Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, a sign of the president’s strength in uniting his party to have the backing of one of its most liberal members
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, a sign of the president’s strength in uniting his party to have the backing of one of its most liberal members
How is Biden disappointing? Before he became President he gave every indication of being yet another appeasement-oriented centrist, but he's actually gotten a surprising amount done. Biden has ended up being far better than I expected him to be.
He literally called Cuba "terrorist" just a few days ago, and did the same for Xi a little while before that. He also kept in place all of trump's international sanctions, and even added new ones on top.
He seems to try really hard to be agitative, I don't understand how someone could see him as "appeasement-oriented".
Now imagine what he could accomplish if the people in this thread who complain so much actually went out and grassroots volunteered and got some progressives elected in their districts.
I'm pretty disappointed in the Inflation Reduction Act that actually prints a trillion more dollars.
We need inherent change in the government, we need congress to get off their asses and create good bills. We need to get away from the 4th branch of government.
Not print a trillion more $ that goes to government subcontractors and the top 1%
If you'd told me we could virtually eliminate Russia's army and remove them as a competitor on the world stage for a couple billion bucks with no american troops in 2020 I would have taken that deal any day.
Before I start, let me say that Biden absolutely has my vote, because the alternative is the end of our democracy.
I'll also say he's away better than I thought he'd be.
But here's how he's a disappointment:
He failed to appoint an attorney general that would give us a special prosecutor to go after Trump for the most egregious case of Obstruction of Justice in the history of the country, as laid out in the Mueller report. This was a matter of national security, should have been the first set of indictments against Trump, and should have happened a couple years ago.
Student loans. Our economic engine requires a strong consumer class... Right now two generations of Americans are drowning in debt, and can't buy goods and services from other Americans. It's hurting EVERYBODY. Biden should be aiming to erase ALL student debt. Instead he's taking half-measures that leave the United States still in crisis. And that's BEFORE we talk about how weak his attempt to do this was, from a legal standpoint.
Healthcare. We are still in crisis. The ACA was supposed to be a first step. Instead, it has been the only step, and Republicans continue to attempt to chip away at it. Why hasn't Biden put out a universal healthcare plan? Or at least a public option? How can we ever make progress when he won't even be the standard-bearer for these ideas?
The Supreme Court was captured by fascist theocrats. Any future moderate (to say nothing of liberal) laws will be struck down by these assholes. Why is Biden not talking about packing the court until it once again reflects the values of the overwhelming majority of Americans?
I could go on, but the jist here is that the United States is in absolute crisis, and like Hillary before him, Biden is the "nothing will essentially change" or "incremental change" candidate. Not acceptable during an emergency.
Hasn't legalized cannabis on a federal level and considering his career long stance on the war on drugs, I don't really expect that he ever would support legalization.
Any single-winner system is inherently flawed, which is why presidential systems are just straight-up worse than parliamentary ones. They're by their nature going to be less representative. A system where the president is largely a figurehead is far better, along with a legislature which is elected proportionally using something like Mixed-Member Proportional, Single Transferable Vote, or party-list PR.
But failing that, the bare minimum to call your system democratic is to use Instant Runoff Voting. First Past the Post is just straight-up not democracy. It's a farce. The idea that two candidates with similar views both being very successful actually makes it less likely that either will win is an obvious complete failure of the system. (And, fwiw, you could have IRV presidential elections for a powerful POTUS while also improving congress by making it proportional, if you want to go a step further than just making Congress & President both using IRV, but not as far as the fundamental constitutional change required to make the president a figurehead.)
And how do you expect us to do that, revolt? Because it turns out elected officials are reluctant to make significant changes to the system that elected them from which they profit handsomely.
A parliamentary system with fully proportional representation would be best. The US is big though, so I think an electoral threshold of 4% may be needed. That, or require parties to fulfil the below condition before being able to participate in elections.
• They need enough support through party membership from the area's population, as a % of the latter. On counties, this would be about 4%. On a state level, that would be 1%. On a national level, 0.25% would be enough.
You might think, why lower with each level? But the larger the population size is, the smaller the membership can be while remaining representative. This also stimulates smaller parties since now they have a chance to actually grow.
Electoral districts also need to be thrown away -- counties, states, and the entire country, are where the elections get held in. Because of proportional representation, it doesn't matter however you were to divide up areas: 25% of votes on one party means 25% of seats.
