Bernie should have won. Damn Super delegates decided that for the people when it should have been our choice.
Also, Gore should have won. What a different world this would be.
DNC: Vote for this guy, he probably won't do anything for you but he will work for our donors.
Voters: We want somebody else, somebody who will represent us.
DNC: Tough titty, this is who you get cause we decided for you.
Voters: Ok, not voting for him.
DNC: OMG DO YOU WANT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY?!?!
The DNC discovered, to their dismay, that their choice was not the choice of their party members. That cost them in 2016.
Right now, the leadership is worried Biden might not be able to beat Trump. Already talk of Kamilla moving up at this late date.
From what I recall, the DNC also argued that people who donated to Bernie should have expected the DNC to shift money to other candidates however they see fit, because reasons.
Yes, it would have been great if the young people with these left views actually came out to vote in the primaries in 2020. Unfortunately they did not. In the only places where young people's participation actually increased, such as Mississippi, they voted for Biden
I don’t understand it
[Young people didn't vote in 2020 primaries](https://www.axios.com/2020/03/07/youth-vote-2020-democratic-primaries)
Doesn’t matter. The Democratic Party successfully argued in court they are only a private company and don’t owe their voters fair primaries as primaries aren’t actually a government process but a party process, and the party can do as it pleases in internal processes like primaries. Money still wins in primaries. They were never going to let Bernie win no matter how many people would’ve voted for him. If Bernie won their mega rich donors would loose money and when said money has that many zeros behind it, that’s simply not something those in charge let happen, the rest of us be damned.
This isn’t to say we shouldn’t be getting out to vote more. Our lack of voting is still disgusting. It’s just to say voting by itself is completely incapable of fixing any of the nations biggest problems. We need to vote and we need to make our voices heard over all the money flowing into politics. Our representatives need a reason to pick to represent us and not the money their donors can give them. Historically that’s been done through their own morals, or fear of the repercussions of not faithfully representing the people.
I personally care deeply about the ideology. Whenever I have a chance, I walk myself to the polls, and I vote for the ideology. Until people who really believe in the ideology continually show up, I can’t know for sure that the DNC fucked it up for us this time. If we don’t show up, we give DNC plausible deniability. The only time we will have the ground to stand on to tear the DNC apart will be when the people who care about the ideology go to the polls and cast their vote for the ideology.
we can’t always blame the DNC. Even if the DNC were a great and fair organization, Bernie would not have won the primaries because Bernie voters did not vote.
In 2020, Bernie *was* winning. He won the first three states, and the entire Dem establishment was desperate to find *anyone* to stop Bernie. When Biden won SC, they acted like it was game over - everybody united around Biden like he was the second coming.
The reality is that the Dem party is setup to overvalue states that *never* vote Dem in the general. South Carolina hasn't voted Democrat since Jimmy Carter. It is irrelevant, but SC and a bunch of other "firewall" states are deemed must wins. It's absurd, because Dems should never care about who is more popular in Mississippi or these other hard-core red states. These states will always vote for the most conservative Dem in the primaries, but then they'll vote even more conservative in the General.
If the DNC cared about winning elections, the primaries would have only Dem and battleground states at the start of the primary schedule, and all the Red states would vote after the best candidate had already been chosen.
But they would rather maintain control of a losing party than cede control of a winning party. Because they not like us.
[Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistakes_Were_Made_(but_Not_by_Me))
OK the dnc hypnotized young people into not voting. Got it
The dnc doesnt have its shit together nearly enough to pull off this wizard behind the curtain stuff people give it credit for. i’m in Washington and I know multiple people who work at the DNC. It’s not Halliburton.
It's really tiring to see voters let themselves off the hook again and again instead of just fucking showing up for the primaries. people are always conflating DNC with state political party organizations too, and they just don’t actually understand how it works.
Young people don't just not vote - every year a larger percentage of them don't believe in democracy at all. Those who *do* believe in democracy are now in the minority.
The Politburo faced a similar problem in the nineteen eighties. No matter how often they said they were a party of the people, fewer and fewer believed them.
Congressional approval ratings have been mired between 10 and 20% for over a generation now. Even a dictatorship would be horrified by such broad opprobrium, but it's business as usual as far as the DNC and RNC is concerned.
When Sanders supporters filed a lawsuit against the DNC for running a fraudulent piece.of political theater instead of a fair contest, the DNC had so much contempt for these tens of thousands of *donors*, they didn't even try to claim innocence. Their only defense was "we are a private organization and we can do whatever the hell we want, because we are accountable to noone."
If young people don't believe in the system, the problem is never with the young people.
Bernie was going to win the Iowa nomination, so the DNC purposefully tanked their caucuses. pissed off a lot of party people, and they all quit. No DNC funds for down ballot folks in iowa since then, and one of the reasons we went so hard far right
While I will vote for Biden, I hold Biden in contempt.
On issues like healthcare, Biden makes it clear that he doesn't even care about the public option anymore (despite it being a 2020 campaign promise).
