Do you know that progress isn't instantaneous? What are you, a literal baby who has no concept of the passage of time?
He didn't fix every problem ever and hasn't accomplished world peace, therefore he's just as bad as Trump!!
These anti Biden morons on lemmy are really getting tiresome.
Not to mention that MOST of the problems they are bitching at Biden for not fixing were caused by them in the first place and then they blocked Biden from any efforts to fix it.
They set the fire, slash the firetruck's tires and then have the audacity to blame the firefighters for not putting it out.
I don't love Biden, but damn, he is trying to do some good things and being blocked at every turn.
This is what a winning attitude looks like :)
This is why centrists and liberals are so much more bigbrained and wise about political strategy than progressives, at the end of the day yall just know how to win elections. Scold people for not wanting to vote for your candidate, genius!
Then they're going to blame us instead of taking responsibility when Trump wins. It's honestly infuriating.
-Minimum wage
-Education
-Private equity
-Healthcare
-Ease of voting
Why is the genocide of Palestinians not enough for you to conclude Biden isn't doing a good job?
Isn't it crazy How many Dems are going to downplay genocide like it's not a big deal?
Because:
Those are US jets dropping US made bombs with pilots who have likely EXTENSIVELY trained with US military pilots, literally the ENTIRE military apparatus of Israel is an extension of the U.S. military industrial complex and that isn’t an exaggeration. The IDF has trained extensively and has deep ties with US police departments, surveillance and military software and hardware technology ties run deep between US and Israeli companies that basically serve as the field testing arm of the rest of the bulk of the western/US military industrial complex.
It is bullshit Biden can’t do more, because not only is the above true (which really puts Israel in a position where at the end of the day the US calls the shots), Israel now more than ever is existentially reliant upon the US to provide them support materially and diplomatically for them to continue to perpetuate this genocide.
Stop wasting all of our time with lazy rhetorical delaying tactics like this, if Biden wanted to he could call up Netanyahu and end the genocide almost immediately, Biden would just have to not be a coward who actually kind of wants all these Palestinians to die anyways so shrugs.
Those are Israeli jets dropping Israeli bombs being piloted by Israeli pilots. When you sell someone something it becomes theirs, they are free to use it as they see fit, especially in the case of another country with its own military following its own laws.
The US definitely shouldn't have been selling Israel weapons for decades, let alone giving Israel money it can use to buy weapons (although it's more of a gift to US defense contractors than it is a gift to Israel). But, once the weapons are in Israel's hands, they're Israel's weapons.
Of course Biden could do more, but he's part of a political class that deeply believes in helping Israel. Mitt Romney would have been the same, same with Hillary Clinton and her husband, same with Obama, same with both Bushes, junior and senior. Trump isn't part of that political class... but his stance would be "nuke Palestine" and/or "what's in it for me, personally?"
He could call him up and tell him the US was cutting off support, but that wouldn't end it immediately. It would also be a major cost to him politically, because a lot of democratic donors are rich jews who believe in the Zionist project. But, he's probably not even making that kind of a political calculation, he's probably just doing it because he strongly believes in helping Israel.
It sucks, but there are 2 dominant political parties in the US, and one wants to help Israel because it thinks Israel is the only real democracy in the middle east, so no matter what it does, it's not as bad as the nearby arab states. The other party thinks that the rapture is about to happen and that there needs to be a holy war in the middle east before all the non-evangelicals get wiped out and Jesus comes back to take the righteous to heaven -- oh, and it's a good place to sell weapons and generate big profits.
If you think this is how the actual world works you are incredibly misguided.
Israel knows having a cushy relationship with the US military industrial complex is literally existential to its existence, like Americans with healthcare, Israel cannot bargain, it is not in a place to bargain, since the thing being bargained for is existentially needed by one of the bargaining parties (Israel) whereas the other party is indifferent (US) in terms of material interest.
Israel has zero power here to stop Biden from calling Netanyahu on the phone and laying out these existential terms in a framing that Netanyahu would have no choice but to buckle and respond to. The US is a river of arms and money, Israel is just floating down it.
