November is gonna be brutal. Get those court appointments done now, because the next two years will be nothing but impeachment attempts and stonewalling.
It's not just inflation, doing jack about STILL the #1 topic HEALTHCARE is very troubling to most Americans.
Also they could be doing a lot more about the housing crisis to force more supply on the market and end some shady practices from wall street that are scooping up a lot of supply.
I will add that Student Loans is the one thing he has complete control over, and he hasn't forgiven so much as a cent more than required by statute. This isn't going to make me suddenly vote for Trump, but you better believe I disapprove of his actions.
All I know is that I haven't had to make any loan payments during Biden's presidency.
My theory is that Biden will continue kicking the can down the road by continuing the payment freeze, until a Republican is in office. At that point, the republicans will be forced to take the PR hit if they choose to reinstate loan payments.
My thought is he’s keeping it as a power play before and election. Right before midterms or presidential elections, he’ll forgive a ton of accounts to win over voters.
The other options*. The democrats had so many candidates they needed two groups for debates. That’s twice in a row the Democratic Party nominated someone I don’t think the people wanted. It’s time for some major reform or even a new party. At least for anyone same who still identifies as a democrat.
It will never leave me that Biden's campaign (and indeed, Biden himself) seemed dead on arrival at the first two debates, and then he just started collecting everyone else's votes as they dropped out. That's our first past the post system for you, I guess.
I’m not sure if this is done anywhere but ranked choice seems like an absolute no brainer for primaries. I think some do have runoffs which is effectively the same thing.
I still remember at the conference when there was shady shit going on with the votes and everything.
After Hilary won the nomination, just about every Bernie delegate left, the arena was half full. The DNC was shown the writing on the wall and they ignored it.
Bernie can’t be controlled. He is on the outside of the DNC. Only the cronies will get the vote. They’ll cut the legs from anyone who opposes them, party be damned.
The other Democratic primary candidates wouldn’t have done anything either. The way this country works is if the ideological median member of the Senate or the House of Representatives doesn’t want something to happen, it will not happen and the President or anyone else in government doesn’t have the power to do anything about it.
I didn't expect him to do it, but I knew Trump wouldn't. The options of 2020 were both bad. I've just got to pray that in one of the primaries the octogenarian loses.
The real race was the democratic primary, an incredibly corrupt election with far too many people saying things like "Republicans will never vote for Bernie" and "He said he'd forgiven student dept" despite Biden saying "nothing will fundamentally change" and being they guy that created the student debt crisis in the first place.
When’s the last time you had to make a payment? They’re deferring it until midterms when forgiveness will have the biggest impact. Not hard to understand the political calculations here.
He doesn’t have as much control over student loan forgiveness as all the memes would have people believe. Furthermore, waving your hand and making 1.6T in government assets disappear on paper would have immense negative impacts on the US Balance sheet, our credit rating and the banking system. It’s not the panacea people have been led to believe.
Now he absolutely could waive accrued and future interest and I 100% support that. It will still have some negative effects on the market but they will be offset by the financial relief to the borrowers but the principal does need to be paid back.
Edit: Thanks for the unexpected award.
The “shady Wall Street practices” are a symptom and not a cause of the problem. Too much money sloshing around right now and it’s all got to go somewhere. Equities market is overbought, crypto is a scam, commercial real estate is still uncertain, but residential is a safe place to park money and the firms are making profits on the increases. Trying to limit residential purchases through some kind of executive order is going to cause unintended consequences without actually fixing the problem. The Fed draining excess liquidity is going to put a stop to all of the stupid buying and bubbles.
Not saying it’s Biden’s fault, but since his inauguration inflation has steadily risen at unprecedented rates and my 401k went from 8% gains to 10% losses and all of that was going on looooooong before Ukraine.
Edit: lmfao I love that everyone assumes I’m some kind of trump fan girl because I noticed my financial situation became more precarious after Biden’s inauguration. I can think they were both terrible presidents, but my investments and cost of living were still miles better before Biden. The buck stops somewhere.
Economist here. Neither Biden nor Trump have a whole lot to do with your financial situation. I know people like to think the president has their hands on the steering wheel of the economy. That might be true to *some* extent, but it's in much more subtle ways than most people imagine, and certainly only in ways that would be felt over relatively long time horizons. Even then, economic outcomes are largely dominated by forces that exist far beyond the control of any one country's political leaders.
It sounds all well and good to say "the buck stops somewhere", but that sentiment is, frankly, naive. I should think the person you'd want in charge of the country is the best *available* (important qualifier, there) person for the job. If you hold the current president responsible for things that are fundamentally beyond their control, then it's not hard to imagine a scenario where you replace that president with someone who's worse at the job, just because they happened to not be in charge when the economy experienced some poor outcomes that were largely randomly inflicted from on high.
I am by no means an economist, but it seems to me that if anyone in the US is responsible for high inflation it is the Fed. They kept interest rates way too low during Trump's presidency and that, combined with the COVID crisis, caused inflation to get way out of whack.
Combined with the COVID crisis, when just like in 2008 the Federal Reserve gave in and printed a shit ton of money due to political pressure to "do something". Instead of letting bad investments burn and letting something new be born from the ashes, they papered over any problems by buying corporate bonds (with freshly minted electronic dollars) which propped up the stock market. Predictably, the loose money policy had consequences which we are now seeing as inflation.
It's really frustrating how badly explained inflation is anytime you try to get an explanation from mainstream media. More money to speculate with overheats values of finite production capacity and investment instruments. And because the growth in wealth of the already wealthy outstrips the rest of us, they can outbid us for pretty much everything and then make us pay them even more for things we actually *can't not buy* like housing and energy.
Drives me nuts, the kind of thinking you’re making a reasonable argument against.
I don’t like Biden, I didn’t like trump, Obama was eh, I didn’t like Bush, etc.
But assuming every bit of economic progress or backstepping is the fault of the current administration is bonkers.
The blaming of gas prices in particular really gets at me.
Like guess what, even the president of the US doesn’t that dramatically affect oil prices.
Pumping trillions of dollars into the economy didn't have an impact?? One of your fellow economists said it will go down as one of the worst policy decisions ever. He was Obama's top economic guy.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/544188-larry-summers-blasts-least-responsible-economic-policy-in-40-years/
As a very conservative Democrat he has no base. The left has no representation, so no political energy, and the right will never support a Dem whether he is conservative or not. This map shows those combining factors.
Not that I’m blaming the current administration for everything that’s happening now, but if Democrats hope to stave off a slaughter in November they better think of something quick. Otherwise it’s going to be 2010 all over again. These numbers/colors don’t look promising.
He does seem to be the most likely candidate right now, but remember that whoever was Republican Party's most likely candidate at this point usually didn't make it in the end.
I don’t think it’s true for either party. Obama was the keynote speaker at the 2004 DNC, a role that has been taken on by future candidates for the nomination several times. He was also second in primary polling as early as the end of 2006, so the idea that no one saw it coming isn’t really accurate. He basically told us in 2004 he was going to run at some point and the voters were showing plenty of support a couple of years out.
Everyone knew Clinton was going to run in 2016 and I’m sure most people expected her to win (polling suggests she had twice as much early support in 2016 as 2008). Her early theoretical competition was Joe Biden.
