pure electoralism cap on- that means morals are gone
At first, I think the strategy of “I support the democratic candidate and that will be Joe Biden” was fine for “progressives” to take. It took away a talking point that the right wing dems would surely love to have ie “wow! All the progressive dems like AOC (antisemitic, btw!) are against the leader of the party!?”
That makes sense if you have insider knowledge that Pelosi, Jeffries etc. were about to pressure Biden beyond a point that he could withstand. You just openly declare neutrality basically, but also that you side with the status quo. But also that if that changes, the candidate changes, you will change. Then you let Pelosi chop away.
I don’t necessarily have an issue with that (see my italicized statement at the top) from a coldblooded power dynamics type of way. You get your wish of Biden going, and you don’t take the blame.
My problem, I think everyone’s problem and source of confusion, is why the fuck are you going to war for Biden?
Biden has NOT ONCE in four years shown a single shred of legitimate desire to move to the left on basically anything. He went to a union strike picket line- that’s good. He did also publicly fuck a union… literally broke their strike via presidential power when he absolutely did not have to. Like literally could’ve thrown his hands up and said “this isn’t for me to decide. Let the company and the workers come to an agreement!” I know he later apparently har Pete work out some stuff on the backend, meeting the original time off demands of the union (still too low, but it was the demands they made). He should’ve done that publicly. Why didn’t he? Optics? Optics of looking too pro union? It’s legitimately puzzling. In any case, unions haven’t strengthened under his admin, they haven’t grown, they’re maybe slightly more popular in American consciousness, but just barely. And that isn’t so far translating to more people actually joining unions.
The above is basically the positive stuff Biden has done. He went to a picket line, which I’m not going to say isn’t good, it is good, and he broke a strike then negotiated behind the scenes…
If your entire thing is being pro worker like it is for Bernie, Biden might be relatively better than any other president, but in absolute terms, he’s just pure dogshit. He already had 4 years to go to the left and he did what I said above. That isn’t enough to justify 4 more years. It just isn’t. He has barely budged at all. He’s barely done anything. You throw him out and get a new person and pressure them. You don’t keep trying the same strategy over and over.
So, whatever, I have no idea wtf they were trying to do here. They knew Biden was cooked. They aren’t stupid. So this was meant to be like a signaling thing to someone and I honest to fuck have no idea who it’s for. The establishment dems hate them and don’t care what they say. They’ll Bowman all their asses at the first chance. Their actual base of further left than most dems voters is at least annoyed by this if not outright enraged. Like no one is happy about this. I seriously don’t get it. Unless they really honestly thought Biden could weather the onslaught which would make all of them fucking idiots, or they’re just messaging to the right wing corporate/majority of dems like “hey, we’re done with all that cringe leftist stuff. We’re ready to sign on for all the really really bad stuff now!”
I think they’re just fucking idiots and thought this would buy them political capital and, uh, well Biden is gone now and all the other dems hate you. So you just embarrassed yourself for nothing.
pure electoralism cap on- that means morals are gone
At first, I think the strategy of “I support the democratic candidate and that will be Joe Biden” was fine for “progressives” to take. It took away a talking point that the right wing dems would surely love to have ie “wow! All the progressive dems like AOC (antisemitic, btw!) are against the leader of the party!?”
That makes sense if you have insider knowledge that Pelosi, Jeffries etc. were about to pressure Biden beyond a point that he could withstand. You just openly declare neutrality basically, but also that you side with the status quo. But also that if that changes, the candidate changes, you will change. Then you let Pelosi chop away.
I don’t necessarily have an issue with that (see my italicized statement at the top) from a coldblooded power dynamics type of way. You get your wish of Biden going, and you don’t take the blame.
My problem, I think everyone’s problem and source of confusion, is why the fuck are you going to war for Biden?
Biden has NOT ONCE in four years shown a single shred of legitimate desire to move to the left on basically anything. He went to a union strike picket line- that’s good. He did also publicly fuck a union… literally broke their strike via presidential power when he absolutely did not have to. Like literally could’ve thrown his hands up and said “this isn’t for me to decide. Let the company and the workers come to an agreement!” I know he later apparently har Pete work out some stuff on the backend, meeting the original time off demands of the union (still too low, but it was the demands they made). He should’ve done that publicly. Why didn’t he? Optics? Optics of looking too pro union? It’s legitimately puzzling. In any case, unions haven’t strengthened under his admin, they haven’t grown, they’re maybe slightly more popular in American consciousness, but just barely. And that isn’t so far translating to more people actually joining unions.
The above is basically the positive stuff Biden has done. He went to a picket line, which I’m not going to say isn’t good, it is good, and he broke a strike then negotiated behind the scenes…
If your entire thing is being pro worker like it is for Bernie, Biden might be relatively better than any other president, but in absolute terms, he’s just pure dogshit. He already had 4 years to go to the left and he did what I said above. That isn’t enough to justify 4 more years. It just isn’t. He has barely budged at all. He’s barely done anything. You throw him out and get a new person and pressure them. You don’t keep trying the same strategy over and over.
So, whatever, I have no idea wtf they were trying to do here. They knew Biden was cooked. They aren’t stupid. So this was meant to be like a signaling thing to someone and I honest to fuck have no idea who it’s for. The establishment dems hate them and don’t care what they say. They’ll Bowman all their asses at the first chance. Their actual base of further left than most dems voters is at least annoyed by this if not outright enraged. Like no one is happy about this. I seriously don’t get it. Unless they really honestly thought Biden could weather the onslaught which would make all of them fucking idiots, or they’re just messaging to the right wing corporate/majority of dems like “hey, we’re done with all that cringe leftist stuff. We’re ready to sign on for all the really really bad stuff now!”
I think they’re just fucking idiots and thought this would buy them political capital and, uh, well Biden is gone now and all the other dems hate you. So you just embarrassed yourself for nothing.