return2ozmaWake-up Call: Democrats could easily lose the White House and Senate next year
electric_nanWake up call for who? Will the Democrats ever wake up and give their base something to vote for, instead of “hey, the other guys’s worse, whaddya gonna do?”.
I think they do: www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
I just think the Dems suck at advertising it. Hell, I think Biden is trying for at least some student debt relief.
He's currently failing to handle the current most pressing international issue in a way that satisfies his voter base, though.
He is, don’t think that contradicts anything I’ve said though. I’m just saying they do more than they let on.
I don’t really agree with you, but even if I did… “advertising it” is a big part of politics! It’s called messaging, and it’s important. You have to get people excited to vote for you. They need to feel like you’re fighting for them. If you can’t manage that, then don’t blame people for not voting for you.
I don’t agree with you either but that’s fine.
I don’t think I ever stated anything about blaming anybody for not exciting the base.
Yeah, but there’s a couple things wrong. First, the Dems are trying to DO things, which is exceedingly difficult with a Republican Congress that can’t even agree on a speaker.
But also, DOING things just doesn’t get that much attention.
Fixing the threatening hyper-inflation after the PPP was pretty damn important, but they obviously can’t advertise that because there are side effects. Our economy is returning to being based on real shit rather than make believe Venture Capital bullshit. That’s a painful process, and of course the rich and corporations refuse to feel any of the pain (at least immediately). They’re attempting to pawn all the pain off onto the working class, partly in the hope that they’ll get more corporate tax cuts to “stimulate the economy”.
They’re getting more EVs made in America. The significant tax credit for EVs require that most of the car be made here.
They’re fixing our crumbling bridges and roads. That doesn’t get much attention, and if it does it’ll be a part they’ve failed to address.
Amtrak is building out passenger rail lines that are actually relevant to me. It’s not building metro systems in several medium US cities that need it, but it’s a start.
You know a way that’s much, much easier to get attention? Maybe the Dems should just pick a minority and spout fear and hate. That really plays much better with the public. Just put up a loud mouth who every other day spouts such incredibly dumb shit that the news HAS to cover it. That’s a winning messaging strategy.
I can’t afford an EV. I can’t afford a house. I can’t afford gas. I can’t afford groceries. I can’t afford health insurance-- actually, I can afford the minimum insurance I am required to purchase, but it is basically worthless. This is the kind of shit I don’t hear/see much convincing from Democrats. Yes, fuck the fascists in the Republican party. Unfortunately, fascism can look like an ‘answer’ for these kind of problems. If we don’t want people to fall for that trap, we need popular politics coming from the left.
I can’t afford gas. I can’t afford groceries.
What do you expect any president to do about that?
I expect someone running for president to sound like they give a fuck about that, and (once elected) to use their position as the party leader to constantly marshal their forces towards real solutions to those problems.
Naive as hell, we get it.
President specifically, nothing. Government and a political party as a whole? Fix the problem.
There’s lots of ideas as to how to fix the problem, and though I have my own and have preferences, all that ultimately matters is that every single person in the country has a good place to live, food, and healthcare, and generally speaking, the ability to participate in society as much or as little as they choose.
Maybe voting for fewer Republicans would be a good start.
You want government to fix the problem of you making bad life choices?
…how?
every single person in the country has a good place to live, food, and healthcare, and generally speaking, the ability to participate in society as much or as little as they choose.
That you don’t understand that this is a ridiculously extreme ask is just unreal to me.
I was trying to encompass a lot of stuff in that phrasing, and I get the impression it came out very poorly.
My meaning is along the lines of including things like the ability to freely reach the necessary places for desired social engagement, access to whatever modern communication and interaction systems there are and so on, without limiting it to current technology or physical structure.
I didn’t want to say ‘a vehicle and internet’ since those may not be necessary depending on other things. Even this explanation doesn’t really cover it; there’s a bunch of stuff in my head I want the government to be ensuring for us and it would take a huge essay to cover it all.
That’s basically the opposite of what I thought you meant, which was that all of those things should be guaranteed and no one should have to work.
Good old written mediums
That is something that should be a goal, but it’s an eventual goal, and not something I could reasonably ask of the government today.
I do want those things guaranteed today, but guaranteed in the sense that if someone must work a reasonable amount to obtain them, they can do so without difficulty.