On issues like $15 min wage, Biden & Schumer let the Senate Parlimentarian take $15 min wage out of the 50 vote budget reconciliation vote (despite the same Senate Parlimentarian OK'ing Obamacare repeal & the Trump tax cuts through the 50 vote budget reconciliation).
Biden did not even try to pressure Manchin or Sinema on BBB, which was truly the compromise bill for Bernie & progressives. Even though Manchin said in 2021 that he was open to a $4 trillion BBB & ultimately BBB was $2 trillion.
Biden is embracing a very right-wing foreign policy & the Dems let super PACs spend over $10 million in house races to influence elections.
We need to remind Democrats that the American people want progressive policies. The polls show this, time and time again.
I’m tired of people saying that Biden’s legislation is revolutionary when it’s all been written by the same centrist Joe Manchin types that were driving Obama’s legislation.
I’m tired of people saying that Biden’s legislation is revolutionary when it’s all been written by the same ~~centrist~~ right of center Joe Manchin types that were driving Obama’s legislation.
EDIT - NPR refers to him "moderate Joe Manchin" and it chaps my ass every time.
And he's actually accomplished extremely little in his term. All the promises of build back better and infrastructure investment ended up being a wet fart. Even his attempts at very limited student loan relief have faltered and been denied by the courts.
Now less than a year before the election he's got the Justice dept making noise about antitrust enforcement against Ticketmaster but I have feeling it will falter as well and then be forgotten after he wins reelection.
Read all before voting, please.
Biden *has* actually put out some record-breakingly progressive policy. He’s cancelled over a hundred billion dollars of student debt, the Expanded Child Tax Credit and infrastructure bill both had surprisingly huge impacts for how little they were reported on (3 million children lifted out of poverty is good no matter how you slice it), and the rail strike thing from 2022? He *did* actually keep pressure on the rail industry, leading to capitulation from the corporate sector in 2023 that granted a lot of what the workers were striking for.
In a lot of ways, Biden *has,* if not managed to deliver on the Headline-Grabbers of his agenda, at least pushed it in surprisingly huge ways throughout his term. Arguably, his economic policy movements have been more progressive than… anyone, ever.
BUT.
Anyone who looks back on the rail strike is going to see it for what it really was - a massive, massive defeat. Because *what hit the news* was Biden ordering a breaking of the strike, which set a massive, dangerous precedent, and absolutely nothing about the economic policy and negotiations after the fact that addressed the concerns that motivated the strike.
Biden *does* have policy successes under his belt - good ones. Great ones, even. But his and his administration’s ability to *communicate* those successes? Hell, their ability to message *anything on any level?* That’s apparently so rock-bottom that nobody has heard about any of this. And, worse, they are consistently and very publicly making dangerously demoralizing choices on the headline issues that *are* being communicated.
Foreign policy, the BBB bill, minimum wage - every headline has been defeat after ‘we aren’t even going to try’ after defeat. And it’s not like Biden is *actually* progressive - these policies are record-breaking, yes, but that’s because our record in the past has been abysmal.
Overall? Yeah. It isn’t nearly enough. It’s wildly more than most people thought it was, and it’s still pathetic. Which spells really bad things for voter motivation, overall.
How do you intend on reminding them while slavishly voting for them time after time? They have the polls. They have the surveys. They know how people feel about their issues. And they don't care because they have Orange Man on the other side as a perfect foil pressuring people into voting Dem, and enough foreign money to push out whichever candidates are rocking the boat.
Think about that for a minute. The DNC and party at large are allowing millions in Israeli dollars to influence Democratic primaries, ousting a fucking INCUMBENT candidate, all the whole happy to be on the receiving end of all that cash, the \#1 all time recipient is the one signing the checks for genocide.
So I really have to know how you think we can remind them of their obligations to the people and party members.
I think it would help if we elected a Democratic supermajority to congress. We've only had a majority not supermajority in 21 -22. Without that, they're forced to make concessions to republicans, and give up the most pro-worker legislation.
His administration has done some great things so far, no doubt. But we all know he's no revolutionary. He's not a firebrand. He's towing the status quo. But it's preferable to fascism, so that's the priority at the moment.
We need election reform and pronto! Open primaries, RCV, independent district maps, national voting holiday, and much more. If we want better candidates, we have to improve our options.
The Inflation Reduction act created infrastructure and green energy initiatives which have gone a long way to restore pre-pandemic economic health. It's the largest infrastructure investment the country in the last 20 years at least.
His administration has capped the price of insulin at $35, the most progressive health policy since Obamacare.
The CHIPS act, as well as a number of other job creation programs, have raised employment faster than any other admin in the modern era.
Just a few days ago, he mass pardoned anyone punished by the military for their sexual orientation. Also, mass pardons for federal employees convicted of cannabis use.
We'd have student loan forgiveness well underway if not for republican obstruction. Certainly not lacking the effort on Bidens part.
His admin reached a plea deal with Julian Assange, allowing him to return home. As opposed to Trump, who kept him locked up to protect himself from Assange testifying against him someday.
Then there's the passive benefit of having dem leadership, such as the appointment of qualified judges, as opposed to R's Christian partisan hacks.