Lastly, force the Democratic and Republican Party to break up into separate parties with each no more than 20% of all seats. Or tell the parties that putting through with proportional representation as an agenda point will give them more votes. The Dems can argue, "One man, one vote", the Reps can argue "America NEEDS to keep it Great! Vote the Dems away, get Proportional!". Both should have this as agenda point.
I also think it critical that the supreme court of the US isn't 7 judges. It worked for a country with 2 million people, but you lot are a country of 300+ million now. You need something like 100 members, and make the supreme court appointed by the judges themselves, who are chosen by multiple random ballots themselves.
The US Congress also could be expanded. Make the House go from 435 to 500 members, and the Senate to 250. They need to be updated for a big country.
It also makes it harder to manipulate politicians, since there are far more needed to bribe.
I have a whole writeup, if anyone is interested. I think that both Dems and Reps and anyone else can find themselves in it.
My only real misgiving with Biden is age, but I do still agree. With how crazy and dangerous Republicans have become however, we can't afford to take any risks. We don't just need to beat them, we need to beat them by the largest margins possible. We need to send a sharp condemnation. Biden's incumbency advantage is indispensable for this.
You really don't have any additional misgivings about a man who sold out the people of the United States to the credit card companies for a few measley hundreds of thousands of dollars, and who cosponsored a large percentage of why our student loan crisis is as bad as it is? There is a reason that all predatory credit entities are based in the state he represented for his entire political career. He doesn't get a pass after decades of being a predatory corporate shill selling out the American people. How can the Dems not be capable of fielding literally anyone remotely electable if they weren't competing opposite truly garbage candidates like Desantis and Trump? I have the same question for the Repubs, for fielding Desantis and Trump. And neither side actually solving abortion rights, gun rights, healthcare, etc when they hold all 3 branches because they are all afraid of losing their major wedge issues, without which they aren't confident they can win elections.
The problem is really that the whole system is fucked up.
Elections being about "the lesser evil" instead of voting FOR what you actually want is just horrible - no wonder so many people are losing faith in democracy over there...
What exactly has Biden done wrong? He may not be as crazy left wing as you'd prefer, but really I don't see why so many on the left are saying he's so bad
Although I think Biden has overall done a good job I am disappointed that they're running someone who is 80 years old. I would also like to see a general shift to the left, but at the same time I realize that the increased political division in the US makes this unlikely in the near term.
He ran on getting kids out of cages and there is still a giant open-air prison for refugees on the border. He busted the railroad union. Those are two pretty big issues for the left. He's further right than Obama, and probably futher right than Nixon, if you compare their platforms. Fighting fascism by moving further right is a really bad way to fight fascism.
How is RFK Jr. the primary opposition? I know he wasn't, but it feels like he was put there by the dem establishment as a threat. When I'm feeling like I would support any other democratic candidate to run in place of Biden, this barely younger absolute crank leans in and goes 'anyone?' Ah fuck, let's go dark Brandon... if i have to... I guess.
it feels like he was put there by the dem establishment as a threat.
Hahahahahaha, no. He's been entirely enabled by those on the right and their hangers-ons in the podcast dork-o-verse. He's an entirely artificial candidate that only appeals to the fringe 5% or so that would have otherwise voted for Nader, or Jill Stein, or Kanye West.
I think he was actually bankrolled by Bannon and the like. I'm not sure why they thought a far right loon like RFK would weaken Biden. Like you said, his candidacy feels like a purposeful Biden advertisement.
For real. Even as a white guy, I’m tired of this shit as well. Wish we could get someone younger and more progressive on the ballot. It’s time to get those old ducks out of office. They have no grasp on how shit really works these days.
I agree, but generally a party will back a sitting president of that party, additionally division of the Democratic party is what caused trump's election in the first place.
I wonder if she's being groomed to be the next candidate. I would like that a lot, but what the Democratic needs right now is unity, because the Republican party is very divided.
She's probably being groomed for House leadership. She has a relatively safe seat and seems willing to put the work in being a good representative. However, to do that, she needs to build the caucuses that she is in.
If the Democratic party needs unity when the Republicans are divided, when exactly would dissent ever be acceptable? Seems like this is just a pitch to always be unified, which in turn means never challenging the party establishment.
She understands that we are under attack by a global RW fascist insurgency. Keeping the GOP out of the WH will save democracy in the US and around the world. Any GOP winner would stand back and allow the russian terrorists to take Ukraine and beyond.
