This is the world liberals like Maher promised would be better if only everyone else would shut up and ‘Settle for Biden.’ Now is not the time for systemic change, they said - we need to get rid of the Orange Bad Man.
Democrats thought that a ‘return to normal’ where ‘nothing fundamentally changes’ for the corporate donor class was somehow an adequate response to Trump, the pandemic and the resulting civil unrest.
The Democrats not only deserve to lose, they give the impression that they’d actually prefer to. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be blaming failures of ‘bipartisanship’ or decisions made by the Senate parliamentarian.
Edit: I never realized how much of an echo chamber the establishment Left has made for themselves. But I’m happy to serve as a punching bag in order to get the real flavor of people who still blame Nader and Sanders for the failures of the Democratic Party.
Maher is a small-l libertarian. He only promised that, given the limited choices offered by the duopoly and by the Dem establishment, the world where most voters settled for Biden would be better than the one where Biff won.
And thus, the narrative continues.
Given the moment, the Democrats had the chance (if they wanted) to make substantial changes.
Biden could have raised the minimum wage, legalized pot (resulting in incarceration reform), forgiven student debt, or anything that would have given the independents / working class a reason to come out in 2022/2024.
Instead, they played games and let the Republicans force them to negotiate against themselves in the name of ‘bipartisanship’. As a result, Trump remains an actually viable threat in 2024.
The worst part is the Democrats do this to themselves (and the rest of us) every time.
There’s a world of difference between “the Democrats can and should be better” and “the Democrats deserve to lose to the Republicans so our nation can finally complete its descent into full-blown fascism.”
I still remember that time he and and Michael Moore begged Ralph Nader not to run in 2004.
If he’s not a liberal, he’s an honorary member in good standing.
As if the GOP has not hamstrung them in every way conceivable.
Every single one of these would have been challenged and over turned by the SC if passed by executive order. They are attempting to get stuff through congress so it has a better chance of withstanding legal challenges.
Everything they’ve proposed that is going through congress is aimed at making major changes to our society. That doesn’t happen over night and it doesn’t happen easily. There is no magic light switch that he can flip to make these changes, because that’s not the kind of system we have. Change comes from below with years and years of work by the grassroots. If it’s coming from the top, suddenly, then we’re fucked.
So they should… what? Act like the fascist party? Subvert democracy to get their way?
So… what’s the solution then, in all your infinite wisdom?
Because just sitting online playing Captain Obvious and pointing out problems that most people are already well aware of doesn’t actually help fix anything.
I seriously doubt that. Biden can end student loans without an executive order (regardless of what Pelosi wants or says.) He could have done minimum wage through reconciliation. He could reclassify marijuana via executive order, but anyone who would try to put that genie back in that bottle is going to fail - it’s just too popular with too many people.
All of these things can be done without Republican input, and while they would bluff and bluster and rant about ‘sOcIaLiSm’, the real problem the Democrats have is that their corporate donor class constituents absolutely oppose these actions.
What they should do is act like the opposition ‘people’s party’ that they keep adverting themselves - as it stands, they act more like woke Republicans.
Most of what he wants is popular with the American public. The GOP doesn’t care. They will use every dirty trick in the book, including stacking the court WHICH THEY HAVE DONE UNDER THE PREVIOUS PRESIDENT to ensure that none of those are passed.
Did you miss the whole debt ceiling thing where the debt ceiling was being used as a weapon against the larger infrastructure bill? That does not work like you think it does - not when the GOP has a bunch of authoritarian lick spittles who will vote how they are told.
Reconcilitation is not a silver bullet to a party that actual gives a shit about doing things right.
So which is it? Are they the majority party who can get anything they want done with no problems? Or are they the scrappy outsiders who are for the people? The fact that they are not top-down and authoritarian is exactly WHY they are having issues getting stuff done.
No one is saying that, except you and @CaligulaGrampa who seem to believe that they can instantly become social democrats and ram through whatever they want.
That’s the actual problem with a big tent - you don’t get whatever you want all the time.
Which is something I can get behind. Somehow Biden came out on top in a pretty tough primary race. Certainly few of us here were particularly happy about it because, newsflash, Biden kinda sucks.
How? With executive orders? We have all seen first hand how non-durable those are. Biden has put a spotlight on many things those of us on the left like, but Congress can’t get anything done because of near constant gridlock. People on the left are fighting so hard to try to make meaningful reform right now to the point where they are fighting more over how much to help people, while those on the right aren’t doing anything more than trying do the opposite because they have no ideas or philosophy other than rank contrarianism.
So fuck it, I guess there’s nothing to be done, right?
I simply don’t buy that narrative.
Democrats couldand should be the party of opposition to Republican corporate donor class, not the compitition for it’s favor.
It’s why I vote Green, and was ready to settle for Bernie Sanders if he won the Democratic nomination.
Biden has spent 40+ years trying to be a better Republican than most Republicans, and I’d argue that his presidency is a return to the conditions that caused an electorate to vote for a rapey, racist corporate-owned reality TV star who ran for office to get a raise from NBC.
