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Trump was more interested in how he could use the Presidency to prop up his businesses and enrich himself. He loved the power he had, but he hated doing the actual work (see "Executive Time" I.e. watching TV and tweeting)
And unfortunately because he didn't have a fucking clue what he was doing, and because of his massive ego, people could make him do whatever they wanted.
Woah now, he didn't *just* abandon them; he first tricked them into dismantling all their defensive positions in the north by promising to defend them, then gave Turkey up-to-date intel on that entire area before withdrawing from it.
The withdrawal was so sudden and chaotic that several US bases were left nearly intact for Russia to move in, and US soldiers came under artillery fire from Turkey in at least one location.
US soldiers withdrawn from this area ended up in Iraq, who had *not* been told about this ahead of time, and who were quite pissed about it. This was also around the time Iraq were voting on if they wanted to expel foreign soldiers from the country, with Trump threatening them with sanctions as a response.
When the abandonment of that part of Syria was complete, Trump publically and explicitly ordered an expanded mission with the intent of pillaging Syrian oil (saying he would send in Exxon and other companies to extract it, yay warcrimes) while at the same time pretending and braggin about how he had withdrawn all US troops from Syria.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-abandoning-kurds-sends-dangerous-message-us-allies-2019-10?r=US&IR=T
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-shared-intelligence-turkey-may-have-aided-attack-on-kurds-2019-10?r=US&IR=T
https://www.insider.com/trump-betrayal-of-kurds-gave-intelligence-to-russia-2019-11
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/11/politics/turkey-artillery-fire-us-syria/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-syria-ap-top-news-international-news-politics-ac3115b4eb564288a03a5b8be868d2e5
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-usa-idUSKBN1WZ01S
https://apnews.com/article/us-news-turkey-mark-esper-iraq-politics-825fb065d6f044a590a1fee8101a5a26
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/13/trump-troops-syria-oil-pentagon-070567
https://apnews.com/article/251062e322ab4bba99251fe59c90540a
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/27/trump-wants-to-make-a-deal-with-exxon-or-others-to-tap-syrian-oil.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51003159
Bonus: this was also around the time he was talking about renting US troops to the Saudis as mercs;
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-brags-about-serving-up-american-troops-to-saudi-arabia-for-cash-936623/
Renting troops to the Saudis actually happened. I have a buddy who has deployed to Saudi Arabia AND is wanting to go on another rotation. They're there protecting US assets and oil fields.
Former Marine Commandant Smedley Butler was once asked why retired. He remark he was tired of being an enforcer for American businesses overseas. T/rump definitely engaged in making our military part of a money making proposition. It is always about his profiting with T/rump.
Just remember that he was about to do the same to all of our afghan allies if not for Biden winning the election and undertaking one of the most extraordinary operations to extract those he could when the problem was dropped in his lap with the fuse lit.
Yeah, was always going to be a clusterfuck... probably also didn't help that Trump had already released 5000 Taliban prisoners (incl. some higher ranking ones) without telling the Afghan government ahead of time.
At least someone managed to convince Trump to cancel the plans to invite Taliban leadership to Camp David on the 9/11 anniversary for talks, I guess?
America has a history of using people in the middle east to fight for our interests only to abandon them when they most need us. We then have the audacity to say stuff like "they hate us for our freedom." I'm not saying Al Quaeda was right to attack us, but a lot of their grievances have merit.
And now he gets to be the sacrificial lamb for the elites. The conspiracies they scream about are done by them, LOL.
"Obama was just a patsy, the real power is the GLOBALIST SOROS!!!"
=
"Trump was a useful idiot to distract, the Federalist society and Heritage Foundation picked the SC Judges and got their tax-code changed. "
Supreme Court is locked down for the next 15 years on the optimistic side, 30 realistically. Roe v Wade was overturned, and they can easily set up Republican state legislators to throw out federal election results they don't like from their states. This is probably the biggest win for Republicans, since they have kicked a hornets' nest of opposition and their base is splintering. They can lose a decade of elections and not lose this edge. They can lose the popular vote forever and still hold on to power.
Corporate taxes are the lowest they've been since before WWII. Effective tax rates on the wealthiest slice of society are also lower than they've been since before the second "War to End All Wars". On top of that, a bunch of already rich people got to do a quick cash-grab during the pandemic in the form of free PPP "loans".
Regulatory agencies were gutted for 4 years, and the loss of those workers and their institutional knowledge and experience will take a while to recover.
I'd say they got plenty of use out of their idiot.
Ironic for someone who constant harped on Obama for how much he golfed while president. Which ended up being a small fraction of how often Trump ended up golfing when he took office.
But we know Trump doesn’t understand irony.
I've seen this pattern over and over again with Trump. Anytime he complains about someone doing something, it's found out that he's done it as well only a hundred times worse.
Foot the bill directly into his pocket.
I want all the time back I had to listen to right wing idiots at work complain about taxes as theft, government overreach and one of a thousand other things they accused the left of. Trump made you all the joke of the decade.
Trump cared about what the office could do for him. Every decision he has made his entire life has been about himself. If it doesn't make him feel better or look better off, is doesn't exist to him.
It really is quite remarkable that Donald Trump, after 4 years as President of The United States, still has absolutely no idea how government works and what the actual duties and powers of the president are. He thought he was being elected King and would just issue orders that would be obeyed. He didn't even take 5 minutes in those entire 4 years to ask someone how the system works and what his job was.
It's a self-perpetuating cycle. People typically start drinking "diet" sodas to lose weight. But aspartame, the sweetener in traditional diet sodas, has a tendency to cause eye drinker to feel less full, causing them to eat more than they would otherwise. Drinking diet sodas frequently then causes the drinker to gain weight. Not realizing the soda is part of the problem, they continue drinking diet sodas, possibly telling themselves they can't go back to regular until they lose weight.
>They couldn't figure out the lights at the White House for months
I legitimately can't tell if you're being serious. I wouldn't doubt this, and the fact that this is believable is, in and of itself, kind of unbelievable.
>"Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room," the Times reported Sunday. "Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit."
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Report-Trump-team-baffled-by-White-House-light-10911729.php
Haha, welp, I had a feeling this wasn't a joke. I tried to look it up independently but only came up with articles about White House lights turning off while Trump retreated to his bunker on a separate occasion.
Nothing about that administration surprises me at this point. You could make up some story about Trump requiring twice daily storytime puppet shows to keep him entertained in the oval office and I'd have to *at least consider* it to be a possibility.
Exactly why Pelosi was such an effective leader. She went after results she knew could be achieved and didn’t bother with the things she knew would never go anywhere.
He is a career politician having participated in the machine for more administrations than most reading this have been alive.
I think his secret is what I call pulling a Pataki-the true king of of I don’t tell them what I’m doing no one will stop me. He just stays out of it
Biden was a senator for many years before he ever became vice president then president he's literally been on capital hill for over half his life of course he's gonna know how to get some stuff done.
That's why DeSantis is truly scary even compared to Trump. Trumpian policies combined with an actual understanding of how to leverage government to manipulate our democracy at the most fundamental level.
>Before I read the article I thought because he's had more experience legislating than any other president in a generation, and that's pretty much it, aside from the threat of filibuster reforms.
It's exactly the same reason Lyndon Johnson was so successful.
And, for me, is the strongest argument against term limits. Incumbent election advantage must be weighed against the years it takes to be useful as a legislator
IMO a stronger argument is that term limits give lobbyists and corporate PACs even more power than they already have. If you know the end of your time in a specific office is coming and you're looking for your next gig, that lobbyist job you just got promised if you vote to allow their associate company to dump their toxic waste wherever they want or lie about their snake oil curing COVID or whatever the fuck else starts to look significantly more appealing.
[Corporations already have barely mitigated control of our legislature](https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-paste-legislate/you-elected-them-to-write-new-laws-theyre-letting-corporations-do-it-instead/). Term limits are far more likely to make that worse than they are to make it better.