Yes, this is why we must unequivocally support the guy who couldn't get any laws passed to protect against said RW fascist insurgency. The guy who can't get his own party to pass voting rights expansion. The guy with no plan to counter the hijacked Supreme Court, and who has steadfastly refused to develop one. Yup, this is the guy that'll stop American Fascism.
The choice is between guy we don't like and aren't that excited about, and literal fascists. If you have a viable, shot in hell alternative, glad to hear. If not, you're doing the work of the fascists.
Jimmy Carter did-- Ted Kennedy challenged him for the 1980 presidential nomination. The result was them doing so much damage to each other that the ultimate winner of the primary (Carter) came out battered and bruised, giving Reagan the edge he needed to win the general. And we all know how well that worked out for the planet. (Spoiler alert: horrifically.)
That was "moderate" party leaders trying to sabotage a progressive at any cost.
That fucked America up reeeeeeeally badly. But the people who decided to do it got what they wanted: an excuse to tell voters that progressives can't win.
Biden wasn't my first choice in 2020 and I really wish he was younger, but he has done extremely well as President so far. If he wins again and stays healthy, I have almost no concerns he will continue to get things done.
Unfortunately you're displaying your ignorance. Biden has zero influence on the currently-ghastly Supreme Court. In fact given how little actual power a President has here, Biden has accomplished a lot, despite the razor thin Democrat majority (and Manchin! and Sinema!) in the Senate.
I disagree with what he did in the railroad union, but to say he's destroyed unions is a bit of a misnomer. Other replies have already explained how stupid the second part of your comment is, I don't need to add to that.
People don't understand the importance of this endorsement. AOC is considered as the next generation. Most 16-24 yr olds agree heavily with her and would identify closer to the left.
If Democrats play it smart, they could hold a majority for 10-20yrs. We are seeing swing states lean more blue than red ( Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Arizona, and Virginia). This is a huge problem for Republicans bc they always relied on these states to combat large democratic states.
The issue is that this might not matter much in the short run anyway. Democrats have been playing well at the national level, sure, but they don't seem to notice that Republicans have figured out that state sovereignty means they can just have fascist fiefdoms rather than coast-to-coast national-level fascism. I don't see Biden or Harris putting their foot down on a state if shit gets real bad - hell, Florida literally passed a law allowing CPS to take kids from out-of-state parents and nobody at the national level so much as said boo about it.
Believe me, I understand Republicans have gerrymandered a lot of states but those states are fighting back. Look at Minnesota, they have a democratic majority for the first time in years. They have been pushing progress programs left and right that benefit everyone.
My point is that Democrats should stand united behind Biden. This will show everyone that they have two goals, combating corruption and pushing for legislation to better others' lives. If they attack a red state then Republicans will use that for years. It will feed into the "they're coming for your guns" crowd.
Democrats need to continue pushing progressive reforms and nominate a good candidate in 2028. Win more senators' seats and flip the house back. Then go after corrupt judges.
The fact that the majority here is okay to settle with a mildly dissapointing 80 year old, just so the other "evil" side doesn't win is a bit disheartening for the state of US politics and democracy.
And this is comming from a politically shithole country I am born and living in.
Trump has all of Bidens issues AND he's a fascist idiot. Trying to say he's in any way better than Biden just shows either how uninformed you are in American politics, or you think people like Trump are attractive candidates. If it's the latter you may want to take a look at the type of people who, in your own words, are making your country a "political shithole".
Thank you! The "evil" in quotes is what did it for me. We don't need the quotes. Trump and their side right now has no redeeming qualities and shouldn't be in charge of an airport Starbucks. This isn't a choice between slight differences in policy, this is "do you want to vote for nazis, or no?" Oh, I know about Godwin's law, how boutcha google that and see how he feels about it.
I am not even remotely saying that, and I wasn't even refering to a specific Republican candidate (least of all Trump given the latest events). Personally, I preffered Biden's policies last election, however this is not at all relevant to the point I was making.
Failing to see Biden shortcomings over Trump (or any other candidate) and vice versa is just a reflection of how black and white your view of politics is. Keep in mind that half of your country voted for the oposite candidate of your liking, and labeling them all as fascists is hurting you the most.
I am looking at my country as well, it's not like it's an exclusive thing you can have an opinion on. Keep in mind that the current people on position in my country are actually appointed by the American democracy police, so what happens on your side of the pond has some impact on my end as well.