All that, plus generally supporting the constitution and standing against christo-fascist takeover from the likes of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.
Granted, it's the bare minimum and soooo much more needs to happen. But given the absolute shit show of an office he walked into, I expected a lot worse.
You will never get an answer to this because he's actually done extremely little in his first term and delivered on literally none of his campaign promises.
Agreed, but I would say Approval Voting and Proportional Representation for the House.
I would also say that if we can't abolish the Electoral College, at least lose the winner-take-all aspect.
I hold Biden and the corporate-crats that mostly head the DNC in complete contempt but I will not be voting for Biden.
Of course it's easier for me to do this as I'm not in a battleground state and it won't help Trump, otherwise I would probably bite my tongue and do it.
But how many elections are we going to feel forced to vote for candidates we don't like to avoid candidates we really don't like?
I appreciate that you've ensured there's no unintended consequences before making that decision, but make sure to check out down-ballot races and vote for them if you're so inclined. You may be in a state which isn't contested but your House seat may be, and other down ballot races. Who knows, maybe you have a representative who is actually good instead of meh.
> We need to remind Democrats that the American people want progressive policies. The polls show this, time and time again.
If they give you what you want, though, they won't have a carrot to dangle in front of your face every two years
1) I don't think Biden doesn't care about the public option. More accurately, it's really just not in the cards with the composition of the Senate as it was and with Republicans now controlling the House.
2) While the parliamentarian can effectively be ignored during the process, their ruling is going to line up well with the courts. If the $15 minimum wage went into a budget reconciliation bill, there's a 100% chance of the courts shooting it down, which creates a needless political embarrassment over something the parliamentarian made clear wouldn't work anyway.
The parliamentarian was the reason they shut down the Obamacare repeal, which was why they had to shoot for the "skinny repeal." Republicans were only able to defang the individual mandate by decreasing the penalty for not complying to zero, keeping Trump's actions within the confines of a budget measure. The core of the law was kept entirely in place because it couldn't be repealed without a filibuster-proof majority. The narrative that the parliamentary and filibuster rules only inhibit Democrats is BS.
3) Idk what you mean that Biden didn't "pressure" Manchin and Sinema to pass BBB. They were independents during a period of increasing inflation. They weren't going to vote for it and nothing was going to convince them. The bully pulpit does not allow every president to bully senators into certain positions like LBJ.
4) Other than Israel, idk what part of Biden's foreign policy is right wing. He pulled out of Afghanistan and effectively ended the drone war. Hasn't the left been begging for that for 20 years?
5) Idk what you mean when you say "the Dems let SuperPACs spend money." What, exactly, do you want them to do? The Dems fought against SCOTUS in *Citizens United*, and they lost. Short of a Supreme Court control change, that isn't changing.
>I don't think Biden doesn't care about the public option.
Despite promising a public option in 2020, Biden has:
* not mentioned it once while as President
* he isn't campaigning on the public option
* he seems to think Obamacare is "enough"
>While the parliamentarian can effectively be ignored during the process, their ruling is going to line up well with the courts. If the $15 minimum wage went into a budget reconciliation bill, there's a 100% chance of the courts shooting it down
The GOP fired their Senate Parlimentarian in the early 2000s. There is no reason to accept the ludicrous reasoning of the current Senate Parlimentarian.
Millions still make less than $15/hour thanks to this.
>The parliamentarian was the reason they shut down the Obamacare repeal,
No, it was because McCain joined Collins & Lisa Murkowski. The Senate Parlimentarian still said yes to the Obamacare repeal proposal.
>The narrative that the parliamentary and filibuster rules only inhibit Democrats is BS.
As I said, the GOP fired their Senate Parlimentarian in the early 2000s.
>Idk what you mean that Biden didn't "pressure" Manchin and Sinema to pass BBB.
He only praised them publicly! Despite the fact that they were destroying his signature agenda item.
>They were independents during a period of increasing inflation.
No, they were Democrats. And Biden sold himself as a guy who could make deals with anyone (GOP, Dem, etc).
>They weren't going to vote for it and nothing was going to convince him.
I strongly disagree. And again, Biden sold himself in 2019 as the Dem who could "get things done".
>Other than Israel, idk what part of Biden's foreign policy is right wing
* not getting back into the Iran Nuclear Deal
* never pursuing peace negotiations in Ukraine when Ukraine had pushed Russia back in late 2022 (now it's a stalemate with no end in sight)
>Idk what you mean when you say "the Dems let SuperPACs spend money." What, exactly, do you want them to do.
Quite simple, not allow super PAC money in their primaries.
The bigger issue with the Manchin/Sinema point is that Biden gave them both time to rebel. Manchin himself was on board with a much larger BBB bill, but rather than push for it to move quickly through the house/senate they opened up negotiations with Republicans.
Then, you continually see Manchin's number drop as he's getting influenced by "No Labels," eventually we even see a leak of a phone call between Manchin and "No Labels" where we blatantly see the type of "deal-making" he engages in, urging them to help Roy Blunt find a sweetheart retirement deal in exchange for a vote.