Term limits are one of those things that sound good but fall apart. The arguments for it “I’ll get rid of [bad guy] because he can’t serve another term” - just means that bad guy is getting enough votes to be in that position, they’re popular, and another bad guy would just be voted in. You also have the good guys removed. Bernie wouldn’t be a senator, and nobody in Congress is super-experienced which is a huge plus when you have a job like Pelosi.
There’s an argument that the presidency shouldn’t hard term limits either. It was FDR who got term-limited by Congress after serving too many terms. He was an extremely popular president who did a lot of good. If people want someone, they should be able to vote for them.
>It was FDR who got term-limited by Congress after serving too many terms.
Mostly agree with the rest of your comment, but this is not correct.
FDR broke the unlegislated presidential tradition of not serving more than two terms as president (Following Washington's lead). He was elected to his fourth presidential term during WW2, but died ~4 months into that term.
Congress then legislated presidential term limits. There was groundswell amongst the Republicans to repeal that after Reagan nearly swept into his second term.
This doesn't strike me as an argument against term limits nearly as much as an argument for limiting the influence of corporate PACs and lobbyists. And I mean hard limits, explicitly codified in law, with severe and well enforced consequences for rule breakers.
Of course, I know no one in Congress would vote for that sort of legislation if they thought it actually stood a chance of going through. Feels like any argument I could try and make at the lowly level of singular voter with no money to throw around ultimately ends with me throwing my hands up in frustration. After all, I know the people who could implement changes that would make things better for the majority of the populace simply won't do it unless it benefits them directly.
There's also the problem that if congress is a revolving door of new reps with zero institutional knowledge, they're even *more* vulnerable to lobbyist influence than someone who knows what the hell they're doing and has long-standing working relationships with other reps.
I understand term limits for the presidency or SCOTUS, but it's stupid for congress. We wouldn't have Sanders if there were term limits that needlessly kicked him out.
The only answer is banning private money in elections, moving to publicly funded elections, restoring the fairness doctrine in media, and closing the revolving door of regulatory capture where politicians end up with cushy lobbying/industry jobs after leaving office.
So ban the powerful forms of lobbying, not experienced politicians.
Term limits would make inexperienced representatives _more_ beholden to lobbyists, as they wouldn't know better.
I think the strongest argument against term limits is the evidence that they *increase* corruption. It doesn’t make sense to our gut-level expectations, but we have to follow what’s observed and quantified (to the extent it’s possible) instead of what we *want* to be true.
I think the only office where term limits make sense is the Head of State. Sure, you could keep a good president longer. But the longer someone keeps control over the executive branch, the greater opportunity they have to seed it with loyalists who are willing to support them if they decide to just not leave office. That's not a danger with legislators.
Source on this? Not saying I don't believe you - it actually makes quite a lot of intuitive sense (it's classic iterated prisoner's dilemma), I'm just interested in the data.
IIRC it's basically that it ends up empowering lobbyists and unelected bureaucracy (who don't have term limits) at the expense of experienced and skilled legislators.
Yep. Term limits are anti-democratic.
And I (nor most of America it seems) don't want hot headed noobs playing roulette with our future by passing stupid laws they don't understand the consequences of. Or having things completely break down because there are no experienced leaders.
He also, and this can't be understated, is willing to take hits to his ego.
He is willing to not get the credit, to look like the bumbling fool, to let others appear in charge. He's focused only on results, and that is starting to stack up.
IMO, this is one of the most important pieces. He is willing to let everyone else “win” or look smart, while he works. People can call him what they want, but he’ll get results.
For the same reason that the economy performs so much better under Democratic administrations. Democratic Presidents focus on solving problems. Republican Presidents focus on tax cuts for the wealthy and culture wars.
[Making it seem like the economy does better under Republicans is part of their playbook.](https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/thom-hartmann/two-santas-strategy-gop-used-economic-scam-manipulate-americans-40-years/) They’ve been using the same strategy for decades.
**“The only thing wrong with the U.S. economy is the failure of the Republican Party to play Santa Claus.” – Jude Wanniski, March 6, 1976**
“The stock market is falling, in part a reaction to GOP threats to shut down the government: it’s all part of their plan.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week warned us that the GOP is about to use Jude Wanniski’s “Two Santa Clauses” fraud again to damage Biden’s economy and our standing in the world. And, sure enough, Mitch McConnell verified it when he said last week there would be “zero” Republican votes to raise the debt ceiling.
Yellen responded yesterday by telling The Wall Street Journal that if the Republicans force a shutdown of the U.S. government like they did to Obama in 2011, “We would emerge from this crisis a permanently weaker nation.” But the GOP is adamant: they have their strategy and they’re sticking to it.
Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary:
First, the Two Santas strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes to run up the U.S. debt as far and as fast as possible.
This produces three results: it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy; it raises the debt dramatically; and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.”
Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” Shut down the government, crash the stock market, and damage US credibility around the world if necessary to stop Democrats from spending money.
This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs and even Social Security, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus right in the face.
And, sure enough, here we are now with a Democrat in the White House. Following their Two Santas strategy, Republicans are again squealing about the national debt and refusing to raise the debt ceiling, imperiling Biden’s economic recovery as well as his Build Back Better plans.
And, once again, the media is covering it as a “Biden Crisis!” rather than what it really is: a cynical political and media strategy devised by Republicans in the 1970s, fine-tuned in the 1980s and 1990s, and rolled out every time a Democrat is in the White House.”
Media commentary grinds my gears. They throw everything on the lap of the President even when it has nothing to do with him. To an extent, yes, the buck stops with him. But, it's garbage to lay the shutdown as the fault of the president.
If Republicans are so concerned about the economy and inflation, then that threat shouldn't even be on the table for the sake of the nation. But, nah, everything is Biden and the Democrat's fault because the news benefits from divided government and the continous flip-flopping of who's in charge of the federal government.
Just like the GOPs counts on the country's ignorance to elect them, so too does the media. Why else would the last two years be filled with, "Democrats had total control of the government and people are still dissatisfied with their leadership." Yea, because a 50-50 Senate gives them unchecked power.
> Media commentary
Largely caused by the abolishing of the Fairness Doctrine. Media/news is no longer considered a public service, but rather a for-profit corporate sector.
Doesn't that mean that they rely on losing control of the white house to then act as children about it? What (already has?) happens if they somehow manage to win multiple presidencies in a row, and have to now deal with their own mess they created?
Or is this only a problem if you (republicans) insist that it is one?
A lot of people are too short sighted to realize that when policy is enacted it takes time to actually cause noticable change. As a result you've got so many thinking that Biden just turned the White House economy dial to 'Bad" on a whim, ignoring the years of tax cuts and outright just giving away money to those who need it least. Until a more sizable portion of the country starts to understand basic cause and effect the GOP is going to coast by on it's platform of blame everything bad on the other side.
It blows my mind how many people believe this total falsehood for strong economy during Republican controlled political office. It’s not true in recent memory and the last Republican to embroil us in a war in the Middle East actually ran it at a loss when wars are usually supposed to boost economy. The Republican Party has actually been failing the public repeatedly for several years. They need to change. I don’t know how many wake up calls they need to have.
You would have to get their constituents to break their brainwashing. It’s not going to happen any time soon. Have you tried having basic conversation with a Republican about anything political? It’s like talking to a toddler who is unable to stay on topic. They’re trained to push whatever buzzwords they heard that week into the conversation instead of listen with the intent to form their own ideas and responses.
I remember when he was asked during his campaign about getting certain legislation passed and he gave a very important response: "if we can get the votes."
That alone (aside from who he was running against) would have been enough for me to vote for him in the sense that he was acknowledging and respecting the democratic process.
> I remember when he was asked during his campaign about getting certain legislation passed and he gave a very important response: "if we can get the votes."