It took me a second to figure out why you called Biden a fascist but I came to the realization it's because that Biden wanted to relieve student debt which is considered a socialist policy and that for is considered an extension of fascism. But that's not the problem that most people have with fascism coupled with the fact one can be a socialist without being actually fascist. The aspect everybody is more concerned about is the totalitarian side that tends to be with a true fascist. The water is easily muddied by terms.
She wouldn't win, at least not yet, we've got to drift more to the left as a country to have an election she'd become President in. And if not Biden who? Who should run for President that has a chance of actually winning the election? It's easy to piss on them selecting Biden, but no one else is a viable option. You want more younger options to vote for, run for office yourself, get your friends to run for office, can't vote for young left leaning politicians if they don't freaking run and win elections.
You know that the "evil" have no idea what he's doing half the time right? He has zero clue as to what he is actually doing. He is saying a lot of shit but in reality he has no idea what the fuck is going on.
Trump is one of the few presidents that actually has no idea of how to govern at all. If that don't scare you then I have no freaking idea what will.
At least Biden understands the political prosses and how things work. And also he don't take cases of files with him so he can brag about how the US had plans to attack Iran..
Age notwithstanding, any incumbent president in the last 50 years would be absolutely overjoyed to run for re-election with Biden's record; tons of new blue-collar jobs, strong economy, relative lack of major fuck-ups or controversies or other drama except manufactured RW ragebait. Basically everything swing voters want and nothing they don't want.
Nor is there any real reason to fret about base turnout, given that liberals will view the Republican candidate winning as apocalyptic and show up simply to vote against that person, however disappointed they may be in Biden and whatever performative statements they make about their votes not being guaranteed.
The campaign needs to see to make Kamala Harris digestible. More than with most campaigns, the way she is viewed is immensely important due to Biden seemingly able to keel over at any moment.
The only major fuckup was the failure of student loan debt cancellation, and the pullout from Afghanistan. But arguably the latter wasn't his fault, as it had been put in place before he was in office.
Military-wise, the pullout of Afghanistan was a huge success. The Russians lost 535, the British lost 16,000. On top of it the United States evacuated 250,000+ civilians in 3 weeks who were never part of the pull-out. Many think of it as a failure but it was the largest humanitarian airlift effort in human history. If there was a fuckup it occurred in 2020 when Trump told the Taliban they can have Afghanistan. That is where everything fell to pieces.
From abroad at least Biden seems like a very poor candidate. As he's chosen to stand again the dems have little choice but get behind him or risk a devisive primary season splitting the party.
But the republicans look set to select a very poor candidate too. It says a lot about how broken US politics is that were probably going to see a rerun of the last election with two elderly candidates battling it out in a deeply divisive and particularly polarised election.
The election will basically come down to how many people don't like Donald Trump. That's not great.
If we weren't stuck in the two party system, we'd absolutely have a much better candidate.
We can stop pretending he's accomplished. Our nation is still extremely divided, and it's getting worse. Our economy is okay for the top 60%, but we still have insane opioid crisis, homeless crisis, housing crisis and the bottom 40% are not better off. They are fighting against inflation, while being told that they just need to suck up $5/gallon gas prices. Inflation seems to be getting under control more, and the Ukraine response was decent. He did okay.
I wish. Ranked voting would be phenomenal. It's obviously more democratic. Makes no sense not to have it. But politicians are dirty corrupt pieces of shit.
I think we'd need a parliamentary system to end up with anything more than 2 parties being relevant. The 2 party system is sort of hard-wired into the way the house and Senate work. Ranked choice could have some cool effects on party primaries, though.
I would rather vote for a bird. Yes. Birds should govern the US! Imagine.
To all seriousness AOC would have lost by so insanely amounts. Let's hope she and more of the liberal parts of the democratic party gets tractions. Getting young people in those positions would be great.
Keep in mind that the more power we give up to conservatives now, the less likely it is that you'll ever have a chance to do that further down the line. Aoc is backing the future of the world right now, but also her political future. The last conservative presidency did a LOT of damage to this country, if only by installing the justices who would go on to overturn Roe V Wade. She doesn't want to see more of that damage, and neither do you.
