Due to recent events, I’d like to strike this previous message from the record.
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Disagree with ‘A.’ Our world dominance is declining, so yeah I guess the “empire” part declining is right, but there’s no reason for standard of living of average citizen to decline.
This is the best, and most balanced summary, I have read about the debate we have been having.
In summary, Biden has been surprisingly open to progressive policy but there are dangers and warning signs (e.g, minimum wage).
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We were having a really great discussion until the same people who always do decided that had to stop.
I admit, I’m guilty of not letting it go but to be perfectly honest I am not apologizing. I really value the debate here and learn a lot from it. I love having my ideas challenged in a good faith way. For example, I’ve recently shifted my views on policing solely from this forum.
We have decided to have a near zero modded community which allows their trolling to thrive. I was simply not willing to let them win by ensuring real debate cannot occur. That is their goal. You’ll notice they never post articles, or data, just declarations designed to enflame. It’s not an accident it’s by design.
Anyway, I was chatting with my girlfriend about this and it’s not fair to the community for me to take on the role of unappointed moderator. They are not going to stop trolling so I have decided to abide by “do not feed the trolls”. I won’t engage them again.
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Looks like Biden is going to keep Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which Trump did before he left office. Can’t even go back to what him and Obama did but keeping Trumps designations LOL
This seems like political games due to the latinx shift in south Florida during the election. Has Cuba engaged in anything remotely terrorist in decades? Seems idiotic.
Biden has basically moved right on 95% of things. I’m not even sure that is debateable. The exceptions are just that, exceptions.
I have a friend who literally has “Biden fan” under his FB profile picture and was a mega Biden stan during the election including the primary who is now posting post after post saying how disappointed he is with all of the same things we are discussing.
Eta-looks like he has now deleted “Biden fan” from his profile lol.
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I’m curious did you look at the article I posted this morning?
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Not yet. I disagree with the premise under the article though. I think Biden has been pretty predictable and most of us have been predicting a lot of what has happened since before he was elected. I will check it out.
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Cool. I’m curious for your thoughts.
You should read it before disagreeing with the premise though 
What is the outlook for a median 25 year old today compared to a 25 year old in 1980?
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The main premise of this 4,000 propaganda fluff piece is that he’s progressive because he’s more willing to spend money? And wow the big plan to pay for all this is to raise the corporate tax rate back to 28%? And that he’s more willing to listen to progressives because he has no actual views and just wants to make everyone happy? And he’s finally come to believe that we–at the very least–shouldn’t be completely ignored anymore, because it could hurt him politically?
Sorry but that ain’t gonna cut it. Not a single word about immigration, foreign policy, military spending, income inequality, police reform, sexism, or racism in the entire article? These are the things that seem to get the most chatter in this forum and this writer completely brushes them aside while talking about progressives like they’re nothing more than a small annoying group that just need some lip service from time to time.
It’s just not enough and I don’t think painting Biden as some kind of hero or god forbid progressive is the correct path forward from here–even though I do believe–like you–that he has done some things worthy of praise.
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I generally agree with your comments but why do we need to position every single discussion as 0 or 100%? I thought the article was pretty balanced pointing out where he has shifted, why (political expedience and pressure from the left) and where he has wimped out or even shifted right.
There is no way to read this as propaganda. It makes a pretty balanced argument in my opinion. It largely gives credit to the left for forcing Biden’s arm which is the most important take away.
Forcing him to do what exactly?
Shift left on any number of topics.
Right but when has this really happened. I will concede the stimulus bill was good but $600/pp and min wage was stripped out. What actual concessions to progressives has Biden made? There isn’t really even one in his cabinet is there?
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Shit’s exhausting though. Like, it’s taxing enough to daily watch the republic develop new cracks and threaten to collapse for four full years, and now that “our” side won, or at least the side we’ve been hoping against all hope would win won, we now need to once again perpetually outraged about everything including, like, legitimately beneficial legislation that is quite a bit more progressive than anyone here would have bet four months ago?
I mean, sure, I get that we’re not yet a socialist utopia, and that basically nothing Biden has done or will do will move us appreciably in that direction, but doing some good things can be good, too. I can’t really stop the perpetually outraged from being so, and there’s more than enough injustices new and old to find reason to be. I also get the people who want to tune out completely for a spell, and then come back when ready to be outraged again, because being outraged all the time is taxing. But, like, if you’re in one of those camps, can you maybe extend an olive branch on behalf of the emotional state of people who desperately feel like they want to notch a win? Maybe it’s not a big one. Maybe it’s not ideal. Maybe it doesn’t even push us towards that ideal in a incremental way. Is there anyone here who expected any of that from Joe Biden? I hope not. But if someone wants to feel a little better about something that makes people a little better off, even without overthrowing our existing paradigm or ending greater injustices, can we maybe just let them, at least sometimes and without having to point out the obvious caveats?
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Ties in with the anger issues.
I agree with Johnny that now is the time to keep pushing Biden. He is clearly willing to bend at little so we should all be adding our leverage in any way we can.
An extension of my argument from yesterday about accepting he has shifted left on some issues is how do we get him to do so more? It seems like some praise for those shifts would be a piece of that plan.
This is very obvious and yet doomed to failure as a point of discussion here.