I mostly agree with this.
It is so tempting to go hard against the GOP and Trump - they are objectively awful and it seems like such low hanging fruit. But Biden needs to make an affirmative case. Policies on the website are as useful as “fact check at Hillary dot com.”
He has to use the debates to make a case. Health care, health care, health care.
Guys you are simply trying to maintain a narrative about Biden that is simply not supported by the facts. Took 5 min to google this.
Nobody is reading Joe Biden’s website. Nobody is hanging in for a 5 minute speech about immigration reform. Come on.
It’s hard to rip his strategy as he’s been a very consistent 7 point leader in the polls, but to the extent I think he should do anything differently, he should pound health care health care health care.
So you think the first thing they’ll pass (in the hypothetical D sweep) is immigration reform? Not trying to be snarky just wondering your opinion.
I’m honestly confused. He is releasing policy in text and video form and giving interviews. What is he not doing?
Wouldn’t bet on first but early yes.
Dude I legitimately have no idea what Joe Biden’s health care plan is. I can promise you that means literally 95%+ of voters also have no idea.
It’s not my job to figure it out. It’s his job to pound away on his best issue.
Literally that just says defend the ACA and preexisting conditions coverage. Not a plan whatsoever.
These are both solid messages. He just needs to hammer away at them more.
Some of Obama’s promises included reforming healthcare, ending subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, and raising the minimum wage to a living wage. With the first one, when there was a struggle getting it through Congress he made it his personal mission to get it done, thrashing out compromises, expending political capital, etc. I’m not saying the result was amazing, but there’s no question it was a big political priority for him. For the other two things, when Congress went “nope” Obama went “oh well whatcha gonna do”.
Which of Biden’s “policies” are in the first category there and which are in the second? I have no idea. He hasn’t made any policies front and center of the campaign. There’s no clear agenda. Getting things through the American political system is a struggle. There’s zero point putting up a list of random shit on your website and occasionally mentioning it in speeches if you don’t let me know you intend to fight for it. Otherwise, like fossil fuel subsidies, it’s just not going to get done if it’s something which is in opposition to the desires of capital and special interests.
“Build a wall and get Mexico to pay for it” did actually outline an agenda; Trump was saying that his core ideas are tough immigration policy, America First and telling other countries to go fuck themselves, and honestly if you look at what he has actually tried to do in office, that more or less covers it. What is Biden’s plan, his agenda, his vision for America? The answer is “steady hand at the tiller”, “dignified leadership”, “hey, remember Obama?”, etc etc. The answer for Trump contains broad policy ideals, what he intends to fight for. Bernie had an agenda, I was clear on what he was about as a guy. Warren had an agenda, I knew what she wanted to do. Biden has a list of random shit on his website, but no agenda. I have no clue what is a priority for him and what isn’t.
Access for all!
Carlins podcast is ok, last 15 minutes or so about the protesters is bad I feel he tries to see both sides on everything a little too much and probably follows lots of right wing news for balance but overall for a guy who hasn’t voted democrat or republican in like 30 years its interesting. Wonder how many of those people are coming over to our side? All the smart ones obviously but wonder if it’ll make an impact.
Also he just has weird views. Like his biggest issues are the use of nuclear weapons and the 4th amendment lol. But winning over a 50+ middle class white guy libertarian bro is a good sign. And fair play to him he had an episode about universal healthcare being clearly superior.
You keep saying you have no idea what his policy goals are and I keep pointing you to the many many speeches, articles, videos and tweets laying out his goals. You may not like his goals (e.g., healthcare) but stop saying they are not out there.
It’s seems like your beef is with Covid, not Biden, as he has literally done everything I can think of to release policy under the current conditions.
His main policy is “a steady hand and return to normal”.
Yeah it’s a bit hard to get angry at Dan. He’s a thoughtful guy who has views we disagree with. It’s not like he’s a right-wing grifter or deplorable.
Warren G. Harding won on that platform
And then died in office
#RIPBiden #Kamala2021
I think what Chris is observing is that Biden doesn’t have a signature policy like Trump’s wall, Bernie’s M4A, Yang’s UBI, and to a lesser extent Warren’s tax-and-regulate agenda.
That is definitely a true observation. However, it’s not clear to me that having a signature policy actually provides an electoral benefit. All of the candidates I just mentioned received fewer votes in their competitive elections.
A necessary condition for a signature policy is that it be bold and headline grabbing. That’s good for the candidate in some sense (like no one knows who Yang is w/o UBI), but it cuts both ways. Opponents can more effectively paint you as a radical, committed to bringing scary change to the lives of voters.
Chris brings up Obama and healthcare. That certainly became his signature policy in office, and maybe he was pounding the lectern Bernie style about it on the ‘08 campaign trail - I honestly don’t know, wasn’t paying attention at the time. All I remember from that campaign was the vague “Hope, Change,” messaging of the type Biden is running on now, except his is “Steady Hand, Leadership.“
“I’m going to defend ACA and your grandma with pre-existing conditions won’t lose her insurance” seems like a pretty simple message for Biden to hammer away at.
Biden’s problem on health care is his actual policy fucking sucks. Further, Obamacare sucks. It shovels limitless amounts of money down the throats of insurance companies, the individual policies suck, and people poor enough for the tax credits have zero chance of affording their deductibles.
This is why passing a GOP health care bill was and is such a disaster. If Democrats had FUCKING USED THEIR POWER and passed actual public health care, they could now run on it plausibly and people would actually be scared of losing a cherished entitlement. But guess what, people aren’t that scared of losing Mitt fucking Romney approved, tax credit based, unaffordable as hell health care.
People certainly do care about losing ACA
Meh, it’s enormously better than what we had before. Losing your insurance because the ACA gets whacked is dinner-table politics that millions of people care about, as we saw in 2018.