"we're under a fascist insurgency and we must ensure that the GOP doesn't gain the White House, this is why we must vote for a politician who refuses to do anything to prevent this insurgency from gaining strength like expanding the court or making abortion available on federal land and who refused to use their constitutional authority to prevent giving the House GOP any concessions on the budget/debt ceiling"
Anything else would do nothing but make chaos, it's a really bad look if your own party doesn't back you anymore. Same with the VP, a president dropping their VP would also be a really bad look.
Cry all you want about "old white guy" but for this election he's the shoo-in. Yeah he's too old, I think so too, yeah I want a real progressive. But damn it all, he's done pretty great stuff and damn the democrats for not shouting about it more.
For a party to primary their own president, that would signal nothing but weakness.
I'm an ideological purist and I'm voting for Jill Stein! This won't backfire in any way!
AOC is being smart/practical. Is Biden anyone's first choice on the left? Fuck no. We can have some more ideological purity when the choice isn't between milquetoast and literal fucking fascists.
Biden wasn't even my third choice in the '20 primary. That said, he's one of the most legislatively accomplished presidents in modern history. Still zero chance I'm going to be excited about voting for him in '24, but who has a shot at beating Trump right now? is maybe the guy that already did?
It might be a minus. in your eyes, but look at the other candidates we have for the Democratic Party. None of them are anywhere near as appealing as Biden. I'm saying that as some one who voted for Bernie in the primary before, and would flock to vote for AOC. And no, Marianne Williamson is not who I want for president given some of her questionable history though I would happily vote for her at a local level if the other person is a conservative or even a moderate.
Even if there were an alternative, it wouldn't matter. Parties whose incumbent get primaries do not go on to win the general. Whether you like it or not, the choice is Biden or the GOP and we are too close to fascism to fuck around.
I also honestly think he's been the best president we've had since FDR. IRA, Chips, Green Energy and infrastructure bills have all been gigantic successes. DOJ is charging trump. Unemployment is lowest in decades. It's really only his age that is concerning, but it's not concerning enough for me to risk the future of the country with someone less experienced and less equipped for the job.
In principle I agree, but splitting the Dem vote is a good way to lose an election. Biden is a compromised candidate, but still leagues better than another 4 years of Trump. Fact is there's no real chance of a younger president until 2028. Which is depressing.
I appreciate that we were on the precipice of fascism and still are scarily close to the edge, Biden was absolutely the right person and has done an ok job, all things considered. But he was past his prime in 2020 and he’s well past his prime in 2024. And Harris needs to get the boot too, she’s been absolutely worthless in a position that’s gotten more prominent these past two decades. If it’s Trump v Biden, I’ll absolutely vote Biden, but I’d vote for a rabid squirrel over Trump anytime, so that’s not saying much.
I've gone the opposite way and actually watched RFK's interviews and stances. At this point I'm much more likely to vote for him than any of the other clowns in the race.
He's not an anti-vaxxer btw, that's just some bullshit his opponents spread. He's for vaccines, he just looks at how other European countries are testing them and our comparatively extremely high mandates for vaccines.
Saying “I’m pro-vaccine, I just believe the vaccines are causing an "autism holocaust" and we should let parents skip vaccine schedules because vaccines are actually just poison” is just being anti-vaxx but with a veneer of libertarianism.
And to be clear, I’ll entertain the libertarian arguments against mandates (they’re not convincing imo, but that’s a conversation for another day), but RFK is absolutely not arguing that position in good faith. He has inadvertently caused preventable deaths worldwide by advocating for fringe pseudoscience.
Biden is pretty unambiguously awful, and only looks good against any Republican. AOC is doing the right thing here, but long-term we have got to get rid of these cobwebheaded oldsters and move on to the next generation, or the generation after.
When we do, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be a good choice.
Hes outlawed collective bargaining, put it into law that oil and gas must get more land than any renewable energy, accerating climate change with a trillion dollars for more roads and cars. Low wage earners? Never in American history have they been ignored for longer than under Biden. His promise to fix the flaw in the affordable care act that makes sure millions of the lowest earners specifically can recieve no medical coverage? Not even written into a bill to be considered in the first place. Inflation has ran ahead and left people like me behind, my life is worse now than when he first took office.
the policy of the United States is to encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining and to promote equality of bargaining power between employers and employees
If you're referring to the Railroad workers, see this comment by BrandoGil
put it into law that oil and gas must get more land than any renewable energy
Please post a source indicating any sort of mandate that oil and gas "must get more land". From here
The Biden administration will resume federal oil and gas leasing in June with a large reduction in acres available for drilling and a historic royalty rate increase.
