Dear Democrats: It Would Be Nice If You Could Lead, And Not Off A Cliff
Dear Democrats: It Would Be Nice If You Could Lead, And Not Off A Cliff
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Dear Democrats: It Would Be Nice If You Could Lead, And Not Off A Cliff
203 comments
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Then Why did you vote them out and give Republicans complete control over the government?
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There was never any reality in which incumbent president Joe Biden would lose the 2024 primary. Never ever. It wasn't going to happen. Give up with your bullshit and realize that blame is squarely on those critical of the DNC and Biden in the face of Trump 2.0.
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@finitebanjo @melpomenesclevage If Biden had the debate performance in the primary that he had on the General he would have lost to a wet paper bag.
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If Kamala and Biden had put America first instead of israel, people would have bothered coming out to vote
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As if Gaza was ever an excuse for anybody with half a fucking brain. Trump supported single state in his first administration and Joe Biden spent his days cussing that fucking eel Netanyahu out over the phone.
Trump bragged about delivering bombs withheld by the Biden administration. If a person out there abstained voting DNC over Gaza I'd like to kick that person's ass as retribution for all of the Palestinians who are dying as a result.
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This is the new whataboutism strategy. This is the new "both sides".
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This isn't whataboutism, the reason things are the way that they are is a direct result of voters choosing this outcome. Not because blue ties aren't screaming on the house and senate floor, not because attorney generals aren't attorney generalling hard enough, but because of how people voted in 2024.
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That doesn't absolve them of the responsibility to do their job.
Stop making excuses.
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Dear non voters, it would've been nice if you turned out and gave us any power.
-Democratic party
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Dear democratic party, it would've been nice if you ever actually used any power to do things for the people beyond token gestures.
-the people
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Aca, student loan debt cancelation, biggest climate change bill ever.
You- "but it's not my pretty pony I wanted."
Attention all whiners- maybe vote them in everytime so they don't have to spend at least half if not all their term cleaning up Republican messes. And vote in primaries for more progressive candidates.
Or just accept things getting shittier because youre lazy and spoiled. Either/or.
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The ACA was made mostly useless by not having a government option. The end result was a system where you either had to pay for a shitty overpriced healthcare plan or pay a penalty on your taxes. The tax penalty has since been removed, but the shitty overpriced plans remain. There are a couple of good things like not denying certain cover for "pre-existing conditions" and allowing younger people to stay on their parents' insurance until 26, but those are closer to token gestures than real solutions, as I've said. There is a reason why health insurance profits keep breaking records.
Student loan debt cancellation was mostly the enforcement of an existing program where you already have to jump through hoops just to qualify. By the time you qualify, you've already paid back more than the principle on your student loan debt by a lot. Another token gesture for a problem that biden helped create by backing a bill making student loan debt non-dischargeable through bankruptcy. Sure must be nice to be given credit to barely make a debt in a massive problem he himself had created.
The "biggest climate change bill ever" is argued in terms of dollars spent. Money spent =/= effective action taken. For example, biden was approving oil drilling permits on public lands at a faster rate than even trump's first term. He also slapped 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs and 50% on solar panels.
In each of these cases there has been a massive giveaway to American corporations with a few token gestures to lull regular people into thinking democrats are doing something for them. You may be clapping your hands together and giggling in ecstasy at democrats shaking a rattle, but people who know better and can see these insignificant actions for what they are aren't impressed. Democrats work for the billionaires and them blame everyone else for things getting worse, just like you're doing right now. You're doing the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" argument, electoralism edition.
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Student loan debt cancellation efforts lead to the SAVE Plan rollout which reduced many american's payments to $0 monthly.
Biden did permit drilling to meet US demands, but he also did everything in his power to reduce demands.
If you wanted better and more extreme actions then you would need Democrats to have the power to make constitutional amendments, bypass filibusters, and remove corrupt positions, which means 60 Senate Votes. Example: Citizens United SCOTUS decision means either removing SCOTUS judges or passing a constitutional amendment, 60 votes.
We have NEVER given dems true power since 1979, at which point they were a very different party than they are now.
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We have NEVER given dems true power since 1979
They just need 101 senators to accomplish anything.
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The SAVE plan that still only slightly mitigates the student loan problem? They still guarantee excessive profits to lenders and keep student loan repayments up to 20 years. I can see he's really doing a lot on that problem he created. The fact of the matter is that democrats do not use the power they do have. Biden had the power to appoint an effective attorney general but instead appointed Merrick Garland who did nothing to prosecute Trump even with years of time on his hands and plenty of evidence. The supreme court gave the presidency supreme power for "official acts" and what did Biden do with this power? You tell me.
For someone who's a fascist and such a threat to democracy, Trump was handled with kid gloves by the democrats and Biden welcomed him back into office with a warm smile and a handshake. Democrats will endlessly shriek about Trump to garner donor dollars and will make token gestures like impeaching him and declaring that he's the most impeached president as if that actually did anything. When it comes to actually solving the problem, democrats aren't interested.
