A Political Thread pt. 2

[Al Bangor]

Today's the big day! Biden takes over and will get the Government focused on important topics like Covid-19. Something Trump as ignored since the election back in November.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Got to spare a thought for the terribly unfunny comedians/political cartoonists that are going to be out of a job as of today

 

[ncurd]

Got to spare a thought for the terribly unfunny comedians/political cartoonists that are going to be out of a job as of today

Was about to say something then noticed you put unfunny. I'll say anyway.

Honestly most comedians are probably relived especially satirists (I know Iannucci basically gave up) as events have absurd on thier own.

 

[Jimcardiff]

ah well back to less entertaining news from the US , I am expecting Biden to be like Obama , only doing sensible things ,

 

[TRF_Olyy]

only doing sensible things

Like drone striking weddings and hospitals?


People have built Biden/Harris up to be these great saviours - in reality all they've given them is a get out of jail free card for the type of politician they've repeatedly proven themselves to be.
"At least they're not Trump/Imagine if it was Trump doing this" is going to be used a lot over the next four years - and while it's true that Trump is/was terrible, it shouldn't be used as an excuse to shift the borders of what should be considered acceptable.

 

[ncurd]

Like drone striking weddings and hospitals?


People have built Biden/Harris up to be these great saviours - in reality all they've given them is a get out of jail free card for the type of politician they've repeatedly proven themselves to be.
"At least they're not Trump/Imagine if it was Trump doing this" is going to be used a lot over the next four years - and while it's true that Trump is/was terrible, it shouldn't be used as an excuse to shift the borders of what should be considered acceptable.

We need to be critical of our sides failures, no new wars (plenty of old ones to go around) was possibly Trumps only accomplishment. I also don't think the first term of Biden/Harris will be much diffrent on that front the fatigue of Middle East interventions was already prevalent in Obama's era whos "new wars" were nothing on the scale of Iraq/Afghanistan (again Obama wasn't great, Trump did better but I think that more the times and residual issues from the Bush era then deliberate).

It also must not be forgotten how much Trump destablised North Korea relations (which everyone was pretty worried about and got lucky) and Iran. He got close to new wars just in the end nobody really wanted them.



I think Biden/Harriss will not be prefect by any stretch (I don't think any poltician can be) but they won't be spiteful in their actions and unapologetic about it. We also might get acceptance there of culpability of mistakes, something we are badly suffering in the UK atm where no one can get fired no matter how much they **** up in government. That is good thing considering how much damage Trump has done.

 

[ncurd]

I mean actions that have been annoinced will occur immediately.

Biden announces immediate actions

President-elect Joe Biden's team has announced the executive actions he will take immediately. They include reversals of Trump policies including:

• Stopping the US pullout from the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Rejoining the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
• Ending a ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries

Number 3 is odd in given climate but way more to do with something applied at begining of Trump rather than COVID based.

The White House

President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to move quickly to deliver results for working families. That’s what they’ve done.

buildbackbetter.gov

The only issue is I dodn't like how Trump normalised the use of Expectuive Actions rather than trying to get stuff through congress.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Don't get me wrong, I don't think they're going to be Trump mk.2 - they'll do some good, and most stuff averagely, but they're not going to be held anywhere near as accountable as they should be/viewed anywhere near as objectively as they should be, because they've been put on this massive pedestal before they've even taken charge.

A return to the status quo is a welcome thing after the last four years, but people should still be striving for more.
I mean Biden is actively/aggressively anti-medicare-for-all, and that's been completely forgotten since the election.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Trump didn't start any new foreign wars during his term as POTUS. Just starting one within the US instead.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Don't get me wrong, I don't think they're going to be Trump mk.2 - they'll do some good, and most stuff averagely, but they're not going to be held anywhere near as accountable as they should be/viewed anywhere near as objectively as they should be, because they've been put on this massive pedestal before they've even taken charge.

A return to the status quo is a welcome thing after the last four years, but people should still be striving for more.
I mean Biden is actively/aggressively anti-medicare-for-all, and that's been completely forgotten since the election.

Then again Republicans are going to flip back to claiming things are important that they completely ignored for the last 4 years and will screech about Socialism and the war on Christmas and Christian values non-stop during the Biden presidency. Biden will get a pretty free pass from the left to begin with but, in a way, I think there will be greater expectation to actually get something done. If after all these years of Trump, Biden comes in and is ineffective and achieves nothing that the left want, we could be looking at yet another right wing extremist waltzing in off the back of the left refusing to go to the polls due to being disillusioned. This could set a cycle of right wing extremists coming in off the back of left wing disillusionment who then get replaced with the likes of Biden, who are basically just right-lite. The USA is constantly lurching further and further right.

