So, every time I look in "right wing land" these days and look at their attitudes toward the left, I always have to cringe. The sheer ignorance I see in most opinions is astounding. And these guys really seem to have it out for Joe Biden. "Let's go Brandon" (F Joe Biden) is a hilarious catch phrase of theirs now, and while I have nothing against people hating on Biden (let's face it, I hate on him too), watching right wingers do it is just...no.
Here is a meme that tried to put conservative concerns to paper, and I would like to address these points, to express how stupid conservatism is these days.
1) The point about bank accounts is...idk, somewhat valid? I mean I see what Biden is trying to do, given how much in taxes is lost to poor enforcement of the tax code, but I'm not sure being flagged of each individual transaction is really necessary. Still, if I recall it's only transactions above $600, which is the threshold to make certain kinds of income taxable, so that seems to be what they're doing there.
2) All presidents "bomb children" if we wanna be honest about it, and if anything this is a leftist talking point. Why the right gets so high and mighty about bombing kids when most of the wars that lead to that are initiated by conservatives is kind of hypocritical. Also, Biden got us out of Afghanistan. Just reminding everyone of that.
3) Got Americans and Afghans tortured and killed. Again, who initiated that war? I seem to recall it being a conservative named George W. Bush.
4) Giving terrorists a military...I'm assuming this is pulling out of Afghanistan...but wait, didn't you just bash Biden for bombing people there? So which is it? This is why I hate partisan hackery arguments. Republicans do something, it's good, democrats do the same thing, it's bad. Dems are darned if they do and darned if they don't, because these criticisms aren't based on sincerely held ideology, but on partisanship. Democrats could literally end poverty and cure cancer and these guys would still complain about it. I guarantee it.
5) Fauci never "lied". Fauci changed his mind as the scientific consensus changed. I know right wingers tend to struggle with the idea of knowledge changing in the face of new evidence as they like things to remain the same and get confused at the idea of anything changing, but please try to keep up.
6) Yes, and Cuomo faced a ton of hate for it. And he even resigned for it. No one freaking defends Cuomo any more. And I never liked the guy when he was the hero last year. Because I know the dude was a neoliberal hack who the dems were pumping up to be greater than he was. While democrats deserve some blame for that, yeah, they dropped him.
7) Proven hoax? I don't even know what they're on about. Are they so in denial they don't think that Trump did anything? They think he won? They think just because republicans exonerated him that the whole proceeding was a hoax? What?
8) Supply chain crisis. Yeah, that was due to COVID. COVID happened under Trump btw. Not that I really fully blame him for this aspect of things. Just his handling of the virus and how he killed 500k people, most of which unnecessarily, because he refused to take the proper action to shut things down, and then attacked democrats for daring to do so. And yes, shutting things down created a supply chain crisis, but hey, that was to save lives. Republicans are sociopaths on the economy.
9) Border crisis...yeah he dealt with that. if anything he was too brutal and trumpesque about it. Also didn't trump have to deal with "caravans" coming over during his presidency?
10) Mandates bad. Even though it's to save lives. Something these people don't give a crap about.
11) Due to supply chain issues and other issues related to opening the economy. Imagine having to shut your computer off and turn it back on again only for you to have to deal with annoying issues on the reboot. That's where we are now. Also, inflation, in moderation, is a good thing, and while I think its a little on the high side, I think that the effect its having on the work place is well worth the change. If 5% inflation leads to a 50-100% increase in living standards for working class Americans, I'll freaking take it.
12) Biden is weak on having a lot of plans. My big criticism of him. Still, what do these jokers wanna do instead? They never govern worth a crap anyway.
13) Yeah yeah yeah, culture war stuff. Look, I get it, bourgeois libs be bourgeois libs. Obsessed with culture over substance. The real question is what are you guys, the right, going to do instead? NOTHING. YOU DO NOTHING. YOU HAVE NOTHING.
I don't like Biden. But let's face it, the majority of these talking points are hypocritical partisan hackery with no substance, which I see myself as above, which is why i spend so little time arguing with the right. Every time I do so I feel like I lose brain cells. Because I feel like the amount of time I need to spend going over basic concepts about governance again and again is annoying. Here's a few talking points of my own i think are helpful to understand here.
1) Problems that exist are complex and often have developed over the course of several administrations. Like Afghanistan. Bush did that. We've had 3 presidents since then, including Biden. Biden finally ended it. You can talk about him poorly doing so, but hey at least he did it. Trump wanted to do it too and was partially responsible for how we got out too.
2) Presidents have little impact on the economy. People love to bash the president because economy is doing bad things. No jobs, inflation too high, supply issues, etc. This is actually one of the reasons reagan became so popular. Because there was a lot of inflation and supply issues in the 1970s and the republicans hammered away on that until they got reagan in and then flipped the narrative and hailed in a hero. Didn't help those issues went away during that administration. To Reagan's credit, working with Volcker to crash the economy did end stagflation, but it was carter's idea. Likewise, the issues now did not originate with Biden, but with Trump. And I don't blame Trump. He didn't do much to cause the crises we have now economically. neither did Biden. And Carter didnt cause stagflation. At the same time people get credit for economies more than they deserve. Reagan did some good things but mostly he was hailed as a hero for the wrong reasons. Again, it was the 1982 recession, which was orchestrated by the fed, that was the solution, not tax cuts, not union busting, etc. But conservatives made a tall tale about how Daddy Reagan saved the day. Centrist libs love to go on about how the economy did better under Obama and Clinton but recessions happened under Bush, Bush, and Trump. It was just the way the cycles worked. Economies bottom out every 7-10 years or so, and the president has nothing to do with that.
What I expect from presidents is to respond to economic crises with a progressive agenda. Which the dems fail to do and the GOP doesnt believe in doing. But I dont actually chalk up the health of the economy to presidents mostly.
3) Stuff that's acceptable under GOP presidents becomes bad under liberal ones. it works the other way around too, which is why i hate partisan democrats. They badmouth republicans for torture and economic mishandling of stuff then quietly do the same thing, and then attack the left for criticizing them. We all know it.
4) Republicans hate taking their medicine. Literally at this point. They're literally dying on the hill of being forced to take their medicine. Republicans dont like to be told what to do for any reason even if its for their own good. They're like immature brats in that sense.
But yeah, this is why I hate engaging with the right. Again, I dislike Biden for my own reasons, but I'll never give Biden crap for stuff he isnt responsible for. And I like to see myself as above standard partisan bickering. And yes, I crap on the democrats too. I do it more than the GOP since I at least have a shred of respect for them on a purely intellectual level.
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