Opinion | Voters punished Biden for problems he didn’t cause and effectively addressed
Opinion | Voters punished Biden for problems he didn’t cause and effectively addressed
The fight against rising prices has essentially been won. But few in the electorate seem aware.
Summary
President Joe Biden’s economic achievements—lowering inflation, reducing gas prices, creating jobs, and boosting manufacturing—are largely unrecognized by the public, despite his successes.
His tenure saw landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and major infrastructure investments.
However, Biden's approval ratings remain low, attributed to inflation backlash, weak communication, and a media landscape prone to misinformation.
Democrats face a “propaganda problem” rather than a policy failure, with many voters likely to credit incoming President Trump for Biden’s accomplishments due to partisan messaging and social media dynamics.
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Ya and what have the democrats accomplished over the past 30 to 50 years? It doesn't matter which branch they are in. At every level and field the Democratic party has grossly under delivered. Even their most left and progressive policies have been water downed to the point that they are unrecognizable as left policies. What truly left policy has been signed into law at the federal level? I honestly can't think of one.
Now you're shifting gears, which we can address. Ok the Dems need all 3 of presidency, house of reps, and senate to pass pretty much anything. That's how it works. And they've had all 3 for, drumroll please, 4 of the last 24 years. Or 6 of the last 32 years. Or 6 of the last 44 fucking years. And you wonder why progress is slow? It's because Dems basically never have power. If they don't have all 3 they are forced to reach across the aisle. If you want things to progress you need to give them overwhelming and consistent victories.
Okay but when Republicans even have one branch of congress they bring the whole government to a stand still until they get concessions.
Just name the top 5 left/progressive wins over the past 50 years against the top 5 right/consecutive.
Republicans have had version levels of control as well and have dictated what happens to the country the whole time.
You/we have no evidence that the democrats would bring about left policies of given 50 years of unchecked control.
Once again, what even has been their agenda? They have never supported universal health care. They've never supported reducing or ending wars. Arm sales? Nothing. Redistribution of wealth? Nothing. Crisis climate legislation? Nothing. Nationalization of too big to fail corporations? Nothing. Police and justice system reform? Nothing. Money in politics? Nothing. Corruption in the Supreme Court? Nothing. Insider trading by government officials? Nothing. Immigration reform? Nothing.
Can you honestly say the democrats leadership has been even really trying to move the country towards science, facts, and compassion? They don't even try to lie to their base anymore. I'll say it until the day I die. If democrats were as ravenous about left policies as the Republicans or nation would be a better place. Yes they are not purely to blame but they are ment to represent their base voters and haven't put forth a platform that amounts to little more than crumbs. It's a strategy failure the dems are guilty of. Being less authoritarian and oligarchical than your opponent is nice but what's the downside to being 100% against those things? That's what the people want but if we can't get even the platform to represent those ideas, what's the chance of it happening?
Republicans even have one branch of congress they bring the whole government to a stand still until they get concessions.
Republicans can do that because they don't care if the government shuts down. Imo their entire goal is to burn everything down, they're happy to do it.
But the Democrats do care. They don't want to shut down the government.
If democrats were as ravenous about left policies as the Republicans or nation would be a better place.
The difference is in what each party wants to do.
The GOP wants to stop progress. That's all they want to do, stop progress. By and large they are not trying to create and write and pass new complex legislation. They want to hit the big giant pause button on society. And they can do that with any one of the 3 houses. They can literally accomplish pretty much all their aims with 1 house, whereas the Dems need all 3 to do anything.
Or they want to simply repeal old legislation. They're not replacing it with newly created and labored over legislation, they're just straight out going to repeal all the legislation.
The Democrats want to pass things. When they get power they have to write that new, complex, excruciating detailed legislation. That's after they go out every single congressman to figure out how far they can go on bills. That's why the ACA was watered down, they needed Lieberman. And of course, all 3 houses to pass it.
In short: Progress and creation take real time, effort, hard work, and all three houses to pass it. Stagnation or regression requires fuck all.
Want progress? Then you need to give Dems consistent and overwhelming victories. Not 6 years every 44 years.
The democrats don't care enough to have a platform and policies that'll gain them voters and they spend elections trying to pull Republican votes. Just have an actual left agenda and they won't have to worry about what Republicans are trying to do. The American people want universal health care. The American people want higher wages and wealth redistribution. The American people want justice system reform. The American people want sooooooooo many left policies but the democrats won't even put those things as issues they are trying to solve.
Take up left-facing causes will guarantee landslide victory. Run as a left populist. They know what the American people want but just ignore it
You're shifting gears again. But we can address that too. I see this enough to have it saved:
Ok let's go through this chronologically.
Bill Clinton: After successive Dem losses Bill figured out "it's the economy stupid", aka center policy, not leftist policy. Plus when you run against an incumbent (Bush senior) you generally run from the center. So that's what he did. And he won.
Gore: After the population hopefully warmed up with Bill Clinton, he stuck his head out left with climate change. And bam he lost the election. Thanks 3rd party protest voters! Aka: The left never shows up.
Obama: So guess what Obama learned? Don’t stick your head out. He ran on broad “hope” and “yes we can” and having energy, hoping the ambiguity would be enough considering Bush’s disastrous wars. And he won.
More on Obama: So he enacted the ACA. That's great, right? The thanks Obama got for that was to lose the House of Representatives for year 3 and 4. And lose the House of reps again for years 5 and 6. And then lose both the House of reps and the Senate for years 7 and 8. He enacted left policy and: The left never shows up.
Hillary Clinton: So what did Hillary learn from the last 6 years of Obama? She learned that the left never shows up. So she only stuck her head out with a big position to left on the map room to climate change. She basically declared war on climate change. You know that big existential issue that all the leftists care about, right? The big important issue that the left says they want so badly, right? And guess what happened? Bam she lost. Thanks protest non-voters! Aka: The left never shows up.
Biden: Just like Obama learned from Gore, Biden learned from Hillary that you don't stick your head out left on anything. Not one thing. And he was running against an incumbent, so once again when you do that you run center. And he won.
More on Biden: But he did left things anyway. He did green energy, EVs, drug price control, PACT act, chips act, etc. And what were the results? Lost the House of Representatives for years 3 and 4. Polls showed him losing the election to Trump. He enacted left policy and: The left didn't show up for midterms, and was not going to show up for the next election.
Harris: So guess what Harris did? She tried Obama's strategy of "get ahead" and energy. And abortion rights and democracy. She relied on the left to show up for their human fucking rights and friggin democracy. They couldn't even do that. Aka the left never shows up.
And people are amazed that they don't run a big left platform? Every time they rely on the left they lose. Every Single Time. And the next guy learns to go to the center to win. Because the center voters actually show up.
With this history, you’d be an absolute fool to cater to and rely on the left. Because. They. Never. Show. Up.
So how do you get them to move left? By giving them victories first. Consistent and overwhelming victories. Show them it's safe to take policy chances. Because when they lose, like they've lost for 38 of the last 44 years, they go to the center to find voters.