He’s been a boring mediocre president, but it’ll take that any day over a Republican.
Yeah he’s better than trump for sure
A blind and crippled hedgehog would be better than trump
He’s nowhere close to great. Hes run back much of his campaign promises and he’s funding a genocide. The best thing he could do is say he’s not running and throw his support behind someone actually progressive and actually not half senile
For liberals, maybe. For leftists, fuck no.
In Europe, he’d be on the right
Anywhere, he would be. Using location as a barometer for left vs right, rather than the actual mechanics proposed, is bourgeois methodology.
If you want to know where democrats fall, leftists are a bigger enemy to them than Republicans and Trump.
No they’re not. They just annoying. Like arguing with a child over which Marvell villain is the worst. It’s all made up, but you can’t tell them that.
congrats, better than a wannabe fascist dictator is now being great
Stop confusing democrats/liberals with leftists.
Democrats will probably almost universally agree that he’s been a good president. Tribalism is a hell of a drug.
It’s the leftists that won’t. And speaking as a leftist, he’s done a lot better than I thought he was going to. He ended up pushing for more progressive ideas than I thought he would. Good for him. He’s been stymied by the courts and his own party on some of them. And that why I, as a leftist, think the democratic party is still (less) trash. They had a majority for two years. Did some stuff. Could have done more. You can be all “but but Manchin/Sinema” all you want, but I’ll bet all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket, than if Manchin and Sinema were to announce that yes, they’d vote to abolish the filibuster, there would be two other democratic senators who would come out and say no. And that’s fine as it relates to their world view. They’re liberals. They’re not leftists.
Democrats will probably almost universally agree that he’s been a good president.
Looks like he’s slid into around 60/40 approval within his own party. Indies have him 30 pts lower than that.
And speaking as a leftist, he’s done a lot better than I thought he was going to.
Okay, but what about if you’re speaking as an unaligned voter in a swing state?
Then I’m saying “at least he’s not openly fascist but the democratic party still fuckin sucks.”
I mean, I wish. But Democrats threw tens of millions of dollars to a “Pro-Trump” Dem Senate candidate in Tennessee. Mayor Adams, up in NYC, has echoed a host of the Trump “immigrant invasion” talking points, when confronted with bus-loads of women and children kidnapped and displaced by governors’ Abbot and DeSantis.
Then you’ve got Sinema in Arizona and Manchin in West Virginia and even John Ossoff of Georgia demanding hundred of millions for bigger and more heavily armed police forces to clamp down on any kind of public dissent in their historically red states. Our AG is once again refusing to close the torture camp in Gitmo, while Anthony Blinken runs around the Middle East peddling advanced weapons systems to extremist governments in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria and India.
You can “Trump would be worse” all you like, but this shit is truly awful on a scale its hard to overstate.
Pretty sure “but the democratic party still fuckin sucks” covers all that.
How do you describe any of this as less than open fascism?
Tell me about your leftist policy beliefs.
And here comes “No TRUE leftist!”
The right has RINOs so I guess the left gets to have LINOS or something.
Dude blocked the strike, fucked the BBB and is supporting genocide.
Fuck Joe Biden.
Eh, I’m of two minds about the strike. On the one hand, he got the rail workers their sick days after the fact. On the other, he really pissed me off and threw labor under the bus by making it illegal (again) for them to strike. You can’t be a pro labor president and take away labors most powerful tool.
I don’t know anything about the BBB.
100% with you on Gaza.
the fact he made it illegal tells any leftist all we have to know
Your patriarchal assumptions of “he” are very telling
Is Biden not a “he”?
EDIT: Not trying to be a smartass I genuinely don’t understand what they’re trying to say here.
The person I was replying to originally said:
the fact he made it illegal tells any leftist all he has to know
They edited it after I commented without saying anything.
Ohhhhh ok. Appreciate the context thanks.
On the one hand, he got the rail workers their sick days after the fact.
