politics

On nearly every single issue, not only is he "better than Trump," he's actually good. On the environment? Actual progress in the form of a massive infrastructure bill that invests in green energy sources and tamping down on pollution. On education? He's made student loan forgiveness a central tenet of his policy agenda. On the economy? He's gotten inflation under control and the economy is actually doing great now.

The elephant in the room is Israel and Palestine, of course, but I wish people would pause and think before knee-jerk reacting to... not even his policies there, just headlines about his policies.

The fact of the matter is that the Middle East is a fucking mess and Israel is currently run by a government hell-bent on making it ten times worse, but Israel actually falling and the conflict overtaking the entire region would be a global catastrophe. Biden is doing what he can to pressure Netanyahu over the insane and genocidal treatment of Palestinians while not giving Iran and others the sense that they have free rein to invade. (And for FUCK'S sake, can we stop pretending Iran is suddenly the good guys? They're supplying arms to Russia.)

This is a nuanced, complex, and fragile situation, and like it or not, Biden is exactly the right kind of person for the presidency at a time like this. Not only that, Trump would make it ten thousand times worse on purpose, because it would please Putin to see Russia's influence in the Middle East overtake that of the United States.

There is literally only one sane choice on the ballot this year.

Democratic strategists, liberal pundits are making a living off doubting President Joe Biden's viability in the 2024 presidential election. Why?

Because they need it to be a horse race to get keep people's attention. They write those things because they get clicks and views and comments.

Notice how they're not writing about how our system is failing everyone by being this way. That's because they like the system this way because it keeps them on top.

You're ignoring the big elephant in the room. This whole "lesser evilism" schtick that the bootlicker Dems have been relying on since 2016? It's inevitably going to hit rock-bottom - and soon, too.

And the Democratic Party needs to pull its head out of its ass and embrace its base, rather than smugly scheme in ways that are ruining lives.

I have no problem with Biden’s job as president. In fact, I got into a big argument with someone a few weeks ago because they keep parroting anti-Biden propaganda from astroturfed pro-Palestine social media groups.
Biden has been doing a great job for the most part, on a number of fronts.

But I’m sort of bittersweet on that, because the harder I look, the more I see the illusion of choice, and an intentional effort to barely keep up with the will of the people.

2016, Bernie vs Clinton. He had the votes, but the party pulled some superdelegate shenanigans to give it to Clinton. And with the same confidence of someone who had just been handed a layup in the primary, she managed to smugly fumble the presidency by a tiny margin.
Post 2020 - Democrats had a majority, and instead of doing things the populous wanted, they wrung their hands about two candidates the Democratic Party had helped elect - Sinema and Manchin - and whether or not they were going to block bills.
The other day I did a deep dive into Elissa Slotkin - a candidate so unlikeable she had to move to a much more certain democratic district when districts were redrawn. When the senate seat came up, the Democratic Party cut deals with more liberal candidates who are vastly more likable, to get them to not run in the primary. So now Michigan is going to wind up with an unwanted centrist that used to be an ‘analyst’ for the CIA during the Iraq war. She’s going to pretend to be a democrat while being the same sort of heel the Sinema or Manchin was.

That’s just the people. In their post 2020-majority they could have done so much legislatively that they didn’t even bother considering - like campaign finance reform or expanding the courts, or even changing the rules around judicial nominees to prevent future shenanigans, but that would impact their bottom line or their ability to inspire panic at election-time. They could have strengthened the ACA, but that hurts some of the corporations that donate to them. Or do things to help people so that their rights wouldn’t be at risk - like codifying Roe, instead of allowing it to continue to be a wedge issue that destroys lives, but gets people to vote.

The Democratic (and Republican) Party is playing us all.
I’m not disaffected with Biden. I’m disaffected with a political party that nakedly fucks around to preserve the status quo, rather than embracing their base and winning with an encouraged and engaged populous. They lack the mandate to lead because they only desire to govern. (In contrast to the Republicans which lack the mandate to lead, are unable to govern, and only desire power and to abuse the government for personal gain.)

So go ahead, give me the downvotes.
This wouldn’t be an issue if we had ranked choice and a coalition government instead of this ‘winner take all’ nonsense that just incentivizes entrenchment rather than inspiration. But, you know, that doesn’t help the businesses that are political parties, so they ain’t gonna vote on it.