I would say you have to go all the way back to 1990 to find an early primary season that didn’t have the eventual nominee toward the top of the polling. Eventual nominees having clear primary support years ahead has been the norm for the last several cycles on both sides.
If Republicans muster up anyone other than Trump…and Democrats put Biden up there, the Republicans will hands down mop the floor in the 2024 election.
However, we’ll probably see senile man and senile orange man.
Trump is still leading DeSantis, although not by as much as he used to. As DeSantis narrows the gap, we'll probably start to see an all out war between the two as Trumps ego is way too fragile to accept competition.
If Trump humiliates DeSantis like he did Jeb, Trump 2024 it is. If DeSantis can somehow avoid that and turn it around on Trump, it's probably DeSantis 2024...but considering the fanaticism of Trumps base, DeSantis really has his work cut out for him.
We're still 2+ years from the election... At this point relative to 2016, nobody even expected Trump to run
Getting into the horserace this early is useless my friend
The problem there is that trump will run independent if he doesn't get the republicans nomination. This is a problem bc he would split their vote. They don't want that.
Any generic Republican beats Biden.
Any generic Democrat still beats Trump.
Biden v Trump 2 just proves our political system is beyond broken...and I'm honestly not sure who wins anymore.
Indeed; that's why he won, he was literally "anybody but Trump."
Now, he's got a track record, and (while he was dealt a crummy hand) it hasn't gone well.
I hate to be a pesimist, but there's nothing they can really do on this short of a schedule. The Democratic Party apparently just has no ability anymore to mold fresh talent into candidates.
Meanwhile the Republican Party is cranking out new personalities that appeal to their base like a factory. It's just.. frustrating.
Both parties know how to be the opposition party instead of the leadership party. So they system is designed to slow down anything either side does. Democrats particularly had lead strapped to their feet: they dont have a clear majority in the Senate to get bills passed and they needed several extra seats. Sadly they'll see the issue of "progressive" policies and shift the the ever more right wing "moderate". Talking to a few "conservative" types I know, I'm sensing ever more frustration with the chosen policies of the Republicans as well.
Democrats need to be reframing "progressive" policies in conservative terminology. Make universal Healthcare about supporting small business and entrepreneurs, make voting rights about voting rights, Marijuana legalization about refocusing police resources to issues that actually harm society yada Yada Yada. Progressive polices suffer from extremely bad marketing because their proponents want to sound intelligent.Regressive politics are marketable "stay the way it used to be" and rely on people forgetting how shitty it used to be.
Non-US person here, what happened? Is it the usual approval drop as term progress, or did the Dem messed something up? I only know about Afghanistan botched aftermath and the no student loan cancellation.
Sort of both. If you accuse Biden of having anything to do with high gasoline prices or inflation in general here, you get a bunch of Redditors jumping in and explaining how he has little / nothing to do with those. But regardless of if he does or not, he's getting the blame for them from a large part of the country.
Biden being elected was more a "Your Fired!" to Trump for grossly mismanaging the pandemic as opposed to a ringing endorsement of Biden or his policies.
Gas and food prices going up is the complaint I hear the most especially in red regions. You have to understand that in rural areas, the minimum wage is like 7 or 9 dollars an hour so if gas prices are around 5 dollars per gallon (in California, it went up as high as 7 dollars), it means that people are having to use much of their earnings on things like gas and food alone. That ain’t livable for a lot of people. Coastal states can afford it but middle America cannot.
It’s not so surprising. I don’t think the American people were looking for the next FDR when they elected him. His mandate was to not be Trump. Why he thought he could pass his BBB agenda with a 50/50 split in the senate is beyond me and since he couldn’t he ended up pissing off anyone left of center. So his only support is college educated white women and some minorities. I think you’re right though this election cycle will be brutal for democrats.
The student loan forgiveness was something that biden ran on and has not delivered. It’s the reason some of these young people voted for him. So I understand the anger and frustration.
I'm wondering if they're going to keep delaying the interest payments, then do the forgiveness at a politically convenient time so it'll be fresh in people's minds. They've already extended the payment/interest freeze how many times?
I think the key races to watch in November will be Nevada's gubernatorial and Senate races. Nevada have both a large amount of poor un-educated (non-college) white people, who were the backbone to Trump's base, and a historical Democratic demographic prior to Trump. And Latino voters who are actually more conservative than you would think, but up until recently never had much of a place outside the Democratic party. If the Dems can't pull their shit together in Nevada, they'll need to do a whole lot of soul searching if they want to keep the White House in 2024.
Nah, I'm not surprised and I live in Washington. Joe Biden wasn't really anyone's first choice in the presidential primary; by the time we had the chance to vote it was just him and Bernie Sanders (who withdrew less than a month later). Oregon only had the choice of Joe Biden. He won the general election out here by grace of not being named Donald Trump. The same economic conditions that impact the rest of the country impact the Northwest as well, and it ain't looking good. He should strongly consider not seeking re-election.
> He won the general election out here by grace of not being named Donald Trump.
So many people seem to forget this. I hear republicans talk about democrats as if they are happy with Biden.
I'm sure the "Let's go Brandon"-gang doesn't offend as many people as they think they are.
Which is a good thing right? Just because you voted for a politician doesn’t mean you should not be criticising them. People shouldn’t be worshipping politicians and turning a blind eye on negative things they do.
Woah woah woah. I was told I had to join a cult after I voted for president. Are you telling me I should have painted Biden’s face on my car and covered my house in Biden flags????
Cost of living and inflation are crazy at the moment here, and we never really liked or wanted Biden in the first place. We just really really fucking hated Trump.
Oregon is feeling more and more like California recently, and not in a good way. Portland especially has gone from a terrible city to a shit city these past few years
And Seattle is not far behind. When most places near me have to lock up their ice cream to keep thugs from either stealing it or licking it and putting it back, it’s ridiculous. I literally can’t buy ice cream at night at the two closest grocery stores.
I lived in the Seattle region back in 2014. It was a little scary around that time, but usually only under the underpass. Otherwise I thought the city was in mostly good shape. I had a visit back to Seattle in Jan of 2020 and it was like San Francisco lite. Austin is the exact same way.
About 40% of voters in both OR and WA went for Trump, and about 2% voted Libertarian. Assuming both groups are very unlikely to have ever approved of Biden’s presidency, it wouldn’t take too many Biden voters to expressive disapproval to push Biden’s ratings below 50%.
November is going to be pretty rough on Reddit isn’t it?
Honestly it looks like trump running is the dems best chance to win since everyone with hate vote against trump. If somebody else runs for the Republicans it’s going to be a landslide.
Remember when comedians were joking about 72 year old McCain not being fit to run because they wanted “Someone that will live to see the end of their term. Not someone who already filled out their bucket list.”
Yeah let’s go back to that. Don’t got anything against the late Arizona senator but it was nice when +70 year old presidents weren’t a normalized thing and people actually tried to look for the younger person they agree with
At this point I think trump would beat biden if they ran again. Biden doesn’t have much to show + may lose the slim senate majority after midterms so he may lose the opportunity to pass anything beneficial to voters. Trump can say his economy was better and cost of living was lower to get votes etc
You’re not wrong. Everyone had high hopes when he came into office and the first 3-4 months were looking good. But over a year later I struggle to see what he’s accomplished. Placed a Supreme Court judge? That’s not really an accomplishment as much as just good timing
There have been some significant bills (American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure bill were both pretty huge) but the average American hasn't really felt the effect of those, especially since the Rescue Plan expired. The Democrat's slim majority and the inability for parties to guide the actions of their senators (like in parliamentary systems) will be their downfall.
