The vast majority of voters don’t are not highly informed and just have vibes. My uninformed vibe is that he’s pretty good at this job. Would I like someone as charismatic as Obama? Sure. But competency is more important and despite his age, he seems very competent.
As a non-American (hence I can get informed only through newspapers and friends), Biden seems very competent. The one who oppose him make fun of him falling from bicycles and stairs but tbh he’s doing very great economically and internationally
The left hates him because he’s not going out of his way to install liberal policy and it’s focusing on compromise with the GOP. If everyone at the table hates you a bit you are probably doing a good job.
A ton of people on the progressive left (of which I consider myself a member) don’t really understand how the federal government works. They think the President is the boss of Congress and can basically just do whatever he wants, and if he threatens Senators and Representative in his party enough, he can get them to bend to his will. That he can just order Facebook to be broken up, that he can unilaterally fine Norfolk Southern $100 billion.
They think that because Democrats didn’t pass BBB and implement paid family leave and a higher minimum wage when they had full control of Congress, that it must mean Democrats only pretended to support those things, completely ignoring the reality that the majority only existed because of a conservative Democrat from West Virginia that actually backs the party on most issues except the most expansive.
The fact is, Biden has had some pretty incredible liberal legislative victories with the smallest of Congressional majorities. The American Rescue Plan that continues to support local governments, a historic climate change bill, a historic infrastructure bill, a historic investment in domestic chip manufacturing. He united NATO after a decade of stagnation and expanded it more than it had in 30 years. Obama would’ve loved to have accomplished any of those, and he had a big majority in both chambers his first two years.
Some analyses show we’re now on pace to meet net zero emissions by 2050, and there’s immense new investment because everyone wants the subsidies and knows the big, long-term green investments will pay off. If Biden did nothing else besides the climate bill and perform basic functioning of government, I would consider his presidency a massive success, but he’s done so much more than that.
Part of the difficulty being how much harder it is to build, make and do vs destroy and stall. The progressive left sees the fervent right tear down and block a lot when they have a slim majority and forget, in their righteous anger, that they’re asking for a much harder job and need a real majority.
What do we do to get out of this nightmare? Like… Specifically? How do we get the far-right to… Stop being far-right I guess? How do we get things built? How do we get good things to happen rather than, at best, stopping some bad thing from happening for at least a bit? It feels like that’s all we’ve been getting on a federal level lately… ~Cherri
The reply from mpa92643 that your reply is under went into detail about all the things that Biden and Democrats have done over the last few years. If you don’t think those are massive triumphs given the political climate and the very narrow majorities the Dems had, I don’t know what to tell you.
Those are things that weren’t just stopping bad things from happening.
Edit to address your question as well: the most substantive thing you can start with is voting Democrat and not any third party. Giving Democrats consistent and large enough majorities to combat the gerrymandering is vitally important to actually moving the country forward.
Sorry about that, I wasn’t doing too well last night. I’m just worried with how people like Ron DeSantis and Trump are just able to try doing a fascist coup and try to commit genocide against trans people with no legal consequences for either. Ron DeSantis tried (and failed, but still tried) to build his own personal paramilitary for god’s sake. And yet he’s still able to maintain power like none of that happened. It’s terrifying. ~Cherri
This is very well put. The people most cynical about Democrats are ironically the most naive in thinking that naming and shaming will force Republicans to vote the way you want.
His appointments to e.g. the FCC suggest that he’s not opposed to progressive voices and is willing to put them in positions of power. Would I like him to be even more to the left? Sure, but he has to actually govern, so I think he’s doing a pretty decent job balancing the demands of the situation.
Opposed or Aligned… what he’s doing is leading where the people are willing to go. This is very much Obama’s game theory strategy (despite being more charismatic). There are times when I wish there was a leader on the Left with the charisma to really move things in that direction … but then I see how well that approach is going for the Right (I have no idea why they find Trump so charismatic but they do!).
I think Biden would have made for a wonderful president a decade ago. The problem is that our issues are so extreme that such a cordial, non
aggressive person is not a good fit
The wrong man for a bad time.
Between the exponential collapse of capitalism under its perpetual growth model, to the climate crisis, to a rise in global authoritarianism, what we needed was someone who can rock the boat and right the ship.
Non of these issues can be handled with half measures.
He’s less cordial than Obama was. Obama was all about getting consensus. Everytime the GOP or the SCOTUS do some shenanigans, Biden and his team come up with alternative plans to try to do end runs around their bullshit, he’s not trying to get the GOP onside he’s trying to govern around them. Obama would never have done that.
I disagree. I don’t think Biden is cordial at all, I think he’s realistic and knows how to get stuff done. Look at the debt ceiling negotiations - Biden wasn’t cordial to McCarthy. He knew the GOP had the leverage to get something out of it, and negotiated with them to make sure they got the least he could manage. He said he would work with them, but he called McCarthy and the rest of them out on their BS multiple times. O’Bama on the other hand, I thought let the GOP get away with way too much, and was way too conciliatory to them. At the time it was debatably the right strategy, but we see how it played out in hindsight.
