This is Biden's America

Edgar is like the mouse solving the problem of the cat...by having a bell put on the cat.

He does not have a solution for how the bell will be put on...just as the mouse does not have that solution.

He just wants to puff out his chest and declare, "I have seen the problems and I have shown the solutions."

His logic courses were taken at KMart.

Just a few tidbits. Joe Biden was head of judiciary committee when Clarence Thomas became a Supreme Court justice. Harry Reed facilitated right wing judges for Bush just like Chuck Schumer did for Trump, sometimes in batches. Ponder that.

It Is Time For Dems To Fear Their Own Voters
BY DAVID SIROTA – 24 JUN 2022

After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there is bad news and there is good news. But first, an admission.

For most of my adult life, I’ve clung to a grand unifying theory: The only way to fight off right-wing fascism is to build not just a well-organized progressive movement, but to also mobilize rank-and-file apolitical Democratic voters to press their own party to deliver.

If Democratic base constituencies — college-educated white collars, communities of color, young people, etc. — went beyond merely voting in November and actually made demands of their Democratic lawmakers (and held them accountable in primaries), then maybe the party would pursue its purported agenda with the same urgency as the Republican Party does for its conservative base. And if that happened, maybe more voters would flock to Democrats who were materially improving their lives.

Over the last 25 years, the opposite has happened.

While Republican normie voters were being radicalized by Fox News and talk radio, Democratic normie voters were being anesthetized by NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and MSNBC, which taught them to believe that an extremist like John Roberts is a lovable moderate, Mike Pence is an American hero, George Bush is a decent guy, and an operative who installed Sam Alito on the court is a warrior for democracy.

That media machine convinced Democratic normies to believe the highest calling of citizenship was to simply line up behind party-approved candidates, crush progressive challengers in primaries, and “vote blue, no matter who” in general elections — and then do nothing more, even when “electable” conservative candidates lost and the few winners produced no change. The worst thing anyone could do, they taught viewers, was criticize, pressure, or protest Democratic leaders to try to get them to do anything.

At the same time, Barack Obama and his administration persuaded normie Democrats that the celebrity candidate would save the day, that progressive pressure campaigns are “******* retarded,” and that Obama’s hand-picked candidate, Hillary Clinton, was the most viable successor. Meanwhile, the labor movement was crushed by Democrats’ trade deals and corporate union busting, disempowering what had been a radicalizing force inside the Democratic coalition.

And yet, here’s the admission: It wasn’t just external factors that undermined this effort to mobilize normies. It was a failure of an entire generation of operatives, activists, advocacy journalists, policy wonks, philanthropists, filmmakers, pundits, labor leaders, think tankers, Capitol Hill staff, and politicians in left-of-center politics — and I include myself in that group of failures.

“We’ve Been Trying To Warn You”
We could console ourselves by feeling like Don’t Look Up’s Dr. Mindy when he points up at the comet and says, “We’ve been trying to warn you!”

But let’s admit it: The campaigns, advocacy, and pressure of my generation and the Boomers did not radicalize the normies quickly enough. We were not just outgunned by conservatives, outspent by corporatists, and undermined by liberal careerists selling their souls for the next hot take — we were also outmaneuvered, outsmarted, and outperformed.

We failed, and that failure allowed Democratic leaders to never fear their own base — to the point where Democratic voters gave their presidential nomination to the candidate who authored the crime bill, allied with segregationists, championed the Iraq War, touted Social Security cuts, voted to let states restrict abortion, and sharpened bankruptcy laws.

So here’s the bad news: Because this dynamic allowed Democratic leaders to never feel the heat of accountability, they never wielded their power to make a serious effort to avert the current nightmare. In many cases, they did the opposite.

The Obama presidency was defined by initiatives to prop up health insurance predators, protect Wall Street criminals, and abandon promises to Democratic voters, which created the backlash conditions and depressed turnout that helped lead to Donald Trump’s ascent. The Biden presidency has been similarly defined by the party living up to the president’s promise that “nothing would fundamentally change” — and its attendant unwillingness to materially improve the lives of anyone other than billionaires and corporate executives, all while the administration boosts various right-wing causes.

The crescendo of this phantasmagoria has led to this grim reality: As conservative justices now turn on a spigot of extremist rulings, the Democratic president is giving half-hearted speeches pretending he has no power, and issuing reports declining to even support expanding the Supreme Court — due to concerns about protecting “its independence and legitimacy.”

