Republicans have introduced a new amendment banning any federal funds from gender affirming care in several must-pass bills, with very little public pushback thus far.
The Democratic Party is a party of “Enlightened Centrists.” They might sit down at the negotiating table thinking they’re there to protect trans rights, but unfortunately, they’re mistaken. There is no negotiating table. There’s a telling table. The table is a construct where Republicans tell Democrats what they’re going to do. The Democrats have not yet fully realized or embraced that their responsibility at the table is to say “No.”
The result? The full ire belongs to the republicans. But we also get to feel frustrated with the Democrats for their place in the increasing rise of fascism. They treat republicans like sane, rational actors when they need to be treated like a gorilla in a cockpit.
No argument from me regarding how Obama handled Republicans, but that’s not what we’ve seen happen since Biden took office. He’s done a great job of getting much of his agenda passed by peeling off what few “moderate” Republicans are left, and he hasn’t caved to Republican demands at all without extracting serious concessions on his end too. The reality is Republicans control the House right now, so they have to work together with Democrats to some extent, whether or not we emotionally would prefer Biden just give them the finger
Has he really passed much of his agenda though? Or, at least, what he said his agenda was in order to be elected.
He has passed a bunch of legislative packages that have nice sounding names and were talked about by corporate media as historic, but when you take off the lid on most of them it’s mainly pork for corporations and anything of substance was cut down significantly from what it needed to be to be effective (climate spending in particular).
The prime example to me of how Biden operates was made apparent in the debt ceiling negotiations; all the GOP had to do was threaten absurd economic suicide that they were never actually going to follow through on and they got him to make concessions while he got the American people literally nothing in return.
I think this is because Biden is secretly pro-austerity and self-sabotages. He’s not fit for this crucial time in our history where bold action and change is needed.
The table is a construct where Republicans tell Democrats what they’re going to do. The Democrats have not yet fully realized or embraced that their responsibility at the table is to say “No.”
Do you have an example of this since Biden took office?
Train workers, and before you push the whole “but they made a deal recently!” that deal was fucking pathetic and does NOTHING to address the infrastructure issues, and the fact that they are going to try and reduce workers down to 1. At best all it did was let the shitty horrible train infrastructure limp along. I fucking listened to workers whistleblowing for months and it will always fucking enrage me that Palestine did not have to fucking happen. That is on Biden’s and the dems hands. You vote for the dems cause you don’t have a fucking choice and if you are fortunate enough to live in a situation that you CAN vote (cause the dems do nothing about gerrymandering and other voting issues ) you pinch your nose, vote dem, and then if you actually care about fixing anything, you go back to organizing and building local community. Cause no one else is going to help us, let alone save us. In the words of Robert Evans, I vote just in the weird off chance it fucking does something. I never expect anything good to come federally and it keeps me grounded and able to do actual work. Fuck biden and any of the other west wing brain rot fuckers that is the establishment dems.
I’m trying to wrap my head around this…when the railroad unions were trying to negotiate a new contract with companies, the sticking point that was potentially leading to a strike was very clearly sick leave. Biden was portrayed as the bad guy here because he didn’t let these workers strike due to the real harm this would do to everyone else in the form of shortages and even worse inflation, but then he kept at it and they ended up with the sick leave they wanted in the first place.
That was one issue, safety regulations and infrastructure investment are a totally separate issue. The Obama Admin issued rules in 2015 that very well could have prevented the derailment in Palestine with better braking systems and more structurally sound train cars. Republicans in the legislature lead by Senator John Thune overturned this rule when they controlled both houses in 2018, and Donald Trump signed it.
My point is the railroad industry is constantly lobbying to decrease their regulations because they’re frankly evil corporations who put profit above safety, and the Republican Party stands squarely on the side of the companies, while the Democratic Party tries to implement safety regulations. I just don’t understand how you can sit here and blame Democrats for this
The government stopped the strike, they didn’t stop contract negotions and all the other pain that comes along with that, and the unions and companies recently came to an agreement giving workers 7 days of sick leave per year (in addition to their paid time off), which is what they were threatening to strike over
The Democratic Party is a party of “Enlightened Centrists.” They might sit down at the negotiating table thinking they’re there to protect trans rights, but unfortunately, they’re mistaken. There is no negotiating table. There’s a telling table. The table is a construct where Republicans tell Democrats what they’re going to do. The Democrats have not yet fully realized or embraced that their responsibility at the table is to say “No.”
