Most Americans don’t know how many reps are in the Senate or House

I’m not talking about Lemmy either. I mean your average person on the streets, especially in Bumfuck, IA. It doesn’t affect them enough to care.

I don’t know, Jackson ignored the Supreme Court and I think Lincoln was planning on ignoring the courts decision on Dred Scott.

Well the only thing stopping a president from doing something is the will of the civil service to do it and the will of Congress to impeach them. Trump proved that. Why are we still playing gentlemen’s rules?

Honestly?
He has been fine, on the balance.

I don’t like that he’s gone around Congress to sell weapons to Israel. The Palestine genocide is horrible, and it’s disgusting that he’s not doing everything he can to put a stop to it.
Side note: I know. The U.S. is morally contorting itself to replenish Israel’s weapons stocks because the U.S. needs Israel to be a regional bully to keep Iran and its proxies/the major oil suppliers in check while the U.S. and its European allies decarbonize their economies to a point where U.S. oil can supply them without causing domestic oil prices to spike. The U.S. doesn’t want Russia supplying them, so supporting a genocidal regime is the only palatable option - and Israel knows this, so they’re forcing the U.S. to be complicit.
But Biden leads the state dept, no? Why are their diplomats blocking the U.N. from stepping in as a peacekeeping force? He has other options than to be a pawn.

Anyway.
My real problem is the Democratic Party. Polling shows that the average voter supports way more liberal policies than political parties do. But politicians tend to vote with economic elites, rather than the average person. And in this cherry-picked example, you can see voter turnout massively increased when people think their values are being represented (2018: Marijuana legalization, 2022: Abortion Rights.)

Democrats had a majority in 2021/2022. They had the trifecta. They controlled the legislative and the executive.
They could have strengthened the VRA. They could have fixed campaign finance. They could have expanded the Supreme Court. They could have tried to do something about gerrymandering. (I know, states rights. Blech.) They could have rebalanced the House of Representatives. They could have made the temporary tax cuts for low earners under TCJA permanent, and’s made the permanent tax cuts for high earners temporary. They could have codified abortion rights. They could have amended the ACA to make it better. They could have forgiven student loans before it became a political mess.

Nah. They whined about Manchin and Sinema – candidates their national and local parties supported. Said that’s why they couldn’t get anything meaningful done. Then they lost the house and now it’s just clown shoes all over again.

It’s not all the Democrats fault. Under the current system, it’s significantly easier to court a few monied interests – corporations that can chuck unlimited donations, or wealthy patrons that can spin up a PAC and launder their personal funds to you. It is easier. More money means they can devote more effort to court voters, spin narratives of good vs evil and how this election is the most important one. ‘It may be the last if we don’t vote blue no matter who!’
They didn’t fully create this system, but they are benefiting from it. They cater to the wealthy, make excuses to the voters for why they don’t do anything, and try just hard enough that they don’t lose elections. It’s why they chase the thin margins in “the middle” rather than disaffected liberal voters. So they can preserve a decaying status quo, rather than change it.

Biden is the most prominent Democrat right now. All things being equal, he owns the Democratic Party’s failure to lead. And that includes their lack of action in 2021/2022 His successes are marred by the party’s failures. A referendum on him is as much a referendum on the Democratic Party as it is anything else. At least in my opinion.

I assume most others, regardless of whether or not they blame Biden or the party, feel the same. It might be a bit hasty to assume civic illiteracy if someone doesn’t take the time to name the individual sources of their frustration.

He did, however, pardon a ton of people over weed offences.

How many?

Stop trying to make dark brandon work. Fetch has a better chance than that.

Yes, they’ve said they’re looking into it like 3 times now.

Oh, yeah paying attention. Like when he banned Asylum seekers at the border. Effectively forcing them to remain in Mexico or in another dangerous country. They can use the CBP One app to apply from their home country, however this requires them to stay in the dangerous country to do so. He effectively continued the program while officially ending it. Don’t believe me? check out this Dissent from the court currently hearing it.

The Biden administration’s “Pathways Rule” before us in this appeal is not meaningfully different from the prior administration’s rules that were backhanded by my two colleagues. This new rule looks like the Trump administration’s Port of Entry Rule and Transit Rule got together, had a baby, and then dolled it up in a stylish modern outfit, complete with a phone app.

-Van Dyke, Ninth Circuit Appeals; East Bay Sancuatry Covenent V. Biden

And that HUD link is about them giving developers money. I want HUD to buy the office building, convert it, and rent it out at cost. That’s how we’re going to put a hole in the rental market bubble. Not by asking to them to please charge less.

As far as the minimum wage thing, I missed that. but it is a torrent of information, that you’re not getting all of either.

Yeah that’s what everyone was afraid of, that people would just reference the Union’s own victory lap. The Unions called it a major victory but the actual union membership did not want that. They literally just wanted the ability to call in sick without being fired and to end the points system. Neither of which they got. The “short notice sick days” are scheduled a month in advance. And I sure hope they manage to schedule all of their sickness a month out, and within 7 days out of 365. None of Biden’s legislative promises appeared either because why keeping working on them after this victory lap?

The suits all got a pat on the back and the workers got fucked. Different day, Same America.

Also, it was never a national logistics disaster. We wouldn’t be the first country to have our logistics system go on strike. And we won’t be the last.

And what was the excuse in 2009 when they wouldn’t kill the filibuster for the public option? What was the excuse in 2021 when they wouldn’t kill the filibuster to codify Roe or pass the John Lewis voting rights act?

There is always, always some excuse from Democrats. You may be happy to be strung along forever with empty promises and flimsy excuses. I’m sick of it.

They had a majority in both chambers.

I get that no Democratic majority ever acts like one so it’s hard to tell.

Democrats had control of the senate, house of reps and presidency from jan 20th '21 to jan 3 23.

the current GOP control happened after the midterms in '22, at which point all progress stopped on, basically anything short of the most basic level of governance.

Yeah actually, because what we got was a repackaged healthcare bill that was written by none other than Obama’s presidential opponent Mitt Romney. It was a fucking godsend to insurance companies and hasn’t actually improved health outcomes for the average American. In fact if the current burnout working people in the Healthcare profession is anything to go by, this age of insurance is diametrically opposed to serving the public.

Or we could talk about Clinton’s pull yourself up by your boots straps impact on social safety nets and gutting of Wall Street and bank regulations maybe?