I’ll be one of the first to admit, I don’t like Biden. But, if you need to be convinced that he’s better than Trump, you’re an absolute buffoon!! Trump is worse than the shit you stepped on, on your walk. Trump is the worst thing to ever happen to the American presidency. He’s the closest we’ll get to Adolf Hitler and he relishes in that. He thinks it makes him “a bad boy” or someone moving against the curve…and he’s right, he’s moving against the curve. He’s moving against it in 4 straight lines that will bend consecutively in 90° angles to the right. My point is, TRUMP IS NAZI SCUM WHO’S WORSE THAN THE SHIT ON YOUR HEEL

Democrats need to pull themselves together and figure out what people actually need and want. The bogeyman isn't a sustainable thing.

Are we really in a world where the march of 40 years of fervent evangelical christian nationalism is just "Trump and his goons"?

Trump could both die and go to jail today and that ideological shift is going nowhere but onward.

Most of your grievances are things the POTUS has no unilateral authority over.

Not sure about his direct authority on drug classifications to enable OTC birth control. Also seems weird to focus on since this has been a hotly debated item for decades.

He has zero authority over abortion rights. The SCOTUS made this massive mess, and were enabled by Trumps appointees. This is trumps mess, and checks and balances explicitly prevents the POTUS from dictating this.

Trump prosecution is out of his hands. It's Garland's job. I'm not sure how much influence the POTUS can have here, but more to the point, the POTUS should be staying out of it, particularly since the plaintiff is his political rival. I don't know what his authority is here in the technical sense, but it is appropriate to not have direct influence over the investigation.

Seems like there's a lot of resentment towards Biden because of a general lack of understanding of the power structure of our government.

Biden may be better than Trump, but the system is fucked to make those the only two options. If he wins, after the election I'm going to actively criticize everything about the Democratic party I can so that we have a chance to get a progressive candidate in 2028. For now I'm giving him a pass so we don't take another step towards fascism. Republicans are going to use absolutely everything they can to squeeze their orange dictator into office.

Dude. This USA Today blog post is from December 2023. It doesn't even mention Israel.

A rabid racoon would make a better president than Cheeto Benito..

Gotta stop lumping all the players in one side together. Biden is not doing anything by himself and neither is the fat orange. Gotta pull out the microscope to see who is who and where and why rather than hitting on a single name. The house and senate are the major string pulling yoyos in everything that comes out of washington

It's a goddamn shame in what's supposed to be a representative democracy that there are so many calls for those who supposedly should be the ones represented to change their views to conform with those who represent them and not the other way around.

But it's power dynamics, innit? The Biden administration and their wealthy kind won't be that harmed by a Trump administration, so they don't have a lot of motivation to actually change anything. It's those who stand to be horrifically harmed by Biden's opponent who must swallow their morality and vote for monsters lest more harm come to them later on.

Thanks. Just needed to hear the same shit again from another liberal. I so love election season.

We can't limbo with the bar that low please raise it at least past the "not supporting genocide" line

Biden is better than Trump because he (occasionally) listens to what the voters want. Trump tells his followers what they should support, not the other way around.

This also means that people trying to tell Biden to change course sound like Trump supporters to people that believe politicians never listen.

Democrats should get over themselves and push through ranked choice voting in each state they control. Republicans gaining control of the nation is a existential threat, and we should be using every tool to keep them out. This means getting rid of FPTP voting and the spoiler effect inherent in it.

OP, you seem very concerned with how people vote. Have you worked to start an electoral reform campaign in your state? you can entirely solve the spoiler effect that you're concerned with! What are you waiting for?

pretty much anyone is better than trump

Why is it every single day I'm being inundated with posts of "biden's not that bad" "if you don't vote for Biden you'll get Trump" Wouldn't the messaging be much better if it was "Hey, you may not like Biden, but it's easier to form progressive coalitions under liberal governments" stop trying to make him look good. He's still a genocide enabler, much like every other president would be, I can admit that. Liberals really need to give up on getting people to like him.

"No no, enabling fascism will definitely cause a swing to the left this time. After Trump, our turn!"