So, if I recall, after going over various responses, including third party responses last year, I ended up giving my own response. I dont see any third party responses this year, so I'm just going to go into my own feelings about the state of the union.
The state of the union...is tenuous. It's scary. We are not in a good place. Inflation is down on paper, but still up, with people still reeling from it. People are struggling, like they always do. We face very systemic issues on the economy. Biden, in some ways, does not do enough. but on other ways, he has tried to do some good things, and by traditional metrics, he is a solid president.
Despite this, mass dissatisfaction is throwing his reelection chances into jeopardy. The GOP is just stoking fire after fire for Biden to put out, and then screaming about the fires, and causing panic and dissatisfaction. They fear monger about inflation and blame it on Biden, despite it not being his fault. They hype up immigration crises while stonewalling any potential response on the matter. They act like we live in a hellscape under biden, and if only Biden were gone, things would be better. but they're wrong. Like always, the GOP has no answers to our problems, they're the source of them, while simultaneously trying to capitalize on them. They dont care about the nation, but their political gains, and will sabotage democrats in office in order to prop up republicans.
And this time, they're trying to reelect Donald Trump. I admit, I ignored the threat of Trump in 2016 and 2020. Because in 2016, the dude was a loud mouthed businessman who had an economically populist message, and while an idiot, I kinda figured America would realize this and reject him quickly. in 2020, it looked like that Biden was up big time, and that Trump was gonna lose, but instead, Trump got record numbers, only to be beaten by Biden's record numbers. Biden BARELY won in 2020, and Trump was a lot stronger than i thought he would be. This was warning sign #1 for me. It wasnt 2016 any more where economic dissatisfaction drove people to the guy out of desperation, people LIKED this psycho, despite being the worst president in my lifetime.
But then when the dude lost, this MFer incited a riot to attack the capitol. Since then he's been charged with inciting insurrection, and committing election fraud, and being caught in possession with documents pertaining to national security stuff like nuclear secrets. Like seriously, he would jsut have this stuff in his bathrooms in boxes going up to the ceiling. Dude probably read this stuff while taking a dump. As it stands, he's facing 91 criminal charges, and the republican party is like "yeah this is our guy" again? And then he's up in the polls vs Biden? That's scary. To me, Trump is a literal danger to democracy. He's a psychopath who should never be allowed anywhere near the oval office, or any political office. He should be in jail for his crimes.
Biden isn't perfect, but Biden has tried to do some progressive things. Labor legislation, higher minimum wage, chips act, some student loan forgiveness, build back better, the inflation reduction act (what we got instead of BBB), the child tax credit. is all of this "good enough"? No, We know my priorities. Universal basic income, medicare for all, free college, FULL student debt forgiveness, build back better (yeah, I like it too), housing reform, etc. And honestly, to go on Alabama lady's spiel about moms being stressed out and overworked, who is the guy who wants to reduce the work week and free people from work? THIS GUY. That's my own agenda, that's what I want.
But...let's face it, this isnt our year. We're not gonna get this stuff out of Biden. Even if Biden were on board with literally every idea that I just proposed, he couldnt pass any of it because of congress and the courts. The GOP controls the house, and they obstruct everything he does, and a few democratic sell outs undermine our so called "majority" there ensuring that congress can't do anything.
So let's be realistic. As I said ideas are nice, but if we cant pass them, is replacing biden with someone more progressive gonna help when the lowest common denominator dictating what gets done and not done in washington won't even back Biden's agenda? We dont have a solid candidate who can beat Biden. I watched a clip of Marianne Williamson sounding like a kook going on about her "whole health plan" and how we have chemicals in our food. Dont get me wrong, I nominally support her as she aligns with my policies, but holy crap this is what we're dealing with. We dont got a candidate, we got no popular support, "cease fire now" is getting more support than williamson. This isn't our year. We're not gonna get anything done. This isnt the year to be aggressively progressive, but to defend what we have, and that means reelecting Biden.
Biden aint perfect, but he wants to do some cool stuff. He's just obstructed by other branches of government. That's how checks and balances work. We dont live in a dictatorship where the president can do whatever he wants (at least not yet), we live in a country where the president and constantly checked and balanced by other branches. And he cant enact even his mildly progressive agenda because of that. If you arent living as well as you want, dont blame biden, blame republicans in congress. Blame sell outs like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. If Biden had more support in congress, we would have a $15 minimum wage, and stronger unions, and a mini UBI for kids, and stronger climate change provisions. Heck, we'd have stuff like universal pre K, and unviersal child care, and paid family leave, which would help those stressed out moms that republican lady was going on about. Who do you honestly think is on your side with kitchen table issues more? Biden or Trump? Again, I know Biden doesnt go far enough, not for someone like me, but he's better than Trump.
We've talked about potentially replacing Biden on here. The alternatives poll worse. Biden is the best we got. We're stuck with this guy. Again, 2024 isnt our year. We dont have a candidate or popular support for our agenda. The best we can do is support what we already got. And that's Biden. Fight the army with what we got, not what our ideal army would look like. This ain't my dream team, but he's the one who showed up.
And yeah, I mentioned cease fire now earlier. Biden is working on that. He tried to negotiate a cease fire. Apparently hamas refused. He's trying to get aid into gaza. Can we stop screaming at the guy for not being 100% pro palestine and not ending this crisis 5 months ago? Seriously? He's doing the best we can. Can we not potentially sink the entire democratic coalition because of this crap? Just my honest opinion.
Honestly, the state of the union isn't strong. Honestly, it feels like the carter years all over again. But if you could go back to 1980 and you are a progressive, and you had a choice between reagan and carter, who would you choose? I'd choose carter. I'd take the honest guy who might not be my ideal president but is the best that we got, over the liar who basically wants to take america down a deep dark path that undermine our goals and move us the other way. That's the kind of choice we got here. Biden aint amazing, but he's better than Trump. And if Trump gets reelected I shudder to think the damage he will inflict on us. It's not JUST his insane policies, or conservative judges, etc., it's also the fact that this dude might undermine democracy itself, meaning we can't even fight in future elections for the things we want. He wants to turn us into an authoritarian one party state like Putin's russia. Don't enable this psycho. Just keep sticking with Biden. For the love of the country, don't elect Donald Trump again.
And that's my own "state of the union". Basically, I'm endorsing Biden for president. Yeah, let's make it official. Sure, I might vote williamson as a virtue signal in the name of my ideals for the primary, but given the primary is already basically over, and we're in de facto general election footing, yeah, I'm backing Biden. He had a good speech tonight, he has a decent agenda. Let's back this guy and get it done and then focus on 2028.
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