They were fighting for 15 sick days. How many did each of the 12 unions get?
Don’t you want to at least see Biden in a last term with nothing to lose besides legacy? He’ll be term limited, plus his age… he’ll do something crazy to be loved.
He’ll make weed legal if it isn’t by then… He’ll forgive all the student debt this time… He’ll expand the Supreme Court… He’ll do something worthwhile and he will continue to not be trump.
Plenty of things where he misses my ideal, but generally positive progress and we keep pressure on for more progressive choices. General progress…
This is basically the same argument people made about Obama’s second term. “He had to pull back in the first term or he’d lose reelection! In his second term, that’s when he’ll do all the progressive things that he ran on!” Anyway, he didn’t do any of those things, but we did find out he’d secretly put us all under mass surveillance.
Thanks Obama!
He has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.
and none of it matters because the other side thinks the work of government is to do as little as possible for the people it fleeces.
And their propaganda has been so good for the last 60 years that even half the left believes it but think they’re immune to it. See motions to every thread in Lemmy
Upvotes? Oh, yeah, that tracks.
The ones I know think it’s a scheme to bring minority immigrants in and pay them welfare to vote for democrats so they can “destroy us from within” and bring about a worldwide socialist government.
I prefer a worldwide New World Order but you take what you can get.
Oh no
And yet the quality of life for Americans is still declining, while the wealth gap keeps growing.
Yep, and a bunch of the things Biden supporters want to tout are making this problem worse, because his economic legislation and climate legislation and healthcare legislation and all the rest is almost entirely just throwing taxpayer money at businesses and hoping it trickles down to us somehow
Narrator - It didn’t.
If at first you don’t succeed, give businesses more money and try again.
Real wages (i.e. inflation adjusted) have been growing for the last year and are now even with what they were before covid.
In 2019 real wages were on par with what they were in 1973. That is no growth in over 50 years.
Of course things are going to go back to pre-Covid levels post-Covid. That’s not a sign that things are magically fixed. Housing and food costs are at extreme highs, the amount of people working two jobs to survive are at highs, etc. etc. CPI also lags behind on many things such as market rent.
And don’t even get me started on the generational gap, millenials, zoomers, and alphas are all far far worse off than previous generations.
That graph kind of sidesteps the actual problem. Inflation has run away so much that 1973 isn’t nearly enough. I know that seems weird because they used real terms but median wage increases since 1974 have lost to core inflation over the decades by over a hundred points.
What we’re actually seeing here is the worth of money adjusting. But if you put core inflation on there it would be an even higher line.
It’s worth mentioning that WEC is heavily pro-corporate and neo liberal. They’d love to push a graph that made it seem like everyone was panicking for no reason.
Cool, what does that have do with Joe Biden’s presidency? You know, the one that started Jan 20, 2021 and is the topic of this thread.
Massive systems, like the economy, don’t get fixed overnight. It took 40 years to fuck it up as much as it is now and it will probably take nearly as long to unfuck it.
In 2019 Joe Biden wasn’t president.
?!
Real wages (i.e. inflation adjusted) have been growing for the last year and are now even with what they were before covid.
See that? That’s where the other user was talking about 2019, hence me mentioning it before you came along and decided “fuck reading comprehension” and dropped the most useless comment in this thread.
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Removed, rule 3
Swing and a miss
Bro holy shit go outside. You need some fresh air man
Congratulations you swallowed a propaganda line that wasn’t even true when they printed it.
If by propaganda you mean statistics from the BLS, then yes. But I’m sure your gut feeling is far more accurate.
BLS never announced that. An “economic” think tank did. Coincidentally the math doesn’t work out and it’s an election year.
Yes, they did. They publish data monthly on average hourly earnings of all employees. It doesn’t take a master statistician to take that and compare it against CPI-U and see that the average earnings one is now bigger compared against a Jan 2020 baseline. Do you want me to send you my excel from last night?
