***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[mplsdunk]

It’s fine if he makes headlines. Now we know not to go to his pro fascism bar.

 

[Mark Antony]

Lebron retires in 3 years, -- "we did it!".

 

[aepps20]

What are you even trying to say with this?

Libs + conjecture = disaster

I agree with him.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

these people are the worst man.

 

[Mark Antony]

I think that's fine, honestly. Don't know why she has to announce it though aside from "look at me pleeeeeease".

 

[rexanglorum]

I think for some of you, there will never be a correct way to criticize a Democratic Politician from their left. Even if you hate Brie, her job is to comment on news of the day, same as any liberal commentator. It just seems weirdly adversarial to get mad at a media figure for tweeting.

Now, I do think Biden actually has exceeded the expectations of those on the left. The worst case is that he’d continue Trump’s immigration and foreign policy and his domestic policy. On that he’s been pretty bad. On Domestic policy, he’s done well in that he’s, at least temporarily, eschewed all the BS about the national debt or disincentives to work. He’s gotten money into people’s hands and didn’t divert money from the ARP into the hands of businesses or into tax cuts. Good, Keynesian fiscal policy is a big deal considering the decades of supply side consensus.

Will he seriously push for items that will outlast COVID and change the balance of power between workers and employers? That remains to be seen. Will he push harder for an end to the filibuster so we can get DC Statehood and a new VRA—he needs to—but that also remains to be seen.

A better question is if Biden and the rest of the Democratic trifecta are meeting the moment and fully addressing the numerous and growing crises that we face. The answer is no. But it’s also unproductive to focus so hard on Biden. The failings we have as systemic and our system doesn’t allow anyone to address these crises.

So if you’re going to criticize Biden from the left and you have a real platform, use it as a call to action and build the mass politics needed to address these crises. It doesn’t matter if or how Biden gets moved to the left, we got to put pressure on the forces that make structural change so difficult.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I think for some of you, there will never be a correct way to criticize a Democratic Politician from their left. Even if you hate Brie, her job is to comment on news of the day, same as any liberal commentator. It just seems weirdly adversarial to get mad at a media figure for tweeting.

Now, I do think Biden actually has exceeded the expectations of those on the left. The worst case is that he’d continue Trump’s immigration and foreign policy and his domestic policy. On that he’s been pretty bad. On Domestic policy, he’s done well in that he’s, at least temporarily, eschewed all the BS about the national debt or disincentives to work. He’s gotten money into people’s hands and didn’t divert money from the ARP into the hands of businesses or into tax cuts. Good, Keynesian fiscal policy is a big deal considering the decades of supply side consensus.

Will he seriously push for items that will outlast COVID and change the balance of power between workers and employers? That remains to be seen. Will he push harder for an end to the filibuster so we can get DC Statehood and a new VRA—he needs to—but that also remains to be seen.

A better question is if Biden and the rest of the Democratic trifecta are meeting the moment and fully addressing the numerous and growing crises that we face. The answer is no. But it’s also unproductive to focus so hard on Biden. The failings we have as systemic and our system doesn’t allow anyone to address these crises.

So if you’re going to criticize Biden from the left and you have a real platform, use it as a call to action and build the mass politics needed to address these crises. It doesn’t matter if or how Biden gets moved to the left, we got to put pressure on the forces that make structural change so difficult.

 

[storm2006]

Not sure if this is revisionist history or I’m being a prisoner of the moment but a lot of the criticism or even judgement on Biden seems to be a little much considering he’s only like 96 days into his presidency. Not even accounting for the fact that he inherited a gigantic, perhaps even unprecedented, mess but the man has only served ~7% of his term . I don’t know exactly what people expected in this amount of time but maybe with all he changed in four years Trump made folks forget that it’s a lot easier to tear things down than it is to build it.

 

[Mark Antony]

That was a lot based on essentially nothing.

 

[TooOlfForThisIsh]

Its just a bit of a nonsensical criticism. I think it’s supposed to sound sharp and biting, but it just demands and answer to the question, “what the hell did you expect?” What did his career, his campaign, the last 40 years, the last 4 years suggest that he would deliver that he has not?

It s fair to want more. And we should demand more. But I refuse to believe that she actually thought it would be going better.

 

[rexanglorum]

Not sure if this is revisionist history or I’m being a prisoner of the moment but a lot of the criticism or even judgement on Biden seems to be a little much considering he’s only like 96 days into his presidency. Not even accounting for the fact that he inherited a gigantic, perhaps even unprecedented, mess but the man has only served ~7% of his term . I don’t know exactly what people expected in this amount of time but maybe with all he changed in four years Trump made folks forget that it’s a lot easier to tear things down than it is to build it.