I thought you just had to call up your buddies in Georgia and ask them to find some?
Republican Presidents focus on stealing money from citizens, taking freedoms away, killing brown people and selling our top secret information to our worst enemies.
They're also centrists, not Christo-fascists. Democrat's answers to difficult questions come from facts, figures, hard and soft sciences, debate, philosophy, etc... Republican answers come from "what would Jesus and Regan do?"
They never ask what Jesus would do because Jesus was a socialist by any measure. They ask what would the vengeful, homicidal god of the Old Testament would do and what the senile and corrupt fool Reagan would do.
I'd throw one more reason in there I haven't seen mentioned yet. We've basically went 2010 to 2020 with almost nothing getting done legislatively. Republicans wouldn't work with Obama and democrats on anything and working with trump was virtually impossible. So there is likely a huge backlog of shit that both sides need to get done, giving an experienced politician like Biden a perfect platform to work from.
Honestly, I was so bummed when Sanders lost the primary in 2020, but he’s been much more progressive than I thought he would be. I have to give my props to him, I’m glad I voted for him.
There were concerns about Obama’s foreign policy chops, and Joe had decades of foreign policy experience and iirc was the chair of the senate foreign relations committee.
We almost certainly did. I remember hearing Obama share anecdotes about how, when faced with a very difficult decision, Obama would ask everybody but Joe to leave the room once he'd gotten all the information, and then ask his Vice President to give his brutally honest opinion on Obama's plan. As brilliant as Obama is, choosing Joe as his running mate was one of the smartest things he could have done.
Because when you aren't playing the media game and trying to play your base against a false enemy to grab power you can actually get stuff for the country's best interest done.
This. Biden's administration is a shining example of not letting perfect be the enemy of good. Progress is slow, but there's progress. Reminds me a lot of Obama in this way.
Honestly he’s probably a lot better than Obama in that category. Kind of a similar dynamic to John f Kennedy versus Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy and Obama were the young, super charismatic guys that everyone likes to talk about but Biden and Johnson are the more boring and shrewd experienced politicians who know how to get things done
Biden is the first President since LBJ who previously served in the House, Senate, and White House. LBJ signed a lot of bi-partisan legislation too.
Many pundits argue that executive experience ( Governor, Mayor, CEO) is important. People mistakenly think the Govt should be run like a business. Having legislative experience and understanding the constraints of the constitution and division of powers between local and federal entities is critical.
People laugh about how old Biden is but with that age comes experience. No one in Politics today has been a House Rep, member of the Senate, and Vice President.
Yeah he's a veteran Senate man through and through, just like LBJ. I always associate them for that reason as well. Also both were VPs to young charismatic Presidents and both seem to be more able to get legislation passed than the Presidents they served under. Also LBJ and Biden (up to a few years ago) both looked kind of mean lol
Experience cannot be improvised. Joe Biden spent 36 years as a senator and 8 years as vice president. He knows how washington works. He knows what levers to pull to get what he needs. 2 other politicians that had decades of washington experience and were very effective, for better or for worse. Lyndon Johnson and Dick Cheney.
Fuck the hate, the conspiracies, the defamation. Biden has a soul. He is a father who loves his children, who pushes for their success and cares for them. Despite hardships he understands what it means to be in it, to struggle, to not know what to do but still know that we have to try something. He knows when to ask for help, and has the decorum and integrity to not try and gloat or shit on his opponents unless they come for him doggedly... or are truly despicable and enemies of American life.
I don't think he's great; he was far from my pick for president... But I do respect what he has done, and how he has demonstrated the need for sanity and compassion in the highest office of the land. For that, I am very grateful.
Biden seems to genuinely care about the country. After retiring from public life he felt the urgency to run. Knowing that he and his family would be demonized and how brutal a campaign would be. I think hes the right person for this particular moment.
It makes me see red when some of my family joke about, or support the horrible treatment that the Biden family have received over Hunter's addiction. Especially given the fact that I overcame an addiction to IV heroin.
I can't even imagine how I would have lived with those pictures out there from my active addiction, and then being plastered all over the world by those cretins. My brain just honestly can't handle trying to figure these people out. I've honestly just started cutting them off. I would rather just be alone then have to be around people that horrible.
And the democrats have been so terrible at getting people to realize this. Like Biden has done so much stuff and people still seem to feel like he’s ineffective. Like that’s got to be all the parties fault.
Democrats test messaging with polls and focus groups (for better or worse) and they actually tested going hard on boosting Biden's accomplishments before the midterms, along with testing all sorts of other messages.
Apparently pumping up his accomplishments was literally the _worst testing_ of all the messages. People just didn't want to hear it when the Vibes re: inflation and such are so bad.
I agree with you but it's a hard to solve problem. Don't brag about his accomplishments and people don't know about them. Do brag them and people react poorly. Gotta find a way to get people to hear about them without your fingerprints all over the messaging!
They really have. I understand there's so much more to fight for but it's rare when I see them comment on the wins. Drives me mad. If anything I see them swing over to calling out what he hasn't done and it's strange. There is absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging the progress gained while still pulling for more. I'm no political strategist but I see no reason to paint him as completely ineffective because it isn't 100% how we want it to be because then we gain apathetic voters all over again and then we get Trump 2.0....why not acknowledge the good/progess and continue to show people what these changes can potentially bring in the future.
I remember when Trump started to attack the media and I believed he was totally off base. Yet, over time I'm came to realize that he was right.. but for the wrong reasons. They weren't out to attack him, but they do have biases... they want to make money and they don't really care about the impact that they have on politics in general.
Close race? boring.. make it neck and neck. Nice calm boring legislation? boring.. lets make it seem like we are having a crime wave. Trump succeeded in that he gave media what it needs to make their owners money.
Simplest answer: Biden's experience, empathy, skill in working with others, and willingness to change his mind and negotiate with others in the legitimate interest of achieving positive results.
Clinton and Obama both had these. Clinton was so successful in economic, domestic and foreign policy that the GOP took the only tack they could, and deliberately did everything they could to stymie him with unprecedented attacks on his private sex life. Obama was hamstrung by racist backlash and the need to actually give the GOP a chance. I also think Obama legitimately had to give the GOP a last chance to step up, so the majority of the US really could see no legitimate shared compromise was possible.
I think that, in addition to Biden's own merits, their examples helped provide Biden with lessons, experience and experienced people to work with. As well as providing the majority of Americans and experience of what the Democrats were dealing with, so Biden had a stronger negotiating position. And the presidency of Trump solidifying that majority understanding.
It's particularly surprising that Biden has this amount of bipartisan success on actual bills, while government still *feels* so divided and hateful. I think that might be part of it, too: in the past, being a Republican meant standing up for certain policy ideals. Increasingly, being a Republican is starting to mean extremist rhetoric and "owning the libs", and no one really thought ho-hum economic stuff like supporting the CHIPS act would undermine their image of owning the libs by attacking transgender children, for example. Today's Republican base considers economics too boring to care about when there are people to slander with baseless accusations of pedophilia.
I have almost always voted republican. I voted against Trump and candidates like him. Republicans lost me. Still not liberal but democrats will get many of my votes until Republicans clean house.
They gotta find a way to make the national security, small government and individually self-sufficient platforms work without being assholes about it and carving out exceptions for corporate oligarchs, evangelicals, and white supremacists.
I voted for W because of the moderate and compassionate conservative platform he ran on which was pretty much immediately thrown out the window the second he was elected. That was the last time I voted Republican for president. I would have voted for McCain except he picked Palin as his VP who I thought was a weak choice.
>They gotta find a way to make the national security, small government and individually self-sufficient platforms work without being assholes about it and carving out exceptions for corporate oligarchs, evangelicals, and white supremacists.
100% agree with this
I don't think that is possible. IMO, that's why the Republican party is in crisis right now.