Also, it's a funny coincidence that just the right number of democrats will turn heel the second democrats do manage to get a majority. Just look at senators Lieberman, Manchin, and Sinema. Don't forget about the sudden senate parliamentarian who comes in with the steel chair in case democrats might have to actually do something. It's a rigged carnival game and you keep arguing that we just need to get the ball in the hole when in reality the game is set up to make that impossible while looking deceptively possible.
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Raises EV prices
Raises Solar Panel prices
Biden did everything in his power to reduce demands.
?????
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Biden Pushed for half of all new vehicles to be EV by 2030
Biden began steps to replace the entire federal vehicle fleet of 645,000 vehicles with electric
But sure believe your magical fantasy where Joseph Biden presses a mysterious button which changes all of the prices on the market to whatever number he puts into the computer that controls all of America.
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Setting a goal is a token gesture. We'd get there a lot faster with cheaper EVs, but that would piss off the oligopoly which have been sitting on their asses, keeping EVs expensive, and loading them up with dumb subscription services and other unappealing "features". Japanese manufacturers kicked American manufacturers' asses since the 70s and forced them to get better. The American oligopoly did not want that to happen again with China and Biden sided with the oligopoly, greatly delaying EV adoption.
The charging stations are great. Too bad there won't be as many EVs taking advantage of them since the EVs themselves are still too expensive.
The federal vehicle fleet pales in comparison to the general population. Also:
The president did not give a timeline for when this massive vehicle replacement goal will be implemented.
Which is perfect since they can say they're working towards it and when republicans inevitably get in, they can just stop/reverse it.
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China is not a friend to anyone in this world, not even the citizens of China.
While some very cheap EVs had to deal with Tariffs, the majority of the market stayed unchanged.
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The US is not a friend to anyone in this world, not even the citizens of the US. You can see this in action as the US exploits people domestically and abroad in the name of profits. The US is the biggest bully in history and projects its power across the entire globe. That's why they have military bases set up everywhere they can. They also use their economic might to force change they want to see. On the surface it looks voluntary, but if you reject the US's offer, they will work endlessly to make your life hell.
Climate change is a global existential crisis, we should be working together to solve it. We can't afford to reject solutions just to continue propping up American power and profits.
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Biden Pushed for half of all new vehicles to be EV by 2030
"Push for" means "accomplish" to people who are fine without accomplishments.
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When you put 100% and 50% tariffs they really do change the price of stuff
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Yeah but the Tariffs were only on the Chinese, honestly the already cheap and low value EVs, so the overall market wouldn't fluctuate much.
I really do believe you're getting what you pay for when you invest in western EV markets instead of Hostile Foreign Dictatorship products.
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ACA has no public option because of Lieberman. Now maybe if he had been primaried and another more progressive Dem taken his place, then we'd have a public option by now. Instead we've continued with concessions to insurance. But yes- it is MARKEDLY better than what was there before despite all the warts.
Debt cancellation was done by Biden who did everything he could. Now maybe if the Dems had more than a slight majority in the Senate full of (yes, Lieberman like) Sinema and Manchin, they could've done something through Congress.
Biggest climate change bill ever PERIOD. And yes, he approved oil drilling and put tariffs on Chinese EVs. Part of politics. People do want clean solutions but do not want 1) American jobs to vanish due to Chinese subsidization of their entire EV industry overwhelming American auto jobs and 2) ...no real excuse for the oil drilling. Other than people would bitch about even more inflation had he not.
In each of these cases you'll notice a common refrain- the Democrats DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH POWER to enact the things you're talking about. They are not "token" gestures- they're what can get done with what they had. WV put Manchin there but what did the rest of America do? They put only 51 Democrats next to him (including a turncoat in Sinema.) If they didn't need those two votes at all then maybe they couldn't nuke the biggest portion of these bills. Maybe if the American people gave a shit then things would get done.
People seem to think I'm arguing for Democrats or something. I'm not really. I'm arguing for ACTION. Now if you wanna delude yourself and make a "Socialism NOW" party of progressive politics that by first glance turns off 70% of the voting population, go ahead. I'm telling you as a former 3rd party voter when I was a pie in the sky idealist that it's just not gonna happen. What can happen though is turning the Democratic party back to what it needs to be- a populist-ish party that actually seriously helps Americans. If you froze a Republican in 2000 they would probably not recognize the party in 2025 given how the tea party zealots and bigots and grifters have taken it over (even from a dismal 2000 outlook.)
So maybe if progressives and leftists and all those people stopped endlessly fighting amongst themselves and banded together, they could primary and move the party left. Or maybe if they turned out EVERY ELECTION and convinced everyone else to do so, the Democrats wouldn't have to unfuck the previous 4 years of Republican destruction. Or maybe progressive policies just aren't as popular as people think (and one could argue that people in general are too dumb to realize it.)
You gotta train the dog. You can't wait for the dog (the Dems) to do what you want by abstaining from voting or "punishing" them by letting them lose. Witness how the Republican party mirrors their devouts' most fervent desires vs....the Dems.
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ACA has no public option because of Lieberman.
ACA has no public option because the public option was always a bill of goods. It was meant to be jettisoned at the very first opportunity, and it was.
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Aca
Was 15 years ago. How long to you intend to continue coasting on an inadequate half-measure?
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203 comments