- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
Web archive: https://archive.ph/q5MRq Joe Bidenās growing political troubles are coming from within his own party as he trails Donald Trump in the battleground states that will decide the 2024 election. Thatās the conclusion from the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult Poll of voters in seven swing states. Read the full report here.
This is the third consecutive month Bloomberg News has conducted the swing state poll, and the narrative hasnāt shifted for the president. In fact, itās gotten worse and the new data only highlights Democratic votersā deepening dissatisfaction with the White House.
Support among Black voters, a key constituency for Democrats, has dropped since October. Young voters between the ages of 18-34, another core group for the party, arenāt impressed by his attempts to forgive student loans and are much more likely to be critical of his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Okay, now do the counterfactual: if Trump were dictator, what should he do to change the narrative on climate change and also arming Israel unconditionally while clearly agreeing with and advocating for the genocide of Palestinians?
Sometimes I look at Latin American countries and I wonder how they so casually swing between socialists and libertarians. But I get it. Regular people donāt have political principles. Itās basically all about getting yours. And the one who gives more gets the most support, even if the method of giving is undemocratic.
What are you smokingā¦ and where can I get some?
This isnāt about Biden Vs Trump. Trump is awful. we know that. The sole argument for Biden is that he is not Trump. Guess whatā¦ there are millions of Americans who are not trump.
being alarmist about trump to defend an objectively awful candidate doesnāt help- you want to beat trump start with the best candidate for the job. But I think you know that Biden isnāt thatā¦because otherwise youād be ranting about how great he is rather than trying to change the subject.
Itās a poll about Bidenās stance with voters as president. It absolutely is about Biden versus Trump.
Word?
Thanks to Bidenās, and definitely not Trumpās or any other Republicanās, American Rescue Plan, Biden increased the Earned-Income Tax Credit for those without children from $543 to $1,502, a $3,000 tax credit per child for children 6 and over, and a $3,600 per child for children under six. As a consequence, heās done more for childhood poverty than any president within the last 50 years.
Letās turn to the Inflation Reduction Act. At 100% more than anything Republicans would ever do as far as green industrial policy, Biden made $240 billion available for clean energy manufacturing. Solar and electric vehicles incentives are also a part of this legislation. Also unlike Republicans, such massive spending is supposed to reduce the deficit by $288 billion over 10 years. Talk about fiscal conservatism. Just to be clear, 100% of Republicans voted against this legislation.
Economically, Biden has done more for Americans as Americans collectively rather than individually with investment in public infrastructure and through industrial policy that most modern presidents, especially every Republican since Reagan. More than likely, the benefits of such legislation wonāt be felt for years; such is the nature of industrial policy.
Also, just for the record, heās the only sitting president to have ever joined the any picket line, let alone the one of autoworkers.
The National Labor Relations Board under his administration just recently ordered Starbucks to open stores it illegally shut over union activity, and to remunerate them for loss of pay since those stores have been closed. Do you know how incredible that is?!
And, finally, Lina Khan, Biden-nominated director of the Federal Trade Commission is trying to upend the enduring anti-trust paradigm that fails to recognize how Big Tech like Google and Amazon are in fact engaged in anti-competitive strategies. Everybody knows Amazon is a monopoly. But legally, itās harder to prove, and Khan has taken up the challenge, to the benefit of all Americans.
He also nominated, and the Senate confirmed, the judicial powerhouse that is Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, who goes toe-to-toe with the misanthropic conservative justices. Sheās now the one on the bench bringing the real heat to Alito and Thomas and their stupid-ass originalism doctrine. This was a strong strategic accomplishment.
Like god damnā¦does anyone think Trump or Nikki Haley would do any of this?
Let me be clear, though: Iām not saying we should trade Palestinian lives for strong domestic policies and well-chosen, strategic nominations. Iām saying that the alternative includes the destruction of Palestine and much worse across the board. And at least [Biden has the wherewithall to let Israel know itās being an international asshole rather than anything any of the Republican candidates said during their fourth debate.
Iām not being alarmist about Trump. The alarm has been sounded. Weāre all just deaf to it now. But we donāt need ears to see that Trump is bad in every way Biden is and significantly worse in others.
People like to forget the recession that didnāt happen last year because Bidenās administration busted itās ASS to keep Trumpās economy from imploding our country for a decade. Instead itās āwe have high inflation because Biden didnāt do enough to fix Trumpās economy.ā
Which is more an indictment of those presidents than it is praise for Biden.
Twelve million children are still food insecure. In the āgreatestā country on earth.
What a joke of a government.
You become president then. You have my vote.
Please god do not make me president.
Semi-Hemi-Demigod given worst job in America.
I wonāt do it! You canāt make me!
Once again. Youāre turning this into a binary choice that does not exist. In any case, youāre also acting like the American Rescue Plan was Bidenās work alone. It was far from it, and those provisions youāre touting? First pushed for- and won byā¦ thatās right ā¦ progressives. Heās also done this at a time when he had full control of the house and senate. the biggest argument people make for Biden is his vast experience working across the aisle. Most of the heavy heavy lifting was done by Pelosi, Shumer and Sanders. But go ahead, give credit to BIden and only Biden on that.