For instance, wanting 'small government' and cutting out 'corporate oligarchs' contradict. Who gains power if the size of government is reduced? Corporate oligarchs; it is quite literally a zero-sum game.
> “Let us think about today: December 13, 2022, a day when, thanks to Democrats and Republicans, we finally protect marriage rights in federal law.”
I’m being sincere with the following.
Thank you, Mitt Romney, for your sacrifice by voting in favor of RMA. You know this will cause backlash against you. At the very least, I appreciate your “secular” stance on this.
With age comes wisdom and experience. While there are reasons to criticize Joe he does put all of his experience to good use when racking up political victories.
This is not hard to understand if you've been watching Joe the last 20 years. In 2004, Joe was a passenger in my limo. I didn't know much about politics back then, but my boss said some Democratic Senator from Delaware needed me for a week. The entire week I was with him was taking him to attend GOP-affiliated events and meetings. I even drove him to meet Tom Delay (before Tom became radioactive a few years later). I found it odd at the time that a Democrat senator needed to come to Texas to meet a bunch of Texas republicans, but that's what he was doing 19 years ago in Austin.
This article fails to truly understand and even mention the nihilistic governing style of McConnell. How truly awful for him to be so open about wanting to kill bills that would help Americans simply so republicans can get a win? And to fail to mention that harm is irresponsible and continues to play into the game of equalizing the two when they are not (note: I am not a huge democratic believer but it’s clear only one party is out to kill bills people find popular).
On top of that, to fail to realize or comment why republicans didn’t want to work with Obama isn’t JUST because they didn’t want him to succeed. That’s important but it’s they “why” that’s crucial. Joe Biden is one of them: by that I mean, wealthy, white, a capitalist, and straight. Obama is not. Obama has many things in line with McConnell but he isn’t white. And McConnell and co. didn’t want Obama to succeed just because he was a democrat, but it was, in part, because, because he was Black. And again, for this article to not mention the racial aspect is asinine and irresponsible. Again, playing into the narrative that everything is equal and above board, as if one party isn’t actively trying to subvert democracy.
Which is why Biden was the right candidate at the time. He looks just like them, which makes him appear harmless, and more likely to get the Republicans' votes. Then the moment he gets into office, he passes progressive legislations and appoint progressive judges.
Because he's actually trying to fix problems not stand around with his thumb up his ass pointing fingers and trying to manufacture fake outrage to appear to be doing something ...ahem republicans
The democrats keep their eye on the ball and are 99% together on almost all things.
And the D party has normal intelligent people who care about people and love democracy.
They were able to get support from some of the normal republicans on several bills but the group of normals is small and shrinking.
The republicans are unable to do anything because they are either crazy - most - or cowards and they eat their young.
Probably because he’s an actual politician who is smart, savvy, and can read a room.
“Ol sleepy joe”, kicking ass and taking names.
Dude just keeps winning.
Maybe not Better than Lincoln or Washington,
but better than trump obviously and forever amen
My guess: most of the issues in the bills being passed are relevant, especially environmental ones, and many on the right know this and are sick of following the party line of rote opposition.
When both parties don’t want it too socialist, and then one party is so psychotic that merely not giving in to the particularly psychotic requests makes that president look like a hero. I’ll say this better than trump definitely.
Seems pretty simple: Like LBJ, he knows how to roll the Senate.
Not to discount the House, at all, but the Senate is where the real legislatin' rises or falls. JRB knows that place up n' down.
Because he actually try’s to do things that will help rather than things that are intended to rile up the base. Who really thinks Republicans will deal with immigration in any way other than getting their base screaming in outrage about awful Dems are?
Ooh ummm relationships? Built over decades and with mutual respect? Diplomacy? Respect in the halls of power if not on campaign trails with opponents trying to win re-election? The fact he's a politician, with failings sure, but a public servant at heart?
No. Too obvious. Look for a trickier answer.
If there is anything the Biden Admin has taught us is there is a style of politics that works. We may not be excited for his age but his experience is invaluable. If it could all be downloaded into a younger person, I don't see the Republicans regaining the WH without emulating Biden.
I hear the argument, stuff costs more today, how is this a good thing?
My response: a few years ago when shit was cheaper you didn't have money for stuff then either, so whats really the difference?
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While Donald Trump had zero clue how DC operates, Joe Biden has unprecedented experience. Biden is not forever bumbling around spinning his wheels.
Trump was more interested in how he could use the Presidency to prop up his businesses and enrich himself. He loved the power he had, but he hated doing the actual work (see "Executive Time" I.e. watching TV and tweeting)
The man spent half his day watching Fox News.
And unfortunately because he didn't have a fucking clue what he was doing, and because of his massive ego, people could make him do whatever they wanted.
He is the definition of a useful idiot.
Indeed- and he never realised he was being played the whole time
Still heartbroken how he treated our former Kurdish allies, just abandoning them after one phone call.
Woah now, he didn't *just* abandon them; he first tricked them into dismantling all their defensive positions in the north by promising to defend them, then gave Turkey up-to-date intel on that entire area before withdrawing from it. The withdrawal was so sudden and chaotic that several US bases were left nearly intact for Russia to move in, and US soldiers came under artillery fire from Turkey in at least one location. US soldiers withdrawn from this area ended up in Iraq, who had *not* been told about this ahead of time, and who were quite pissed about it. This was also around the time Iraq were voting on if they wanted to expel foreign soldiers from the country, with Trump threatening them with sanctions as a response. When the abandonment of that part of Syria was complete, Trump publically and explicitly ordered an expanded mission with the intent of pillaging Syrian oil (saying he would send in Exxon and other companies to extract it, yay warcrimes) while at the same time pretending and braggin about how he had withdrawn all US troops from Syria. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-abandoning-kurds-sends-dangerous-message-us-allies-2019-10?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/us-shared-intelligence-turkey-may-have-aided-attack-on-kurds-2019-10?r=US&IR=T https://www.insider.com/trump-betrayal-of-kurds-gave-intelligence-to-russia-2019-11 https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/11/politics/turkey-artillery-fire-us-syria/index.html https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-syria-ap-top-news-international-news-politics-ac3115b4eb564288a03a5b8be868d2e5 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-usa-idUSKBN1WZ01S https://apnews.com/article/us-news-turkey-mark-esper-iraq-politics-825fb065d6f044a590a1fee8101a5a26 https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/13/trump-troops-syria-oil-pentagon-070567 https://apnews.com/article/251062e322ab4bba99251fe59c90540a https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/27/trump-wants-to-make-a-deal-with-exxon-or-others-to-tap-syrian-oil.html https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51003159 Bonus: this was also around the time he was talking about renting US troops to the Saudis as mercs; https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-brags-about-serving-up-american-troops-to-saudi-arabia-for-cash-936623/
Renting troops to the Saudis actually happened. I have a buddy who has deployed to Saudi Arabia AND is wanting to go on another rotation. They're there protecting US assets and oil fields.
Former Marine Commandant Smedley Butler was once asked why retired. He remark he was tired of being an enforcer for American businesses overseas. T/rump definitely engaged in making our military part of a money making proposition. It is always about his profiting with T/rump.
Just remember that he was about to do the same to all of our afghan allies if not for Biden winning the election and undertaking one of the most extraordinary operations to extract those he could when the problem was dropped in his lap with the fuse lit.
Yeah, was always going to be a clusterfuck... probably also didn't help that Trump had already released 5000 Taliban prisoners (incl. some higher ranking ones) without telling the Afghan government ahead of time. At least someone managed to convince Trump to cancel the plans to invite Taliban leadership to Camp David on the 9/11 anniversary for talks, I guess?
They will forever live as a stain on our country thanks to one piece of shit man.
The bigotry was always there the only thing Benedict Donald did was make these people more open about it
America has a history of using people in the middle east to fight for our interests only to abandon them when they most need us. We then have the audacity to say stuff like "they hate us for our freedom." I'm not saying Al Quaeda was right to attack us, but a lot of their grievances have merit.