So did they announce it or are you interpreting the data they put out.
I would argue the quality has been improving as if late. But kind of hard to blame him for the fact that the world was gripped and massively disrupted a by a pandemic and the financial moves by the fed to stave off an even worse financial melt down led to high inflation. But we’re going in the right direction, even if it isn’t fast enough for some people.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people. The wage increases reported are mostly driven by top earners. It isn’t moving at the bottom. Longer lines than ever at food pantries. I remember when Democrats used to at least pretend to give a shit about that stuff.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people.
Been that way for a long time bud
Nothing new happens under the sun.
And that’s also not true for the past year. Wages have out paced inflation.
Whose wages?
Even without answering that question let’s take a look at the 2023 numbers. According to BLS weekly wages went from 55k to 59k a seven percent increase. Inflation was 3.4. So we regained 3.6 percent.
The pandemic alone was worth 10 percent. And we’ve been left behind by the hundreds of points over the decades.
So while technically true, your statement is very misleading.
The poster said that over the last year, wages have out paced inflation. Pointing out how that is not true for years prior doesn’t mean his statement is misleading.
My comment, where this all comes from, was about how things are getting better as of late. So in context especially the comment is appropriate.
It’s not technically true, it’s just true. I specifically said “for the past year”, so bringing up “over the decades” is what’s misleading.
Especially in the context of Joe Biden, who has not been president for the past several decades.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people.
This is both very specific claim, but very vague as to what you mean. What is “many” and where are you getting these numbers?
This has been a decades long problem that he has contributed to over his entire career.
More specifics please.
But, ftr, we’re talking about his presidency, which has been way more progressive than him throughout his career.
1994 Crime Bill, giving many people records and restricting their access to voting/housing/jobs/life.
1996 one of 24 Democrats to vote for the Welfare reform bill that kicked many people off of government benefits and caused needless suffering.
2003 American Dream Downpayment Act. It increased the amount of Adjustable Rate Mortgage you could get and made them available to low income families. This would prove to be a trap in 2008 that anyone with a basic education in economics could see coming because the rate was adjustable.
That’s just three examples, I’m not going to keep going. This is an old problem, older than- Well I was going to say older than him but he was elected to the Senate in 1972. He has presided over the entire crushing of the middle and working class. And we put him in the white house for it.
1994 Crime Bill, giving many people records and restricting their access to voting/housing/jobs/life.
1996 one of 24 Democrats to vote for the Welfare reform bill that kicked many people off of government benefits and caused needless suffering.
2003 American Dream Downpayment Act. It increased the amount of Adjustable Rate Mortgage you could get and made them available to low income families. This would prove to be a trap in 2008 that anyone with a basic education in economics could see coming because the rate was adjustable.
That’s just three examples, I’m not going to keep going. This is an old problem, older than- Well I was going to say older than him but he was elected to the Senate in 1972. He has presided over the entire crushing of the middle and working class. And we put him in the white house for it.
Research constantly points to things getting worse, especially for younger generations. At best you could say the rate of decline has slowed somewhat recently.
And it’s unfair to blame it on the pandemic, the trends been going on for much longer.
That would all make it even less his fault tho…
He’s been in politics for like half a century.
It’s not his fault it happened, it’s his fault he’s not doing enough to fix it. He campaigned on the status quo, yet the status quo is the problem.
Fundamental change needs to happen.
Like what?
He’s not magic. He can’t actually wave a wand and do anything. He’s gotta get congress on board for anything meaningful that can’t be undone the second someone else sits in the chair. Incremental change sucks, but acting like he’s been doing nothing is dumb. That’s not to say he hasn’t done bad things (looks at Israel), but painting him as inept is disingenuous at best.
Explain what changes can happen with Republicans in charge of the House.
We could deschedule cannabi-- oh who am I kidding? We can support Netanyahu’s genocide even harder.