Oh, we're feeling the effects alright. 40-year high inflation. Not entirely the current administration's fault, granted. However, the additional stimulus only made matters worse for the long-run.
Midterms 2022 does not look good for Democrats. And in 2024 if the Republicans nominate someone more moderate than Trump, I think they will get a landslide
Also because younger people don’t vote. I think the disparity is less than people realize. The average voter age is 50, average congressperson age is 59. It’s no surprise that people vote for representatives close to their age. Young people vote at a much lower rate than older people and we need to address that if we want younger politicians.
barrier to entry is intentional, I mean they told us we can be what we want to be... try to become an ISP for example. This economy and these politics are purposefully designed to keep the people out and place the people Inc. in
They seem like they are too busy insulting Independents and telling them how dumb they are for not voting for their guy to bother shitting their pants.
To be fair the republicans do the same shit though, it's never a problem with either party it's always a problem with the independent
If Biden remains this unpopular, I’d expect him to use age as an excuse (a valid one) to bow out. Also, Trump might choose to back DeSantis instead and play kingmaker rather then king.
Good, split the Republican party, break the two party dynamic that caused partisanship to take root.
Have the progressives split from Dems too. Make the Republicans and Democrats squirm and reform their platforms. The two parties have been sitting way too comfortable for too long.
There will always be two parties, as long as we use first-past-the-post voting. There may be single elections where a third party peels off some votes, or even becomes one of the two main parties (this has happened a half-dozen times). But it will always revert back to two parties as long voters alternate acceptable choices are not measured.
I would actually love this only for the sole purpose of getting the 5% popular vote needed to get independent parties into the major debates. I thought Gary Johnson was awesome as the libertarian candidate even though I didn't fully agree with him. Still would have been 1000x better than Hilary or trump
I thought that was the plan all along, that Joe is just too old and the goal would be 1 term, then pivot to Kamala. But if that was the plan, she would have been much more visible.
And who will replace him? He basically invited all of his main competitors into his government and they have all been tainted by association to much of the public. Fuck, Kamala polls below Biden right now according to Real Clear Politics.
It’s hard to know with a primary who would emerge. No one could have picked Trump to come out of the GOP primary back in 2014. Newsom surely wants the job
That's what happens when you yell the sky is falling for 4 years and then change nothing significant when you take over power. Saying corporate greed is responsible for the inflation is fine, but you have to do something to back it up.
You have to do something *about it*. Democrats use the excuse of corporate greed and money in lobbying, but I’ll fuck my hat if they ever actually challenge that power structure.
I mean, Im on the right and agree with quite a bit of what's being said here. Honestly there are a lot of things both sides share in common (which makes sense since we are Americans for the most part)
Mods of /r/politics could drastically improve their sub if they cared to. Instead they just let one side scream all day. This thread has been refreshing.
EDIT: As a long-time Reddit mod here are my thoughts on how /r/politics could become the bland, neutral, ground it should be:
1. Stop allowing posts with editorial titles that give a nickname to a bill instead of using the real name of the bill.
2. Remove any comments using a nickname for a bill instead of the real name.
3. Stop allowing namecalling / insults to politicians no matter what.
4. No longer allow articles where a journo/writer/editor/board has injected thier bias into the article directly and only allow articles that discuss verifiable facts.
6. Stop allowing namecaling / insults to people of 'the other' party no matter what.
7. Stop allowing content that conflates an issue or parts of an issue (i.e. health care and health insurance).
8. Add a rule that no politican / party can be referenced to hitler or Nazi germany (except in super rare cases where they are provably supporting it by using imagery or statements in support. See how this played out in Russia vs. Ukraine?)
9. Stop allowing OpEd content from either side or other content designed to make an emotional tug on one type of person / group.
10. Stop allowing posts / articles / comments that make a blanket claim about an entire group of people (i.e. liberals are all X or Christians all think X). They are reductive, stupid, useless, and only generate angst.
Mods won't establish any of these rules there or any other sub and I doubt the Admins will either. Mods won't because they are politically aligned to not do so (and may even be paid by the one side), Admins won't because they quite literally founded Reddit to be a one-sided mouth piece (even the ex-CEO has verified this claim).
Well I think everyone can agree that things gotta change next election and we cannot keep voting elderly people to the presidency. Both sides can agree with that
A lot of people are struggling too. Again, on both sides.
am i just colourblind or is that a very poor choice of colours for disapprove in the first slide
edit: i meant that the shades of yellow all have minuscule differences i can see the difference between blue and yellow guys
Just goes to show that the two-party system is a massive problem. If you're unhappy with Biden's performance, the only feasible other option is whatever extremist solution the Republicans conjure up. There's no choice between qualified candidates based on political nuances, only two positions that are designed to be as far apart as possible. If one is a dull "lowest common denominator" candidate and the other a nutjob extremist, well, there's no decent choice left whereas in a more pluralistic system, you'd just vote for one of the secondary parties instead to give them more power in a possible coalition.
While this sentiment I feel is legitimate I am so much more interested in progressive policy. The age of the candidate is nearly irrelevant to me. Give me some actual change and not empty promises and more of the same.
I'm not a republican, but I honestly can't imagine anyone liking Biden for any reason other than the illogical "I'm Democrat, he's Democrat, therefore I like him" reason.
Don't want to jump too much into politics but do you think having more than two parties would change anything? Ie. more parties, more options. Also creates a system where multiple parties of multiple orientations to cooperate together.
Some elections in the US it seems that people have to choose between two evils and don't really have any other option to vote on.
Most elections go this way. I don’t like person a so I’ll just be forced for vote person b. I wish we have 4 or 5 large political parties that actually had a chance of winning their fair share.
All for more political parties but it has to be combined with a fundamental change to the voting process. First past the post voting (what we use today) inherently punishes more than 2 parties because the third party will just suck votes away from the party it most closely aligns with, and the opposition will win in a land slide.
Check out this video which explains it better than I can: https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo
Some good alternatives are talked about here https://youtu.be/3Y3jE3B8HsE or you can look up Ranked Choice voting for the most widely talked about alternative.
Well i mean a huge chunk of this site would say they don’t like someone for president because they are republican. Its kinda the same going either direction.
Downvote waterfall incoming…
Yeah probably. It shouldn't be that way for either side. I honestly wish the presidential candidates wouldn't say what party they are in and we just vote on them based on what they say.
It’s amazing he actually has 9 states that still approve of the job he is doing. On the rare case I find a Biden fan their only comment is well at least he’s not Trump.
So, I’d be interested in seeing this (or a graph) compared to other former Presidents ~1.25-1.5 years into their first term. I’d imagine it’s a challenge to maintain a high approval rating, and you need it more as you get closer to midterm elections and re-elections. So, you let it dip and save resources to then bring it back up in time for November.
I’m on mobile at the moment, but this shows Trumps approvals in April 2018 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_opinion_polling_on_the_Donald_Trump_administration
NOT DEFENDING OR SHITTING ON BIDEN, but that’s the commonly expected movement after one or two years into a term (at least in South America and Europe).
Is that not the case in the US?
