One pollster sees “flashing red” signs on youth turnout as Gen Z and millennial voters, who are not satisfied with either party, could again play a decisive role in the next election.
Normal people 100% care about appointing judges, because that has a huge impact on everyday life. We just saw the Supreme Court overturn Roe V Wade last year (filling the country with thousands of unborn children every year is going to effect everyone). This year they overturned affirmative action and student loan forgiveness. The reason Miranda Rights and gay marriage exists is because of Supreme Court decisions. Tons of state courts have had huge impacts on the drawing of districts over the last decade, either supporting or trying to eliminate gerrymandering. If you don’t think appointing judges impacts you, you need to go back to your 3rd grade social studies course.
The EPA helps to protect the air we breath, the water we drink, and the soil we grow our food in. If your electricity gets more expensive, blame your local provider for not seeing the writing on the wall in the last 40 years and switching to renewable and cleaner energy sources. Or blame yourself for not investing in solar. I don’t want to breath pollution just so you can get a few dollars off your electric bill.
Also you’re ignoring how Biden literally sent out stimulus checks. That is the single most direct thing a president can do.
There was the management of the oil reserves at the start of the Ukraine war, and the pressure he put on gas companies to stop price gouging. Even if you don’t drive, the price of gas effects everything you buy.
What are you looking for from the president? Head pats? Magicka tricks? Do you want him to fix your municipality’s terrible zoning laws? Do you want him to tell you it’s okay to be racist or bigoted?
Medicare for All (or at least substantially improving the ACA or some other mechanism of making health care cheaper)
Card check (or how about just not fucking over the rail workers?)
Paid paternal/family/sick leave
Guaranteed vacation time
$15/hr min wage
Student loan forgiveness
Free/reduced price college
Free/reduced price childcare
Child tax credit
Expanding the earned income tax credit
Medicare being able to negotiate drug prices (all drug prices now, not five different drugs a couple years from now)
Marijuana legalization
Universal Pre-K
Some sort of substantive action on climate change - for example: “We’re going to build 20 new nuclear plants in the next 10 years.” - “ICE vehicle sales will be mostly banned after 2035.” - “We’re going to build 15 new 1000 megawatt or bigger offshore wind farms and we’ve bypassed the normal red tape so they’re starting to be built right now.”
Some sort of substantive action on housing being expensive - maybe withhold federal funds from states/municipalities that don’t relax their zoning for more and multi unit building. Maybe have the federal government directly start building stuff.
Etc…
We did get that tax credit that brings down the cost of an EV to a price most Americans still can’t afford, so that’s good. (Sarcasm)
Marijuana legalization polls at like 70%+ including a majority of Republican voters and still zero movement there for some reason. Among Democrats it’s like 80%.
You just listed a ton of things that the Exexutivr Branch does not have the power to do. That applies to Medicare for All, Paid Leave, Vacation Time, Minimum Wage, Free/Reduced College/Childcare, the Child Tax Credit, expanding the EET Credit, universal pre-K, marijuana legalization, and allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug manufactures. You need to blame Congress, not Biden.
Biden has taken some measures on a lot of those fronts. He sponsored the bill you referenced that allows Medicare to start negotiating some drug prices. He directed the FDA to start reviewing Marijuana for rescheduling, which is as much as the Executive branch can do without further input from Congress. That’s pretty far from the “0 movement” you claim. The DoE tried Student Loan forgiveness and that just got shut down by the Judicial branch, and they have started the process to try again with a different law. The US President is not a dictator and can’t just implement these policies unilaterally.
I agree that I didn’t like the handling of the rail workers strike, but the unions ended up getting what they asked for.
Housing affordability is typically a local zoning and supply issue, though there are bills pending in Congress to address corporate investment in the housing market. I don’t know what you expect from the Federal Executive branch there. The federal government can’t just start building stuff on the whim of the president. They can build on federal land (within limits defined by Congress). Even Congress would probably struggle to do much with local building because that’s not their jurisdiction.
I’m going to assume you’re not American because you clearly don’t understand how the US government works. You’re just blaming everything on the President.
If you’re going to wait for Congressional action to do any of that stuff, in our anti-majoritarian system that is stacked against the Democratic party, then you’re going to be waiting multiple decades at least.
Just take the Supreme Court for example. Let’s say their was some sort of huge political/cultural shift and the median Congressman was Bernie Sanders - unless we get lucky and a few Supremes die, then there will be Federalist Society veto on progressive legislation even a decade or two or three from now.
All of these changes will have to be shoved through the executive branch somehow. The Supreme Court will have to be ignored.
Or we’ll just have to wait a generation or two or more. The climate change stuff can’t wait.