If you think this isn't how the world works, here's an example: Israel.
It may once have been, but now the free weapons from the US are just a nice to have thing, rather than a necessity. Israel is relatively rich and doesn't need the free stuff from the US anymore. But, it's certainly nice to have.
edit I want to respond to this before I get into the rest of my takedown of your willful nonsense.
This is precisely what is so insane about the centrist and conservative chokehold on the us media and conversation around this, Biden’s policy on facilitating the Israeli genocide of Palestinians is incredibly unpopular with voters, it isn’t even close.
Biden’s failure to even slightly reign in the genocide of Palestinians or convince anybody but mindless supporters of rightwing Israeli politics that he actually cares about the slaughter of children and innocent people and the erasure of their history from the land is an unmitigated catastrophe for his electability and has already resulted in several high profile resignations from his cabinet specifically over the heinousness of his lack of caring and action.
edit ok back to your regularly scheduled basic geopolitical education
———
Are you kidding? It doesn’t even matter how many bombs, missiles, artillery shells and bullets the IDF possesses and how long that could theoretically repel wave after wave of invaders.
Strategically there isn’t even a fight if the US withdraws support from Israel, it is no longer a question of tactics and military strategy, it is a question of politics and how states are and are not allowed to engage in warfare by the larger power structures that control the geopolitics and flow of basic human resources that facilitates the possibility of organized warfare in the first place.
Your argument is not only nonsense, if anything Israel has just become equivalent to a North Korea on the world stage, they are if anything worse, they are a pariah state that commits genocide openly, without the US they have almost zero allies and certainly none powerful enough to protect them from the consequences of slaughtering Palestinians en masse and taunting the rest of the Middle East (and really anybody in the world with fire in their heart) to do something about it.
In committing a genocide of Palestinians, Israel has irrevocably ensured it cannot survive as a state within the Middle East without EVEN MORE direct military support (both in terms of strategy and materials) from the US. All Biden has to do, literally all he has to do, is make Netanyahu shit his pants by unpredictably withdrawing key support and looking Netanyahu in the eyes until he blinks. A high schooler would intuitively know what to do here, the best strategy is very obvious here, I cannot emphasize this enough, Biden is either a coward or he genuinely is ok with the genocide of +60,000 innocent Palestinians if it dovetails with his worldview and political strategy.
Either is enough to be a red line for me in terms of voting for Biden, Biden is directly complicit in the intentional and pre-meditated genocide of tens of thousands of Palestinians, Biden absolutely deserves the nickname “Genocide Joe” thrown in his face like a shoe or a thick ball of spit. It is a small price to pay for standing by and doing nothing as both the commander and chief of the most powerful military on earth and the head of state of the direct overseeing geopolitical power of the regime committing the genocide.
Biden could have seen this coming for literally years, so could anyone else if they were paying attention, this was always the end goal of the IDF and Netanyahu. A purposefully unsustainable and inhumanely cruel situation was set up by Israel to ensure eventually a rationale would arise that would justify killing every single damn Palestinian and stealing all of their land.
Don’t want to take my word for it? Just look up official quotes on record AND live cable news tv from IDF spokespeople specifically chosen to speak on the topic to the public.
If Biden wants my vote he can get it, call up Netanyahu have a quick “talk” a.k.a. a direct no-bullshit threat, and the status quo will change so fast it will make the media pass out and feint in confusion from the “carefully” constructed narrative of all their unreflective warmongering support and positive spin on the genocide of innocent Palestinians collapsing into a sinkhole of hateful bullshit.
'42 [percent] of Democratic voters [...] said his approach was “just right.”'
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/14/democrats-sympathetic-palestinians-israelis-poll-00152117
No, unlike you, he actually knows what the polls say, and largely they say that people support what he's doing. If you think otherwise it's because you're in an echo chamber. But, what's sad about you is that you're so deep in that echo chamber that you think you're not.
Suuuure... wow, those echoes in your chamber are deafening you.
So, instead you allow Trump to win, because somehow you think that's the result that's better for Palestinians? That's idiotic.