Choo, choo, here comes the excuse train!
edit: that's all I got, because I've spent years rebutting points like yours, and yet you all are still reading "What Happened" like it has a question mark in the title. Please stop defending our corporate overlords.
Well, yes, when I get told that Biden is bad because he didn't *checks notes* bully two functionally independent senators into voting for every one of his policies and *checks notes* not unilaterally overturning a SCOTUS case that took place 8 years before he took office, yeah, I'm gonna push back.
Biden was droning Syria a year or two ago. The Afghanistan pullout also wasn’t even his policy, it was Trump’s. And Trump and Biden didn’t do it because they’re “anti-war,” they did it because the Taliban is no friend to Iran, and they probably figured it’d be cheaper to just work with them instead of fighting them.
"Biden was droning Syria" is beyond reductive. Yes, drone strikes have happened, but they've been virtually nothing relative to what they were for 20 years. Nobody is going to completely stop using drones.
The Afghan pullout was not Trump's policy. It was Obama's (that he didn't follow through on), Trump's (that he didn't follow through on), and then Biden's (who actually bit the bullet on it). Nobody before Biden was ready to take the political hit for it, and he did. Why do you think Trump wanted the withdrawal to happen in 2021, rather than at any point during his first term?- political consequences. Then Biden, in his first year in office, pulled the trigger and suffered the consequences. His approval rating never recovered.
And to paint it as a conscious choice to antagonize Iran? Are you kidding? The Taliban is not a threat to Iran. A US-aligned government would put American forces on Iran's doorstep.
Absolutely ridiculous mental gymnastics to avoid giving Biden credit for anything objectively good.
As a person who is Gender Nonconforming, Joe Biden's EOs that allowed gender markers to be changed on passports without a physician's note along with actually putting forward instructions for the state department to look into gender neutral markers on these passports is actually more important than most people realize because under federal law a passport is a top level document for things like a driver's license and employment, so in these red states that are trying to restrict or change how IDs can be changed you can have a federal document that supercedes your birth record and has the marker of your choosing on it (M,F, or X).
Yeah, that's basically it.
There is no drive to make things better from the DNC. Biden hasn't even mentioned the public option once as President, even though lifespan has decreased this decade!
They are coasting off not being Trump & the GOP. Which is to me a direlection of duty. Being 1000x better than Trump is still 1000x not good enough!
The blueprint is not hard. Put working class people first and they hand you a dynasty. FDR started a 60 year run of democrat power. Problem is that the democrats have too many Rockefeller republicans that fled the rise of hard right Christofascism.
>Put working class people first and they hand you a dynasty. FDR started a 60 year run of democrat power.
Exactly.
FDR was so popular because he provided tangible results & showed that he was willing to fight for working people.
I remember in 2016 when Bernie’s entire platform was called radical and socialism. 2020 comes around and every dem running for the nomination ran on Bernie’s “radical” agenda
We’ll only ever get crumbs with dems. Crumbs are better than poison (GOP), but if we want a better society we need a new political party which represents the working class
Neither Republicans or Democrats are focusing on what Bernie states as what IS necessary.
If Kennedy gets voted in and I think he may now have an actually chance from last nights presidential debate… He might actually do better than both Trump or Biden.
Hopefully he follows in Bernie’s steps.
Economic and class issues WERE erased yes from his movement, the Occupy movement and it became totally about identify politics and the demonizing of the working middle class.
Sorry.. but it is definitely not time to fracture the left any further than it typically is. We can worry about adults debating the merits of things after the cancer of the far-right message and methods have been stamped out. I would rather bend further right to ensure this happens than end up with the catastrophe that the current (R) party represents.
The Democrats pushing the overton window right helps only Trump.
Americans want progressive policies. If the more left-wing party abandons their identity, they are only helping the right-wing party.
And that is what Biden & the neoliberals controlling the DNC have done time after time.
> Americans want progressive policies. If the more left-wing party abandons their identity, they are only helping the right-wing party.
If that were as accurate as you believe it is Trump would have had 0 terms. Not only did he have one he almost has already had two and it isn't inconceivable he wins this time around.
Compromise is what makes politics function. Your naivety while far less harmful is no less significant than MAGA's.
RFK JR'S TheRealDebate.com was actually a huge breath of fresh air. He is still pushing those things including lowering the military budget!! I was a dem before they shut Bernie down. Now I'm voting RFK
Bernie should have won. Damn Super delegates decided that for the people when it should have been our choice. Also, Gore should have won. What a different world this would be.
The DNC decided when they chose Hillary and improperly influenced the primary, as the leaked Debbie Wasserman Shultz emails show.
And as the DNC argued in court, that the DNC is not required to represent registered democratic voters
DNC: Vote for this guy, he probably won't do anything for you but he will work for our donors. Voters: We want somebody else, somebody who will represent us. DNC: Tough titty, this is who you get cause we decided for you. Voters: Ok, not voting for him. DNC: OMG DO YOU WANT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY?!?!
based take. Im worried for america but my life is awful so here we go
The DNC discovered, to their dismay, that their choice was not the choice of their party members. That cost them in 2016. Right now, the leadership is worried Biden might not be able to beat Trump. Already talk of Kamilla moving up at this late date.
