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https://wapo.st/3tPBaL9
https://wapo.st/3tPBaL9
Last coup attempt we had was during the hours before Biden took office.
Going to take help from us to make sure he wins the election, so that there's even a chance to prevent a coup.
Hopefully he's really working on making the type of change we need so that he doesn't alienate progressives.
I hope he's not just maintaining the status quo. That would not bode well...
The kind of change I'd like to see requires acts of Congress, and Biden can't do that when Republicans are in the majority in the House of Representatives.
But surely he's trying. Can you give an example of him trying and Republicans blocking him? Something that's literally beyond his authority (not something that he could do with executive order, such as forgiving student loan debt).
A really easy example is passing a budget. They've been stuck on doing that since the new Congress was elected in 2022.
I'll also note that his first attempt at student loan debt cancellation got shot down by Republicans in the courts, so he's been doing smaller piecemeal versions.
But at least he's stopped funding ICE and the border camps, stopped building Trump's wall, and closed Guantanamo, right?
I'd hate to think he'd be willing to be complicit in fascism and morally turpitudinous law, at any costs. Surely if someone had somehow seized power from Hitler, we wouldn't defend and support them if they continued to fund the death camps, right? How could we?
I myself have broken the law multiple times by helping people evade deportation under the law. Surely our president isn't more spineless and powerless than some loser like me, right?
Congress banned the president from moving prisoners at Guantanamo to the US, which substantially limited the ability of the President to fully close it, since for several, no other country has been willing to accept them.
Defunding ICE requires an act of Congress, and doesn't have full support of even all Democrats.
Stopping the wall building did happen.
The President is there to faithfully execute the laws; unless you want a dictator, he doesn't get to run around breaking them.
What like passing the biggest climate bill in not just American but likely human history? Filling every agency possible with the most diverse Administration officials the country has ever seen?
I don't care if you don't like Biden but stop pretending he's doing nothing. It's unlikely any of his competition would have been able to get half the stuff he's done done. It's normal and healthy to want more but it's actually insane to pretend nothing has happened. It's also actually insane to pretend the president can do whatever he wants when he does not control Congress or the Senate. Which Biden doesn't and hasn't for even one minute of his administration. Yes, including the Senate because a caucus that requires the consent of Manchin and Synema is not controlled.
Oh okay then I guess that excuses the fascism. You've opened my eyes. If you do one good thing, then you can harm marginalized groups, as a treat.
You know what's insane to me? Defending this monster. He's literally signed off on these things. Don't pretend he's trying to defund ICE, don't pretend he's trying to close Guantanamo, don't pretend he's not supporting the genocidal state of Israel, don't pretend he's not continuing the mass surveillance of US citizens, don't pretend that he tried to provide universal healthcare to the millions who die from lack of access every year. It's bullshit, it's inexcusable, and you know it.
If you want to tell people, "Look, this guy is horrible, but we need to elect him because the other guy is worse," then fair, but you're not going to convince anyone by excusing his indefensible actions.
The only reason you can sit on that side of the keyboard and act like he's doing enough is that you're not in those camps, you don't have loved ones in those camps, you don't have neighbors dying because they can't afford the doctor. A little empathy goes a long way, chief.
Allow me to translate:
Anyone who does not perfectly pass your purity test and achieve every single goal you want to achieved instantly on the day they're elected is bad and evil.
Pretty much it right?
You don't know shit about me and you're an asshole. And worse, you're an enemy of progressivism.
Me: We should stop killing, torturing and detaining people
You: Wow, pUrItY tEsT much? No one can live up to those impossible standards!
I ... think this says more about you than it does about me.
you're an asshole
And you're a defender of systemic racism, fascism, and genocide. I'm ok with being an asshole instead of that 🙏
You're the one who pretty directly said Biden is maintaining the status quo and has changed nothing.
Which is a lie. It's not even a misunderstanding, or a personal political opinion, or even bullshit. It is an actual lie. You're a liar when you make that implication.
That's what this come down to. Your personal politics are pure liberalism, not progressivism.
ONLY individual rights matter to you. A government violating someone's rights should stop all other activities until it fixes that violation. Even if trying to fix that violation both will not work and will force abandonment of ALL other progressive reforms. Because a right violation is more important than any other activity.
The irony is, you wield the word "progressive" as if you are one, but really you just don't know what these words mean.
You want Biden to take the strongest possible stance on a issues he actually couldn't fix (because the POTUS is not God and he has particularly little power thanks to not controlling Congress and having a flatly corrupt judiciary working against him). It does not matter to you if taking some of these stances would cease ALL OTHER progressive reform while also not working. You're still going to confidently call him absolutely ineffective and evil if he doesn't do it because the rest of progress does not matter in your politics, only the liberties do. No complexity or compromise allowed.
Just... shut up. Stop making the left look stupid. Or at least learn to criticize without denying all progress.
People who are in those groups want Biden to win despite his shortcomings because the alternative is going to hunt us down. He's promised to, at this point.
"If you want to tell people, 'Look, this guy is horrible, but we need to elect him because the other guy is worse,' then fair, but you’re not going to convince anyone by excusing his indefensible actions." -me
This idea that we can't criticize his horrible actions is what I take issue with. It's creepy, it's cultlike, and it's regressive.
I doubt the people who are imprisoned in those camps or being deported back to places where they will certainly perish give a fuck about who put them there. It's the actions themselves that are morally and ethically indefensible.
Edit: Also, imagine explaining this to me when I do have family and friends being deported and detained. Pretty fucking tacky, don't ya think?