ONCE AGAIN. this isnāt about republicans. Iāll try not to bring that up again. No promises. In any case the clean energy spending is tax incentives and funding for things people (mostly corporations) were going to do anyhow. Or do you think corporations arenāt looking at climate change and making plans? Further aspects of the IRA are hilarious the 15% minimum corpo tax for mega-corps? yeah. Corporate tax rate is supposed to be 21% since 2017ā¦ ask yourself how exactly a 15% minimum tax when the tax is supposed to be 21% is going to net more money? particularly when tax enforcement in these sectors isā¦ insanely pathetic.
Oh, and Biden didnāt do nearly as much of the heavy lifting, and if you want to give Biden credit, lets give him some blame too, considering that it almost didnāt pass with Manchin and Sinema being party hold outs.
to the benefit of corporations. Oh, and you some how managed to make this about republicans again. Itās no secret the US is behind on infrastructure spending. should I applaud and celebrate the fast food line cook who manages to make my order adequately? Nope. compensation was already given for that. Youāll notice, also, that this push for infrastructure started withā¦ progressives. and made possible with their heavy lifting.
Pure political showmanship.
He also shat over the rail unions when they were asking for things like sick leave and shit. He could have just as easily used his authority to force the corporations to give labor what they wanted. Which is hilarious, because honestlyā¦ itās not like labor was asking for anything that wasnāt just part of good business strategies or, you knowā¦ something thatāll help keep trains from derailingā¦ but nope. he forced the Union to take a shittier deal. (Yeah, they more or less got what they wanted later, but that was after the negotiations were done.)
I do. But the NLRB is an independent agency. The best that could be said about that is that Biden had the opportunity to appoint 2 members to the current board. Itās difficult to say whether better or worse appointments could have been made by another. As it stands, it was with a senate that was able to rubber stamp the democratic nominations. funny how that works.
Again, the FTC is an independent agency. and again. itās difficult to argue that another democratic president would not have appointed the same person. There is a lot of people who start that process before the president even considers a name.
Yeah. I like her. sheās awesome. This was partly the result of Biden actually honoring a campaign promise toā¦ oh, thatās rightā¦ progressives who wanted a more diverse set of backgrounds on SCOTUS.
You just have to keep circling back to that, donāt you?
Just because Biden is less-supportive than republicans doesnāt mean heās not on the wrong side of history there. Oh, and by the way, did you see the headline where weāre expediting arms shipments?
Yet, half of your arguments in this entire comment relate Biden to being better than trump. Which leads us to back to: there are millions of eligible Americans who are also not-trump. this is a very bad argument to be makingā¦ and lets be honest hereā¦ the reason people are trying to primary Biden isnāt because theyāre disloyal so much as biden is fucking weak and they see blood in the water.
Itās about how unpopular Biden is with voters. the people who donāt like Biden, dislike trump even more. itās really that simple. you can ignore the lions share of the progressive voters all you want, itās not going to end well. if you truly donāt want Trump to succeedā¦ then you should be down with considering who is the best candidate to defeat him, and nothing you have said is all that convincing that it is in fact Biden.
Domestically, the economy objectively sucks for the vast majority of Americansā¦ trying to convince people how great the economy is, when thereās record numbers of homelessness, and more Americans living paycheck to paycheck, people are struggling. but weāre supposed to feel good because corporations are having record years? Fuck off.
foreign policy, he fucked the pooch with Israel. thereās no way around that. he vowed unequivocal, and enduring support to a government that was plotting genocide. I donāt have any good answers, but supporting Israel is not it. (as Iāve been saying since octoberā¦ neither Hamas nor Israel are the good guys. theyāre both perpetrators. Civilians are the real victims hereā¦ on both sides.)
Well, maybe itās not a binary choice, but it is certainly a choice that does exist.
Wellā¦yesā¦with the implication that Bidenās unpopularity is a boon for his political opposition. Maybe not Trump per se, but certainly Biden v Republicans.
I thought you said it wasnāt about thisā¦
Anywayā¦by sheer political inertia, Biden has an institutional advantage against any Republican contender. Likeā¦before we argue about anything, Bidenās chances of winning are better simply by default. You have the burden of proving that heās so weak as a candidate that even that advantage is gone. No one ever makes that argument, they just assert it as true. But Iām not convinced it is.
The weird thing is that this isnāt Bidenās faultā¦wellā¦not entirely his fault. A podcast I listen to every now and then said that this is the era of business, and Iām inclined to agree. American Free Enterprise is all about value extraction, and theyāve been so successful that Trump sells pieces of his suit at $5000 a piece to fools and itās totally okay. Business values have effectively superseded political values, and thereās a lot of people responsible for that.
I donāt disagree with anything else you said.