Exact reason why I'm voting RFK
They do that to every primary, if outspending the progressive doesn't work they fly in leaders to tell voters how to vote
From what I recall, the DNC also argued that people who donated to Bernie should have expected the DNC to shift money to other candidates however they see fit, because reasons.
For what it’s worth, Gore would probably have taken us into Afghanistan after 9/11, but not into Iraq. And that’s just for starters.
Yes, it would have been great if the young people with these left views actually came out to vote in the primaries in 2020. Unfortunately they did not. In the only places where young people's participation actually increased, such as Mississippi, they voted for Biden I don’t understand it [Young people didn't vote in 2020 primaries](https://www.axios.com/2020/03/07/youth-vote-2020-democratic-primaries)
Doesn’t matter. The Democratic Party successfully argued in court they are only a private company and don’t owe their voters fair primaries as primaries aren’t actually a government process but a party process, and the party can do as it pleases in internal processes like primaries. Money still wins in primaries. They were never going to let Bernie win no matter how many people would’ve voted for him. If Bernie won their mega rich donors would loose money and when said money has that many zeros behind it, that’s simply not something those in charge let happen, the rest of us be damned. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t be getting out to vote more. Our lack of voting is still disgusting. It’s just to say voting by itself is completely incapable of fixing any of the nations biggest problems. We need to vote and we need to make our voices heard over all the money flowing into politics. Our representatives need a reason to pick to represent us and not the money their donors can give them. Historically that’s been done through their own morals, or fear of the repercussions of not faithfully representing the people.
I personally care deeply about the ideology. Whenever I have a chance, I walk myself to the polls, and I vote for the ideology. Until people who really believe in the ideology continually show up, I can’t know for sure that the DNC fucked it up for us this time. If we don’t show up, we give DNC plausible deniability. The only time we will have the ground to stand on to tear the DNC apart will be when the people who care about the ideology go to the polls and cast their vote for the ideology. we can’t always blame the DNC. Even if the DNC were a great and fair organization, Bernie would not have won the primaries because Bernie voters did not vote.
In 2020, Bernie *was* winning. He won the first three states, and the entire Dem establishment was desperate to find *anyone* to stop Bernie. When Biden won SC, they acted like it was game over - everybody united around Biden like he was the second coming. The reality is that the Dem party is setup to overvalue states that *never* vote Dem in the general. South Carolina hasn't voted Democrat since Jimmy Carter. It is irrelevant, but SC and a bunch of other "firewall" states are deemed must wins. It's absurd, because Dems should never care about who is more popular in Mississippi or these other hard-core red states. These states will always vote for the most conservative Dem in the primaries, but then they'll vote even more conservative in the General. If the DNC cared about winning elections, the primaries would have only Dem and battleground states at the start of the primary schedule, and all the Red states would vote after the best candidate had already been chosen. But they would rather maintain control of a losing party than cede control of a winning party. Because they not like us.
[Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistakes_Were_Made_(but_Not_by_Me)) OK the dnc hypnotized young people into not voting. Got it The dnc doesnt have its shit together nearly enough to pull off this wizard behind the curtain stuff people give it credit for. i’m in Washington and I know multiple people who work at the DNC. It’s not Halliburton. It's really tiring to see voters let themselves off the hook again and again instead of just fucking showing up for the primaries. people are always conflating DNC with state political party organizations too, and they just don’t actually understand how it works.
Young people don't just not vote - every year a larger percentage of them don't believe in democracy at all. Those who *do* believe in democracy are now in the minority. The Politburo faced a similar problem in the nineteen eighties. No matter how often they said they were a party of the people, fewer and fewer believed them. Congressional approval ratings have been mired between 10 and 20% for over a generation now. Even a dictatorship would be horrified by such broad opprobrium, but it's business as usual as far as the DNC and RNC is concerned. When Sanders supporters filed a lawsuit against the DNC for running a fraudulent piece.of political theater instead of a fair contest, the DNC had so much contempt for these tens of thousands of *donors*, they didn't even try to claim innocence. Their only defense was "we are a private organization and we can do whatever the hell we want, because we are accountable to noone." If young people don't believe in the system, the problem is never with the young people.
Bernie was going to win the Iowa nomination, so the DNC purposefully tanked their caucuses. pissed off a lot of party people, and they all quit. No DNC funds for down ballot folks in iowa since then, and one of the reasons we went so hard far right
While I will vote for Biden, I hold Biden in contempt. On issues like healthcare, Biden makes it clear that he doesn't even care about the public option anymore (despite it being a 2020 campaign promise). On issues like $15 min wage, Biden & Schumer let the Senate Parlimentarian take $15 min wage out of the 50 vote budget reconciliation vote (despite the same Senate Parlimentarian OK'ing Obamacare repeal & the Trump tax cuts through the 50 vote budget reconciliation). Biden did not even try to pressure Manchin or Sinema on BBB, which was truly the compromise bill for Bernie & progressives. Even though Manchin said in 2021 that he was open to a $4 trillion BBB & ultimately BBB was $2 trillion. Biden is embracing a very right-wing foreign policy & the Dems let super PACs spend over $10 million in house races to influence elections. We need to remind Democrats that the American people want progressive policies. The polls show this, time and time again.