So you’re suggesting that Biden just seize power? Just ignore the courts and Congress.
That would lead to an impeachment. Either Harris sides with Biden and continues what he did, then gets impeached herself, or Harris sides with Congress and tries to take power. What it effectively biols down to is Biden and someone else acting as commander-in-chief, and who wins is determined by the Pentagon. At best, you are advocating for a military coup, and more likely a civil war.
If Congress gets turned progressive, they can suddenly enact a ton of policies. Of the Supreme Court tries to intervene, there is the option to expand the court (as has been done before) or the option of impeachment (has not been done, but… Maybe).
So the answer isn’t just to sit at home blaming Biden for not starting what would effectively becoming WW3, but rather to vote in every election- primaries, state, local, mid-term, etc.
“I’m stopping the insane prosecution of marijuana today. I’m ordering Justice, FBI, DEA, all federal agencies to not prosecute anything related to marijuana. The IRS, SEC, FTC can treat marijuana businesses like any other business.”
Republican governors or AGs or a sheriff in some shithole state or whatever sue.
The Federalist Society court says your can’t do that.
Biden says I’m doing it anyway.
The House impeaches him. It goes to the Senate and a few Democrats turn on him drawing widespread condemnation from the liberal media and Democratic base - Why are you trying to keep throwing people in jail or getting them fired for weed? The vote is far short of 2/3rds and he’s still president.
It’s sort of impossible for Republicans to run against this other than “It’s an abuse of power! He’s a dictator!” because even a majority of Republicans support marijuana legalization and they’re sort of the boy who cried wolf when it comes to the dictator claim.
Biden says “I had to take action. We can’t keep putting people in prison for a mostly harmless drug that is legal in 2/3rds of the country. I’d love for a permanent solution to make it’s way through Congress. I’m ready to sign it.”
???
WW3
What is step 8?
They could call it DAPS - Deferred Action for Pot Smokers (joke).
It’s sort of impossible for Republicans to run against this other than “It’s an abuse of power! He’s a dictator!” because even a majority of Republicans support marijuana legalization and they’re sort of the boy who cried wolf when it comes to the dictator claim.
You’re giving them waaaaay too much credit. Republicans have filibustered and voted against their own bills before because their views actually aligned with the Democrat president (McConnell). You regularly have House Republicans who vote against bills and then turn around and tout the bill to their constituents anyway. And for how many Republicans support legalization, there’s barely any red states with legal pot.
Republicans will first and foremost oppose Democrats, even if it’s incredibly unpopular. They’ll figure out justification after.
Normal people 100% care about appointing judges, because that has a huge impact on everyday life. We just saw the Supreme Court overturn Roe V Wade last year (filling the country with thousands of unborn children every year is going to effect everyone). This year they overturned affirmative action and student loan forgiveness. The reason Miranda Rights and gay marriage exists is because of Supreme Court decisions. Tons of state courts have had huge impacts on the drawing of districts over the last decade, either supporting or trying to eliminate gerrymandering. If you don’t think appointing judges impacts you, you need to go back to your 3rd grade social studies course.
The EPA helps to protect the air we breath, the water we drink, and the soil we grow our food in. If your electricity gets more expensive, blame your local provider for not seeing the writing on the wall in the last 40 years and switching to renewable and cleaner energy sources. Or blame yourself for not investing in solar. I don’t want to breath pollution just so you can get a few dollars off your electric bill.
Also you’re ignoring how Biden literally sent out stimulus checks. That is the single most direct thing a president can do.
There was the management of the oil reserves at the start of the Ukraine war, and the pressure he put on gas companies to stop price gouging. Even if you don’t drive, the price of gas effects everything you buy.
What are you looking for from the president? Head pats? Magicka tricks? Do you want him to fix your municipality’s terrible zoning laws? Do you want him to tell you it’s okay to be racist or bigoted?
Things Biden shoulda/coulda done
Some sort of substantive action on climate change - for example: “We’re going to build 20 new nuclear plants in the next 10 years.” - “ICE vehicle sales will be mostly banned after 2035.” - “We’re going to build 15 new 1000 megawatt or bigger offshore wind farms and we’ve bypassed the normal red tape so they’re starting to be built right now.”
Some sort of substantive action on housing being expensive - maybe withhold federal funds from states/municipalities that don’t relax their zoning for more and multi unit building. Maybe have the federal government directly start building stuff.
Etc…
We did get that tax credit that brings down the cost of an EV to a price most Americans still can’t afford, so that’s good. (Sarcasm)
Marijuana legalization polls at like 70%+ including a majority of Republican voters and still zero movement there for some reason. Among Democrats it’s like 80%.
