“This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people.”
It’s been that way for a long time now. Frankly, I can’t think of a single agenda the Democratic party has rallied behind in recent memory that isn’t not being a Republican. The Democratic leadership is useless, that’s just been better than the malicious alternative.
Universal healthcare is not a priority for the Democratic party as a whole despite their voters’ pleas for it. Still only a few outliers in the party seem to advocate for it. Biden himself has been reluctant to embrace it.
And I don’t remember student loan forgiveness being an especially popular platform before Biden took office. Sure it’s helped a lot of people but it feels very much like a, “we’ll take what we can get” policy versus something we’ve been asking for over decades.
Those are valiant causes, and I am a democrat. But did the party rally behind them? The GOP frequently votes unanimously to gut social spending, strengthen the military, etc, but I wish the democrats did the opposite, unanimously, and voted for every social good we should pass
Don’t forget the tax penalty that you have to pay if you can’t afford insurance! At least until the Toupee got rid of that, and though it disgusts me to say it is the one good thing that administration did.
The school loan forgiveness was exceedingly niche, and since Biden could have forgiven all student loans unilaterally, I’m not willing to pretend it was a major achievement. The man just rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic.
Biden didn’t campaign on universal healthcare. Most of the Democrats didn’t, it’s why Bernie got popular off that. Same with student loan forgiveness until Bernie started mentioning it. They just don’t care about it as much as they say they do.
The president has the power to keep Congress at work for as long as he wants, provided he considers the issue critical enough. Take your pick of critical issues, be it student loan debt, or poverty, or 2/3 of the states about to take women’s bodily autonomy away, or cops becoming a legalized domestic army of oppression. etc. etc. etc.
The Democrats pretend to care and do nothing but offer empty excuses.
He can keep Congress in session for 365 days a year. If one party is hellbent on blocking literally everything, how can you get anything done?
As for the alleged pretend effort, how do you know the hearts of the people putting forth these plans and policies? At least they’re doing something. Don’t mistake my sense of political reality with complacency.
Also, the overturning of Roe is a direct consequence of people failing to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016. You can have your protest non-vote, but you have to live with the consequences (a stacked supreme Court). Remember, the pre-Trump court gave us Obergefell and Dobbs, so don’t act like Roe would be gone regardless of who won.
He can keep Congress in session for 365 days a year. If one party is hellbent on blocking literally everything, how can you get anything done?
Do you think the Republicans would still be hellbent on stopping everything if a president made them work for four years straight? I sure don’t.
Also, Roe repeal was the direct result of Democrats running a shitty campaign and ignoring the poor, as is happening now, and we’re going to get the same result.
Why should they work harder? Every four years they drum up votes by saying they’re not as bad as the Other Guy, and about half the time it works. A large portion, maybe even a majority, of their voters come out of the woodwork around election time to call anyone dissatisfied with the Democratic party a Russian troll or worse, then disappear for the next four years until the next Other Guy needs to be defeated.
The system we have only has one way for the public to express their opinions of politicians: their vote. A vote for a politician, regardless if it’s just a vote against the Other Guy, is taken as approval of that politician and their party. Now we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place of our own making. Fascism on the one hand, fascism delayed by a maximum of four years on the other.
Band-aid on a gunshot wound, but I’m sorry its the best we could do. It’s not perfect, but the other guy wants to hit you with another bullet.
So, anyway, here’s another $50B bank bailout. And a $100B automotive industry rescue. And $200B for the wars overseas. And $25B specifically for Intel to build a new foundry in Israel that makes specially designed chips to help Microsoft do weird invasive AI data-scraping more efficiently.
But sorry we can’t do anything about health care or education costs. We just don’t have the money, cause we’re not perfect.
You can get that knitted on a pillow in November when the facade of fascism becomes an overt reality to which the Democrats escorted us with false promises.
They have delivered school loan assistance. It’s income driven, but that’s the most they could push through with Republicans blocking them every step of the way. But they’ve already issued millions in savings and are constantly trying to issue more.
Most recent they passed the Inflation Reduction Act in '21, which gets me 20% off my solar panels among a bunch of good moves for the country re: medication costs and the world re: global warming, and was voted against by every Republican.
Because of the level of polarization we have today, Republicans that vote with Dems worry about being primaried out of their seat, so the Republicans are against everything the Dems do anyway. It’s impossible not to be defined by the phrase “not that guy” when “that guy” does the opposite of what you do on purpose.
“This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people.”
It’s been that way for a long time now. Frankly, I can’t think of a single agenda the Democratic party has rallied behind in recent memory that isn’t not being a Republican. The Democratic leadership is useless, that’s just been better than the malicious alternative.
School loan forgiveness? Universal healthcare?
Universal healthcare is not a priority for the Democratic party as a whole despite their voters’ pleas for it. Still only a few outliers in the party seem to advocate for it. Biden himself has been reluctant to embrace it.
And I don’t remember student loan forgiveness being an especially popular platform before Biden took office. Sure it’s helped a lot of people but it feels very much like a, “we’ll take what we can get” policy versus something we’ve been asking for over decades.