Did you even read the article?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/14/democrats-sympathetic-palestinians-israelis-poll-00152117
https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx
https://ajpaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/YouGov-Polling-Results-Full-Report-2024.pdf
https://www.commondreams.org/news/13-ex-biden-voters-gaza
The polling has ONLY gotten worse, plus a lot of the reasons USians voted for Biden was voters wanted a return to normalcy and trust with the international community (i.e. everyone knows Trump is a clown) and Biden's unwavering support for the Palestinian genocide has appalling destroyed any semblance of Biden being a vehicle for that.
Do you want me to go on or would you prefer to quietly exit this argument and save as much face as possible here?
So, to you, 35% approving of his policy and 55% disapproving is "incredibly unpopular" and "it isn't even close"? Because to me, that seems mildly unpopular.
Almost half of democrats approve of how he's handling the situation. Doesn't sound like it's "incredibly unpopular" to me.
Less than half of potential Biden voters disapprove... meaning that more than half either approve or are neutral.
Gee, a lobbying group for Palestinian issues claims that Palestine is a critical issue in battleground states? What evidence is there for that?
Let's look at what the actual top issues are:
"In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are engaged in close contests, most voters said the economy will be a major factor in deciding whom they will cast their ballot for, results from a CBS News and YouGov poll show.
In Michigan, 80% of voters say the economy is a top issue for them, followed by 77% of voters who say inflation is. Seventy-two percent of voters ranked the state of democracy as one of the issues that matter most to them. Biden currently has a narrow lead over Trump in the state.
In both Pennsylvania and Washington, 80% of voters similarly ranked the economy as one of the topics they care most about this election.
Other lower-ranked topics included candidates' stances on gun policy, crime, the U.S.-Mexico border and abortion."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/economy-top-issue-voters-presidential-election-2024/
No mention of the middle east / Gaza.
"Several polls and focus groups have shown young people ranking the ongoing conflict in the Middle East as significantly less important to them than other issues — such as health care and the economy. This suggests that some of the coverage portraying young people as single-issue voters motivated by the Israel-Hamas war, or framing the protests as a death knell for President Joe Biden’s campaign, is overblown."
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/gaza-protests-young-voters-media-election-rcna151364
As for people who wouldn't vote for Biden because of his policy on Gaza... they're going to hand their vote to a guy who had "banning Muslims from entering the US" as a signature policy? Either they're serious about not voting for him meaning they're idiots and you can just ignore their opinions, or they're not serious and they'll eventually vote for him anyway because letting the other guy win would be infinitely worse.
Are we going to pretend that working Americans haven't been struggling since mid 1980 at the very least.
I'm not and it's only gotten worse. Republicans and Democrats have both made it that way. I'll admit the Republicans are worse, but the Democrats haven't helped either.
Ok but you get that you're implying things were better under trump, right?
Because of Trump but under Biden abortion rights have gotten stripped for millions. Mass American poverty and the housing crisis only continued to escalate under biden. Biden has continued many of Trump's border policies and even looks to make that situation worse. Under his presidency we have also enabled a genocide in Palestine. I could go on but do I need to?
I want to be clear. Trump is worse than Biden. Biden has not made things better overall. He has only slowed the rate at which things are getting worse. Do you think I'm wrong?
Sure not something that Biden can change without packing the court which he also can't do by himself.
Both are reduced under biden, no thanks to trump. He continued then and actually escalated them, the border is more secure today than at any time in human history which is an issue sure. What enabled Israel is moving the embassy to Jerusalem cementing American policy for the foreseeable future. You could find an actual issue that Biden caused but that's just me.
I agree, but implying things were better with Trump in office is next level crazy shit to say.
Just going to focus on the first part cuz I don't think we're going to really progress on the other parts and we seem to have an understanding.
Buden didn't even try to pack the court. The Dems had the Senate and the house and the presidency in 2021. I don't remember Biden even trying to pack the supreme Court. It'd be one thing if he tried and the Senate wouldn't give him the vote of a simple majority for his candidates. Then we could say Biden's cool but some Dems suck. But he didn't even try. Why are we pretending like he would have?
