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Ugh. I'm not real happy about having to vote to uphold the gerontocracy, but as both likely frontrunners are a part thereof, all I can do is vote to minimize the harm.
That’s only true if you live in a swing state. If your state’s certain to go one way or the other, vote your conscience, even if it’s a write-in.
I would argue the opposite. An increasing minority vote/poll in a "safe" state would pull resources away from swing states to keep the state "safe". Not many people would have imagined Georgia going blue in federal elections but here we are.
I live in Texas (a state that will go a certain way) and I will vote Dem. It makes no sense to me to help make a bigger gap between the Republicans and everybody else just because the Dems suck too.
The "principled stance" a protest vote makes only helps embolden the current political hellscape within my own state. If I can chip away at the Republican power structure, I will do it.
Wow, a lot of vitriol on this topic! Okay, so, for my first post on Lemmy I am going to make a positive leftist case for Biden.
Biden is not the problem! He wants to do big things; he wants be a great president. If congress sent him voting rights, reproductive rights, major climate action, and many other leftist priorities, he would sign them. He could definitely be better, but he is mostly not standing in our way. How many decades would you have to go back to find another president you could say that about?
Biden is not the problem. Congress is the problem. State and local governments are the problem. Nimbys are the problem. We have a lot of problems to solve but the presidency is not one of them. What we need to do with the presidency is simply reelect Biden and then get on with the work of solving the actual problems.
Biden is still a centrist, also known as a fascist enabler.
The man is not for labor, see ending the railroad strike, one of the most infuriating moves a so-called great president could perform.
If he truly wanted to do great things, and not be hindered by the backing of capital, he'd be moving fast and breaking things more than the previous administration. He's not.
I understand your frustration but also encourage you to pay more attention to what happens behind the scenes. Your position on the railroad strike is outdated/misinformed relative to what happened a month ago:
When Joe Biden and Congress enacted legislation in December that blocked a threatened freight rail strike, many workers angrily faulted Biden for not ensuring that the legislation also guaranteed paid sick days. But since then, union officials says, members of the Biden administration, including the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, and labor secretary, Marty Walsh, who stepped down on 11 March, lobbied the railroads, telling them it was wrong not to grant paid sick days.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/01/railroad-workers-union-win-sick-leave
In other words, Biden instructed his administration to double back and force the hand of the railroad companies to get the union exactly what they wanted.
IBEW statement. this is one of the unions involved, and their official statement on the matter. pretty positive.
I think it's a bunch of kids with little life experience. On one hand their passion recalls fading memories of my own young, idealistic self in my 20s. On the other hand, politics doesn't work with raging hardliners. On the third hand, the world is pretty fucked, the US is going to hell in a handbasket and I don't think geriatrics are who we should be voting for. You say Congress is the problem, but really, it's voters. Voters just fucking suck. But unless someone wants to do away with any type of democracy, shitty voters is where we are at.
raging hardliners
you're not wrong, politics is about compromise and in the most successful nations no one gets what they want and no one leaves the bargaining table happy. the question is, how does one work the politics of coalition and compromise when the people you're supposed to coalition-build and compromise with are raging hardliners. How does one find a middle ground with open christian nationalist fascists?
we pick from the menu for dinner tonight, and for future meals we fight to have more of a say in what's on the menu. there's too many people calling for my head right now for me to protest vote or sit out because the guy who doesn't want to kill me is problematic about some niche policy position. remember that a lot of trump's money in 2016 went toward campaigning for democrats to stay home, with reasons alternating between "clinton is an awful candidate" (she was) and "she's got this in the bag so your vote doesn't matter".
It would be nice to have a strong challenger, but the DNC protects its elders. I can't imagine any Dem not endorsing Biden as it's the only choice, and not endorsing him is a strange waste of political capital.
It amazes me how much and how quick people are to blame Biden or AOC when the political landscape isn't this richly progressive utopia in a rank choice voting system. We have real problems in this country and the ONLY way we get closer to solving them is by not electing fascists
The ONLY way we get closer to solving them was by educating our populace about the dangers of authoritarianism in the wake of the world wars. And coming to terms as a nation how much the Nazi regime learned from America and our concentration camps that we don't teach nearly enough about.
But that ship kind of sailed and we now live in a country where some obscenely high percent of Americans don't even believe the holocaust happened at all.
In my opinion we are way past the solution being democrats, they hardly even stop the bleeding anymore. They are just there to show the masses that there are two parties and they didn't really want to pass all of this pro business, anti people legislation, but we had to because of the debt ceiling that we didn't even stop for long and the Republicans can beat us with it again in a few years.