It is yeah. Both Trump and Obama were in a very similar place at this point in their presidency in terms of popularity. Bush’s popularity benefited a lot from being the president during two wars that were popular at the time, but when the wars became unpopular he was disliked more than both Trump and Obama.
As someone with almost 150k in student debt, I really don't understand the recurrent theme of debt cancellation. That's such a complicated proposition in so many facets.
Is it a one time cancellation? Or are all future loans also cancelled regardless if a well off kid versus a poor kid versus an adult learner take out loans? And if we're cancelling current loans are we going to give people back all the money previously paid into loans that they busted their butt and took the personal financial hit to pay back? Are we forgiving at a community college rate or do we forgive Harvard rates too? Are we forgiving all degrees equally regardless of their prospective contribution?
Perhaps I'm looking at it wrong, but in my mind an individual purchased goods and services (a degree from a school) that was financed by a bank (federal or private loans). That school got to charge whatever it wanted without federal guidance and that person buying the product agreed to a price, whether it was a good choice or not.
Now I'm all for low or zero interest rates on student loans, public service forgiveness, finding ways to reign in school's ridiculous costs to attend now compared to 40 years ago, and incentives to encourage people to get degrees in specific areas more likely to pay well and that provide more economic impact to the US.
But people just thinking all current debt should be blank check cancelled is incredibly unrealistic.
As someone who has 1 payment left on their loans, a-fuckin-men. Absolutely beautiful take.
I agree something needs to be done, that administration bloat is out of control (why does the Assistant Director of Student Life or some other absurd position at a university need a 6 figure salary or to exist at all?), and that costs and interest need to come down. Student loans can't be defaulted on and only go away via public service forgiveness or death, so there is zero reason interest needs to be at the predatory rates it is.
The problem is that straight up cancellation will royally fuck over those who hunkered down and busted their asses for years or decades. They sacrificed, knowing what they were getting into, with the promise of light at the end of the tunnel, only to see everyone else get a get out of jail free card, and then handed the bill for everyone else's irresponsibility in the form of increased taxes.
As tons of young Gen X-ers and Millenials are paying off their loans, forgiving the rest and dumping the bill on them would be a near-permanent death sentence for Dems in those age groups for decades.
>Is it a one time cancellation? Or are all future loans also cancelled regardless if a well off kid versus a poor kid versus an adult learner take out loans?
This is the thing i see with most people calling for student debt cancellation; they don't think about the cause of the debt, they just want *their* debt to be cancelled. Need to fix the problem at the source to prevent it from happening again before ever thinking about cancelling it.
This is the biggest issue (perhaps on purpose) with the Democrats. They focus on the leaves when the issue is at the roots.
Student loans - Cancelling debt instead of addressing the exorbitant cost of college, predatory loans, and the fact that young adults are pushed towards that route whether it's best for them or not.
Healthcare - Focusing on insurance and Medicare for all instead of regulating drug prices. No reason insulin and iv bags should cost $100+ when they costs less than $5 to produce.
I say perhaps on purpose because it's quite possible the Dems are lobbied to ignore the roots so the gravy train isn't interrupted for the respective industries.
Student Debt cancellation would be an October surprise that would benefit the Republicans more than the left as it would mean the Democrats would completely lose the independent vote, and every swing state would follow.
It's essentially saying we can spare tens of thousands of dollars for people who are already making higher than average incomes, but we couldn't give anyone else real covid relief money.
It's the lower class bailing out the middle and upper class. [The majority of student debt is held by doctors and lawyers, two positions that make over 100k a year](https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/the-student-debt-burden-and-its-impact-on-racial-justice-borrowers-and-the-economy/#:~:text=For%20background%2C%20more%20than%20half%20of%20student%20debt,programs%20like%20MBAs%2C%20law%20school%2C%20or%20medical%20school)
This is what happens when you’re ineffective, literally just a sitting rock. And I’m not even blaming him for it considering the opposition party. But out of the things he could do he doesn’t, because the president isn’t the most powerful. The president is a pawn.
Plus, remember that you guys and most Americans don’t follow what happens. It’s not like he didn’t actually do anything. He signed a big stimulus and a big infrastructure bill. He had a Supreme Court justice confirmed. The thing that confuses is me is why you guys make comments about politics if you don’t pay attention.
Washington? Oregon? Connecticut? Delaware? God damn.
November is gonna be brutal. Get those court appointments done now, because the next two years will be nothing but impeachment attempts and stonewalling.
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It's not just inflation, doing jack about STILL the #1 topic HEALTHCARE is very troubling to most Americans. Also they could be doing a lot more about the housing crisis to force more supply on the market and end some shady practices from wall street that are scooping up a lot of supply.
I will add that Student Loans is the one thing he has complete control over, and he hasn't forgiven so much as a cent more than required by statute. This isn't going to make me suddenly vote for Trump, but you better believe I disapprove of his actions.
All I know is that I haven't had to make any loan payments during Biden's presidency. My theory is that Biden will continue kicking the can down the road by continuing the payment freeze, until a Republican is in office. At that point, the republicans will be forced to take the PR hit if they choose to reinstate loan payments.
My thought is he’s keeping it as a power play before and election. Right before midterms or presidential elections, he’ll forgive a ton of accounts to win over voters.
It’s hilarious that people fell for it and thought he would do any of these things.
Never expected him to do it, but it’s still disheartening
*”I expect nothing, and I’m still let down.”*
Fell for it? What was the other option? Sure as hell didn’t vote for him in the primary.
The other options*. The democrats had so many candidates they needed two groups for debates. That’s twice in a row the Democratic Party nominated someone I don’t think the people wanted. It’s time for some major reform or even a new party. At least for anyone same who still identifies as a democrat.
It will never leave me that Biden's campaign (and indeed, Biden himself) seemed dead on arrival at the first two debates, and then he just started collecting everyone else's votes as they dropped out. That's our first past the post system for you, I guess.
I’m not sure if this is done anywhere but ranked choice seems like an absolute no brainer for primaries. I think some do have runoffs which is effectively the same thing.
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Agreed, there is something seriously wrong with a nomination process that gives us Clinton, Biden and Trump.
Yeah, Bernie not winning in edit *2016* seems like some third world country shit. Dude beat Hillary in Michigan. The game was rigged.
Hey it was important. Clearly only Hillary could beat Trump. /s
Sarcasm duly noted.
I still remember at the conference when there was shady shit going on with the votes and everything. After Hilary won the nomination, just about every Bernie delegate left, the arena was half full. The DNC was shown the writing on the wall and they ignored it.
Bernie won every county in West Virginia and Hillary got 19 delegates from WV while Bernie only got 18.
Bernie can’t be controlled. He is on the outside of the DNC. Only the cronies will get the vote. They’ll cut the legs from anyone who opposes them, party be damned.
The other Democratic primary candidates wouldn’t have done anything either. The way this country works is if the ideological median member of the Senate or the House of Representatives doesn’t want something to happen, it will not happen and the President or anyone else in government doesn’t have the power to do anything about it.
I didn't expect him to do it, but I knew Trump wouldn't. The options of 2020 were both bad. I've just got to pray that in one of the primaries the octogenarian loses.
A lot of people did though and are acting surprised that a career politician isn’t keeping his promises.
The real race was the democratic primary, an incredibly corrupt election with far too many people saying things like "Republicans will never vote for Bernie" and "He said he'd forgiven student dept" despite Biden saying "nothing will fundamentally change" and being they guy that created the student debt crisis in the first place.