The result? The full ire belongs to the republicans. But we also get to feel frustrated with the Democrats for their place in the increasing rise of fascism. They treat republicans like sane, rational actors when they need to be treated like a gorilla in a cockpit.
Best illustrated here: https://www.theonion.com/in-bipartisan-spirit-obama-makes-deal-to-get-kicked-in-1819595205
No argument from me regarding how Obama handled Republicans, but that’s not what we’ve seen happen since Biden took office. He’s done a great job of getting much of his agenda passed by peeling off what few “moderate” Republicans are left, and he hasn’t caved to Republican demands at all without extracting serious concessions on his end too. The reality is Republicans control the House right now, so they have to work together with Democrats to some extent, whether or not we emotionally would prefer Biden just give them the finger
Has he really passed much of his agenda though? Or, at least, what he said his agenda was in order to be elected.
He has passed a bunch of legislative packages that have nice sounding names and were talked about by corporate media as historic, but when you take off the lid on most of them it’s mainly pork for corporations and anything of substance was cut down significantly from what it needed to be to be effective (climate spending in particular).
The prime example to me of how Biden operates was made apparent in the debt ceiling negotiations; all the GOP had to do was threaten absurd economic suicide that they were never actually going to follow through on and they got him to make concessions while he got the American people literally nothing in return.
I think this is because Biden is secretly pro-austerity and self-sabotages. He’s not fit for this crucial time in our history where bold action and change is needed.
Do you have an example of this since Biden took office?
Train workers, and before you push the whole “but they made a deal recently!” that deal was fucking pathetic and does NOTHING to address the infrastructure issues, and the fact that they are going to try and reduce workers down to 1. At best all it did was let the shitty horrible train infrastructure limp along. I fucking listened to workers whistleblowing for months and it will always fucking enrage me that Palestine did not have to fucking happen. That is on Biden’s and the dems hands. You vote for the dems cause you don’t have a fucking choice and if you are fortunate enough to live in a situation that you CAN vote (cause the dems do nothing about gerrymandering and other voting issues ) you pinch your nose, vote dem, and then if you actually care about fixing anything, you go back to organizing and building local community. Cause no one else is going to help us, let alone save us. In the words of Robert Evans, I vote just in the weird off chance it fucking does something. I never expect anything good to come federally and it keeps me grounded and able to do actual work. Fuck biden and any of the other west wing brain rot fuckers that is the establishment dems.
I’m trying to wrap my head around this…when the railroad unions were trying to negotiate a new contract with companies, the sticking point that was potentially leading to a strike was very clearly sick leave. Biden was portrayed as the bad guy here because he didn’t let these workers strike due to the real harm this would do to everyone else in the form of shortages and even worse inflation, but then he kept at it and they ended up with the sick leave they wanted in the first place.
That was one issue, safety regulations and infrastructure investment are a totally separate issue. The Obama Admin issued rules in 2015 that very well could have prevented the derailment in Palestine with better braking systems and more structurally sound train cars. Republicans in the legislature lead by Senator John Thune overturned this rule when they controlled both houses in 2018, and Donald Trump signed it.
My point is the railroad industry is constantly lobbying to decrease their regulations because they’re frankly evil corporations who put profit above safety, and the Republican Party stands squarely on the side of the companies, while the Democratic Party tries to implement safety regulations. I just don’t understand how you can sit here and blame Democrats for this
deleted by creator
The government stopped the strike, they didn’t stop contract negotions and all the other pain that comes along with that, and the unions and companies recently came to an agreement giving workers 7 days of sick leave per year (in addition to their paid time off), which is what they were threatening to strike over