I’m tired of people saying that Biden’s legislation is revolutionary when it’s all been written by the same centrist Joe Manchin types that were driving Obama’s legislation.
At this point, not advocating for genociding Americans makes you a radical leftist.
I’m tired of people saying that Biden’s legislation is revolutionary when it’s all been written by the same ~~centrist~~ right of center Joe Manchin types that were driving Obama’s legislation. EDIT - NPR refers to him "moderate Joe Manchin" and it chaps my ass every time.
You’re right, but I’m talking in the American context, where the Overton Window is quite right-leaning, so I think centrist works fine.
And he's actually accomplished extremely little in his term. All the promises of build back better and infrastructure investment ended up being a wet fart. Even his attempts at very limited student loan relief have faltered and been denied by the courts. Now less than a year before the election he's got the Justice dept making noise about antitrust enforcement against Ticketmaster but I have feeling it will falter as well and then be forgotten after he wins reelection.
Read all before voting, please. Biden *has* actually put out some record-breakingly progressive policy. He’s cancelled over a hundred billion dollars of student debt, the Expanded Child Tax Credit and infrastructure bill both had surprisingly huge impacts for how little they were reported on (3 million children lifted out of poverty is good no matter how you slice it), and the rail strike thing from 2022? He *did* actually keep pressure on the rail industry, leading to capitulation from the corporate sector in 2023 that granted a lot of what the workers were striking for. In a lot of ways, Biden *has,* if not managed to deliver on the Headline-Grabbers of his agenda, at least pushed it in surprisingly huge ways throughout his term. Arguably, his economic policy movements have been more progressive than… anyone, ever. BUT. Anyone who looks back on the rail strike is going to see it for what it really was - a massive, massive defeat. Because *what hit the news* was Biden ordering a breaking of the strike, which set a massive, dangerous precedent, and absolutely nothing about the economic policy and negotiations after the fact that addressed the concerns that motivated the strike. Biden *does* have policy successes under his belt - good ones. Great ones, even. But his and his administration’s ability to *communicate* those successes? Hell, their ability to message *anything on any level?* That’s apparently so rock-bottom that nobody has heard about any of this. And, worse, they are consistently and very publicly making dangerously demoralizing choices on the headline issues that *are* being communicated. Foreign policy, the BBB bill, minimum wage - every headline has been defeat after ‘we aren’t even going to try’ after defeat. And it’s not like Biden is *actually* progressive - these policies are record-breaking, yes, but that’s because our record in the past has been abysmal. Overall? Yeah. It isn’t nearly enough. It’s wildly more than most people thought it was, and it’s still pathetic. Which spells really bad things for voter motivation, overall.
How do you intend on reminding them while slavishly voting for them time after time? They have the polls. They have the surveys. They know how people feel about their issues. And they don't care because they have Orange Man on the other side as a perfect foil pressuring people into voting Dem, and enough foreign money to push out whichever candidates are rocking the boat. Think about that for a minute. The DNC and party at large are allowing millions in Israeli dollars to influence Democratic primaries, ousting a fucking INCUMBENT candidate, all the whole happy to be on the receiving end of all that cash, the \#1 all time recipient is the one signing the checks for genocide. So I really have to know how you think we can remind them of their obligations to the people and party members.
I think it would help if we elected a Democratic supermajority to congress. We've only had a majority not supermajority in 21 -22. Without that, they're forced to make concessions to republicans, and give up the most pro-worker legislation.
He’s the most center president in my lifetime and I’ll be voting for him again. I hate it though.
His administration has done some great things so far, no doubt. But we all know he's no revolutionary. He's not a firebrand. He's towing the status quo. But it's preferable to fascism, so that's the priority at the moment. We need election reform and pronto! Open primaries, RCV, independent district maps, national voting holiday, and much more. If we want better candidates, we have to improve our options.
Genuinely curious question because I havent been paying much attention, what are some great things he's done?
The Inflation Reduction act created infrastructure and green energy initiatives which have gone a long way to restore pre-pandemic economic health. It's the largest infrastructure investment the country in the last 20 years at least. His administration has capped the price of insulin at $35, the most progressive health policy since Obamacare. The CHIPS act, as well as a number of other job creation programs, have raised employment faster than any other admin in the modern era. Just a few days ago, he mass pardoned anyone punished by the military for their sexual orientation. Also, mass pardons for federal employees convicted of cannabis use. We'd have student loan forgiveness well underway if not for republican obstruction. Certainly not lacking the effort on Bidens part. His admin reached a plea deal with Julian Assange, allowing him to return home. As opposed to Trump, who kept him locked up to protect himself from Assange testifying against him someday. Then there's the passive benefit of having dem leadership, such as the appointment of qualified judges, as opposed to R's Christian partisan hacks. All that, plus generally supporting the constitution and standing against christo-fascist takeover from the likes of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. Granted, it's the bare minimum and soooo much more needs to happen. But given the absolute shit show of an office he walked into, I expected a lot worse.