For their part, Democratic congressional leaders are singing patriotic ballads while sending out fundraising emails. They expect yet another positive response from a base that up until now has politely asked for — but never really demanded — anything from them in return.

“Politicians Respond To Only One Thing — Power”
If you’ve somehow read this far, you are probably gut punched. But here’s the good news payoff for still being here: Yes, there are signs that at this dangerously late hour, normie Democratic voters may finally have had enough of this ****.

Last month, a stat buried in an NBC News poll showed that nearly two thirds of Democratic voters said they now want a candidate “who proposes larger-scale policies that cost more and might be harder to pass into law, but could bring major change.” Just a third said they prefer a candidate “who proposes smaller-scale policies that cost less and might be easier to pass into law, but will bring less change on these issues.”

Put another way: 63 percent of the party is finally radicalized, and just 33 percent are still clinging to the normie view. This might explain why a group of progressive congressional challengers recently overcame the odds and won their primaries, even against party leaders’ endorsements.

At the same time, A Fairleigh Dickinson University survey found a plurality of Americans no longer buy Democrats’ argument that they have no power to do anything — and that includes a quarter of Democrats and nearly half of independents. A full 50 percent of Democrats say President Biden has power to reduce inflation and health care costs.

Quinnipiac’s new poll also shows just a quarter of young voters approve of the way Biden is handling his job, and his numbers are similarly low among Black and Latino voters.

Taken together, this is empirical proof that core Democratic constituencies may finally be evaluating their party’s president on his actual record, rather than just mindlessly cheering him on because he’s wearing the blue home-team jersey.

This healthy attitude is starting to seep into popular culture. As one example: The Daily Show — historically the normiest of normie Democratic television programs — is now openly mocking party leaders’ refusal to do anything to stop the Republican onslaught. As Democratic policy wonk Will Stancil put it, that’s a sign that “anger at do-nothing Dems really has gone completely mainstream in a way that seemed impossible three or four years ago.”

If history is any indication, that’s good. Democratic leaders only did things like enact Social Security, create Medicare, pass the Voting Rights Act, and end the Vietnam War once they feared the electoral consequences of inaction. The same dynamic holds today: You can bet Democratic leaders will not fulfill their longtime promise to statutorily codify reproductive rights until and unless they feel the same kind of anger and pressure as their predecessors felt in their day.

That’s how democracy is supposed to work: We’re supposed to evaluate representatives not on their personalities or party affiliations, but on their records, and when they fail to deliver on their promises, those representatives are supposed to fear being denied their party’s nomination and thrown out of office by their own voters.

“Politicians respond to only one thing — power,” wrote Ta-Nehisi Coates back in 2011. “This is not the flaw of democracy, it's the entire point. It's the job of activists to generate, and apply, enough pressure on the system to affect change.”

That’s how the American Right ultimately brought us to this horrible moment: They conditioned Republican voters to actually expect and demand things, and punish those who wouldn’t deliver.

That same attitude is what’s needed from Democratic voters now — not just rage aimed at the conservative ideologues turning back the clock, but also rage at the Democrats who control the government today. Those elected officials must be forced kicking and screaming — against their own desires — to actually produce. Not tomorrow. Now.

Of course, many of us have been saying this for decades — and have been berated and belittled for doing so. But at least for a moment, it finally feels like we’re no longer alone.

If that’s fleeting, we’re screwed. If it’s enduring, then there’s still a tiny glimmer of hope.

Yeah, sure.

The Democrats should stop the sale of all guns everywhere; cure cancer; get the stock market up to 100,000; cause unemployment to be less than 1%; completely wipe out poverty; prevent any wars anywhere; raise the minimum wage to $40; make paid maternity leave for 1 year...and all the other things the screwballs of the far left demand.

After all, the only thing stopping them is the law...and the composition of the Congress, especially the Senate.

Jesus H. Christ. Is there anyone on the far right or far left with a functioning brain? Moderates cannot even get moderate policies passed, because of the staggering impediments inherent in the Constitution...yet these firebrands think they can get massive moves to the left enacted by simply...

...what????

I am to the left of Bernie Sanders in damn near every social question, but I am willing to live in the real world...on planet Earth. Those who want to spiral off to planet Utopia and live in Fantasyland should wake the Hell up and realize that the best way eventually to get there is to work hard at small changes on the way up the hill.