I think some of this is based on the patterns of recent American presidencies to stall out and lose momentum over time. The thinking is that if you can’t get something done in the first hundred days than the likelihood of it getting done drops and if you can’t get something done in the first two years, it’s not going to happen.

Hopefully, a lot of good stuff will keep getting done at least through 2022 and maybe a combination of a VRA and popular policies and a GOP that keeps flailing and talking about “cancel culture” will lead to Democrats holding their majorities in the mid terms and the window to do good policies stays open longer. But given recent history, the early stage of a president is disproportionately important.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I think Joy Gray is generally divorced from reality, and animated by a leftist both sides worldview that causes her to twist herself into knots to get her hot takes off.

However, this is one of the few times I think she has been able to articulate her position (mostly in the second half of the video) without going off the rails (she inserts arguments that are wrong and bad, but it is better than her usual antics)...


She respects Glaude Jr., so she views his pushback as sincere. Glaude's last point I think is important. That just centering your politics on the grievances of white people will not yeld long-term success. You are really just kicking the can down the road for it to be activated later.

 

[IATT]

dwalk31

 

[storm2006]

I think some of this is based on the patterns of recent American presidencies to stall out and lose momentum over time. The thinking is that if you can’t get something done in the first hundred days than the likelihood of it getting done drops and if you can’t get something done in the first two years, it’s not going to happen.

Hopefully, a lot of good stuff will keep getting done at least through 2022 and maybe a combination of a VRA and popular policies and a GOP that keeps flailing and talking about “cancel culture” will lead to Democrats holding their majorities in the mid terms and the window to do good policies stays open longer. But given recent history, the early stage of a president is disproportionately important.

This is a fair point, I didn’t quite think about it this way. Thank you for the response. I will say though that This 100 days is a little bit different because of the pandemic. I agree there is a lot that needs to get done and this is a rare opportunity with the trifecta but I give the administration a bit of leeway because that had to be addressed first. I agree that they need to start hitting on the other issues that you mentioned, though but those are things I expected to take more time but not too long like you said because then it’s RIP.

 

[rexanglorum]

There is probably too much weight put on the first 100 days in general and I hope it’s the case where the first few months are focused on dealing with the pandemic and its economic fallout and now it’s going to be 12-15 months working the more structural issues the predated COVID.

 

[dmbrhs]

Not sure if this is revisionist history or I’m being a prisoner of the moment but a lot of the criticism or even judgement on Biden seems to be a little much considering he’s only like 96 days into his presidency. Not even accounting for the fact that he inherited a gigantic, perhaps even unprecedented, mess but the man has only served ~7% of his term . I don’t know exactly what people expected in this amount of time but maybe with all he changed in four years Trump made folks forget that it’s a lot easier to tear things down than it is to build it.

This is what people need to realize. Biden is basically an infant as a president. He's accomplished a lot, considering he was obstructed for months.

 

[IATT]

But but but financing...

 

[kdawg]

I’m listening to a really fascinating podcast by Adam McKay (Anchorman etc) called Death at the Wing.

It’s sort of about basketball but it’s obviously much more than that and looks at the causes of the issues which caused the death of players - Len Bias, Benji Wilson etc.

Really making me hate Reagan more than ever. They knew what they were doing over 50 years ago and people of color are still paying for that.

For example part of the “welfare queen” nonsense is the cause of such a high mortality rate of young black people in Chicago - that allowed them to not fund hospitals in poor areas so that if you get shot there you are much more likely to die.

I’d never got that link before.

 

[plansb]

Same with sexual orientation and I honestly don’t get it. It’s so immature. And then they try to make you feel like the crazy one for being okay with someone choosing to identify as a certain gender or sexuality. You can tell they’re really mad when they resort to the “Well what if you had son/daughter and they....”

“I’m just worried about the safety of my (likely imaginary/hypothetical) daughter” is another good one the transphobes use.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[storm2006]

I ******* hate this people, man. So intellectually dishonest and their party is so hungry (pun intended) to discredit and villanize Dems that they just run with any potentially damaging narrative as soon as it pops up. This is why checking sources and reviewing data is more important than ever because there’s so much misinformation and distorted data out there.

 

[aepps20]

What is this "we"? The good guys got that done not deplorable clowns like him.