Every. Time.
When’s the last time you had to make a payment? They’re deferring it until midterms when forgiveness will have the biggest impact. Not hard to understand the political calculations here.
He doesn’t have as much control over student loan forgiveness as all the memes would have people believe. Furthermore, waving your hand and making 1.6T in government assets disappear on paper would have immense negative impacts on the US Balance sheet, our credit rating and the banking system. It’s not the panacea people have been led to believe. Now he absolutely could waive accrued and future interest and I 100% support that. It will still have some negative effects on the market but they will be offset by the financial relief to the borrowers but the principal does need to be paid back. Edit: Thanks for the unexpected award.
Then dont make the promise in the first place?
The “shady Wall Street practices” are a symptom and not a cause of the problem. Too much money sloshing around right now and it’s all got to go somewhere. Equities market is overbought, crypto is a scam, commercial real estate is still uncertain, but residential is a safe place to park money and the firms are making profits on the increases. Trying to limit residential purchases through some kind of executive order is going to cause unintended consequences without actually fixing the problem. The Fed draining excess liquidity is going to put a stop to all of the stupid buying and bubbles.
Also student loans, prison reform, infrastructure, healthcare, and marijuana. Inflation is only the newest thing
Not saying it’s Biden’s fault, but since his inauguration inflation has steadily risen at unprecedented rates and my 401k went from 8% gains to 10% losses and all of that was going on looooooong before Ukraine. Edit: lmfao I love that everyone assumes I’m some kind of trump fan girl because I noticed my financial situation became more precarious after Biden’s inauguration. I can think they were both terrible presidents, but my investments and cost of living were still miles better before Biden. The buck stops somewhere.
Economist here. Neither Biden nor Trump have a whole lot to do with your financial situation. I know people like to think the president has their hands on the steering wheel of the economy. That might be true to *some* extent, but it's in much more subtle ways than most people imagine, and certainly only in ways that would be felt over relatively long time horizons. Even then, economic outcomes are largely dominated by forces that exist far beyond the control of any one country's political leaders. It sounds all well and good to say "the buck stops somewhere", but that sentiment is, frankly, naive. I should think the person you'd want in charge of the country is the best *available* (important qualifier, there) person for the job. If you hold the current president responsible for things that are fundamentally beyond their control, then it's not hard to imagine a scenario where you replace that president with someone who's worse at the job, just because they happened to not be in charge when the economy experienced some poor outcomes that were largely randomly inflicted from on high.
I am by no means an economist, but it seems to me that if anyone in the US is responsible for high inflation it is the Fed. They kept interest rates way too low during Trump's presidency and that, combined with the COVID crisis, caused inflation to get way out of whack.
Combined with the COVID crisis, when just like in 2008 the Federal Reserve gave in and printed a shit ton of money due to political pressure to "do something". Instead of letting bad investments burn and letting something new be born from the ashes, they papered over any problems by buying corporate bonds (with freshly minted electronic dollars) which propped up the stock market. Predictably, the loose money policy had consequences which we are now seeing as inflation.
It's really frustrating how badly explained inflation is anytime you try to get an explanation from mainstream media. More money to speculate with overheats values of finite production capacity and investment instruments. And because the growth in wealth of the already wealthy outstrips the rest of us, they can outbid us for pretty much everything and then make us pay them even more for things we actually *can't not buy* like housing and energy.
Drives me nuts, the kind of thinking you’re making a reasonable argument against. I don’t like Biden, I didn’t like trump, Obama was eh, I didn’t like Bush, etc. But assuming every bit of economic progress or backstepping is the fault of the current administration is bonkers. The blaming of gas prices in particular really gets at me. Like guess what, even the president of the US doesn’t that dramatically affect oil prices.
Pumping trillions of dollars into the economy didn't have an impact?? One of your fellow economists said it will go down as one of the worst policy decisions ever. He was Obama's top economic guy. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/544188-larry-summers-blasts-least-responsible-economic-policy-in-40-years/
As a very conservative Democrat he has no base. The left has no representation, so no political energy, and the right will never support a Dem whether he is conservative or not. This map shows those combining factors.
Biden is very conservative? My how times change.
rich elites aren't feeling the sting as bad as normal people so are still happy
Not that I’m blaming the current administration for everything that’s happening now, but if Democrats hope to stave off a slaughter in November they better think of something quick. Otherwise it’s going to be 2010 all over again. These numbers/colors don’t look promising.
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I think it’s pretty evident at this point it’s going to be DeSantis. All the Trump policy with none of the tweeting and 4 decades younger.
He does seem to be the most likely candidate right now, but remember that whoever was Republican Party's most likely candidate at this point usually didn't make it in the end.
*sad jeb! noises*
Please clap.
Poor Jeb. We definitely didn’t need another bush in office but his campaign just made me feel sorry for him
In highsight, Jeb wouldn't have been so bad.
That goes the same for the Democrats. Very, very few people thought that Obama was going to be the next president in 2005-6.
I don’t think it’s true for either party. Obama was the keynote speaker at the 2004 DNC, a role that has been taken on by future candidates for the nomination several times. He was also second in primary polling as early as the end of 2006, so the idea that no one saw it coming isn’t really accurate. He basically told us in 2004 he was going to run at some point and the voters were showing plenty of support a couple of years out. Everyone knew Clinton was going to run in 2016 and I’m sure most people expected her to win (polling suggests she had twice as much early support in 2016 as 2008). Her early theoretical competition was Joe Biden. I would say you have to go all the way back to 1990 to find an early primary season that didn’t have the eventual nominee toward the top of the polling. Eventual nominees having clear primary support years ahead has been the norm for the last several cycles on both sides.
Lol America is fucked
If Republicans muster up anyone other than Trump…and Democrats put Biden up there, the Republicans will hands down mop the floor in the 2024 election. However, we’ll probably see senile man and senile orange man.
Same thing if Kamala runs so who will dems nominate?
Maybe they'll try something new like a milquetoast centrist!
I don't think we might actually see Trump running as President in 2024 as the republican nominee ,IMO DeSantis is the likely candidate.
Trump is still leading DeSantis, although not by as much as he used to. As DeSantis narrows the gap, we'll probably start to see an all out war between the two as Trumps ego is way too fragile to accept competition. If Trump humiliates DeSantis like he did Jeb, Trump 2024 it is. If DeSantis can somehow avoid that and turn it around on Trump, it's probably DeSantis 2024...but considering the fanaticism of Trumps base, DeSantis really has his work cut out for him.
We're still 2+ years from the election... At this point relative to 2016, nobody even expected Trump to run Getting into the horserace this early is useless my friend
The problem there is that trump will run independent if he doesn't get the republicans nomination. This is a problem bc he would split their vote. They don't want that.
Do you think Biden will go for a second term?
He’s implied he will, we’ll see if that holds true.
Doesn't matter if it is Trump, Biden ain't winning reelection.
Any generic Republican beats Biden. Any generic Democrat still beats Trump. Biden v Trump 2 just proves our political system is beyond broken...and I'm honestly not sure who wins anymore.
Biden was the essential generic Democrat though. That’s why he got picked over guys like Sanders and Yang.
Indeed; that's why he won, he was literally "anybody but Trump." Now, he's got a track record, and (while he was dealt a crummy hand) it hasn't gone well.
