11mo ago

A New York Times reporter was asked why they consistently frame things as bad for Biden but never bad for Trump.

old.reddit.com We’re Michael Bender and Maya King, reporters for The New York Times covering the 2024 presidential election. Ask us Anything.

Hello, ElPlywood. Thanks for participating, and I appreciate your passion! I'll try to answer the first few here as best as I can. 1 Why do you...

"I think what you're reacting to is that, at the moment, Biden is an unpopular president seeking a second term while Trump is a popular figure inside his party who is winning primary races. I wouldn't necessarily compare the two."

Credit to @JoshuaHolland

You're viewing part of a thread.

Show Context

97 comments

Yup, great for lobbyists, wall street, and the military industrial complex.
Like Biden.
Progressives have killed the democrat party.
- You are left-wing, correct? Good leftist who's just upset with Biden for not being left enough?
  I ask because I have literally never heard a left wing person say "Democrat party".
  
  Well, in the better times, Democrats called themselves liberals.
  They stopped genocides, they didn't enable them.
  Hilary refused to call herself a liberal (because she is a conservative) and lost to Obama bringing the word "Progressive" back to to the party and killing the term "Liberal".
  I was a liberal democrat. Now I am a disenfranchised fuck you all, don't commit genocide, don't subsidize billionaires, shelter and feed the homeless, make housing affordable again guy.
  
  Ah yes, all those OG Democrats with their humane and sensible Israel policy. As an old-school left wing person like you, I remember them well. Which ones were your favorites?
  
  Y'all remember Kennedy and how he called for the end of the Vietnam War? Yeah, me neither.
  Both parties have always had pretty shitty international policy, but at least one of those parties actually wants to govern and participate in democracy.
  
  Yeeep
  And one party has a leader who's now telling the Israelis to stop killing Palestinians and starting to talk about consequences for them if they don't. It's not much; it's very slight, it's nothing that anybody in Gaza is gonna say "oh thank God he was rude to Netanyahu, our problems are over." But it's not something that usually happens, from leaders of either party.
- but when you look at actions in his control (outside of congress), biden has been one of the most progressive, pro union democrats in recent history
  
  I'm trying not to bring it up because I don't want just a sprawling argument about everything, but after Biden "union busted" the rail workers, his labor department kept working the issue and got the workers their sick days anyway. Like a lot of the quippy little criticisms, "union busting" has a lot more to do with cherry-picking one event people are familiar with and trying to create a Biden-is-bad picture out of it, than it does with reality.
  Or to put another way every year Biden's been in office, union membership has risen by a tiny amount, after having fallen by a tiny amount every single year that the last guy was in office. If he's trying to do union busting he's doing a pretty shitty job at it.
  
  He codified, in law, that they couldnt strike, and then made private one time not codified deals with the owners after the fact.
  It isnt cherry picking, it is observing the whole truth and not chomping at the bit to spout Democrat spin.
  
  I remember in 2022 when Biden passed the 1926 Railway Labor Act(PDF link).
  
  "We finally got a raise after far too long!!! Praise Biden?"
  sets watch for 3 years when they fully understand they have no recourse to force negotiation
  
  Passing legislation that prevents railway workers from protesting and in turn working out a private deal where they get a one time raise that isnt codified in law is pro union?
  Yes, that is progressivism. Its being crony conservative, but Democrat.
  Damn... I am just taken aback by your take. Eat up their lies, keep your eyes as tightly shut as possible.
  
  Which were your favorite pro-Palestinian establishment Democrats from back in the day, again?
  I'm sure the story you told about how you used to support them but now they've turned into Israel-enablers and so you can't anymore was just you relaying the truth of what had happened. Not just sneakily plausible-sounding messaging that doesn't correspond to your actual political history. So which ones?
  
  Well, Bill Clinton bombed the fuck out of Serbia to end the Croatian genocide, and a ton of people supported that.
  That sounded right.
  Now Biden is sending massive amounts of the public trust to Israel so they can spend that money to buy the ammunition that is committing genocide on Palestine, and the Democrats CENSURED a Democrat who dissented.
  My viewpoint isn't pro-Palestine. My viewpoint is con-genocide. And the 2 party system rang true when Reds wanted slaughter and Blues wanted peace.
  Now that Dems want genocide, I have no party. We need something else.
  
  Biden's too far right for you so you miss Clinton? Do you know what happened to the Democratic party's general alignment, in the years that came between Carter and Obama?
  And the 2 party system rang true when Reds wanted slaughter and Blues wanted peace.
  You know Trump says we should just kill them all, right?
  I mean... in fairness, I read a bunch of this thinking through what to write here, and (a) it just made me real real sad (b) I do genuinely think Clinton wanted genuine peace in the middle east. The thing is, he sent billions of dollars of weapons every year too. The stuff you're complaining about Biden doing, Clinton was doing too. Clinton's attitude was if we just get together and talk, maybe we can work it out. I won't say that's wrong. IDK. Like I say, I read up that little summary and it just made me real sad.
  All I can really say is that domestically, Clinton pulled the whole party real real far to the right, and Biden is pulling it significantly to the left as compared with the Obama and Hilary positioning.
  Democrats CENSURED a Democrat who dissented.
  They censured her because she said "from the river to the sea."
  Do you know what would have happened to an American congresswoman who said that in the mid-1990s Democratic party?
  Now that Dems want genocide, I have no party. We need something else.
  This idea that Biden wants what's happening in the middle east right now is absolutely nuts to me. Why do you think he wants that?
  I get criticizing him because we're still sending weapons (or trying to). Why do you think he wants this to be happening, though?
  (Edit: Oh, also there's this. Not that I think a return to the status quo is all that great a thing, but definitely better than what it was before he came in, yes.)
  
  Beautiful 'I know I'm voting for Baal, but I'm not voting for Diablo" logic.
  This country needs more than 2 parties.
  
  Not planning on addressing anything I actually said? I asked a few questions, and Biden isn’t Baal or Diablo, although that is a quippy stock response you can throw to avoid continuing the conversation.
  
  I read it all.
  Your mental gymnastics are FANTASTIC!
  I responded to your comment.
  How does it feel to be Blue MAGA?
  
  Ah.
  I call this one the “Mission Accomplished.” Simply declare that the discussion is over, because you’ve already won.
  Welp. Have a good night, then.
  
  ... but no form of annual or cost of living wage increases went through congress.
  Give a starving man a fish and he will call you a god. Ban him from ever fishing again and wait 3 days... reap what you sow.
  
  Being pro-worker for a tepid neoliberal is like being woke for a member of the GOP. While better than outright fascism, of course, liberalism is inherently anti-worker and pro-Capitalist. Biden has been giving band-aids to gaping stab wounds and running victory laps, without attempting to meaningfully address the root cause.

97 comments