Those are valiant causes, and I am a democrat. But did the party rally behind them? The GOP frequently votes unanimously to gut social spending, strengthen the military, etc, but I wish the democrats did the opposite, unanimously, and voted for every social good we should pass
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/01/senate-repeals-bidens-student-debt-relief-00099682
https://www.newsweek.com/two-democrats-vote-end-bidens-student-loan-cancellation-1803948
https://newrepublic.com/post/173165/three-senators-helped-republicans-block-bidens-student-loan-relief
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/medicare-for-all/
You can’t have truly public healthcare without public clinics and hospitals. How many public hospitals have Democrats built or bought lately?
Oh yeah, I remember when we got that health care. Good times. Thanks Obama?
What health care?
Obamacare only covers you if you can afford to be price gouged.
Don’t forget the tax penalty that you have to pay if you can’t afford insurance! At least until the Toupee got rid of that, and though it disgusts me to say it is the one good thing that administration did.
We don’t have universal health care.
The school loan forgiveness was exceedingly niche, and since Biden could have forgiven all student loans unilaterally, I’m not willing to pretend it was a major achievement. The man just rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic.
Yes. But why don’t we have universal healthcare or student loan forgiveness? Could there be another party blocking everything?
Dem: here is a comprehensive student loan forgiveness plan. Vote to help your constituents.
Reps: No.
Leftists:why are the parties the same, LIBERAL?
If you think that’s only because of Republicans I have some terrible news for you.
I don’t think that. I do think one party has tried or has members that have tried.
I agree, the Dems have members that advocate for universal healthcare but the party in its entirely absolutely does not.
Biden didn’t campaign on universal healthcare. Most of the Democrats didn’t, it’s why Bernie got popular off that. Same with student loan forgiveness until Bernie started mentioning it. They just don’t care about it as much as they say they do.
You’re right.
It’s so hard.
They should just… keep making excuses instead of working harder.
Who said they shouldn’t work harder? The point is, one party is putting effort and the other is obstructing everything.
*Pretending to put forth effort, you mean.
The president has the power to keep Congress at work for as long as he wants, provided he considers the issue critical enough. Take your pick of critical issues, be it student loan debt, or poverty, or 2/3 of the states about to take women’s bodily autonomy away, or cops becoming a legalized domestic army of oppression. etc. etc. etc.
The Democrats pretend to care and do nothing but offer empty excuses.
He can keep Congress in session for 365 days a year. If one party is hellbent on blocking literally everything, how can you get anything done?
As for the alleged pretend effort, how do you know the hearts of the people putting forth these plans and policies? At least they’re doing something. Don’t mistake my sense of political reality with complacency.
Also, the overturning of Roe is a direct consequence of people failing to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016. You can have your protest non-vote, but you have to live with the consequences (a stacked supreme Court). Remember, the pre-Trump court gave us Obergefell and Dobbs, so don’t act like Roe would be gone regardless of who won.
Do you think the Republicans would still be hellbent on stopping everything if a president made them work for four years straight? I sure don’t.
Also, Roe repeal was the direct result of Democrats running a shitty campaign and ignoring the poor, as is happening now, and we’re going to get the same result.
Why should they work harder? Every four years they drum up votes by saying they’re not as bad as the Other Guy, and about half the time it works. A large portion, maybe even a majority, of their voters come out of the woodwork around election time to call anyone dissatisfied with the Democratic party a Russian troll or worse, then disappear for the next four years until the next Other Guy needs to be defeated.
The system we have only has one way for the public to express their opinions of politicians: their vote. A vote for a politician, regardless if it’s just a vote against the Other Guy, is taken as approval of that politician and their party. Now we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place of our own making. Fascism on the one hand, fascism delayed by a maximum of four years on the other.
Thanks for saying this. Both statements are true.
You’re right, they’re not perfect so they’re complete shit not worth mentioning.
Band-aid on a gunshot wound, but I’m sorry its the best we could do. It’s not perfect, but the other guy wants to hit you with another bullet.
So, anyway, here’s another $50B bank bailout. And a $100B automotive industry rescue. And $200B for the wars overseas. And $25B specifically for Intel to build a new foundry in Israel that makes specially designed chips to help Microsoft do weird invasive AI data-scraping more efficiently.
But sorry we can’t do anything about health care or education costs. We just don’t have the money, cause we’re not perfect.
“Not perfect”
You can get that knitted on a pillow in November when the facade of fascism becomes an overt reality to which the Democrats escorted us with false promises.
Promised for day one, never delivered. We need meaningful action, and we need it 4 years ago.
They have delivered school loan assistance. It’s income driven, but that’s the most they could push through with Republicans blocking them every step of the way. But they’ve already issued millions in savings and are constantly trying to issue more.
Most recent they passed the Inflation Reduction Act in '21, which gets me 20% off my solar panels among a bunch of good moves for the country re: medication costs and the world re: global warming, and was voted against by every Republican.
Because of the level of polarization we have today, Republicans that vote with Dems worry about being primaried out of their seat, so the Republicans are against everything the Dems do anyway. It’s impossible not to be defined by the phrase “not that guy” when “that guy” does the opposite of what you do on purpose.
It should be 30% thru 2032.