The vast majority of voters don’t are not highly informed and just have vibes. My uninformed vibe is that he’s pretty good at this job. Would I like someone as charismatic as Obama? Sure. But competency is more important and despite his age, he seems very competent.
As a non-American (hence I can get informed only through newspapers and friends), Biden seems very competent. The one who oppose him make fun of him falling from bicycles and stairs but tbh he’s doing very great economically and internationally
The left hates him because he’s not going out of his way to install liberal policy and it’s focusing on compromise with the GOP. If everyone at the table hates you a bit you are probably doing a good job.
A ton of people on the progressive left (of which I consider myself a member) don’t really understand how the federal government works. They think the President is the boss of Congress and can basically just do whatever he wants, and if he threatens Senators and Representative in his party enough, he can get them to bend to his will. That he can just order Facebook to be broken up, that he can unilaterally fine Norfolk Southern $100 billion.
They think that because Democrats didn’t pass BBB and implement paid family leave and a higher minimum wage when they had full control of Congress, that it must mean Democrats only pretended to support those things, completely ignoring the reality that the majority only existed because of a conservative Democrat from West Virginia that actually backs the party on most issues except the most expansive.
The fact is, Biden has had some pretty incredible liberal legislative victories with the smallest of Congressional majorities. The American Rescue Plan that continues to support local governments, a historic climate change bill, a historic infrastructure bill, a historic investment in domestic chip manufacturing. He united NATO after a decade of stagnation and expanded it more than it had in 30 years. Obama would’ve loved to have accomplished any of those, and he had a big majority in both chambers his first two years.
Some analyses show we’re now on pace to meet net zero emissions by 2050, and there’s immense new investment because everyone wants the subsidies and knows the big, long-term green investments will pay off. If Biden did nothing else besides the climate bill and perform basic functioning of government, I would consider his presidency a massive success, but he’s done so much more than that.
Part of the difficulty being how much harder it is to build, make and do vs destroy and stall. The progressive left sees the fervent right tear down and block a lot when they have a slim majority and forget, in their righteous anger, that they’re asking for a much harder job and need a real majority.
What do we do to get out of this nightmare? Like… Specifically? How do we get the far-right to… Stop being far-right I guess? How do we get things built? How do we get good things to happen rather than, at best, stopping some bad thing from happening for at least a bit? It feels like that’s all we’ve been getting on a federal level lately… ~Cherri
The reply from mpa92643 that your reply is under went into detail about all the things that Biden and Democrats have done over the last few years. If you don’t think those are massive triumphs given the political climate and the very narrow majorities the Dems had, I don’t know what to tell you.
Those are things that weren’t just stopping bad things from happening.
Edit to address your question as well: the most substantive thing you can start with is voting Democrat and not any third party. Giving Democrats consistent and large enough majorities to combat the gerrymandering is vitally important to actually moving the country forward.
Sorry about that, I wasn’t doing too well last night. I’m just worried with how people like Ron DeSantis and Trump are just able to try doing a fascist coup and try to commit genocide against trans people with no legal consequences for either. Ron DeSantis tried (and failed, but still tried) to build his own personal paramilitary for god’s sake. And yet he’s still able to maintain power like none of that happened. It’s terrifying. ~Cherri
This is very well put. The people most cynical about Democrats are ironically the most naive in thinking that naming and shaming will force Republicans to vote the way you want.
Well said
His appointments to e.g. the FCC suggest that he’s not opposed to progressive voices and is willing to put them in positions of power. Would I like him to be even more to the left? Sure, but he has to actually govern, so I think he’s doing a pretty decent job balancing the demands of the situation.
I don’t think he opposed at all, he’s doing what he needs to do with a narrow margin!
Opposed or Aligned… what he’s doing is leading where the people are willing to go. This is very much Obama’s game theory strategy (despite being more charismatic). There are times when I wish there was a leader on the Left with the charisma to really move things in that direction … but then I see how well that approach is going for the Right (I have no idea why they find Trump so charismatic but they do!).
I love capitulating in the face of climate catastrophe.
I think Biden would have made for a wonderful president a decade ago. The problem is that our issues are so extreme that such a cordial, non aggressive person is not a good fit
The wrong man for a bad time.
Between the exponential collapse of capitalism under its perpetual growth model, to the climate crisis, to a rise in global authoritarianism, what we needed was someone who can rock the boat and right the ship.
Non of these issues can be handled with half measures.
He’s less cordial than Obama was. Obama was all about getting consensus. Everytime the GOP or the SCOTUS do some shenanigans, Biden and his team come up with alternative plans to try to do end runs around their bullshit, he’s not trying to get the GOP onside he’s trying to govern around them. Obama would never have done that.
I disagree. I don’t think Biden is cordial at all, I think he’s realistic and knows how to get stuff done. Look at the debt ceiling negotiations - Biden wasn’t cordial to McCarthy. He knew the GOP had the leverage to get something out of it, and negotiated with them to make sure they got the least he could manage. He said he would work with them, but he called McCarthy and the rest of them out on their BS multiple times. O’Bama on the other hand, I thought let the GOP get away with way too much, and was way too conciliatory to them. At the time it was debatably the right strategy, but we see how it played out in hindsight.