this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
156 points (100.0% liked)

Politics

10176 readers
200 users here now

In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.


Guidelines for submissions:

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.


Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sin_free_for_00_days@lemmy.one 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Passed under Biden:

  • PACT Act
  • American Rescue Plan
  • Impressive job growth and low unemployment
  • Bi-partisan Infrastructure
  • Helping defeat Russia

Not a complete failure, but I mean if the alternative is another geriatric, but one who is twice impeached, twice indicted and scummy, it's a shitty choice, but it's the only choice.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It's the only choice because he was shoved down Dem throats though. Great, he accomplished some things. Quite frankly any empty suit could have done that with the clout of the rest of the party. A non-geriatric progressive could have potentially done much more, but the establishment won't run anyone like that. Eventually the fragmentation will grow too great and start working against itself (we may already be there).

When Biden supported the rail corporations and waffled on student loans (pre-SC scumbaggery), it was apparent that he's just a shill. The latter went against a campaign promise, but memories are short.

Edit: also "helping defeat Russia" is arguably not a thing. They are not the threat to the US that they used to be. Sure, it's great to support Ukraine. But China is the only real military threat to the US, and Biden has been status quo there. I get that the US is world police, but let's not treat the Military Industrial Complex as a plus.

[–] ondoyant@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

just a heads up, you should look into that rail thing again. the unions ended up getting alot of what they wanted because Biden's admin did actually follow through with negotiations. definitely not cool, but also not the unambiguous support of corporations you seem to have interpreted it as. IBEW statement. there are people who are still unhappy, because capitalism sucks and they should be unhappy, but lots of railworkers got significantly improved working conditions out of it.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

It is good that the outcome came out better than it initially looked. But I have a really hard time understanding why a Democratic president couldn't overtly and publicly support a union in the first place. Full stop.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Biden didn't even need a bill to forgive student debt.

He did it unilaterally in the case of people who were defrauded. The whole song and dance with his 'plan' was to give him plausible deniability so his corporate backers wouldn't lose their golden goose.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

100% agree. And it's something that should be apparent to voters. If it isn't (and I think it isn't)... damn, we are in a bad spot.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

PACT Act

A good thing, but also a reminder that 100 billion sent for another country's war is 100 billion that isn't being spent to keep our veterans in good care. (Among other things)

American Rescue Plan

Biden himself made excuses for how lackluster this was, despite it's super-cool name, and even more fun, his administration withheld $600 of the promised $2000 in aid that he'd assured voters they'd get before they delivered Georgia.

Impressive job growth and low unemployment

Sounds pretty awesome until you realize everyone's working 2-3 jobs to survive. See my point above about housing scarcity. I think we'd all be way more impressed if he'd passed a living wage back when he had the majority.

Bi-partisan Infrastructure

Another bill Biden made excuses for, which is funny, because he had the majority when it was passed. As much as he, and his partisan ideologues want to let him cosplay as a cut-rate FDR, we deserve way better than a corporate shill.

Helping defeat Russia

This isn't our war. We should not be sending a hundred billion of our dollars in order to fund it, especially when we have wildfires, hurricanes, failing power grids, and other crises being ignored here at home. (In addition to, what, wars in eight countries we're already involved in.)

_

While I agree he's not a complete failure, that's kind of like the 600 points a person gets just for signing their name correctly on an SAT testing form. It was a particular kick in the balls when Dems got Georgia and his messaging switched from "2000 checks" to "finish the job" and they sent $1400 instead, considering that was our money he was withholding from us in a time of crisis.

And in a nation of 330,000,000 people, "better than Trump" isn't good enough. That we gave Biden a Democratic majority and he did nothing meaningful with it is why we'll likely have an outspoken and overt fascist elected as our president in a year.

[–] zhunk@beehaw.org 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you're overestimating the power of a "Democratic Majority" anchored by Manchin and Sinema.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

If only people could eat excuses, every table in this country would be full.

[–] HQC@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

What progressive legislation that Congress passed has Biden vetoed?

[–] thekbob@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unemployment is one of the most cooked statistics by the federal government; they have several so they can choose the most ideal to report. The real issue is that unemployment also accounts for people who left the market, aka disabled, left-behind, or those with long term disability due to COVID. So unemployment looks great when you remove all the people deemed not fit for capital to exploit further.

[–] Scrumpf_Dabogy@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Its difficult to find a good measurement for a country's success. See Campbell's Law. But yeah, unemployment has been a bad metric from the start. They just keep using it because people don't know it's a bad metric.