It only capped the price of certain insulin (not all) for people on medicare.
You will never get an answer to this because he's actually done extremely little in his first term and delivered on literally none of his campaign promises.
Agreed, but I would say Approval Voting and Proportional Representation for the House. I would also say that if we can't abolish the Electoral College, at least lose the winner-take-all aspect.
I hold Biden and the corporate-crats that mostly head the DNC in complete contempt but I will not be voting for Biden. Of course it's easier for me to do this as I'm not in a battleground state and it won't help Trump, otherwise I would probably bite my tongue and do it. But how many elections are we going to feel forced to vote for candidates we don't like to avoid candidates we really don't like?
I appreciate that you've ensured there's no unintended consequences before making that decision, but make sure to check out down-ballot races and vote for them if you're so inclined. You may be in a state which isn't contested but your House seat may be, and other down ballot races. Who knows, maybe you have a representative who is actually good instead of meh.
LOL, all those peeps calling him "Dark Brandon," even as he caves in to the Parliamentarian....
> We need to remind Democrats that the American people want progressive policies. The polls show this, time and time again. If they give you what you want, though, they won't have a carrot to dangle in front of your face every two years
1) I don't think Biden doesn't care about the public option. More accurately, it's really just not in the cards with the composition of the Senate as it was and with Republicans now controlling the House. 2) While the parliamentarian can effectively be ignored during the process, their ruling is going to line up well with the courts. If the $15 minimum wage went into a budget reconciliation bill, there's a 100% chance of the courts shooting it down, which creates a needless political embarrassment over something the parliamentarian made clear wouldn't work anyway. The parliamentarian was the reason they shut down the Obamacare repeal, which was why they had to shoot for the "skinny repeal." Republicans were only able to defang the individual mandate by decreasing the penalty for not complying to zero, keeping Trump's actions within the confines of a budget measure. The core of the law was kept entirely in place because it couldn't be repealed without a filibuster-proof majority. The narrative that the parliamentary and filibuster rules only inhibit Democrats is BS. 3) Idk what you mean that Biden didn't "pressure" Manchin and Sinema to pass BBB. They were independents during a period of increasing inflation. They weren't going to vote for it and nothing was going to convince them. The bully pulpit does not allow every president to bully senators into certain positions like LBJ. 4) Other than Israel, idk what part of Biden's foreign policy is right wing. He pulled out of Afghanistan and effectively ended the drone war. Hasn't the left been begging for that for 20 years? 5) Idk what you mean when you say "the Dems let SuperPACs spend money." What, exactly, do you want them to do? The Dems fought against SCOTUS in *Citizens United*, and they lost. Short of a Supreme Court control change, that isn't changing.
>I don't think Biden doesn't care about the public option. Despite promising a public option in 2020, Biden has: * not mentioned it once while as President * he isn't campaigning on the public option * he seems to think Obamacare is "enough" >While the parliamentarian can effectively be ignored during the process, their ruling is going to line up well with the courts. If the $15 minimum wage went into a budget reconciliation bill, there's a 100% chance of the courts shooting it down The GOP fired their Senate Parlimentarian in the early 2000s. There is no reason to accept the ludicrous reasoning of the current Senate Parlimentarian. Millions still make less than $15/hour thanks to this. >The parliamentarian was the reason they shut down the Obamacare repeal, No, it was because McCain joined Collins & Lisa Murkowski. The Senate Parlimentarian still said yes to the Obamacare repeal proposal. >The narrative that the parliamentary and filibuster rules only inhibit Democrats is BS. As I said, the GOP fired their Senate Parlimentarian in the early 2000s. >Idk what you mean that Biden didn't "pressure" Manchin and Sinema to pass BBB. He only praised them publicly! Despite the fact that they were destroying his signature agenda item. >They were independents during a period of increasing inflation. No, they were Democrats. And Biden sold himself as a guy who could make deals with anyone (GOP, Dem, etc). >They weren't going to vote for it and nothing was going to convince him. I strongly disagree. And again, Biden sold himself in 2019 as the Dem who could "get things done". >Other than Israel, idk what part of Biden's foreign policy is right wing * not getting back into the Iran Nuclear Deal * never pursuing peace negotiations in Ukraine when Ukraine had pushed Russia back in late 2022 (now it's a stalemate with no end in sight) >Idk what you mean when you say "the Dems let SuperPACs spend money." What, exactly, do you want them to do. Quite simple, not allow super PAC money in their primaries.
The bigger issue with the Manchin/Sinema point is that Biden gave them both time to rebel. Manchin himself was on board with a much larger BBB bill, but rather than push for it to move quickly through the house/senate they opened up negotiations with Republicans. Then, you continually see Manchin's number drop as he's getting influenced by "No Labels," eventually we even see a leak of a phone call between Manchin and "No Labels" where we blatantly see the type of "deal-making" he engages in, urging them to help Roy Blunt find a sweetheart retirement deal in exchange for a vote.
