this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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My hot take:
Biden has been the best President we've had in 30 years.
He's exactly who we needed when we got him. He got us out of Afghanistan. As much as a debacle as it was, he not Trump and not Obama pulled us out. His deft handling of the Ukrainian conflict where he used soft-power and influence to let the EU and NATO members come to decision to enact the super harsh sanctions themselves. Knowing that if the US pressed, they'd resist. It had to be their decision. He's continued to say and do all of the right things. His attempt to forgive student loans his huge. Some of the measures worked even if all of them didn't. He got the most meaningful infrastructure bill passed that I've ever witness. Neither Trump nor Obama could make it happen and Biden did it with a split Congress That infrastructure bill was also the most meaningful environment legislation that we've ever had That bill also paves the way for significant investment in our broad-band across the country Passed the Safer Communities Act ...actual gun related legislation since the Brady bill. Again, with a split congress. Gave us our first public defender SCOTUS justice. This might not seem like a big deal but I think its pretty significant given the amount of case law that exists that, so far, hasn't had a public defenders 'say' in it.
I could go on but I gotta go eat dinner.
People want to shit on Biden, but I actually like him. He's not perfect, but he's been insanely effective given everything he walked in to. Including him diligently and quietly rebolstering the executive branches that were gutted and had people leaving in droves in the last admin. Eg the Department of State. He's assigned quality folks into key roles and its making a difference.
I voted for him without hesitation because well, the alternative was terrifying, but I was not expecting much from him at all. He's surprised me.
edit: I literally can't figure out how to make this a list. Sorry for the wordblob.
Very well argued. This is quite unrelated but just out of interest, how realistic do you see constitutional reform in the US? Because to me as an outsider, that seems to me to be what US politics sorely needs rn. Is there appetite for it among the electorate? Among the Dems? Could it be conceivably carried out?
Right now? No I honestly don't see a way for constitutional reform. I guess I would ask: what would the amendment be?
Things that would move the needle on helping this country move forward require nuance and compromise. None of our elected officials, at least publicly, have shown an appetite for that. Fairly simple things get highly polarized quickly. Even things that we overwhelmingly agree on as Americans: the overwhelming majority of Americans were pissed about overturning Roe v. Wade, but congress has done nothing to codify those rights.
There isn't enough "working across the aisle" anymore. I saw a blog post that was showing previous election maps and famous congressional votes. It's weird to see which states went to which party or how many Republicans voted for the Brady bill/assault weapons ban (63-37 in the Senate and 238 - 187 in the House--with quite a bit of bipartisan support). That would be a strictly party line vote. Hell, if it did a fraction of what that bill did, it would be a strictly party line vote.
I think we, as citizens, need to start demanding compromise from our representatives. We should expect nuanced discussions and reward representatives that change position when new information arises... but that requires us, as citizens, to do all of these things as well.
We're going to find out. Governor Newsom just initiated the 28th amendment to tackle the shortcomings of the 2nd.
Meanwhile the ERA is also creeping closer after decades, so my hope is sufficiently dampened.