The system is designed to be fucked.
we can whine about how we didn't do the right thing before now all we want, but we live in the world of today, and the solution, or at least part of it, must be to keep the actual fascists from doing actual fascism. we have to do more, electoral politics isn't gonna save us, but genuinely it makes me really mad when people get all doomer about this shit. most people used to be serfs. a hundred years ago children were working in coal mines. progress can be made. progress against capitalists can be made. and if voting didn't matter businesses wouldn't be pouring money into politics, republicans wouldn't be trying their best to stop people from turning up.
It would be nice to have a strong challenger
Under Biden, we've seen no meaningful action as the right to abortion was lost, housing scarcity has become a crisis for most Americans, another 100 billion unbudgeted was sent to another country's war, and there was zero meaningful progression on education, health care, militarizing police, or stopping the resurgence of fascism.
Voting for Biden is voting for team color and little else. The man is a shitty president more concerned with stringing together a coherent sentence and running cover for his son than doing anything for the people who got him elected. And the extent to which he is a shitty president is going to usher in an overt fascist when he tries to sell himself on his record in a year.
I mean I really don't like Biden but fwiw he reversed policies from Trump in areas such as inmigration and transgender people (such as excluding HRT from Medicare), and did some work with food stamps, not to mention the damage control his administration had to do for COVID-19. If Trump have been re-elected, things would've been very very different, and if the Senate midterms hadn't turned out the way they did we might have had fascist federal laws by now.
Currently one party is the Fascist party and the other is the "literally anyone left from that" party. As sad as it is, Biden is probably what the DNC thinks is the best shot at having the entire party voting for him, from the social democrats to the conservatives, since he's not LGBTphobic nor racist, and supports the current status quo. And yes, the bar is pretty fucking low but if the Republican wins it will be even worse.
Biden was my last choice out of the field of Democrats heading into 2020, and yet I don't know what any other candidate would have done differently to achieve better results.
I'm voting for the record and the strategy more than the man himself. I wish things were different but it's hard to argue with the results considering the state of Congress and the courts.
Passed under Biden:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I think you're overestimating the power of a "Democratic Majority" anchored by Manchin and Sinema.
The issue of abortion isn't solely attributable to Biden. It's the result of 50 years of GOP-aligned think tanks and policymakers strategizing for this outcome. One could argue that the Democrats missed an opportunity during their supermajority periods to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution, instead relying on legal arguments, which, to be fair, were upheld by the courts. This issue wasn't perceived as a political threat, and it was unexpected that the GOP would follow through on this. It's akin to a dog chasing a car and actually catching it.
As for education and healthcare, these are primarily legislative matters. The executive branch doesn't wield as much power as some might think, and any power it does have typically doesn't extend beyond the current president's term. Biden should be seen more as a check on the GOP rather than an initiator of change.
Criticizing Biden's speaking abilities is somewhat unfair. He has a stutter that he constantly battles when speaking, and age has inevitably dulled some of his skills. Regarding his son, yes, he has made mistakes.
The Ukraine war involves complex geopolitics. There's a genuine moral argument at play here. Germany and the EU are willing to take a significant hit by excluding Russian energy from the market, which speaks volumes.
The $100 billion deal is advantageous for the US. It effectively sidelines Russia from the geopolitical table. Russia has shown signs of wanting to reclaim most of the USSR borders, primarily for logistical reasons. The Russian military struggles to hold territory within its own borders due to the lack of natural chokepoints until you reach the old USSR borders. Ukraine was never the end goal, but a stepping stone. Russia, like the rest of the developed world, is experiencing a population decline, which means they won't have the manpower or technical expertise in a few decades.
Stalling Russia's plans in Ukraine now is a proactive measure to prevent future issues. This also serves to deter China and make them reconsider any plans with Taiwan.
stop with the prophecy, and stop with the doomer shit. sure, lets say voting biden is "voting for team color". tell me, would the other team be better? fuck no, we'd be getting even more fucked than we already are. there would be a federal abortion ban. the federal government would be pursuing an actively genocidal agenda towards queer people across the country. millions of real human lives would be negatively affected. there would be less than no action on climate change, instead of the "meager" biggest investment in renewables in US history.
it just makes me so mad. if the red team wins, MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE. is that not meaningful? it is to me. it should be to you. vote blue. it isn't enough, but not everybody has the privilege of ideological purity. we have to survive in order to thrive.
