Actually criticizing Biden

 So, Breaking Points did a segment on Obama campaigning for Biden, saying how we can't afford to be tired and stay home and we need to vote for Biden even if we aren't happy with him and didn't accomplish all that they set out to do. Now, I would, normally, in principle, agree to some extent. I am willing to give people some credit, understanding that they're not kings or dictators and can't just solve all problems with a magic wand. Obviously there's not just a president, but 535 members of congress too. HOWEVER, let's be honest about the Biden administration and the democratic party. They suck. They could be doing much more, but they can't, they won't, and it's the democrats' fault.

In 2020, and going back in 2016 too, a large proportion of the democratic party didn't want Biden. They wanted Bernie. An even smaller contingent wanting Yang, but let's focus mainly on Bernie because 35% > 2%. So, what did Bernie stand for? Well, he stood for a lot of nice things, many of which i supported. A $15 minimum wage, medicare for all, free college, green new deal, etc. All of these great ideas, that, while not exactly what I would go for if I had my own way, are acceptable proposals that would move America in the right direction. I supported Bernie in 2016 and 2020 for a reason. Because he was the best candidate. And despite me nitpicking and saying I'd rather want a UBI, and blah blah blah, nah, I just went with the platform that seemed acceptable to vote for. Obviously I can compromise that much.

But Biden, he didn't want any of that. Centrist democrats told us it was too pie in the sky. So Biden ran on being a moderate where nothing would fundamentally change. He played footsie with the likes of John kasich and Colin Powell in courting suburbanite right wingers alienated by Trump being a lunatic, and he explicitly chose moderate, centrist proposals. Free college and student debt forgiveness became 2 year community college and maybe some debt forgiveness. Medicare for all became a public option. The green new deal became an infrastructure plan. UBI became a child tax credit, etc. Biden clearly tried to offer mild, moderate proposals to what the progressives in the party wanted, and I found them quite frankly kind of insulting. To me, part platforms are the goal posts. They're the moral document that the party stands for, and what it advocates for. I don't necessarily blame candidates and parties for failing to achieve all of the goals they set out to, but they should set out to do such things. The problem is, the Biden administration set off on these things "half cocked" as the British would say. They weren't fully committed to the ideas. They just threw progressives some bones to make it look like they were trying while grossly underselling the ideas. This essentially forced the discussion to the middle.

So, it worked. Biden won. Narrowly. He won by what amounts to 1% of the vote in the electoral college, which is by the skin of his teeth. I want to emphasize, by my model, Biden ALMOST lost. And it should've never been close, he had like 4-5 points on breathing room in my projections and that got pushed down to 1. The senate, dems underperformed there and barely managed to pick up 50 senators. They only won because they were campaigning on stimulus checks and the like. 

So, The dems won and they took over congress and the presidency. They dont have the ability to pass everything because they dont have the 60 member senate needed to break a filabuster, but they can do 3 reconciliation bills a year. They did the first to push for a stimulus program. It gave people the $1400 checks promised, the bare minimum, and mainly just extended unemployment, which was controversial. Whereas stimulus went to almost everyone, unemployment didn't, creating tension between those who worked and those who didn't, which is one of the reasons the right exploited the idea to push their "no one wants to work any more" rhetoric. It wasn't the case, but it was bad optics and i honestly wish that rather than go through means tested conditional programs, it would've been a universal grant. COVID would have been the best testing ground for UBI, although perhaps in retrospect given conservative bashing of what Biden DID do, it was best it was off the table (ironically it might've given into the worst fears of the right on inflation and work incentives from a correlation is causation in the minds of the ignorant perspective). Still, it was a questionable plan, and the money spent was inadequate to a lot of people, and it's well spent, and gone, and we have little to show for it but the sky not falling for a few months. 