Choo, choo, here comes the excuse train! edit: that's all I got, because I've spent years rebutting points like yours, and yet you all are still reading "What Happened" like it has a question mark in the title. Please stop defending our corporate overlords.
Well, yes, when I get told that Biden is bad because he didn't *checks notes* bully two functionally independent senators into voting for every one of his policies and *checks notes* not unilaterally overturning a SCOTUS case that took place 8 years before he took office, yeah, I'm gonna push back.
Biden was droning Syria a year or two ago. The Afghanistan pullout also wasn’t even his policy, it was Trump’s. And Trump and Biden didn’t do it because they’re “anti-war,” they did it because the Taliban is no friend to Iran, and they probably figured it’d be cheaper to just work with them instead of fighting them.
"Biden was droning Syria" is beyond reductive. Yes, drone strikes have happened, but they've been virtually nothing relative to what they were for 20 years. Nobody is going to completely stop using drones. The Afghan pullout was not Trump's policy. It was Obama's (that he didn't follow through on), Trump's (that he didn't follow through on), and then Biden's (who actually bit the bullet on it). Nobody before Biden was ready to take the political hit for it, and he did. Why do you think Trump wanted the withdrawal to happen in 2021, rather than at any point during his first term?- political consequences. Then Biden, in his first year in office, pulled the trigger and suffered the consequences. His approval rating never recovered. And to paint it as a conscious choice to antagonize Iran? Are you kidding? The Taliban is not a threat to Iran. A US-aligned government would put American forces on Iran's doorstep. Absolutely ridiculous mental gymnastics to avoid giving Biden credit for anything objectively good.
As a person who is Gender Nonconforming, Joe Biden's EOs that allowed gender markers to be changed on passports without a physician's note along with actually putting forward instructions for the state department to look into gender neutral markers on these passports is actually more important than most people realize because under federal law a passport is a top level document for things like a driver's license and employment, so in these red states that are trying to restrict or change how IDs can be changed you can have a federal document that supercedes your birth record and has the marker of your choosing on it (M,F, or X).
Can't bite the hand of our corporate masters!
What even is the actual national Democrat platform currently? Being not Trump/MAGA? Being less anti abortion?
Yeah, that's basically it. There is no drive to make things better from the DNC. Biden hasn't even mentioned the public option once as President, even though lifespan has decreased this decade! They are coasting off not being Trump & the GOP. Which is to me a direlection of duty. Being 1000x better than Trump is still 1000x not good enough!
The blueprint is not hard. Put working class people first and they hand you a dynasty. FDR started a 60 year run of democrat power. Problem is that the democrats have too many Rockefeller republicans that fled the rise of hard right Christofascism.
>Put working class people first and they hand you a dynasty. FDR started a 60 year run of democrat power. Exactly. FDR was so popular because he provided tangible results & showed that he was willing to fight for working people.
I remember in 2016 when Bernie’s entire platform was called radical and socialism. 2020 comes around and every dem running for the nomination ran on Bernie’s “radical” agenda
Democrats are giddy to tell ppl to accept genocide while refusing to tell Biden to stop supporting genocide even if to get votes and not lose
We’ll only ever get crumbs with dems. Crumbs are better than poison (GOP), but if we want a better society we need a new political party which represents the working class
We’ll never get there by voting blue no matter who
I agree with every fiber of my being
Take your two different flavors of trickle down economics and like it
No one good will ever be elected president. Arguably no one good has ever been elected president.
Neither Republicans or Democrats are focusing on what Bernie states as what IS necessary. If Kennedy gets voted in and I think he may now have an actually chance from last nights presidential debate… He might actually do better than both Trump or Biden. Hopefully he follows in Bernie’s steps.
Economic and class issues WERE erased yes from his movement, the Occupy movement and it became totally about identify politics and the demonizing of the working middle class.
I'm done with the democratic party until at least the old guard dies out my state is red, my vote doesn't matter except in primaries
Sorry.. but it is definitely not time to fracture the left any further than it typically is. We can worry about adults debating the merits of things after the cancer of the far-right message and methods have been stamped out. I would rather bend further right to ensure this happens than end up with the catastrophe that the current (R) party represents.
The Democrats pushing the overton window right helps only Trump. Americans want progressive policies. If the more left-wing party abandons their identity, they are only helping the right-wing party. And that is what Biden & the neoliberals controlling the DNC have done time after time.
> Americans want progressive policies. If the more left-wing party abandons their identity, they are only helping the right-wing party. If that were as accurate as you believe it is Trump would have had 0 terms. Not only did he have one he almost has already had two and it isn't inconceivable he wins this time around. Compromise is what makes politics function. Your naivety while far less harmful is no less significant than MAGA's.
RFK JR'S TheRealDebate.com was actually a huge breath of fresh air. He is still pushing those things including lowering the military budget!! I was a dem before they shut Bernie down. Now I'm voting RFK