You aren’t wrong, in a way. I’m nearing fifty and Biden is arguably the most progressive president in my lifetime. The problem is, that says more about the quality of presidents in my lifetime than it does about Biden, and with the climate crisis and encroaching global fascism, we don’t have anymore time to wait. The Democrats are doing more, now, because pressure from the left has convinced them that they have to, but the leadership is still dragging their feet in defense of corporate profits as much as they can. The fact that they are doing more doesn’t mean it’s time to lower the pressure - it means the pressure is working, and we need to dial it up.
【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】They don’t suck. They just don’t get any help from corporate media or social media.
All corporate media is right wing media.
I also think people cling to the negatives. With student debt relief, everyone was cynical as hell at the time and still attacked the Dems.
Biden wiped the debt. Republicans filed a lawsuit and a Republican judge overturned the order.
Biden used the weakest legal reasoning he had available to cancel a fraction of existing student loan debt even though debt relief advocates were telling him not to. That made it easy to challenge in court.
Ya that one was on Biden. No idea why he chose that way to remove student loan debt.
Seems like maybe Obama shouldn’t have made propaganda normal and mainstream
“Ok, other than investing in infrastructure, energy independence, the affordable care act, college tuition assistance, NATO dealing with Ukraine, and ending the war on drugs WHAT HAVE DEMOCRATS EVER DONE FOR US?!”
The Civil Rights Movement?
Oh, Civil Rights. SHUT UP!
college tuition assistance
The fuck are you listing this for? Who’s the one who not only refused to jubilee student debt but turned payments back on during an inflationary spike?
Again, who the fuck is the constituency for this?
Me.
So what you’re saying is the democrats only appeal to people so comfortable in life that their biggest problem is not enough dead people
What a bizarre thing to say
You clutch your pearls but you can’t deny it’s true.
Ah yes, me hoping my ex’s country and rising democracy Ukraine can fight off a Russian invasion force is “recreational reading.” How silly of me
rising democracy
Democracy is when the result of a fair election is a coup that chases the president over the border and you ban opposition parties and you shell the regions that voted against you. Yeah, sure. Democracy is the thing that’s rising over there. And that’s why we support them.
Democracy is when the result of a fair election is a coup that chases the president over the border
Lol that’s certainly one way to describe Maidan, comrade.
Chronological
Holy shit your reality is as fucked up as a qanoners. Genuinely impressive, the mental hurdles on display here.
infrastructure
Every single Republican voted against build back better, and that’s how we ended up with the worst of two bills, which every single Republican voted against as well. Republicans don’t invest in infrastructure.
energy independence
Only one party is dumping money into renewable energy, electric vehicles, e-bikes, and better public transportation, and it sure as fuck ain’t republicans.
College tuition
Literally republicans are the reason college loans haven’t been forgiven. They threw a fucking fit covered in their own filth all the way to the supreme court, and wouldn’t you know, it was the conservative judges that voted against it. If you’re still making college loan payments, it’s republicans’ fault.
NATO
All the American men and women who won’t go off to die in Ukraine benefit from us not being involved in yet another endless war you stupid fuck. So does the entire world who now don’t have to deal with escalation between Russia and the USA.
War on Drugs
Yeah, that was a bit of a stretch. But only one US president has made any serious attempt to reschedule cannabis AND pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of drug charges.
Landlord taking all my money
But republicans are the party of the free market! If your landlord is taking all your money, that’s what the free market demands! The free market has spoken, and so shall it be! To do otherwise would require gasp federal regulations!
So it’s no surprise that only one party has introduced a renters bill of rights. Hm, I wonder which party that is…
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Takes Action to Protect Renters | The White House
Over 44 million households, or roughly 35 percent of the U.S. population, live in rental housing. But our nation’s rental market is defined by a patchwork of state and local laws and legal processes that leave far too many renters with little recourse when housing providers fail to comply with the law or the lease…
Every single Republican
Was in the minority. You can’t use them as an excuse for what the democrats did.
Literally republicans
Biden chose to take a route with the debt that invited a challenge. He didn’t want to discharge it. He’s the senator from MBNA. The sanctity of debt is one of his foundational beliefs.
He is the president. The treasury works for him. He holds the debt. He can and didn’t simply write it off.
the entire world who now don’t have to deal with escalation between Russia and the USA
This is the sentence in which you called me a ‘fucking idiot’ and I have to say the idea that a proxy war doesn’t count as escalation is one of the smartest things I’ve heard from you.
But republicans are the party of the free market!
Democrats are the party of letting everyone lose their home and have them be bought up by banks, who were bailed out when prices were low, who are now charging me half my income in rent.
The fuck are you listing this for? Who’s the one who not only refused to jubilee student debt but turned payments back on during an inflationary spike?
bloomberg.com/…/student-loan-debt-biden-forgives-…
I mean if $127 billion is nothing to you, could you spot me a hundred billion?