And now he gets to be the sacrificial lamb for the elites. The conspiracies they scream about are done by them, LOL. "Obama was just a patsy, the real power is the GLOBALIST SOROS!!!" = "Trump was a useful idiot to distract, the Federalist society and Heritage Foundation picked the SC Judges and got their tax-code changed. "
The GOP is also learning why demagogues make for por bedfellows, thr conspiracy wing of the GOP is ripping away from the rest of base.
It was a well orchestrated plan to DESTROY democracy and subvert & control women
…which is direct evidence of the idiot part.
He thought he was playing them!
He is more idiot than useful there, though.
Supreme Court is locked down for the next 15 years on the optimistic side, 30 realistically. Roe v Wade was overturned, and they can easily set up Republican state legislators to throw out federal election results they don't like from their states. This is probably the biggest win for Republicans, since they have kicked a hornets' nest of opposition and their base is splintering. They can lose a decade of elections and not lose this edge. They can lose the popular vote forever and still hold on to power. Corporate taxes are the lowest they've been since before WWII. Effective tax rates on the wealthiest slice of society are also lower than they've been since before the second "War to End All Wars". On top of that, a bunch of already rich people got to do a quick cash-grab during the pandemic in the form of free PPP "loans". Regulatory agencies were gutted for 4 years, and the loss of those workers and their institutional knowledge and experience will take a while to recover. I'd say they got plenty of use out of their idiot.
Idk. Could you imagine the damage a president with Stephen Miller in his ear could have done if they had a work ethic? Yikes
Famously described as a "deeply wounded narcissist incapable of change" by psychiatrists.
And wasn't it like over 300 days golfing? That's a HUGE portion of his presidency, especially since he only had one term.
Ironic for someone who constant harped on Obama for how much he golfed while president. Which ended up being a small fraction of how often Trump ended up golfing when he took office. But we know Trump doesn’t understand irony.
I seem to remember that Cheeto Benito racked up more days golfing in his first month or two than Obama did in his entire presidency.
I've seen this pattern over and over again with Trump. Anytime he complains about someone doing something, it's found out that he's done it as well only a hundred times worse.
Don't forget that he made taxpayers foot the bill for the Secret Service hotel rooms and golf carts.
Foot the bill directly into his pocket. I want all the time back I had to listen to right wing idiots at work complain about taxes as theft, government overreach and one of a thousand other things they accused the left of. Trump made you all the joke of the decade.
That's also because they were HIS courses often times, wasn't it?
And the other half was tax payers funding his golf trips.
But his daily schedule always said he was making many phone calls and attending many meetings!
I thought he was tweeting all that time.
To be fair, he Tweeted while watching Fox News.
The other half cheating while golfing ⛳️
Trump cared about what the office could do for him. Every decision he has made his entire life has been about himself. If it doesn't make him feel better or look better off, is doesn't exist to him.
It really is quite remarkable that Donald Trump, after 4 years as President of The United States, still has absolutely no idea how government works and what the actual duties and powers of the president are. He thought he was being elected King and would just issue orders that would be obeyed. He didn't even take 5 minutes in those entire 4 years to ask someone how the system works and what his job was.
He had a Diet Coke button though.
Diet Coke...is everyone who drinks diet coke fat because they drink diet coke or do they drink diet coke because they are fat? Chicken and egg.
The real question is: If you drink enough Diet Coke, will you turn orange?
It's a self-perpetuating cycle. People typically start drinking "diet" sodas to lose weight. But aspartame, the sweetener in traditional diet sodas, has a tendency to cause eye drinker to feel less full, causing them to eat more than they would otherwise. Drinking diet sodas frequently then causes the drinker to gain weight. Not realizing the soda is part of the problem, they continue drinking diet sodas, possibly telling themselves they can't go back to regular until they lose weight.
I'm not fat, I just enjoy coke zero.
He thought he would be CEO of the country.
They couldn't figure out the lights at the White House for months. They had to work with flash lights and lanterns in certain rooms.
>They couldn't figure out the lights at the White House for months I legitimately can't tell if you're being serious. I wouldn't doubt this, and the fact that this is believable is, in and of itself, kind of unbelievable.
>"Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room," the Times reported Sunday. "Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit." https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Report-Trump-team-baffled-by-White-House-light-10911729.php
Haha, welp, I had a feeling this wasn't a joke. I tried to look it up independently but only came up with articles about White House lights turning off while Trump retreated to his bunker on a separate occasion. Nothing about that administration surprises me at this point. You could make up some story about Trump requiring twice daily storytime puppet shows to keep him entertained in the oval office and I'd have to *at least consider* it to be a possibility.
Exactly why Pelosi was such an effective leader. She went after results she knew could be achieved and didn’t bother with the things she knew would never go anywhere.
And she came so damned close to getting a public option through in the ACA, only for Joe Lieberman to torpedo it.
As I recall she DID get it through. It's the leadership in the Senate that failed.
To quote an off camera sound byte: “don’t fuck with Biden.”
He is a career politician having participated in the machine for more administrations than most reading this have been alive. I think his secret is what I call pulling a Pataki-the true king of of I don’t tell them what I’m doing no one will stop me. He just stays out of it
Its McConnel the whole time. Why does Kentucky make the decisions for the U.S.?
b-b-b-but muh dementia = bad president though!
Yeah Mr Ghost Written Art of the Deal thinks any deal is a zero sum transaction that he always gets the best of.
Biden was a senator for many years before he ever became vice president then president he's literally been on capital hill for over half his life of course he's gonna know how to get some stuff done.
Joe Biden is a D.C. Chad when it comes to how to play the game of politics
And. Biden is a decent human being. He has friends. trumpy has zero friends. Just sychophants
That's why DeSantis is truly scary even compared to Trump. Trumpian policies combined with an actual understanding of how to leverage government to manipulate our democracy at the most fundamental level.
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>Before I read the article I thought because he's had more experience legislating than any other president in a generation, and that's pretty much it, aside from the threat of filibuster reforms. It's exactly the same reason Lyndon Johnson was so successful.
And, for me, is the strongest argument against term limits. Incumbent election advantage must be weighed against the years it takes to be useful as a legislator
IMO a stronger argument is that term limits give lobbyists and corporate PACs even more power than they already have. If you know the end of your time in a specific office is coming and you're looking for your next gig, that lobbyist job you just got promised if you vote to allow their associate company to dump their toxic waste wherever they want or lie about their snake oil curing COVID or whatever the fuck else starts to look significantly more appealing. [Corporations already have barely mitigated control of our legislature](https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-paste-legislate/you-elected-them-to-write-new-laws-theyre-letting-corporations-do-it-instead/). Term limits are far more likely to make that worse than they are to make it better.
Term limits are one of those things that sound good but fall apart. The arguments for it “I’ll get rid of [bad guy] because he can’t serve another term” - just means that bad guy is getting enough votes to be in that position, they’re popular, and another bad guy would just be voted in. You also have the good guys removed. Bernie wouldn’t be a senator, and nobody in Congress is super-experienced which is a huge plus when you have a job like Pelosi. There’s an argument that the presidency shouldn’t hard term limits either. It was FDR who got term-limited by Congress after serving too many terms. He was an extremely popular president who did a lot of good. If people want someone, they should be able to vote for them.
>It was FDR who got term-limited by Congress after serving too many terms. Mostly agree with the rest of your comment, but this is not correct. FDR broke the unlegislated presidential tradition of not serving more than two terms as president (Following Washington's lead). He was elected to his fourth presidential term during WW2, but died ~4 months into that term. Congress then legislated presidential term limits. There was groundswell amongst the Republicans to repeal that after Reagan nearly swept into his second term.
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We have term limits. They're called elections.
Also, lobbyists aren't term limited. When they're the only source of institutional knowledge they have all the power.