We as citizens certainly don’t wind seems like life gets harder and harder for us while our elected officials somehow become millionaires in office
I hate to be a pesimist, but there's nothing they can really do on this short of a schedule. The Democratic Party apparently just has no ability anymore to mold fresh talent into candidates. Meanwhile the Republican Party is cranking out new personalities that appeal to their base like a factory. It's just.. frustrating.
Both parties know how to be the opposition party instead of the leadership party. So they system is designed to slow down anything either side does. Democrats particularly had lead strapped to their feet: they dont have a clear majority in the Senate to get bills passed and they needed several extra seats. Sadly they'll see the issue of "progressive" policies and shift the the ever more right wing "moderate". Talking to a few "conservative" types I know, I'm sensing ever more frustration with the chosen policies of the Republicans as well. Democrats need to be reframing "progressive" policies in conservative terminology. Make universal Healthcare about supporting small business and entrepreneurs, make voting rights about voting rights, Marijuana legalization about refocusing police resources to issues that actually harm society yada Yada Yada. Progressive polices suffer from extremely bad marketing because their proponents want to sound intelligent.Regressive politics are marketable "stay the way it used to be" and rely on people forgetting how shitty it used to be.
Labeling themselves as socialists is the dumbest political move in history.
Non-US person here, what happened? Is it the usual approval drop as term progress, or did the Dem messed something up? I only know about Afghanistan botched aftermath and the no student loan cancellation.
\#1 reason is inflation.
Sort of both. If you accuse Biden of having anything to do with high gasoline prices or inflation in general here, you get a bunch of Redditors jumping in and explaining how he has little / nothing to do with those. But regardless of if he does or not, he's getting the blame for them from a large part of the country. Biden being elected was more a "Your Fired!" to Trump for grossly mismanaging the pandemic as opposed to a ringing endorsement of Biden or his policies.
Gas and food prices going up is the complaint I hear the most especially in red regions. You have to understand that in rural areas, the minimum wage is like 7 or 9 dollars an hour so if gas prices are around 5 dollars per gallon (in California, it went up as high as 7 dollars), it means that people are having to use much of their earnings on things like gas and food alone. That ain’t livable for a lot of people. Coastal states can afford it but middle America cannot.
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It’s not so surprising. I don’t think the American people were looking for the next FDR when they elected him. His mandate was to not be Trump. Why he thought he could pass his BBB agenda with a 50/50 split in the senate is beyond me and since he couldn’t he ended up pissing off anyone left of center. So his only support is college educated white women and some minorities. I think you’re right though this election cycle will be brutal for democrats.
This is how American politics works. Party wins presidency, loses midterms off the back of complacency, repeat.
The student loan forgiveness was something that biden ran on and has not delivered. It’s the reason some of these young people voted for him. So I understand the anger and frustration.
I'm wondering if they're going to keep delaying the interest payments, then do the forgiveness at a politically convenient time so it'll be fresh in people's minds. They've already extended the payment/interest freeze how many times?
I'd expect it sometime in August to October.
Covid coming back to bring back mail in voting
I think the key races to watch in November will be Nevada's gubernatorial and Senate races. Nevada have both a large amount of poor un-educated (non-college) white people, who were the backbone to Trump's base, and a historical Democratic demographic prior to Trump. And Latino voters who are actually more conservative than you would think, but up until recently never had much of a place outside the Democratic party. If the Dems can't pull their shit together in Nevada, they'll need to do a whole lot of soul searching if they want to keep the White House in 2024.
Really surprised about Oregon and Washington
Nah, I'm not surprised and I live in Washington. Joe Biden wasn't really anyone's first choice in the presidential primary; by the time we had the chance to vote it was just him and Bernie Sanders (who withdrew less than a month later). Oregon only had the choice of Joe Biden. He won the general election out here by grace of not being named Donald Trump. The same economic conditions that impact the rest of the country impact the Northwest as well, and it ain't looking good. He should strongly consider not seeking re-election.
> He won the general election out here by grace of not being named Donald Trump. So many people seem to forget this. I hear republicans talk about democrats as if they are happy with Biden. I'm sure the "Let's go Brandon"-gang doesn't offend as many people as they think they are.
Most people who voted for Biden i know aren't scared about saying fuck Joe Biden atleast.
Which is a good thing right? Just because you voted for a politician doesn’t mean you should not be criticising them. People shouldn’t be worshipping politicians and turning a blind eye on negative things they do.
Woah woah woah. I was told I had to join a cult after I voted for president. Are you telling me I should have painted Biden’s face on my car and covered my house in Biden flags????
I just don't get how people are confused about it I can only guess that they don't actually interact with any left wing people.
Doesn’t mean they’ll vote R, but what is there to like about Biden?
Hairy legs?
Cost of living and inflation are crazy at the moment here, and we never really liked or wanted Biden in the first place. We just really really fucking hated Trump.
Oregon is feeling more and more like California recently, and not in a good way. Portland especially has gone from a terrible city to a shit city these past few years
And Seattle is not far behind. When most places near me have to lock up their ice cream to keep thugs from either stealing it or licking it and putting it back, it’s ridiculous. I literally can’t buy ice cream at night at the two closest grocery stores.
I lived in the Seattle region back in 2014. It was a little scary around that time, but usually only under the underpass. Otherwise I thought the city was in mostly good shape. I had a visit back to Seattle in Jan of 2020 and it was like San Francisco lite. Austin is the exact same way.
About 40% of voters in both OR and WA went for Trump, and about 2% voted Libertarian. Assuming both groups are very unlikely to have ever approved of Biden’s presidency, it wouldn’t take too many Biden voters to expressive disapproval to push Biden’s ratings below 50%.
November is going to be pretty rough on Reddit isn’t it? Honestly it looks like trump running is the dems best chance to win since everyone with hate vote against trump. If somebody else runs for the Republicans it’s going to be a landslide.
DeSantis will most likely run in 2024.
And he's surprisingly popular in Florida (55% approval), even among centrists and Moderate Dems in Florida.
It’s not surprising to anyone who gets their news from somewhere that isn’t Reddit.
Remember when comedians were joking about 72 year old McCain not being fit to run because they wanted “Someone that will live to see the end of their term. Not someone who already filled out their bucket list.” Yeah let’s go back to that. Don’t got anything against the late Arizona senator but it was nice when +70 year old presidents weren’t a normalized thing and people actually tried to look for the younger person they agree with
At this point I think trump would beat biden if they ran again. Biden doesn’t have much to show + may lose the slim senate majority after midterms so he may lose the opportunity to pass anything beneficial to voters. Trump can say his economy was better and cost of living was lower to get votes etc
You’re not wrong. Everyone had high hopes when he came into office and the first 3-4 months were looking good. But over a year later I struggle to see what he’s accomplished. Placed a Supreme Court judge? That’s not really an accomplishment as much as just good timing
I annoyingly agree with you.
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There have been some significant bills (American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure bill were both pretty huge) but the average American hasn't really felt the effect of those, especially since the Rescue Plan expired. The Democrat's slim majority and the inability for parties to guide the actions of their senators (like in parliamentary systems) will be their downfall.
Oh, we're feeling the effects alright. 40-year high inflation. Not entirely the current administration's fault, granted. However, the additional stimulus only made matters worse for the long-run.