I agree.
This thread is the first time I've been embarrassed to be a part of the fediverse. This thread shows a lot of nihilistic people who don't actually follow politics well enough to have views based in reality. People reference the railroad situation without understanding the resolution and reference student debt and other areas as if Biden had full control of the house/senate.
It really is the left's version of Trump supporters in that they revel in their ignorance, wear it as a badge and then encourage others to follow the same path. At least Trump supporters have the decency to encourage their contemporaries to vote in elections smh.
sometimes I wonder if the "both sides" leftists are privileged accelerationists
But really, whose fault is that really? The people actually trying to make meaningful changes (even begrudgingly) or the people that stand in the way of literally all progress and are actual responsible for all of those problems to begin with?
Biden is trying to get some progressive stuff done. For the most part pretty happy with his agenda. Still be nice to have someone running that isn't old as fuck.
Locking this thread to clean up the mess. Come on, ya'll, we can do better than this.
Edit: I've unlocked the comments in here. We've removed some comments in this thread for being inflammatory or for not adhering to Beehaw's one (and only) sitewide rule: Be(e) Nice.
To elaborate a bit on what that means in !politics:
Be(e) Nice doesn't mean you have to always be positive or happy. It doesn't mean you always have to agree. It does, however, that at all times we have to remember the human on the other side of the screen. We can disagree and still be kind to each other and try to assume that others are operating in good faith. I get it - politics are messy and complicated and the issues are big and for many existential. But we can talk to each other and disagree with one another without resorting to personal attacks or escalating the discussion into an all out flame war.
And to reiterate - that doesn't mean that we will tolerate hate speech, JAQing off, sealioning, or other ways of engaging in bad faith. If you see these things, please report them to the mods.
Really wish we didn't need to wait for politicians to die of old age before we could replace them...
I really wish workers had enough organizing power to yeet these duplicitous assholes. Why can’t we have candidates who actually fucking care about bettering our circumstances?
Welp, there you have it.
AOC has absolutely, 100% betrayed the principles that got her elected in the first place. It's not surprising. Most people who stay in Washington long-term end up falling in line, but still, kind of disappointing to see.
Soc-dems betray their principles every 5 seconds. Opportunism is a long cherished pasttime for them. SPD murdering Rosa noises
My thought exactly. The Democratic Party is more fragmented than they want to admit. She was on the progressive side (I thought). Or maybe there actually is no progressive side.
Had high hopes that she wouldn't fall in line.
People like AOC are why I'm generally convinced my vote really doesn't matter. We elected a Democratic president with a congressional majority last time, and in return most of the country is working multiple jobs to survive AND you no longer have the right to abortion.
When we get conservative outcomes regardless, what does my Democratic vote really matter for?
What? It could absolutely be worse. Look at the policies in Florida/Texas/Idaho against education, trans people, voting rights, labor rights, etc. I'm glad we at least got who we got. We could have done way worse.
This. As much I would like someone to really change things for the better, I could absolutely see laws like the ones passed in Florida and Texas being passed nationally if elections go poorly.
Your Democratic vote is the only thing preventing this country becoming a theocracy. We had one term of Trump and look at the damage he caused. Imagine what a second term would look like.
What, exactly, do you think Biden could have personally one to prevent the Supreme Court from doing what they were stacked by Trump to specifically do?
The president can't overrule the Supreme Court. He can't appoint any new judges until there is a vacancy.
And the economic crisis isn't a uniquely American problem. It's also impacting Europe, Canada, and most other western nations. What can the president of the US do to directly and quickly "fix" something of that scale? Something that had been several decades in the making?
Well... he could... if the GOP had the decency to impeach corrupt SCOTUS. But, if the GOP were decent enough to do that, then there wouldn't probably have been corrupt judges that needed impeaching in the first place.
fuck man. you gotta be in a pretty good spot not being able to tell the difference. there are people who live and die on the outcomes of these politics. if you really think it isn't enough, get involved in a political project, join a mutual aid program, whatever you think is important, but genuinely even if it barely matters at all (and to be clear, it actually does matter a whole fucking lot, or republicans wouldn't be pouring billions of oil dollars into mobilizing their base) its literally just a single day at most of effort. if you can't do that, you genuinely don't have any right to complain about conservative outcomes.
Not a big fan of this, but I can't really blame her when the only other options are "unserious protest candidate who's a bit of a crank" and "unserious protest candidate who's completely nuts and possibly a crypto-Republican".