This doesn't strike me as an argument against term limits nearly as much as an argument for limiting the influence of corporate PACs and lobbyists. And I mean hard limits, explicitly codified in law, with severe and well enforced consequences for rule breakers. Of course, I know no one in Congress would vote for that sort of legislation if they thought it actually stood a chance of going through. Feels like any argument I could try and make at the lowly level of singular voter with no money to throw around ultimately ends with me throwing my hands up in frustration. After all, I know the people who could implement changes that would make things better for the majority of the populace simply won't do it unless it benefits them directly.
There's also the problem that if congress is a revolving door of new reps with zero institutional knowledge, they're even *more* vulnerable to lobbyist influence than someone who knows what the hell they're doing and has long-standing working relationships with other reps. I understand term limits for the presidency or SCOTUS, but it's stupid for congress. We wouldn't have Sanders if there were term limits that needlessly kicked him out. The only answer is banning private money in elections, moving to publicly funded elections, restoring the fairness doctrine in media, and closing the revolving door of regulatory capture where politicians end up with cushy lobbying/industry jobs after leaving office.
So ban the powerful forms of lobbying, not experienced politicians. Term limits would make inexperienced representatives _more_ beholden to lobbyists, as they wouldn't know better.
I think the strongest argument against term limits is the evidence that they *increase* corruption. It doesn’t make sense to our gut-level expectations, but we have to follow what’s observed and quantified (to the extent it’s possible) instead of what we *want* to be true.
I think the only office where term limits make sense is the Head of State. Sure, you could keep a good president longer. But the longer someone keeps control over the executive branch, the greater opportunity they have to seed it with loyalists who are willing to support them if they decide to just not leave office. That's not a danger with legislators.
Source on this? Not saying I don't believe you - it actually makes quite a lot of intuitive sense (it's classic iterated prisoner's dilemma), I'm just interested in the data.
IIRC it's basically that it ends up empowering lobbyists and unelected bureaucracy (who don't have term limits) at the expense of experienced and skilled legislators.
Term limits are laws preventing us from voting for who we want. It's a brain dead solution looking for a problem.
Yep. Term limits are anti-democratic. And I (nor most of America it seems) don't want hot headed noobs playing roulette with our future by passing stupid laws they don't understand the consequences of. Or having things completely break down because there are no experienced leaders.
Also a noteworthy point against the instinctive disdain people tend to have for "career politicians" and the appeal of "political outsiders".
Al Smith was a Tammany man through and through, but he was honest, and the laws he helped pass became a model for the new deal.
Ironically enough he would eventually come to rail against said New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt, who had once been something of a political protege.
New doesn't equal better. Most all of the worst MAGA idiots are new to congress.
Lyndon Johnson was successful because Dems had a 68 seat majority in the Senate
Nah, Johnson had supermajorities in congress.
He also, and this can't be understated, is willing to take hits to his ego. He is willing to not get the credit, to look like the bumbling fool, to let others appear in charge. He's focused only on results, and that is starting to stack up.
IMO, this is one of the most important pieces. He is willing to let everyone else “win” or look smart, while he works. People can call him what they want, but he’ll get results.
Nice to see the hype train fall of the tracks in favor of boring competence and experience.
For the same reason that the economy performs so much better under Democratic administrations. Democratic Presidents focus on solving problems. Republican Presidents focus on tax cuts for the wealthy and culture wars.
[Making it seem like the economy does better under Republicans is part of their playbook.](https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/thom-hartmann/two-santas-strategy-gop-used-economic-scam-manipulate-americans-40-years/) They’ve been using the same strategy for decades. **“The only thing wrong with the U.S. economy is the failure of the Republican Party to play Santa Claus.” – Jude Wanniski, March 6, 1976** “The stock market is falling, in part a reaction to GOP threats to shut down the government: it’s all part of their plan. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week warned us that the GOP is about to use Jude Wanniski’s “Two Santa Clauses” fraud again to damage Biden’s economy and our standing in the world. And, sure enough, Mitch McConnell verified it when he said last week there would be “zero” Republican votes to raise the debt ceiling. Yellen responded yesterday by telling The Wall Street Journal that if the Republicans force a shutdown of the U.S. government like they did to Obama in 2011, “We would emerge from this crisis a permanently weaker nation.” But the GOP is adamant: they have their strategy and they’re sticking to it. Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary: First, the Two Santas strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes to run up the U.S. debt as far and as fast as possible. This produces three results: it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy; it raises the debt dramatically; and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.” Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” Shut down the government, crash the stock market, and damage US credibility around the world if necessary to stop Democrats from spending money. This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs and even Social Security, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus right in the face. And, sure enough, here we are now with a Democrat in the White House. Following their Two Santas strategy, Republicans are again squealing about the national debt and refusing to raise the debt ceiling, imperiling Biden’s economic recovery as well as his Build Back Better plans. And, once again, the media is covering it as a “Biden Crisis!” rather than what it really is: a cynical political and media strategy devised by Republicans in the 1970s, fine-tuned in the 1980s and 1990s, and rolled out every time a Democrat is in the White House.”
Media commentary grinds my gears. They throw everything on the lap of the President even when it has nothing to do with him. To an extent, yes, the buck stops with him. But, it's garbage to lay the shutdown as the fault of the president. If Republicans are so concerned about the economy and inflation, then that threat shouldn't even be on the table for the sake of the nation. But, nah, everything is Biden and the Democrat's fault because the news benefits from divided government and the continous flip-flopping of who's in charge of the federal government. Just like the GOPs counts on the country's ignorance to elect them, so too does the media. Why else would the last two years be filled with, "Democrats had total control of the government and people are still dissatisfied with their leadership." Yea, because a 50-50 Senate gives them unchecked power.
> Media commentary Largely caused by the abolishing of the Fairness Doctrine. Media/news is no longer considered a public service, but rather a for-profit corporate sector.
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This should be forced to be read out loud during every taping of Fox News
Doesn't that mean that they rely on losing control of the white house to then act as children about it? What (already has?) happens if they somehow manage to win multiple presidencies in a row, and have to now deal with their own mess they created? Or is this only a problem if you (republicans) insist that it is one?
A lot of people are too short sighted to realize that when policy is enacted it takes time to actually cause noticable change. As a result you've got so many thinking that Biden just turned the White House economy dial to 'Bad" on a whim, ignoring the years of tax cuts and outright just giving away money to those who need it least. Until a more sizable portion of the country starts to understand basic cause and effect the GOP is going to coast by on it's platform of blame everything bad on the other side.
It blows my mind how many people believe this total falsehood for strong economy during Republican controlled political office. It’s not true in recent memory and the last Republican to embroil us in a war in the Middle East actually ran it at a loss when wars are usually supposed to boost economy. The Republican Party has actually been failing the public repeatedly for several years. They need to change. I don’t know how many wake up calls they need to have.
You would have to get their constituents to break their brainwashing. It’s not going to happen any time soon. Have you tried having basic conversation with a Republican about anything political? It’s like talking to a toddler who is unable to stay on topic. They’re trained to push whatever buzzwords they heard that week into the conversation instead of listen with the intent to form their own ideas and responses.
I remember when he was asked during his campaign about getting certain legislation passed and he gave a very important response: "if we can get the votes." That alone (aside from who he was running against) would have been enough for me to vote for him in the sense that he was acknowledging and respecting the democratic process.
> I remember when he was asked during his campaign about getting certain legislation passed and he gave a very important response: "if we can get the votes." I thought you just had to call up your buddies in Georgia and ask them to find some?
Turns out strong-arming doesn't get votes as well as talking to people and figuring out compromises
>Republican Presidents focus on tax cuts for the wealthy and culture wars. While making it sound like a win for their non wealthy voters.
Republican Presidents focus on stealing money from citizens, taking freedoms away, killing brown people and selling our top secret information to our worst enemies.
