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this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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And that's okay.
With no aspirations toward better than "okay".
Didn't know I could conjure up a new candidate just by aspiring to it.
I was referring to the party's aspirations. They have none beyond "ok."
If you're a progressive, Biden has been the most progressive president since Kennedy. Lol.
If you're not. Are you willing to have American democracy end, because you personally weren't courted by the president?
Knowing EC, it's very much the latter. In fact I suspect you should expect to be called a genocide supporter by them. Since you have dared not say something horrible about Biden.
Forget Gaza for a second, what is progressive about KOSA?. What is progressive about getting rid of the ability to claim asylum?. What is progressive about labeling peaceful protests as against the law?
Biden may be better than Trump, but don't dare say he is more progressive that Kennedy - or even Obama.
LBJ was more progressive than Biden, and he took office after whom?
That's up for debate. For me, he's the most liberal since Kennedy but if you think it's LBJ instead, that's fine too!
Oh, he's certainly the most liberal since Kennedy. But he's not progressive except in the slogans of centrists.
I think that's a no true Scotsman kind of thing. Biden has done plenty of progressive policies. He's forgiven billions in student loan debt (and wanted to forgive more but R courts are political), he's passed infrastructure, and he's also passed some bills to keep the cost of medicine down.
Could he do more? Sure. If voters showed up at the midterms and gave him a D house, he could have done more. But they didn't.
Way too often, people let perfect be the enemy of good. Biden is good, not perfect.
Using a program signed into law by George W Bush. Does that mean Bush was also a progressive?
Biden passed comprehensive student loan forgiveness, and it was struck down by the supreme court for bullshit reasons. He's using the mechanisms of government that he can control.
Or did you forget that part?
No I didn't forget. But that's not what you were talking about. You were talking about the student loans forgiven during Biden's term. That's being done under the PSLF program signed into law by G.W. Bush in 2007.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Service_Loan_Forgiveness
If forgiving loans under this program is one reason to call Biden a progressive then the same would apply to Bush.
So I'll ask you again, was Bush also a progressive?
And you ignored my part of the conversation. He DID pass comprehensive student loan debt relief. Republicans used lawfare to halt the program.
Does that not count?
When you take the first step on, say, a hike, do you have no aspirations to take another and another?
Or would you say... well, this first step is too hard... I'm just gonna lie down and take a nap?
Where is all this "incremental progress" you centerists always talk about? Is it in the room with us now?
Undoubtedly you have the privilege not to notice it.
Billionaires are richer than ever. Housing is more expensive than ever. Food is more expensive than ever. Healthcare is more expensive than ever. Education is more expensive than ever. The planet is hotter than ever.
Are you referring to the pretty rainbow flags that McDonald's hangs once a year? Or the BLM posters in the middle of a gated community with all white residents?
Go on. Tell me about this incremental progress.
I can be out and not fear for my life. I can even marry. My partner now only rarely gets "gook" or "chink" yelled at them.
99.8% of the time when this stuff comes out of folks it's because they are white and heterosexual and usually male.
For people secure in their white, hetero-normative privilege it's understandable that they only care about things that affect them... and there isn't all that much that affects them directly. But the truth is this is a VERY different world here in the US than when I was growing up. It's now a world that despite the noise from the MAGA crowd I can exist comfortably and securely as opposed to having to hide in a closet.
Whenever I have this discussion with folks who aren't gay or trans or BIPOC, it never occurs to them that there is a difference. Universally it turns out that since they aren't affected by these huge cultural shifts, they also don't look at the changes that make life easier for other groups. The simple fact that federal workers now have a $15 minimum wage means that a number of my peers now are not starving working for public lands agencies. That a number of labor laws have been enacted (including recently the non-compete thing) that makes discrimination against protected groups doesn't affect people like you because you are not typically discriminated against. In some cases the pandemic relief for you folks was just a nice bonus to spend on luxuries, not groceries. The grants for schools didn't matter because if you have kids they go to nice schools already.
I'm not going to argue with you - it's impossible. But please understand that your incredibly narrow view of the world is not shared by those who have experienced this seismic shift over the last 2-3 decades.
What should they be doing instead?
Getting used to being disappointed.
It's really not, because a lot of left of center voters just won't bother to vote for someone they don't like.
Then frankly, they are idiots. Any foolish “protest vote” come November is just helping Trump.
Maybe 2024 is the year people realize you can't shame voters to the polls. 2016 should've been the year that lesson was learned, but alas, here we are.
I never said they were rational. I'm saying they matter. Calling them idiots does nothing to keep Trump out of power.