And the things he could do unilaterally (student loan forgiveness), he absolutely tried to do , but was cockblocked.
Absolutely. I mean, it’s utterly fascinating that people think the President can somehow overturn a Supreme Court decision (Citizens United). The civic literacy in this country is fucking awful, and it’s clear that a huge portion of our electorate doesn’t know or understand anything more complicated than a one-line soundbyte.
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.
Same with Marijauna, one of the first things he did was call for rescheduling by the DEA who have been too busy masturbating in corners. He did, however, pardon a ton of people over weed offences.
Drug schedules are set by the FDA. The FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Health and Human Services is part of the executive branch of the US government. The executive branch is headed by Biden. Short of just waving his hand and magicking the drug classification away, there is still a lot he could do to make it legal.
If you cant hold him accountable for not getting minimum wage increase because he can’t do it unilaterally why give him credit for things he cant do unilaterally, like the infrastructure bill? Clearly he didn’t do that unilaterally either so why should he get credit? You can’t have it both ways.
The President can’t reschedule marijuana?
edit:
The Congressional Research Service seems to think he could:
It’s astonishing to me the supposed number of “informed” people with their moral purity on Lemmy don’t know basic US civics. But hey trendy nicknames worked for the low intelligence maga voters no reason it doesn’t work on them. Maybe they’ll realize it when Trump takes power again.
Proceedings to add, delete, or change the schedule of a drug or other substance may be initiated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or by petition from any interested party, including:
The manufacturer of a drug
A medical society or association
A pharmacy association
A public interest group concerned with drug abuse
A state or local government agency
An individual citizen
Not quite unilateral, but seems like he could lean a bit on Becerra and get the re/de-scheduling started. Congress handed that authority to the executive branch years ago.
That is happening, maybe slower than any of us want ( and honestly probably time a bit to help in the election), but the rescheduling process had begun.
The Railroad Union was all him. He can raise the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors. He could have ended the Remain in Mexico program. He could have set the DOJ to monopoly breaking. He could have stopped supplying Israel. He could direct HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs…
The list goes on.
On top of Edward Teach’s comment, you also raised the issue of the railroad union. Guess what?
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
Biden did the right thing once again, and also managed to avoid a national logistics disaster. Please stop operating off of vibes.
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.
He can raise the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors.
He could have ended the Remain in Mexico program.
Done, and confirmed by SCOTUS.
He could direct HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs…
Done.
So let’s rewrite your comment, given the things that you apparently didn’t know actually happened:
The Railroad Union was all him. He raised the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors. He ended the Remain in Mexico program. He could have set the DOJ to monopoly breaking. He could have stopped supplying Israel. He directed HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs… The list goes on…
Yeah, it has a slightly different flavor when you actually…you know…pay attention to things.
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.