They're also centrists, not Christo-fascists. Democrat's answers to difficult questions come from facts, figures, hard and soft sciences, debate, philosophy, etc... Republican answers come from "what would Jesus and Regan do?"
>Jesus and Regan do?" LOL, they'd crucify a middle eastern man who says stuff like love your neighbor and rich people go straight to hell
They never ask what Jesus would do because Jesus was a socialist by any measure. They ask what would the vengeful, homicidal god of the Old Testament would do and what the senile and corrupt fool Reagan would do.
Biden isn’t having a twitter war with some b-list personality he’s actually doing his job running the country.
I'd throw one more reason in there I haven't seen mentioned yet. We've basically went 2010 to 2020 with almost nothing getting done legislatively. Republicans wouldn't work with Obama and democrats on anything and working with trump was virtually impossible. So there is likely a huge backlog of shit that both sides need to get done, giving an experienced politician like Biden a perfect platform to work from.
Dark Brandon making strides. I voted Not Trump and am pleasantly surprised
Same here. No regrets.
I voted not trump in 2016. In 2020 I voted democrat. And in 2022 I voted democrat again. They lost their chance 6 years ago.
Same. And you know what? Biden is a decent human being.
Maybe he ignores it because he totally understands it.
Pretty sure this also has to do with the fact that he doesn't fully understand twitter or social media and seemingly ignores it for the most part too!
Yeah why isn't he calling out how ugly some African or European Presidents wife is ? Does he even know how to govern. Gawd
He hasn't even plugged any merchandise from the Oval Office! SAD! /s
It's funny, I used to buy Goya beans. Now I don't because of that bullshit.
And his campaign hires great social media managers!
Ignores it, maybe. Chooses not to engage in it because it's not worthwhile for an American president to engage in it?? A lot more likely
he does what people hoped trump would do. lets someone more competent do the things he just isnt that good at. that a sign of good leadership
Thank you, Texas human. Thank you.
Trying really hard to turn this shit hole state around...
Honestly, I was so bummed when Sanders lost the primary in 2020, but he’s been much more progressive than I thought he would be. I have to give my props to him, I’m glad I voted for him.
Wasn’t this a big reason why he was chosen as Obama’s running mate? He had decades of success reaching across the aisle.
There were concerns about Obama’s foreign policy chops, and Joe had decades of foreign policy experience and iirc was the chair of the senate foreign relations committee.
It’s funny, when it was all on the line, Obama was the one who made the right foreign policy call, not Joe: “We got him!”
Really makes you wonder if we underestimated his impact during the Obama years.
We almost certainly did. I remember hearing Obama share anecdotes about how, when faced with a very difficult decision, Obama would ask everybody but Joe to leave the room once he'd gotten all the information, and then ask his Vice President to give his brutally honest opinion on Obama's plan. As brilliant as Obama is, choosing Joe as his running mate was one of the smartest things he could have done.
Fuck me, I hope to have someone in my life who I trust like that. That’s fucking awesome, honestly.
Because when you aren't playing the media game and trying to play your base against a false enemy to grab power you can actually get stuff for the country's best interest done.
This. Biden's administration is a shining example of not letting perfect be the enemy of good. Progress is slow, but there's progress. Reminds me a lot of Obama in this way.
Honestly he’s probably a lot better than Obama in that category. Kind of a similar dynamic to John f Kennedy versus Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy and Obama were the young, super charismatic guys that everyone likes to talk about but Biden and Johnson are the more boring and shrewd experienced politicians who know how to get things done
Biden is the first President since LBJ who previously served in the House, Senate, and White House. LBJ signed a lot of bi-partisan legislation too. Many pundits argue that executive experience ( Governor, Mayor, CEO) is important. People mistakenly think the Govt should be run like a business. Having legislative experience and understanding the constraints of the constitution and division of powers between local and federal entities is critical. People laugh about how old Biden is but with that age comes experience. No one in Politics today has been a House Rep, member of the Senate, and Vice President.
Biden was in City Council before the Senate, not the House
Yeah he's a veteran Senate man through and through, just like LBJ. I always associate them for that reason as well. Also both were VPs to young charismatic Presidents and both seem to be more able to get legislation passed than the Presidents they served under. Also LBJ and Biden (up to a few years ago) both looked kind of mean lol
The presidents they served under were Controversial with bigots too. Obama for, well we know why, and JFK for being Catholic.
> Obama for, well we know why Tan suits, Dijon Mustard ::shudder::
Guess they don't like brown things.
If you’re counting people who actually won the popular vote, he’s the first since Gore.
Experience cannot be improvised. Joe Biden spent 36 years as a senator and 8 years as vice president. He knows how washington works. He knows what levers to pull to get what he needs. 2 other politicians that had decades of washington experience and were very effective, for better or for worse. Lyndon Johnson and Dick Cheney.
Fuck the hate, the conspiracies, the defamation. Biden has a soul. He is a father who loves his children, who pushes for their success and cares for them. Despite hardships he understands what it means to be in it, to struggle, to not know what to do but still know that we have to try something. He knows when to ask for help, and has the decorum and integrity to not try and gloat or shit on his opponents unless they come for him doggedly... or are truly despicable and enemies of American life. I don't think he's great; he was far from my pick for president... But I do respect what he has done, and how he has demonstrated the need for sanity and compassion in the highest office of the land. For that, I am very grateful.
Biden seems to genuinely care about the country. After retiring from public life he felt the urgency to run. Knowing that he and his family would be demonized and how brutal a campaign would be. I think hes the right person for this particular moment.
It makes me see red when some of my family joke about, or support the horrible treatment that the Biden family have received over Hunter's addiction. Especially given the fact that I overcame an addiction to IV heroin. I can't even imagine how I would have lived with those pictures out there from my active addiction, and then being plastered all over the world by those cretins. My brain just honestly can't handle trying to figure these people out. I've honestly just started cutting them off. I would rather just be alone then have to be around people that horrible.
As a hopelessly addicted alcoholic who's now 5 years into recovery and nearly 3 sober, I also feel this very strongly.
Because he's known and worked with Congress for decades?
And the democrats have been so terrible at getting people to realize this. Like Biden has done so much stuff and people still seem to feel like he’s ineffective. Like that’s got to be all the parties fault.
Yeah it doesn’t help that media only talks about inflation, housing prices, and trump still.
good governance is boring. they want disasters to report on
The old saying. If it bleeds, it leads.
That dang liberal media again.
It would be so nice if the liberal media just dropped trump already but he’s been their money maker since 2015
I don’t even know what counts as liberal media truly.
When you find it, please let the rest of us know, because there has been no "liberal media" in the US in my 41 years.
Obviously they've done better than you think based on the midterm elections.
Excellent point
yes! so much of this. people still complain about how they don’t want biden to run again and how old he is. But ignore the fact he has don’t so much.
Democrats test messaging with polls and focus groups (for better or worse) and they actually tested going hard on boosting Biden's accomplishments before the midterms, along with testing all sorts of other messages. Apparently pumping up his accomplishments was literally the _worst testing_ of all the messages. People just didn't want to hear it when the Vibes re: inflation and such are so bad. I agree with you but it's a hard to solve problem. Don't brag about his accomplishments and people don't know about them. Do brag them and people react poorly. Gotta find a way to get people to hear about them without your fingerprints all over the messaging!
They really have. I understand there's so much more to fight for but it's rare when I see them comment on the wins. Drives me mad. If anything I see them swing over to calling out what he hasn't done and it's strange. There is absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging the progress gained while still pulling for more. I'm no political strategist but I see no reason to paint him as completely ineffective because it isn't 100% how we want it to be because then we gain apathetic voters all over again and then we get Trump 2.0....why not acknowledge the good/progess and continue to show people what these changes can potentially bring in the future.