1.77 trillion
And not a penny of what he discharged was without a preexisting situation where the debt would have automatically been discharged anyway if the government was actually functional.
And he took credit for it. And people like you carry the message like a game of telephone believing he did something.
What country are you in? The war on drugs is still going strong in the USA.
What the hell are you talking about???
The dems have absolutely given us things to vote for: infrastructure act, record low unemployment, union support with the pres visiting the picket line for the first time ever, we have the best inflation rate across all of the G7.
Yeah it’s not enough but that’s on the contrarians more than anything else.
The fuck you talking about
Sure the rail road workers loved bidens support lol
Whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout
How dare people disagree! What idiots, right?
Disagreeing is obviously fine, but playing cherry pick whataboutism games isn’t that
Yes
“Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”
Yup great job weakening the union
Your article takes place before this, and nothing here weakens their union
They’re repeating right wing propaganda, that’s what’s up.
Sorry, they are not repeating right wing propaganda. They are going outside and having yellow asparagus smelling liquid fall on them. Then everywhere there are Democrats telling them its not piss.
I mean generally speaking, if you think the infrastructure bill, inflation reduction act, and billions in student loan forgiveness aren’t “something to vote for”, one of two things are true. Either you’re utterly delusional, or you’re a Republican.
I mean, who else but a conservative could look at these and say they aren’t accomplishments?
It says so much that this is the way you talk about your perceived political rivals.
I’m really tired of being called an idiot and a Republican for disagreeing with the Biden administration, and I’m really tired of voting for people who call me an idiot if I don’t support them.
That really seems to be the best Democrats have to offer, though. Each time it happens, I think a little more about voting for the GOP out of spite.
I directly listed what Democrats have to offer, and you haven’t argued against a single one of them. Infrastructure, Inflation Reduction Act, $100B+ in student loan forgiveness. None of these strike you as better offers than getting snarky comments?
I’m sorry, but I stopped caring about political rivals’ feelings after 2016. I’ll sugarcoat things to people I actually know, but on Lemmy I’m going to say it how it is.
That does include admitting fault if I’m wrong. Show why you think the things I mentioned above aren’t notable, and I’ll happily recant my statements and call myself an idiot if they’re sensible.
I mean sure, they are accomplishments but a pittance for Americans looking for real change. The OP is speaking directly to the democrats setting their sights on progressive policy.
Biden wants to do the presidency like they did in the past, dodge any real conflict and keep the country running for another four years. He doesn’t care that if the country was a car its a Model T and thinks we should be happy that he changed the tires.
It doesn’t matter how many times a Democrat comes up to me and slams their fist saying look we stopped the Republicans and we did it without causing any waves. Me, I want to see real policy that helps every American even if it makes the people on the hill uncomfortable. If you think, “well fuck that guy, what can he do? Vote republican?” I’ll tell you want I can do and that is be dissatisfied even when we both know I’m voting blue all day.
I wouldn’t say some of them are a pittance. The Inflation Reduction Act was so much investment into green energy that European countries had to pass similar bills to stay competitive. I work for a green energy company, and I heard that there were grumblings in European leadership about how much the US was spending.
Likewise, there’s been a ton of money forgiven in student loans, over $100 billion. And you’ve also got the price cap on insulin, or at least some formulations. That change came directly from Biden I think.
It’s significant changes, and it’s what we’re looking for, but I agree it isn’t enough and we need more. We can still appreciate though that we’re moving in the correct direction instead of being stuck. I’ll happily vote for Biden if it gives us more things like this.
Maybe pittance is the wrong term but Bidens also done a lot to sit on his own nuts. I want Biden to act for the working class the same way he responds to anytime there may be an economic crisis when the banks fuck up. I want Biden to have the same level of urgency when he sees the blue collar people are flailing.
Now, I know anytime he bails out Wallstreet he gets zero resistance from the other side but for that exact reason we should expect an even greater response for working class people. Sure he will wheel and deal for us but will he ever stand up for us?
The rail unions said that the administration quietly worked behind the scenes to get them an agreement with actual sick days. So I think he will, but it depends on the topic and it may not be visible.
Why should he have to work be hind the scenes? Who is he afraid he will make angry that citizens are receiving basic decency.
On one level I like that he’s working behind the scenes. I like a leader that does their job and gets shit done without tooting their own horn.
That said, it’s a very idealistic view of leadership, not a pragmatic one. I completely agree that he needs to really about the behind the scenes things. We don’t have the luxury of not advertising it.