Edit: also sorry if I come off like an asshole I don't mean to. Also hell yeah 420 dude 👈😎 I'm lighting up now myself
I know this, it would have been shooting himself in the foot politically. He might do it if he loses before he leaves office where it can't effect his presidency directly. Smart? Sure, smarmy absolutely.
There are things that are possible and things that are probable, in politics the overlaps are rare and slight.
It takes seconds to shatter a vase, and hours to glue it back together. That’s the difference.
As an outsider watching US Politics in abject horror - this pervasive both-sides-bad arguement is utter bullshit.
Hillary Clinton was an imperfect candidate, but she would not have appointed three bat-shit crazy judges to the Supreme Court who would the. Go onto gutting almost a century’s worth of civil and environmental rights.
Complaining that Dems aren’t doing enough is media spin, owned and paid for by Billionaires and the corporations they control. A lot of good work gets done that you don’t hear about, because if you did - you’d actually be incentivised to vote for Dems, and the 0.1%’ simply can’t have that.
This upcoming election is without hyperbole the most important since the US’s founding - this is your Fall of Rome moment. Trump needs to be defeated in order for your nation to continue to exist in any manner that you could continue to recognise. The very ideals of the Constitution- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - are at stake.
So make sure you get out and vote, as this could very well be your last opportunity to do so while it still matters.
And if you manage to do the right thing - get involved with politics on your local level, and participate in the primaries. Help pick the candidates that should run, who share your agenda - but when it comes to the general elections, vote against those who share none of your values.
There’s a saying that Democrats need to fall in love with a candidate, while Republicans fall in line. You need to fight them on their terms, the high moral ground is built on sandy foundations and your opponent is armed with shovels and an intent on seeing you destroyed.
Just a note, from one political activist to another: saying "this election is the most important election in history EVERY SINGLE TIME" just gets people exhausted, and make them develop a disbelief in your words. People could not have lived through several "the most importan election in history" in a row.
Think of it as a “terrorists on a plane” analogy. You need to prevail each and every time in order to keep everyone safe, the terrorists only need to get lucky once.
The classic Republican-flavour of conservatism is dying out in the US amongst the younger generations, which means that the GOP is like a wounded, cornered animal: now is when they are the most dangerous and likely to lash out violently.
..and as luck would have it; the last three US presidential elections have been QUITE important. Again, Trump 45 seated THREE Supreme Court judges! Literally one third replaced by someone who NEVER held the support of the majority of the nation.
Biden 46 managed to curtail 45’s corruption, and begin to undo some of the structural damage inflicted onto the nation. The GOP choosing to re-run the same loser candidate for the third election in a row is what makes it yet another “MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION” in a series of them.
I come from a nation with mandatory voting, even for us every vote is the most important election so far - as it determines the path our nation will take over the coming years and what challenges we should prioritise. I can barely comprehend how almost half of the population of the worlds most powerful nation can’t be bothered to participate in a core principle of democracy that will directly impact the quality of their lives, and the lives of their loved ones.
Hard work is exhausting, but ensuring a better world for our children’s generation and beyond should be reward enough.
No, unfortunately conservatism is really quite seriously NOT dying off among younger people, it is rather building momentum. Fortunately progressive leftism is building momentum even faster in the minds of younger people.
What is dying off is "both sides" centrism that builds a worldview like an excel averaging algorithm over a column of cells, bereft of values, ideology, bold visions or really even anything of substance to fight for really. Can't happen fast enough if you ask me.
He needs to be imprisoned, not just defeated. The fact that he's running again and not sitting in a prison cell is a colossal failure of our legal system. If we can't even hold someone accountable for trying to overthrow our government, then idk that we even have a government worth saving. Our country is already lost.
I mean, arguably, the president has little to no control over these things. It's primarily congress and they have been the least productive congress in a long long time.
He is certainly more likeable. I've never disliked anyone as much as I dislike trump.
I'm not rich, but I'm doing alright. I get by. Was laid off but found a job 2 weeks later.