Robert Reich
@RBReich
·
1h
If Collins and Manchin feel betrayed by Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, they should join all senate Democrats to carve out a reproductive rights exemption to the filibuster and enact national abortion rights. Do it Monday.

@ninaturner
Replying to
@RBReich
Believe it or not, the Senate went on vacation until July 11th

Most of the "far rights" are actually moderate. Most of the moderates are left, and most of the left is actually far left. And far left is actually insane left. This is called Overton Window. And this is why everyone seems fucked up in the head, it is now acceptable to have delusional ideas.
Imagine a center, with left and right of it. Now if society gets sorta super-Christian capitalist, the overton window moves right. Being gay or feminist is equated abnormal, and being anything like the left today would get you locked in a mental hospital.

Today, thanks ro people like Bernie Sanders whi have pushed the envelope, the Overton Window has moved crazy left. You'd probably be considered right of center today, but years ago, you'd be left of center.



I won't pretend to claim that I used to be moderate and the window shifted away. I shifted away in response to crazy from the left. But I'm no way as insane as you think. I agree with you on what happens when you do all these things.

Most people in the world consider our left to be moderate or right of moderate. Our far left would be considered just left in most places. Our moderates are considered to be right or far right...and our far right is considered to be insane.

But if you want to feel otherwise...you can do that. A flat-Earther is given lots of room for their opinions.

reesAreLovely Retweeted
eh
@BethLynch2020
·
12h
2008: Vote for us we'll codify Roe, day one.
2012: no really, this time we will
2018: vote for us we'll enact Fed $15 min wage
2020: no really, this time, and we'll codify Roe
2022: if you don't vote for us we can't codify Roe, guys.

Lisa and the dirtbag left, PhD
@LisaA311
·
28m
Joe Biden from 1943 to 2019: I don't believe a woman has the right to choose

Joe Biden in 2019, running for POTUS: I believe in a woman's right to choose

Liberals: He has changed!

Remember during the Trump presidency when Joe Biden was campaigning for Republicans and Democrats just pretended it didn’t happen? Good times.

from somebody on Twitter
With the end of Roe and the upcoming privatization of SS, Joe Biden will get two of his biggest longtime goals by simply sitting back and watching it happen.

You're assuming he has consistent goals.

Even before his senility, he tended to change his mind, as you just demonstrated by example in the previous post.

Now he is not sure what he wants, and if he ever is, his handlers tell us that he didn't really say that. We have literally no idea what this so-called president stands for. He is literally the punchline to this country song.



Btw, liberals are fleeing liberal cities in droves. While it may also be to try to hijack Republican towns, it says volumes about what life is like in towns with woke laws.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/a-mass-exodus-from-the-democrats-america




The reason Roe vs Wade finally lost? It probably went too far. I subscribe to ACLJ (kinda the conservative version of ACLU), and they mentioned trying to nationalize Roe vs Wade. Instead, it kinda tanked.

Generally, if you want something in this life, shoving it down everyone's throat is a very losing proposition. Advocate for it in your own city, stay in your own lane. This is how to live in harmony with things.



Like Dahlia here (0:58 onward). You try and try again, but you fail because what you are doing inherently hurts other people.

Way to go, Bulma. You and Edgar's views are not that far apart. You certainly are aiming in the same direction. You and he should be able to reach accord on most things soon...maybe even get to where you seem like two peas in a pod.]

Adam McKay
@GhostPanther
·
13h
It’s amazing how a whole generation of liberals have been taught that “if you don’t have the numbers there’s nothing you can do.”

It's more like two similar notes on a scale. C might be in two different places, but multiple Cs can be played together to make a chord. Or whatever, I took music (singing and handbells), but I never learned too much musical theory.

I generally don't agree with edgar's politics, but the way he thinks is beautiful.

You and me are like playing two notes in Rick Roll.

Okay I get that. You keep telling him that you think the way he thinks is beautiful. He must feel that way about you, because you and he do think alike.



Grammatically it is "you and I" not "you and me." We (such as there is a "we"...are, for the most part, discordant.

Cool Dude (Xenoblade 3 Enjoyer)
@smtV_XB2
·
48m
Replying to
@thehill
and
@TheHillOpinion
I love the "try the same terrible idea for 30 years straight strategy"

I'm sure this time things will be different

Yeah, that is right.

The grammar rule is that you divide the sentence.

You goto the park, I goto the park, so you and I goto to the park.

But this is a casual sentence so whatever.