Biden’s going to suck and immigration is an issue where Dems are especially terrible; I don’t think anyone disagrees with that sentiment.
The Stimulus bill was pretty damn good imo. I see all my client’s bank statements and seeing that $7,000 or whatever hit their account when for months it hadn’t been above $2,000 or so ever has to be a big deal to them. Same with the infrastructure bill. If they pass that it will have real world positive effects on pretty much all Americans. So you are right it isn’t all bad.
Stuff like the refugee thing is weird though right? Like what is the possible thought process there? What does his admin get out of breaking that campaign process? I really don’t get it. I could say the same about restarting the wall. It doesn’t make sense to me.
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Agree with this. It’s why it’s so important progressive voices don’t let up. Call your representative often. Someone joked earlier that if Biden is anything he is pliable. This is something that needs to be leveraged at every chance.
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I think it goes to one of Biden’s existing fatal flaws. He still has this galaxy brain idea that the GOP can be compromised with and if he gives them a few things they will reciprocate. He somehow still doesn’t understand it’s now a zero sum game and the other side is playing a scorched earth strategy while eDems think it’s some kind of collaborative effort where everyone wins.
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I actually read the pliable thing as a statement of fact and I agree with it. The refugee thing is proof. Biden and Trump are very different in that regard. Trump loved the outrage and thrived on it where this shows me Biden can be shamed into doing the right thing.
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Sorry again for being an ass yesterday. Some of these things put my lawnmower into absolute orbit and my first instinct is to just lash out at anyone I see remotely excusing it.
When I calm down I tend to realize pretty much everyone here is all on the same side of all of these issues even if we have different ideas on how to get there. So it’s a disagreement on tone or timing or tactic rather than a fundamental argument over whether we think there should even be kids in cages. Of course we all think there shouldn’t be. The disagreement is over how we get from Trump’s hellscape to that point and how fast is reasonable.
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And of course this might be the right take too. He might hope we forget and do nothing. Hopefully not.
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Thanks. Totally agree. Now three months in, every day it’s not fixed it starts looking more and more like a choice not to fix it.
I suspect part of the reason is sadly most Americans just don’t care that much about immigration and immigrants.
He claims he will be “by May” which sounds a lot like “in two weeks”.
This is one case where I see no reason for why it takes time. This number could be raised today. The 15,000 limit is morally reprehensible. Every day it remains is a stain on his presidency.
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The whole point that causes so much contention here is you are completely correct about some policy issues but completely wrong for others, as we illustrated a few posts up. When you write it as if it’s true of his entire worldview it reads as disingenuous.
Is there any possible benefit to not do it? That’s the part I don’t get. He isn’t going to lose a single voter raising it and he may lose some by not so it can’t be electoral math. My deep suspicion has always been that Biden was, in his earlier years, a racist and some of that still exists today and may be driving the bus on immigration and the refugee issue. I mean were non-racists really for school segregation and paling around with KKK members in the 70s? If it isn’t that I can’t make sense of it at all.
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I’m confused. He is proposing raising corporate taxes.
He is a 78 year old white man in America. It would be very odd if he wasn’t a bit racist. That said, I don’t get the read he makes these decisions out of hate for immigrants. It really feels like his bizarre version of compromise mixed with his general worldview of incrementalism over broad change.
I am just trying to make sense of it. I can’t come up with a rational reason on this refugee issue. That’s why I’m grasping at anything.
This is where these discussion get so frustrating Johnny. You started out saying Biden told “corporate interests not to worry”. Then I pointed out he is raising corporate taxes. Then you respond not enough.
This version of the discussion can never have a resolution.
Corporations strongly oppose his proposed tax increases. They are worried.
Are they going to solve wealth inequality? Of course not. Nobody thought they were. They are however a move in the right direction.
Ok let’s assume you are correct. Did anyone anywhere think Biden was going to overthrow the system? You don’t get to act surprised or disappointed about an absolute sure thing.
When you have someone like Biden in office it’s not some kind of compromise to celebrate moves to the left, even if they are smaller than you would like. It’s recognizing the reality of the world you live in.
99% of the people on this forum would swap Bernie for Biden. So what. I see zero value in that discussion.
I don’t want you to stop complaining. I am complaining too. I want people to be fair and honest about their complaining. If your complaint is in the form of “not enough” state that. Don’t make the argument in the form of “not at all”. That happens all the time here.
This nails our fundamental disagreement! 
Sure but I’m 100% on record for demanding more with every lever we have access to. I just don’t see why acknowledging some progress in some areas is counter to that. In fact, I could argue it furthers that goal.
Sure but not to put to find a point on it but they are just empirically wrong.
Johnny’s gay marriage case is a good example. He is questioning if that was progress? Millions of people getting the protections of the law. Being able to be with their spouse on their death bed. Being able to collect death benefits.
If that is not progress then the word has no meaning.
Sure you can say “but trans people don’t have those same rights” and you would be right. It doesn’t take them away from the other people who won them through decades of fight.
This is what is boils down to. When I say any progress is progress I am making an empirical claim. That claim is not refuted with a rhetorical claim that said empirical progress is “not enough”. Said progress is still empirical fact.
My position is that any empirical progress is good but we should never stop using the rhetorical tools of demanding more.
Some people seem to think the rhetorical demand for more somehow negates the empirical progress. This is where I get confused.