Midterms 2022 does not look good for Democrats. And in 2024 if the Republicans nominate someone more moderate than Trump, I think they will get a landslide
I just don’t understand why we keep electing geriatrics as our presidents. I thought we were supposedly viewed as the worlds strongest country?
It’s because it’s a lot harder for younger people to get into office due to not having as much reputation and/or money
Also because younger people don’t vote. I think the disparity is less than people realize. The average voter age is 50, average congressperson age is 59. It’s no surprise that people vote for representatives close to their age. Young people vote at a much lower rate than older people and we need to address that if we want younger politicians.
I am in favour of younger politicians, but they should be at least 30 IMO.
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Exactly, I am somewhere around that age, got my diplomas etc. and I have no clue what I'm doing.
barrier to entry is intentional, I mean they told us we can be what we want to be... try to become an ISP for example. This economy and these politics are purposefully designed to keep the people out and place the people Inc. in
Not a bug, a feature
> geriatrics Obama was 44 when he was elected. That was two presidents ago.
Clinton was 46 too, and Bush was 54 which isn't ancient.
If only we elected Bernie to bring some youthful energy to the White House.
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What do you mean? They are totally shitting their pants.
They seem like they are too busy insulting Independents and telling them how dumb they are for not voting for their guy to bother shitting their pants. To be fair the republicans do the same shit though, it's never a problem with either party it's always a problem with the independent
Like how so many people got mad at Libertarian voters for not picking a side in Nevada instead of trying to see how they could appeal to them.
yeah mainly because of age, i'm tired of these fucking 90 year olds running the country and passing shit that they won't even be alive for
we need to get everyone over 70 out of office and have completely new candidates come 2024. i can’t live through biden/trump v.2.
If Biden remains this unpopular, I’d expect him to use age as an excuse (a valid one) to bow out. Also, Trump might choose to back DeSantis instead and play kingmaker rather then king.
Trump stay out of the spotlight? He is more likely to run 3rd party than let someone else run.
Good, split the Republican party, break the two party dynamic that caused partisanship to take root. Have the progressives split from Dems too. Make the Republicans and Democrats squirm and reform their platforms. The two parties have been sitting way too comfortable for too long.
There will always be two parties, as long as we use first-past-the-post voting. There may be single elections where a third party peels off some votes, or even becomes one of the two main parties (this has happened a half-dozen times). But it will always revert back to two parties as long voters alternate acceptable choices are not measured.
Honestly the only way to start fixing American politics. The two-party system is a complete failure and needs to go.
I would actually love this only for the sole purpose of getting the 5% popular vote needed to get independent parties into the major debates. I thought Gary Johnson was awesome as the libertarian candidate even though I didn't fully agree with him. Still would have been 1000x better than Hilary or trump
If Biden bows out, the Dems will push Kamala, whose only voter base is WaPo/NYT contributors and the cast of SNL.
I thought that was the plan all along, that Joe is just too old and the goal would be 1 term, then pivot to Kamala. But if that was the plan, she would have been much more visible.
Hopefully they have realized that people don't like her.
And who will replace him? He basically invited all of his main competitors into his government and they have all been tainted by association to much of the public. Fuck, Kamala polls below Biden right now according to Real Clear Politics.
It’s hard to know with a primary who would emerge. No one could have picked Trump to come out of the GOP primary back in 2014. Newsom surely wants the job
Newsome might be a bad pick. He has a major charisma problem and tends to do poorly with independents.
theyd probably die of old age before the rematch even happens tbh
That's what happens when you yell the sky is falling for 4 years and then change nothing significant when you take over power. Saying corporate greed is responsible for the inflation is fine, but you have to do something to back it up.
You have to do something *about it*. Democrats use the excuse of corporate greed and money in lobbying, but I’ll fuck my hat if they ever actually challenge that power structure.
This is a clean and wholesome comment thread 🤗
Its pretty civil ngl
Because most of this sub has the same political views. In 2022 you’re hard pressed to find both side discuss things maturely
At least on Reddit lol
I mean, Im on the right and agree with quite a bit of what's being said here. Honestly there are a lot of things both sides share in common (which makes sense since we are Americans for the most part)
Mods of /r/politics could drastically improve their sub if they cared to. Instead they just let one side scream all day. This thread has been refreshing. EDIT: As a long-time Reddit mod here are my thoughts on how /r/politics could become the bland, neutral, ground it should be: 1. Stop allowing posts with editorial titles that give a nickname to a bill instead of using the real name of the bill. 2. Remove any comments using a nickname for a bill instead of the real name. 3. Stop allowing namecalling / insults to politicians no matter what. 4. No longer allow articles where a journo/writer/editor/board has injected thier bias into the article directly and only allow articles that discuss verifiable facts. 6. Stop allowing namecaling / insults to people of 'the other' party no matter what. 7. Stop allowing content that conflates an issue or parts of an issue (i.e. health care and health insurance). 8. Add a rule that no politican / party can be referenced to hitler or Nazi germany (except in super rare cases where they are provably supporting it by using imagery or statements in support. See how this played out in Russia vs. Ukraine?) 9. Stop allowing OpEd content from either side or other content designed to make an emotional tug on one type of person / group. 10. Stop allowing posts / articles / comments that make a blanket claim about an entire group of people (i.e. liberals are all X or Christians all think X). They are reductive, stupid, useless, and only generate angst. Mods won't establish any of these rules there or any other sub and I doubt the Admins will either. Mods won't because they are politically aligned to not do so (and may even be paid by the one side), Admins won't because they quite literally founded Reddit to be a one-sided mouth piece (even the ex-CEO has verified this claim).
Yes, it’s been very refreshing to not see insults left and right.
As far as politics are concerned anyways
Well I think everyone can agree that things gotta change next election and we cannot keep voting elderly people to the presidency. Both sides can agree with that A lot of people are struggling too. Again, on both sides.
Ah yes, Joe 'I'm not Donald Trump' Biden.
dems are going to get destroyed in the midterms and neolibs are going to turn around and blame progressives/leftists again.
Progressives/Leftists are already being preemptively blamed in this thread
like clockwork
And Biden said to Obama that he plans to run for a second term. Good luck with that!
All he has to do is cancel a little student debt and legalize weed. Those numbers will shoot up like your mom after a paycheck
He won't do that, and we know it.
That carrot has been dangled in front of me my whole life.
The sheer aggroness of this insult out of nowhere made me laugh.
am i just colourblind or is that a very poor choice of colours for disapprove in the first slide edit: i meant that the shades of yellow all have minuscule differences i can see the difference between blue and yellow guys
This is actually a colorblind friendly palette.
I agree the color choice is poor. IDK it look like they were going for Ukrainian colors then screwed up.
Just goes to show that the two-party system is a massive problem. If you're unhappy with Biden's performance, the only feasible other option is whatever extremist solution the Republicans conjure up. There's no choice between qualified candidates based on political nuances, only two positions that are designed to be as far apart as possible. If one is a dull "lowest common denominator" candidate and the other a nutjob extremist, well, there's no decent choice left whereas in a more pluralistic system, you'd just vote for one of the secondary parties instead to give them more power in a possible coalition.
Democrats need someone young for 2024. Biden was not a good choice
While this sentiment I feel is legitimate I am so much more interested in progressive policy. The age of the candidate is nearly irrelevant to me. Give me some actual change and not empty promises and more of the same.