You just listed a ton of things that the Exexutivr Branch does not have the power to do. That applies to Medicare for All, Paid Leave, Vacation Time, Minimum Wage, Free/Reduced College/Childcare, the Child Tax Credit, expanding the EET Credit, universal pre-K, marijuana legalization, and allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug manufactures. You need to blame Congress, not Biden.
Biden has taken some measures on a lot of those fronts. He sponsored the bill you referenced that allows Medicare to start negotiating some drug prices. He directed the FDA to start reviewing Marijuana for rescheduling, which is as much as the Executive branch can do without further input from Congress. That’s pretty far from the “0 movement” you claim. The DoE tried Student Loan forgiveness and that just got shut down by the Judicial branch, and they have started the process to try again with a different law. The US President is not a dictator and can’t just implement these policies unilaterally.
I agree that I didn’t like the handling of the rail workers strike, but the unions ended up getting what they asked for.
On climate change, Biden has done a ton. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-catalyze-global-climate-action-through-the-major-economies-forum-on-energy-and-climate/. Is it enough? Hell no - to be honest it’s probably too late to actually do “enough”. But even some of what he has done has already been undone by the Judicial branch: he stopped leasing federal land to oil companies, but the judicial branch has been starting and stopping that through appeals.
Housing affordability is typically a local zoning and supply issue, though there are bills pending in Congress to address corporate investment in the housing market. I don’t know what you expect from the Federal Executive branch there. The federal government can’t just start building stuff on the whim of the president. They can build on federal land (within limits defined by Congress). Even Congress would probably struggle to do much with local building because that’s not their jurisdiction.
I’m going to assume you’re not American because you clearly don’t understand how the US government works. You’re just blaming everything on the President.
I understand how the US government works.
If you’re going to wait for Congressional action to do any of that stuff, in our anti-majoritarian system that is stacked against the Democratic party, then you’re going to be waiting multiple decades at least.
Just take the Supreme Court for example. Let’s say their was some sort of huge political/cultural shift and the median Congressman was Bernie Sanders - unless we get lucky and a few Supremes die, then there will be Federalist Society veto on progressive legislation even a decade or two or three from now.
All of these changes will have to be shoved through the executive branch somehow. The Supreme Court will have to be ignored.
Or we’ll just have to wait a generation or two or more. The climate change stuff can’t wait.
So you’re suggesting that Biden just seize power? Just ignore the courts and Congress.
That would lead to an impeachment. Either Harris sides with Biden and continues what he did, then gets impeached herself, or Harris sides with Congress and tries to take power. What it effectively biols down to is Biden and someone else acting as commander-in-chief, and who wins is determined by the Pentagon. At best, you are advocating for a military coup, and more likely a civil war.
If Congress gets turned progressive, they can suddenly enact a ton of policies. Of the Supreme Court tries to intervene, there is the option to expand the court (as has been done before) or the option of impeachment (has not been done, but… Maybe).
So the answer isn’t just to sit at home blaming Biden for not starting what would effectively becoming WW3, but rather to vote in every election- primaries, state, local, mid-term, etc.
“I’m stopping the insane prosecution of marijuana today. I’m ordering Justice, FBI, DEA, all federal agencies to not prosecute anything related to marijuana. The IRS, SEC, FTC can treat marijuana businesses like any other business.”
Republican governors or AGs or a sheriff in some shithole state or whatever sue.
The Federalist Society court says your can’t do that.
Biden says I’m doing it anyway.
The House impeaches him. It goes to the Senate and a few Democrats turn on him drawing widespread condemnation from the liberal media and Democratic base - Why are you trying to keep throwing people in jail or getting them fired for weed? The vote is far short of 2/3rds and he’s still president.
It’s sort of impossible for Republicans to run against this other than “It’s an abuse of power! He’s a dictator!” because even a majority of Republicans support marijuana legalization and they’re sort of the boy who cried wolf when it comes to the dictator claim.
Biden says “I had to take action. We can’t keep putting people in prison for a mostly harmless drug that is legal in 2/3rds of the country. I’d love for a permanent solution to make it’s way through Congress. I’m ready to sign it.”
???
WW3
What is step 8?
They could call it DAPS - Deferred Action for Pot Smokers (joke).
You’re giving them waaaaay too much credit. Republicans have filibustered and voted against their own bills before because their views actually aligned with the Democrat president (McConnell). You regularly have House Republicans who vote against bills and then turn around and tout the bill to their constituents anyway. And for how many Republicans support legalization, there’s barely any red states with legal pot.
Republicans will first and foremost oppose Democrats, even if it’s incredibly unpopular. They’ll figure out justification after.