I like how you can’t imagine a leader actually wanting change.
Trump sure seemed to change a lot with a divided Congress… Biden isn’t doing it because he doesn’t want to. But because he can’t.
Cricket cricket
That has been a trend for decades so it’s not going to turn around overnight. He has made some big steps by expanding numerous quality of life programs.
Weird, I never see Record oil extraction on his list of accomplishments, I wonder why that is? 🤔
Given the congress he has to work with, one could argue he’s been a better President than Obama was.
He’s been a better president than Obama was.
It’s not particularly close in my opinion.
I’m hella biased, but the SAVE plan and not accruing interest on student loans as long as you make payments is a huge win.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have done this under Obama…
Edit: just wanted to mention that this restructuring for student loans had absolutely nothing to do with Congress
The SAVE plan and the rules around PSLF really do make medical school a lot more viable for people like me. Doctors get paid a pittance in residency, and the interest on medical school loans would add up really fast on the old income-driven repayment plans.
Trust me I fully understand.
I went to med school, finished back in 2018.
If I never step foot into a hospital again it’ll be too soon.
I work from home now as a cloud engineer for a large US-based mortgage company.
I’m very happy now. I’ve already made my piece that my $350,000 in loans can only be solved by making minimum payments for 20 years.
All that being said, a lot of people are in a different boat than myself.
Their loans are much more manageable and I’m really glad they’ll be able to pay them off because interest isn’t accruing.
Who knows? I make enough now that I’m actually going to have to sit down and calculate whether it’s worth it to pay the loans off myself or just make minimum payments for 20 years and have the rest forgiven.
The SAVE plan and interest no longer recruiting is the only reason these possibilities are there.
Otherwise I’d have to resign myself to making 20 years of minimum payments and hoping that forgiveness plan is still in place.
In terms of stuff leftists want, Obama overpromised and underdelivered, while Biden underpromised and overdelivered. I’m not sure he actually delivered all that much more than Obama did on an absolute scale, but when expectations ranged from “1994 crime bill guy” to “at least he’s not Trump,” pretty much any policy that manages to edge past mediocre is a pleasant surprise.
Obama was generally pretty terrible. Obamacare was a disaster and about the only good policies he had were around car emissions, which were significant but still. If you factor in the amount of political capital he had in 2009 it’s sad really.
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Some things never chnage
I agree too. Obama had charisma and was a great speaker, but policy wise Biden is much better.
If Obama was firmer many current problems would not exist today. But it is easier to say now.
Obama had charisma and was a great speaker,
And as we’re seeing now with Biden’s poll numbers, unfortunately, that’s all that matters. Doesn’t matter how many good things you do to help people, all that matters is whether you have charisma and a good media relations team.
People are so stupid. Maybe democracy was a mistake.
Maybe democracy was a mistake.
It probably works fine if the majority of your population doesn’t have either CTE from your sports programs, lead poisoning, or something above an 8th grade education.
I don’t think he’s been a great president. I think he’s a million times better than Trump, though. That applies to the last election, and some-crazy-how to the upcoming election, too…
I want to go back to my timeline, where Sinbad starred in a movie about being a genie. Things made sense back then…
If we gaslight ourselves hard enough, maybe we’ll be happy.
You’re gaslighting yourself in the other way. There are two kinds of low information voters. The first kind uncritically worship their “side” because they’re misinformed about the vices. The second kind are cynical and critical no matter what, even when policies help them, because they’re misinformed about the virtues. The right tends to do the first, the left tends to do the second.
There’s a reason why the most informed left leaning people are the most strongly in support of Biden. Including people like Bernie Sanders and AOC, both of who have praised him for governing progressively.
Im a low information voter because my information comes from sources that arent propaganda?
Quite possible the most logically astute comment here, and lo and behold- downvoted by the outraged hive-mind.
Go figure.
Meanwhile you’re a high information voter because you accept articles such as this one at face value as well as the opinions of politicians saying their side is doing a good job?
