So, the Biden bros are at it again. Seriously. They literally go into progressive spaces literally to start fights with people. It's obnoxious. Screw off, guys, screw off. Again, you guys don't seem to realize how alienating you are to your cause. If you want progressives to support Biden in 2024, then you need to make a positive case for him first. Which is what I'm going to try to do here.
In this article, I'm mostly arguing for the general. Primary, do what you want, if you want to support Williamson, vote Williamson. I'm probably voting Williamson. I believe in democracy. I don't believe in suppressing the debate around Biden or portraying him as inevitable. We can and should push for better.
HOWEVER, let's be realistic, Biden is an incumbent, he has the party behind him, its infrastructure behind him, and he's going to win. I'm not going to tell you to vote blue no matter who, although we are, arguably, dealing with two madmen as the most likely nominees on the republican ticket, and I do think they're too scary to be allowed anywhere near power.
But still, I hate telling people to vote for something to avoid something else, even if it is arguably the most reasonable decision in my estimation this time. I want to actually advocate for biden as a progressive.
As you guys know, my priorities are in this order: universal basic income, medicare for all, free college/student debt forgiveness, climate change, and then housing. Those are my top 5, and what a "new new deal" should look like. While Biden's presidency has fallen far short of these goals, he has at least attempted to make progress on some of them.
On universal basic income, he was for the child tax credit expansion, which cut child poverty nearly in half and basically practically acts as a large scale basic income pilot. Andrew Yang and Scott Santens have both expressed interest in reviving this policy after dems in congress killed it. Biden would likely be amenable do it.
I admit, this isn't a full UBI. Not even close. But $300 a month per child is a nice way to get the ball rolling, and we should advocate for advancing this cause and expanding on it. I know I'm arguing more from my Yang-esque human centered capitalist perspective than what a leftie would want, but this IS my perspective, so yeah. Given UBI is my #1 priority, any progress in that direction should be considered in my opinion. And if anything, this is one of the best things Biden has done and it's a shame congress killed it.
Second, climate change. He supported Build Back Better, which if you recall, when I analyzed it in detail reminded me of a lite version of Bernie's green new deal. And I actually liked it better than a full green new deal plan. After all, the purpose of climate legislation is to save the climate, and the socialist left wants to use it as an opportunity to push JOBS JOBS JOBS. And you know how I feel about jobs for their own sake. So yeah, Biden's original BBB plan gets my endorsement. I know that I was very critical of it early on, but I was largely speaking out of ignorance and after educating myself on climate policies, yeah, Biden's plan is good enough for me.
Why didn't he get it passed? Once again, congress.
And then you have his student debt forgiveness plan. And yes, I've analyzed this one too. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing, and the reason it got shot down was the courts.
Then you have the fact that the dude probably would've passed a $15 minimum wage...if not for congress. Maybe a public option for healthcare. To be fair on healthcare Biden hasn't said one iota since getting in and he deserves all the criticism he can get for that one. Free college, I mean he was for free community college. You have congress to thank for that one again.
I mean....if you're a progressive, you're probably underwhelmed. I admit, it's not everything I want either. It really isn't. His plans are half measures, some less than half of the way to where we wanna go, and BBB is the only plan I outright would say "yes, this is exactly what i want or close to it." And I know that won't fly for most progressives as most are green new dealers.
But let's be honest, Biden wanted to go a lot further than he did, and accomplish a lot more than he did, but he was railroaded by congress and the courts. If you have a problem with nothing getting done, you should be pushing to get more progressives and democrats in congress. And not Joe Manchins and Krysten Sinemas either. if you are in one of their states, feel free to vote them out. They are a joke and deserve to be voted out. I'm not gonna defend them as I'm not all that interested in defending the dems as a "team." I'm interested in accomplishing goals, with the team being a means to an end. But right now, Biden wants to at least make some decent progress on the issues, and he's being railroaded. We need to strengthen our foothold in congress if we want to actually see his ideas pass.
So my suggestion? If Biden is the inevitable nominee, get out and support him. Get out and support people running for congress. This isn't to say Biden will accomplish everything we want. He is horrifically centrist. I've thrown a fair amount of shade at him. But...Biden does support some progress on my top priorities, and IF he's the nominee in 2024, and he probably will be, I'm likely to endorse him. In part because of the above, and in part because the GOP is literally looking like this to me right about now.
This is NOT, by the way, of endorsement of Biden in the PRIMARY. I support Williamson at the moment. Wanna make that perfectly clear. BUT....yeah, I'm probably not inclined to vote third party this time unless the dems seriously piss me off. Which they seem to be working on doing for some reason. Seriously guys, STOP. You need progressives to win, try to win them over with PROGRESSIVE POLICY. I just made my case for Biden above. Might not be the best case ever, but it's...what I can do.
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