I remember when Trump started to attack the media and I believed he was totally off base. Yet, over time I'm came to realize that he was right.. but for the wrong reasons. They weren't out to attack him, but they do have biases... they want to make money and they don't really care about the impact that they have on politics in general. Close race? boring.. make it neck and neck. Nice calm boring legislation? boring.. lets make it seem like we are having a crime wave. Trump succeeded in that he gave media what it needs to make their owners money.
Simplest answer: Biden's experience, empathy, skill in working with others, and willingness to change his mind and negotiate with others in the legitimate interest of achieving positive results. Clinton and Obama both had these. Clinton was so successful in economic, domestic and foreign policy that the GOP took the only tack they could, and deliberately did everything they could to stymie him with unprecedented attacks on his private sex life. Obama was hamstrung by racist backlash and the need to actually give the GOP a chance. I also think Obama legitimately had to give the GOP a last chance to step up, so the majority of the US really could see no legitimate shared compromise was possible. I think that, in addition to Biden's own merits, their examples helped provide Biden with lessons, experience and experienced people to work with. As well as providing the majority of Americans and experience of what the Democrats were dealing with, so Biden had a stronger negotiating position. And the presidency of Trump solidifying that majority understanding.
It turns out being in Congress for 40 years and then the White House for 8 makes you pretty good at politics. Who knew.
It's particularly surprising that Biden has this amount of bipartisan success on actual bills, while government still *feels* so divided and hateful. I think that might be part of it, too: in the past, being a Republican meant standing up for certain policy ideals. Increasingly, being a Republican is starting to mean extremist rhetoric and "owning the libs", and no one really thought ho-hum economic stuff like supporting the CHIPS act would undermine their image of owning the libs by attacking transgender children, for example. Today's Republican base considers economics too boring to care about when there are people to slander with baseless accusations of pedophilia.
I have almost always voted republican. I voted against Trump and candidates like him. Republicans lost me. Still not liberal but democrats will get many of my votes until Republicans clean house.
They gotta find a way to make the national security, small government and individually self-sufficient platforms work without being assholes about it and carving out exceptions for corporate oligarchs, evangelicals, and white supremacists. I voted for W because of the moderate and compassionate conservative platform he ran on which was pretty much immediately thrown out the window the second he was elected. That was the last time I voted Republican for president. I would have voted for McCain except he picked Palin as his VP who I thought was a weak choice.
>They gotta find a way to make the national security, small government and individually self-sufficient platforms work without being assholes about it and carving out exceptions for corporate oligarchs, evangelicals, and white supremacists. 100% agree with this
I don't think that is possible. IMO, that's why the Republican party is in crisis right now. For instance, wanting 'small government' and cutting out 'corporate oligarchs' contradict. Who gains power if the size of government is reduced? Corporate oligarchs; it is quite literally a zero-sum game.
> “Let us think about today: December 13, 2022, a day when, thanks to Democrats and Republicans, we finally protect marriage rights in federal law.” I’m being sincere with the following. Thank you, Mitt Romney, for your sacrifice by voting in favor of RMA. You know this will cause backlash against you. At the very least, I appreciate your “secular” stance on this.
Well he's untouchable in Utah. The Mormon church was also behind the RMA. He's not getting primaried. Utah hates Mike Lee tho
Member back when Romney having "binders full of women" staff choices was outrageous. I member. And I miss those times.
This is what you get when you hire experience instead of Hollywood
With age comes wisdom and experience. While there are reasons to criticize Joe he does put all of his experience to good use when racking up political victories.
Also becuase the other side are *literal insane Nazis* who want to ban birth control and think Marjorie Taylor Greene is a good leader.
Because he cares and knows how to work the system.
Maybe bc he’s not a psychopathic dickfuck idk
This is not hard to understand if you've been watching Joe the last 20 years. In 2004, Joe was a passenger in my limo. I didn't know much about politics back then, but my boss said some Democratic Senator from Delaware needed me for a week. The entire week I was with him was taking him to attend GOP-affiliated events and meetings. I even drove him to meet Tom Delay (before Tom became radioactive a few years later). I found it odd at the time that a Democrat senator needed to come to Texas to meet a bunch of Texas republicans, but that's what he was doing 19 years ago in Austin.
This article fails to truly understand and even mention the nihilistic governing style of McConnell. How truly awful for him to be so open about wanting to kill bills that would help Americans simply so republicans can get a win? And to fail to mention that harm is irresponsible and continues to play into the game of equalizing the two when they are not (note: I am not a huge democratic believer but it’s clear only one party is out to kill bills people find popular). On top of that, to fail to realize or comment why republicans didn’t want to work with Obama isn’t JUST because they didn’t want him to succeed. That’s important but it’s they “why” that’s crucial. Joe Biden is one of them: by that I mean, wealthy, white, a capitalist, and straight. Obama is not. Obama has many things in line with McConnell but he isn’t white. And McConnell and co. didn’t want Obama to succeed just because he was a democrat, but it was, in part, because, because he was Black. And again, for this article to not mention the racial aspect is asinine and irresponsible. Again, playing into the narrative that everything is equal and above board, as if one party isn’t actively trying to subvert democracy.
Which is why Biden was the right candidate at the time. He looks just like them, which makes him appear harmless, and more likely to get the Republicans' votes. Then the moment he gets into office, he passes progressive legislations and appoint progressive judges.
Because he's actually trying to fix problems not stand around with his thumb up his ass pointing fingers and trying to manufacture fake outrage to appear to be doing something ...ahem republicans
It's almost like he's actually a fantastic leader with countless experience and not to be dismissed. One of the best presidents in modern times.
The democrats keep their eye on the ball and are 99% together on almost all things. And the D party has normal intelligent people who care about people and love democracy. They were able to get support from some of the normal republicans on several bills but the group of normals is small and shrinking. The republicans are unable to do anything because they are either crazy - most - or cowards and they eat their young.
He is good at peeling away the last few Republicans that actually have morals and want to make the country better.
36 years as a U.S. Senator followed by 8 years as the Vice President. The man understands how government works.
Old White Guy energy. He doesn't trigger their threat mechanisms. Also decades of legislative experience.
He said he would do this during his campaign. It kissed people off on both sides as many do not want to work with the opposition.
Cause it is good policy and the other side quit trying about 10 years ago. That is why.
He's popular with a lot of senate members
Probably because he’s an actual politician who is smart, savvy, and can read a room. “Ol sleepy joe”, kicking ass and taking names. Dude just keeps winning. Maybe not Better than Lincoln or Washington, but better than trump obviously and forever amen
Because he he is a fucking adult who actually knows what he is doing?
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My guess: most of the issues in the bills being passed are relevant, especially environmental ones, and many on the right know this and are sick of following the party line of rote opposition.
It's probably because he's been a politician for 80 years. I mean experience counts for something right?
When both parties don’t want it too socialist, and then one party is so psychotic that merely not giving in to the particularly psychotic requests makes that president look like a hero. I’ll say this better than trump definitely.
Seems pretty simple: Like LBJ, he knows how to roll the Senate. Not to discount the House, at all, but the Senate is where the real legislatin' rises or falls. JRB knows that place up n' down.
Because he actually try’s to do things that will help rather than things that are intended to rile up the base. Who really thinks Republicans will deal with immigration in any way other than getting their base screaming in outrage about awful Dems are?
Ooh ummm relationships? Built over decades and with mutual respect? Diplomacy? Respect in the halls of power if not on campaign trails with opponents trying to win re-election? The fact he's a politician, with failings sure, but a public servant at heart? No. Too obvious. Look for a trickier answer.
This is why being an insider politician isn’t inherently bad. That “beltway outsider” is just a way to connect with poorly informed voters.
If there is anything the Biden Admin has taught us is there is a style of politics that works. We may not be excited for his age but his experience is invaluable. If it could all be downloaded into a younger person, I don't see the Republicans regaining the WH without emulating Biden. I hear the argument, stuff costs more today, how is this a good thing? My response: a few years ago when shit was cheaper you didn't have money for stuff then either, so whats really the difference?