Now we have this $350 billion a year bill. And people are screaming OMG $3.5 trillion despite that being a 10 year number and the military budget being over twice that. And it had the watered down infrastructure bill (not oppposed to that as I'd rather have UBI), it had free community college, it made the child tax credit semi permanent, and it had free childcare. I mean not terrible proposals, but given what people like yang and bernie proposed, again, half measures. But then, we can't even have that. Because of two people. Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema. They shot down the minimum wage when we pushed for that a few months ago. They're chewing down the proposals Biden has here, trying to means test the child tax credit, and axe the free community college, and blah blah blah. And keep in mind, this isn't republicans doing this, this is the DEMOCRATS, during reconciliation. The same people Obama is telling us to vote for.

And let's not forget Biden just abandoned forgiving student loan debt despite being able to do it via executive order, he axed any semblance of a progressive healthcare plan, and yeah, he just abandoned tons of proposals. 

So, Biden starts off chewing us down in the 2020 election. And then other democrats fight to stop the party at large from doing anything to help people. you got manchin fighting to keep the filibuster in place, and to undermine the child tax credit, and infrastructure proposals. And this is the democrats. I know the republicans suck. I could understand the argument to keep voting for democrats, if democrats fought for decent ideas, but they don't, and that's the problem. The democrats keep watering it down and watering it down and making things worse and watering it down. And then they say we have to vote for them. Screw you Obama, no I don't. And I won;t. Maybe you're feeling the same energy you did in 2010 after your base abandoned you after you preached hope and change at them. You feel that the right is angry, they're gonna strike back, and the dems will be annhilated in 2022 and 2024. And you know what? They very well might be. I fully believe if a rematch election were held today, Trump would win by a landslide. Not because Biden is as bad as the GOP says he is, or that Trump is good, but because trump's base is more fired up and the democrats have no enthusiasm. That's the problem democrats have with every election, and why i support running more left wing candidates. You need to keep voters enthused, to keep them voting for you, to keep you in office. You need to do things. And not pull this BS of "no we can't". Stop watering crap down, stop then compromising on said watered down crap, and stop voter shaming when the voters hate your guts as a result.

Democrats dig their own holes here. They could have it all if they freaking got their acts together. but instead they focus on culture war issues (yeah, the GOP meme I posted in the last article about Dave Chappelle had a point), they severely underdeliver on actual progressive legislation, and then they just expect people to support them when they don't do anything of note for them, and act like the most minor watered down scraps or another.

Honestly, this is why I'm no longer a democrat in my heart, but a member of the forward party. This is why before the forward party formed, I voted green. I mean, okay, I can understand, you cant pass every proposal you want in the most extreme forms you want. Fair. But are you gonna at least try to do ANYTHING of note? No, and that's the problem. Democrats don't earn votes. I'm gonna be honest, i rip the democrats so hard for a reason here. I wish I could still be a democrat. I wish the democrats actually represented me and my politics. But they don't. And this isn't because of the big bad republicans. No, the democrats themselves choose political strategies that explicitly alienate voters like me, and then lecture me and talk down to me and tell me I have to support them and blah blah blah. No, I don't. And if the candidate doesn't pass muster, I won't. And if you try to force me, like they did in 2020 when they got Hawkins removed from the ballot, I'll not only write in the candidates I want, I'll also go down the line voting for every single third party candidate I see just to refuse to give the dems satisfaction of forcing me to support them.

Really, I wish that democrats supported real solutions in good faith, and werent constantly sabotaging themselves. Because thats the problem. Biden and other centrists water stuff down, and then the most moderate swing dems then sabotage it further to the point we get nothing. And the dems then voter shame us for not voting for them more despite their own candidates doing this. 

We lost faith in you guys because you don't do anything. With that said, enjoy losing to the GOP again. I would've hoped you would've learned you lesson from the Obama administration, but apparently not. I guess we gotta do this again. Oh well, it is a shame, but hey, you chose this. I've been pushing the dems left since 2014 or so trying to get them to understand that they can't keep going like this and expect to win. They just don't listen. Oh well, they can live with the consequences I guess.