and
eliminated 80% of the federal acreage originally nominated for competitive leasing (473 of the 646 previously identified parcels) following environmental review.
right, but it's been going on for much longer than that, it's just more egregious the longer that is, so now its most egregious under him. Also, no plan to address this in his future as far as he's said, and he wont even work on stuff he has said he would
And the portion of the Infrastructure Bill requiring Oil and Gas get first dibs on any federal land being leased, go here and ctrl+f for sec. 50265 " ENSURING ENERGY SECURITY" where they outline how at a minimum, tens of millions of acres of federal land has to be auctioned to oil and gas first.
Yeah, I'm not a Biden fan by any stretch, but he went way more left than team I thought he would, and has been very effective on a number of issues.
I'd rather have almost any other prominent Democrat, to say nothing of an actual liberal, but I can live with 4 more years of Biden. He's the only realistic candidate in the party. No one was going to win a primary challenge against him.
There is no progressive that could win the primary anyway. The risk the establishment is guarding against is about damaging Biden. I don't feel confident about his chances against anyone but Trump, but there just isn't an alternative politician with the strength to challenge him as an incumbent. He simply hasn't been bad enough for weakly ideological primary voters to vote against the incumbent and the names with the biggest progressive gravitas already lost against him last time without that hindrance.
Systems broken, it’s her only option. If she endorses a progressive challenger to Biden she is basically saying she wants trump or desantis to be the next president. I am sure she is aware of this
Vote in more progressive candidates to congress and the house so that actual electoral reform has a hope of passing. The small contingency they hold is pointless from a legislative standpoint but promising in terms of growth over the past decade and a half or so. The more bodies we get in there the more actual shit might happen; but unless we displace neolibs and conservatives these stupid games will continue to be necessary
maybe, but there's no way there isn't a huge overlap between them
like i'm supposed to believe that the majority of people who liked AOC in 2020 supported Bernie in the primary, and now the majority of people who like AOC are saying Biden is too old, but these are totally separate groups of people with barely any overlap
I thought Biden and Bernie were both too old in 2020, but people could entirely consistently consider 78 (Bernie 2020) "not too old" and 81 (Biden 2024) "too old". Both of them have gotten older since Bernie was being considered for the role of president.
If someone big declared (AOC included), the party would have to run a primary, because arbitrarily shutting them out would be more damaging than debates and internal dissent, but all the big names know they couldn't win a primary and would only hurt Biden in the general so they're falling in behind him. As long as it's joke challengers like RFK Jr. and Marianne Williamson though, they can scrap it without worry.
2028 would be the earliest that she would be viable on one condition. If millenials and Gen Z voted Democratic nearly 100%. Ideally, this should happen because that would mean 2-3 red states and every other state is blue. So, we're going to have to wait for 2032 at the earliest or 2036 for AOC to have her time to shine. I'd gladly vote for her.
I think they know she can't win right now. No real progressive can yet. They need to build up her record more and let more of the old neo-libs die off first.
Bullshit. It's because they don't want a real progressive to win. They did everything they could to keep Bernie from winning when he ran. The left wing of our government is further right than the right was 50 years ago, and the DNC will do whatever they have to do to keep it that way.
Yes she could, she has the most support in the Democratic Party, much more than Biden does because Americans relate to her, no one except old boomers relate to Biden
Endorse someone else and cause the democraric vote to be split and ensuring a fascist victory. I mean that's kinda what happened in Weimar Republic with the Communist Party refusing to work with the Social Democrats.
It’s a fair question asked in a dark time for our nation.
I guess my answer would be: do anything but fall in line with corporate Dems. Publicly demanding a primary since Biden reneged on yet another campaign promise of being 1 term would be a good start.
Because Biden isn’t working for the people, he works for his corporate donors. He won’t take action to materially improve our lives, and we deserve better leadership than that. We deserve a progressive who will beat him in the primaries and begin to right the wrongs of neoliberalism.
Justice Dems like AOC falling in line will not further that cause, and it makes me sad because I had hoped for more from her.
tbh he is doing more than I thought an old politician like him would do. He ain't a Bernie Sanders, but he really seems to actually try to pull the country into the right direction. We can argue about whether he could do more, but I wouldn't call it inaction.