Republican candidates do not care about governing for the whole and do not care about upsetting the left. They have no interest in working with the left and are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. The final years under Obama and the Trump years were not an abnormality, that is how they now operate and that is how they are going to continue to operate until it stops being beneficial to do so. Democrats are ultimately still cowardly and seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to put down their own base to appease Republicans. If one side has decided it's a war, you can't be passive.

Watch this space, short of Biden achieving an economic miracle in the next 2 years, Democrats will lose the house and senate in 2 years time and will then lose the presidency in 4. They are setting themselves up to fail.

 

[ncurd]

Which seats are up in the senate? That makes a huge difference its why taking control of it was not really an option during Trump's term.

Can't see them loosing the house without a dramatic shift.

The presidency it really matters who the Republican's put up and the Democrats (I think Biden said one term only).

 

[ncurd]

Also no longer have to hear Trump again as president again, got in one last bout of racism.

 

[ncurd]

snip

I think one thing forgotten about appealing to moderates (those in the center) is you have to do that whilst en-living your base we've witness first hand in this country what happens when you alienate that group whilst having a rabid base. That doesn't mean you have to be passive but you can't afford to be completely radical.

 

[Reiser99]

Then again Republicans are going to flip back to claiming things are important that they completely ignored for the last 4 years and will screech about Socialism and the war on Christmas and Christian values non-stop during the Biden presidency. Biden will get a pretty free pass from the left to begin with but, in a way, I think there will be greater expectation to actually get something done. If after all these years of Trump, Biden comes in and is ineffective and achieves nothing that the left want, we could be looking at yet another right wing extremist waltzing in off the back of the left refusing to go to the polls due to being disillusioned. This could set a cycle of right wing extremists coming in off the back of left wing disillusionment who then get replaced with the likes of Biden, who are basically just right-lite. The USA is constantly lurching further and further right.

Republican candidates do not care about governing for the whole and do not care about upsetting the left. They have no interest in working with the left and are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. The final years under Obama and the Trump years were not an abnormality, that is how they now operate and that is how they are going to continue to operate until it stops being beneficial to do so. Democrats are ultimately still cowardly and seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to put down their own base to appease Republicans. If one side has decided it's a war, you can't be passive.

Watch this space, short of Biden achieving an economic miracle in the next 2 years, Democrats will lose the house and senate in 2 years time and will then lose the presidency in 4. They are setting themselves up to fail.

It's a good point. Now that the Democrats are in power both sides need to put aside their differences and come together, yet reality is, if the republicans had won you can beat they wouldn't be doing that.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but it does annoy me that the more reasonable side has to make concessions for those with more extreme views who wouldn't do it back if the situation was reversed.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

It's a good point. Now that the Democrats are in power both sides need to put aside their differences and come together, yet reality is, if the republicans had won you can beat they wouldn't be doing that.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but it does annoy me that the more reasonable side has to make concessions for those with more extreme views who wouldn't do it back if the situation was reversed.

What concessions would those be?

Neither side is really up for genuine bipartisanship as it simply is not in their interest and they have both built this narrative of "light and dark", "american and unamerican" up so much that they simply cannot change tact without looking like they are fratanising with the enemy.

In the past week, the Democrats have made it as clear as the republicans have that any suggestions of "coming together" must be done on their terms and amount to an all out concession of fundemental principles

 

[Reiser99]

What concessions would those be?

Neither side is really up for genuine bipartisanship as it simply is not in their interest and they have both built this narrative of "light and dark", "american and unamerican" up so much that they simply cannot change tact without looking like they are fratanising with the enemy.

In the past week, the Democrats have made it as clear as the republicans have that any suggestions of "coming together" must be done on their terms and amount to an all out concession of fundemental principles

True. I'm more focussing on those Republicans who say that Biden needs to listen to both sides and hear those on the right, when if the shoe was on the other foot they wouldn't even be talking about healing and coming together.

I'm not going to even remotely pretend that Biden will give Republicans what they want, especially now with control of the Senate. However, the fact that they are talking about healing is more adult than anything the Republicans have done for the past 4 years.

 

[ncurd]

What concessions would those be?

Neither side is really up for genuine bipartisanship as it simply is not in their interest and they have both built this narrative of "light and dark", "american and unamerican" up so much that they simply cannot change tact without looking like they are fratanising with the enemy.

In the past week, the Democrats have made it as clear as the republicans have that any suggestions of "coming together" must be done on their terms and amount to an all out concession of fundemental principles

Yeah theres difference of talk of coming together and actually doing it. We saw it once in this country and as such the minor party were firmly rejected.

People talk like they want compromise but they don't they just want to to compromise by agreeing with them.

I think the last bit of true "bipartisian" legislation in America was the Affordable Care Act (which was massively compromised from its original position to pass) and all it did was radicalise the Republicans further. It could happen but i suspect most of it will still be entrenched and we are a long way off from fixing those issues.

 

[ncurd]

and exhale

 

[Which Tyler]

 

[ncurd]