Look, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a low information voter. People are busy, and reading endlessly about politics is an unproductive hobby, just one of many out there.
But it is absolutely true that the most critical people on the left tend to be extremely vague on the specifics. Because they don’t know the specifics. And being baseline critical allows them to protect their ego. “Those powerful elites won’t fool me!” And don’t get me wrong, powerful elites are trying to fool you. But one of the ways they do that is by convincing you that nothing ever gets better. Nothing is worth supporting. That every policy is as bad as any other. Everything that looks good is actually secretly bad.
Here’s an example. Lack of competition and enshittification is frequently in the news. Inevitably, someone will comment that “both sides” are corporate shills, and it’ll get a ton of upvotes. Anyone who knows anything about the current FTC knows that that’s insane. In a shocking move, Biden appointed a young progressive firebrand as the head of the FTC, Lina Khan. She literally wrote the academic article starting the super progressive New Brandeis school of anti-trust. This new FTC has been sometimes clumsy, but super aggressive against corporations. This was an olive branch to the far left. And it’s one of the many reasons why progressives who are paying attention begrudgingly appreciate Biden.
That’s nice and shows that we should continue to apply pressure so that they continue to put more progressive people and policies into practice.
Totally agree. But pressure is both positive and negative. It means rewarding good policy, not just criticizing everything. Biden has made many moves to satisfy progressives. But if none of it matters electorally, why even try? Why not go back to pandering to centrists and conservatives?
I reward them with my guaranteed vote, which happens to be guaranteed because the alternative is worse.
The progressive vote is hardly guaranteed. It’s fickle, hyper critical, divided, which enervates us as a voting bloc. Conservatives are the most reliable voters, and, surprise surprise, they wield outsized political power.
“Actually you poors are having an amazing time and everything is great, you’re just too stupid to realize it.”
Background: I supported Bernie in the 2016 primaries; I ended up voting for Hillary. In 2020, Biden wasn’t even my 3rd pick in the Primaries (Warren, Sanders, maybe Buttigieg and even Steyer.). I still voted Biden, despite a clear lack of enthusiasm because I know how much easier it is to break and corrupt things than to simply maintain it or build upon a trillion-piece puzzle.
Overall, Biden has been a pretty great President if only for one simple fact: The genuine experience and expertise of his cabinet. When I think of Donnie, I think of Bill Barr, Richard Spencer, Mike Pompeo, and other scum of his cabinet. These people are psychopathic, smarter than Trump, and dangerous. While they’re incompetent in their actual roles, they leveraged their offices to incredibly nefarious ends.
The true stars of Biden’s administration has been his advisors and cabinet: Blinken, Yellen, Garland, Austin, Kirby, Bill Burns, Jake Sullivan, etc. These are the people that keep the machine running. Who actually take advice from reputable experts in respective fields, like Dr. Fauci.
So yes, given the bigger picture, Biden has been a great President; partly because of stability; partly because of contrast with chaos.
And folks, yes, it’s campaign season now. Expect a massive influx of ads and opinion pieces and a general attempt to drum up energy and awareness to a crucial election. Don’t shoot yourselves in the foot; the right has massive megaphones of propaganda they’re using every single fucking day to distort reality. Don’t be afraid to push back.
Are all this “wow Biden was actually the greatest president ever but we didn’t notice” news that started floating around a part of his upcoming election campaign?
He’s been ok. Way better than that last guy though!
I feel that he is mostly honest and wants to do the right thing but he doesn’t always get it right. At least he tries.
Maintaining the status quo in the face of looming danger does not make you a great president.
The best thing about Biden is that he is not Trump.
Also we’re not only supporting a genocide, we’re footing the bill.
Compared to another 4 years of Trump? Absolutely.
But I don’t have to be ecstatic to choose between a prehistoric career politician, and an embarrassing, felonious dinosaur