For anyone who wasn’t previously convinced that AOC was a simple Dem operative rather than the socialist she was masquerading as, here you go. No serious socialist would back the reelection of an old white dinosaur who broke the rail strike’s back the way Biden did. The fact that DSA didn’t revoke her membership after that is a black mark on them as an organization.
After months of negotiations, the IBEW’s Railroad members at four of the largest U.S. freight carriers finally have what they’ve long sought but that many working people take for granted: paid sick days.
This is a big deal, said Railroad Department Director Al Russo, because the paid-sick-days issue, which nearly caused a nationwide shutdown of freight rail just before Christmas, had consistently been rejected by the carriers. It was not part of last December’s congressionally implemented update of the national collective bargaining agreement between the freight lines and the IBEW and 11 other railroad-related unions.
“We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
“We know that many of our members weren’t happy with our original agreement,” Russo said, “but through it all, we had faith that our friends in the White House and Congress would keep up the pressure on our railroad employers to get us the sick day benefits we deserve. Until we negotiated these new individual agreements with these carriers, an IBEW member who called out sick was not compensated.”
IBEW stands for international brotherhood of electrical workers. They have a division of electricians that work on railroads. I dont know why this guy keeps getting quoted as some head of railroad workers. Thats also one of the unions that voted in favor of the contract with no sick days, it was actual rail worker unions opposing it that were planning on striking before Biden decided workers dont get to strike.
Listen, I'm thrilled that the workers got their sick days and credit where credit's due to anyone in the admin who helped secure that, but that doesn't make my point inaccurate. The Biden administration helped deny railroad workers their right to strike. That counts as breaking the back of the strike, even if after breaking their back they turned around and gave them (at least part) of what they were asking for. Breaking strikes via a literal act of Congress is a deeply upsetting, dangerous, and anti-worker move. Full stop.
In contrast to the IBEW statements you've quoted up above, look at the contrasting tone from the RWU in a recent Jacobin article:
RWU made crystal clear by our words and actions throughout contract negotiations that, while we were of course in full support of seven days of paid sick leave for railworkers, RWU would never be in favor of any legislation denying railroad workers our human right to withhold our labor when all else fails in our struggle for safe working conditions and dignity, regardless of whatever concessions may be dangled.
RWU was and is in favor of any legislation that would grant any relief to the barbaric working conditions we contend with — but we would never concede our right to strike. We thank Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the House of Representatives and the Senate for their votes in support of sick leave. But we are not happy at all with her or others in both chambers who voted to deny railroad workers the right to strike.
What do you want her to do, split the vote? I agree Biden sucks, but shit, he's at least better than any GOP alternative. The real solution is for the DNC to stop pushing crusty old white fucks.
This. We can worry about progressive politics in 2028, but right now we have to focus on defeating fascism, and Biden is currently the best candidate for that.
Before "splitting the vote" there is democratic primary, where you are supposed to "split the vote" to select the best candidate. Although, my political inclinations are such, that I would chose Biden over her. But I am afraid that if anyone, but Tramp, were to run against Biden, then GOP candidate would win, simply because they are younger.
What I want to see is for her and anyone else calling themselves a socialist to work to be a socialist power outside of the Democratic Party. The DNC is rotted to the core by the money and influence of the capitalist class in a way that, if not irreversible, is hopeless in the short to medium term. Just look at all of the explicitly capitalist Democratic leaders, including younger ones like Buttigieg.
If you want to pursue socialism, the DNC is the wrong place to do it. Hell, looking at history I think putting eggs in the electoralism bucket is fundamentally flawed. Look at the failed German revolution that helped make room for the ascension of the Nazis thanks to “socialists” making extreme compromises and undercutting socialist revolutionaries to instead work within bourgeois political parties.
I thought I replied to this message, but it doesn't appear to have posted.
I'm thrilled that the worker's got sick time and credit where it's due to anyone in the admin who helped make that happen. It doesn't change the fact that the admin, with the help of AOC and others in Congress broke a strike. That's a terrible, dangerous, anti-worker precedent to set, and shame on anyone who voted for it and Biden for signing it.
If I ask someone for $20 bucks for lunch and they kick me in the shin before giving me the money, am I supposed to be thankful and forget the fact that they just kicked me in the shin? Congress kicked workers in the proverbial, collective shin by blocking them from their right to strike.
Without disagreeing with you on message, I have a request to adjust delivery of such. Please consider leaving personal attacks on reddit, not here in fediverse.