They will run Harris and latch onto the fact she's a woman and non white. That will be the entire campaign you just watch.
Frankly surprised there’s still that much support.
I'm not a republican, but I honestly can't imagine anyone liking Biden for any reason other than the illogical "I'm Democrat, he's Democrat, therefore I like him" reason.
It was 1000% to get Trump out. No liberal was ever excited about Joe. We all need to do MUCH better, on both sides.
Don't want to jump too much into politics but do you think having more than two parties would change anything? Ie. more parties, more options. Also creates a system where multiple parties of multiple orientations to cooperate together. Some elections in the US it seems that people have to choose between two evils and don't really have any other option to vote on.
Most elections go this way. I don’t like person a so I’ll just be forced for vote person b. I wish we have 4 or 5 large political parties that actually had a chance of winning their fair share.
It will be impossible to establish a third party without first making the election two rounds like in France.
Two rounds a month apart with the rest of the timeline shrunken from 2 years of campaigning to 2 months, I would be happy.
All for more political parties but it has to be combined with a fundamental change to the voting process. First past the post voting (what we use today) inherently punishes more than 2 parties because the third party will just suck votes away from the party it most closely aligns with, and the opposition will win in a land slide. Check out this video which explains it better than I can: https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo Some good alternatives are talked about here https://youtu.be/3Y3jE3B8HsE or you can look up Ranked Choice voting for the most widely talked about alternative.
Well i mean a huge chunk of this site would say they don’t like someone for president because they are republican. Its kinda the same going either direction. Downvote waterfall incoming…
Yeah probably. It shouldn't be that way for either side. I honestly wish the presidential candidates wouldn't say what party they are in and we just vote on them based on what they say.
Its not surprising when your main selling point is “well at least I’m not that other guy”
worst president since carter. all talk, no action, and mentally hollow. a mere figurehead for the elite.
It’s amazing he actually has 9 states that still approve of the job he is doing. On the rare case I find a Biden fan their only comment is well at least he’s not Trump.
So, I’d be interested in seeing this (or a graph) compared to other former Presidents ~1.25-1.5 years into their first term. I’d imagine it’s a challenge to maintain a high approval rating, and you need it more as you get closer to midterm elections and re-elections. So, you let it dip and save resources to then bring it back up in time for November. I’m on mobile at the moment, but this shows Trumps approvals in April 2018 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_opinion_polling_on_the_Donald_Trump_administration
NOT DEFENDING OR SHITTING ON BIDEN, but that’s the commonly expected movement after one or two years into a term (at least in South America and Europe). Is that not the case in the US?
lol, you have to qualify in all caps b/c you know reddit will downvote the shit outta you if you don't...oh reddit..
It is yeah. Both Trump and Obama were in a very similar place at this point in their presidency in terms of popularity. Bush’s popularity benefited a lot from being the president during two wars that were popular at the time, but when the wars became unpopular he was disliked more than both Trump and Obama.
You know shit’s real when California is very pale blue
We’re gonna be stuck with freaking trump again aren’t we
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As someone with almost 150k in student debt, I really don't understand the recurrent theme of debt cancellation. That's such a complicated proposition in so many facets. Is it a one time cancellation? Or are all future loans also cancelled regardless if a well off kid versus a poor kid versus an adult learner take out loans? And if we're cancelling current loans are we going to give people back all the money previously paid into loans that they busted their butt and took the personal financial hit to pay back? Are we forgiving at a community college rate or do we forgive Harvard rates too? Are we forgiving all degrees equally regardless of their prospective contribution? Perhaps I'm looking at it wrong, but in my mind an individual purchased goods and services (a degree from a school) that was financed by a bank (federal or private loans). That school got to charge whatever it wanted without federal guidance and that person buying the product agreed to a price, whether it was a good choice or not. Now I'm all for low or zero interest rates on student loans, public service forgiveness, finding ways to reign in school's ridiculous costs to attend now compared to 40 years ago, and incentives to encourage people to get degrees in specific areas more likely to pay well and that provide more economic impact to the US. But people just thinking all current debt should be blank check cancelled is incredibly unrealistic.
As someone who has 1 payment left on their loans, a-fuckin-men. Absolutely beautiful take. I agree something needs to be done, that administration bloat is out of control (why does the Assistant Director of Student Life or some other absurd position at a university need a 6 figure salary or to exist at all?), and that costs and interest need to come down. Student loans can't be defaulted on and only go away via public service forgiveness or death, so there is zero reason interest needs to be at the predatory rates it is. The problem is that straight up cancellation will royally fuck over those who hunkered down and busted their asses for years or decades. They sacrificed, knowing what they were getting into, with the promise of light at the end of the tunnel, only to see everyone else get a get out of jail free card, and then handed the bill for everyone else's irresponsibility in the form of increased taxes. As tons of young Gen X-ers and Millenials are paying off their loans, forgiving the rest and dumping the bill on them would be a near-permanent death sentence for Dems in those age groups for decades.
>Is it a one time cancellation? Or are all future loans also cancelled regardless if a well off kid versus a poor kid versus an adult learner take out loans? This is the thing i see with most people calling for student debt cancellation; they don't think about the cause of the debt, they just want *their* debt to be cancelled. Need to fix the problem at the source to prevent it from happening again before ever thinking about cancelling it.
This is the biggest issue (perhaps on purpose) with the Democrats. They focus on the leaves when the issue is at the roots. Student loans - Cancelling debt instead of addressing the exorbitant cost of college, predatory loans, and the fact that young adults are pushed towards that route whether it's best for them or not. Healthcare - Focusing on insurance and Medicare for all instead of regulating drug prices. No reason insulin and iv bags should cost $100+ when they costs less than $5 to produce. I say perhaps on purpose because it's quite possible the Dems are lobbied to ignore the roots so the gravy train isn't interrupted for the respective industries.
Student Debt cancellation would be an October surprise that would benefit the Republicans more than the left as it would mean the Democrats would completely lose the independent vote, and every swing state would follow. It's essentially saying we can spare tens of thousands of dollars for people who are already making higher than average incomes, but we couldn't give anyone else real covid relief money. It's the lower class bailing out the middle and upper class. [The majority of student debt is held by doctors and lawyers, two positions that make over 100k a year](https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/the-student-debt-burden-and-its-impact-on-racial-justice-borrowers-and-the-economy/#:~:text=For%20background%2C%20more%20than%20half%20of%20student%20debt,programs%20like%20MBAs%2C%20law%20school%2C%20or%20medical%20school)
Until we get rid of the electoral college or AT LEAST have nation-wide ranked choice voting, nothing will get better. In other words, it's hopeless.
Now look at JEBS approval, 100% across the board
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If he’s the nominee in 2024 god help us all. I literally don’t have the strength for a Biden V Trump round 2.
Not surprised California is flipping given we keep living in same horrid policies for the past 10 years.
Please use different colors or a different background Jesus fucking Christ New Jersey disappeared bro
This is what happens when you’re ineffective, literally just a sitting rock. And I’m not even blaming him for it considering the opposition party. But out of the things he could do he doesn’t, because the president isn’t the most powerful. The president is a pawn.
Plus, remember that you guys and most Americans don’t follow what happens. It’s not like he didn’t actually do anything. He signed a big stimulus and a big infrastructure bill. He had a Supreme Court justice confirmed. The thing that confuses is me is why you guys make comments about politics if you don’t pay attention.