GET OUT: US politics November 2020

I just want to say as The Black Guy that pointing at Trump as The Man Who Changed Politics completely misses the entire point of the Tea Party and really where the Republican Party has been since the progressives jumped ship circa The Southern Strategy.

The loud, populist racism isn't new, it's playing the oldies. We live in a country that used to view lynchings as picnic outings. Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford III, Renisha McBride, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Rekia Boys, Aiyana Jones, Sandra Bland, Jamar Clark, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and many others were killed before Trump became the face of the Republican Party. Dylan Roof murdered 9 people in an attempt to incite a race riot before Trump came to prominence. The Republican Party spent most of its time blaming the victims for having the temerity to exist in the first place. It's comforting to say "this is an unprecedented turn and it's Trump's fault" but neither is true; Trump would not have been able to succeed without the Tea Party paving his way. Trump doesn't seem reasonable or viable as a national candidate without Sarah Palin running for VP in 2008. These assholes spent decades building exactly what we currently have in place and the people who ostensibly should have been opposing them rolled their eyes and said "do not feed the troll" and ceded credibility and air time to patently insane, vicious racists; the work we have in front of us now is so much harder because en masse, we have let the other side become legitimate again.

That was nearly 30 years ago.

As for political projects - I'm a lifelong socialist. Mutual aid, protests, ICE education walks, supporting picket lines, supporting the first good city council candidate of my life. Help isn't coming from above, and probably never coming from national Democrats.

DJP otm

I don't care that much about Biden's past, I'm not looking to canonize him. I care about what he will do as president.

certainly feels like a benefit to me.

I absolutely get it, not disparaging the instinct - a lot of these voters are individually terrible people. It's the context of irritating the entire bloc on principle that I personally don't read as a good in itself: my belief is that policies which materially improve the lives of all or most people will convert many bad voters to appreciating those policies. It's hard to take away, eg, universal health care once people have it.

(Boris is doing a very smart approach to it rn by simply naming specific private/corporate health functions with "NHS" in their title and then letting people die from them.)

Issue some sexy executive orders in the first couple months and then hang around xp

For most of my life personal milestones coincided with presidential elections: elementary school, high school, grad school, etc. I'm just old enough to note how January 1981 introduced a new ugliness that automatically made suspect the prisms and assumptions I was being taught as a child.

xxxp - you don't think past actions are a predictor of future behavior?

You dismiss his actions after King with a shrug - but he's still telling you nothing has changed with shoot 'em in the leg.
His whole "I can work with the Republicans" schtick? The evidence for that is his history of crossing the aisle to work with horrible people to destroy welfare or lock people up or engage in criminal wars.
He's still mumbling the echoes of his drug warrior past! https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/18/joe-biden-marijuana-gateway-drug-legalization/

Like Obama, but for different reasons, I think Biden's achieved his most lasting legacy just by getting elected. He made Trump a one-termer.

Beyond that, I'll take rejoining the Paris climate accord, shoring up the ACA (if they can), rejoining the Iranian deal (if it's salvageable), rolling back however temporarily a ton of bad executive orders, and ideally endorsing some well-chosen progressive legislation that can pass the House and be used against Republicans for refusing to pass it in the Senate. That would be a pretty good term under the circumstances.

"Big, massive dumps" for December Title.

Trump whines to Maria Bartiromo about the “massive dumps” he says cost him the election pic.twitter.com/oX2RPPOwbi

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2020

The toilet flushing fixation will never disappear.

I don't care that much about Biden's past, I'm not looking to canonize him. I care about what he will do as president.

Him saying during the campaign that he as president he will increase funding for police, insulate from oversight the specific ones that he says have corrupted the entire nationwide institution, and institute a policy of shooting protestors against police violence, do seem like reasons to be concerned that he might do those things as president.

he

(Personally I think the likelihood that he will do any of them is fairly low: it's campaigning on them in the first place that concerns me.)

they're the main things I'm aware of that he campaigned on honestly

you don't think past actions are a predictor of future behavior?

I think they certainly can be, but I don't think it's all a fait accompli, and especially not when he will lead an enormous team of people who will shape his decisions in innumerable ways.

His whole "I can work with the Republicans" schtick? The evidence for that is his history of crossing the aisle to work with horrible people to destroy welfare or lock people up or engage in criminal wars.

This is one of the main reasons why I didn't support him in the primary. He didn't seem to have realized that the political realities had shifted. I remain hopeful that he will wise up.

they're the main things I'm aware of that he campaigned on honestly

tbrr this is probably my fault for posting about it after hearing him say them

Also fracking, I hear he loves that

So all you've heard about Biden's campaign were the things that people on the left criticized him for?

silby deliberately does not listen to politicians speak

the main things I heard about Trump's campaign were also things that people on "the left" criticised him for tbf

Here's a concrete thing to look forward to, policy-wise: Biden has promised to scrap the 287(g) immigration enforcement program, where local cops are deputized to start deportation proceedings. Not many law enforcement agencies have 287(g) agreements (because there's no funding that comes with them, for one thing), but our local Sheriff's Office does. Local immigrant advocates have been protesting this for three years and have not gotten any traction. The sheriff has vowed to keep renewing it as long as he's in office. But Biden can basically make it go away with a wave of his hand. So here's hoping he does.

I think they certainly can be, but I don't think it's all a fait accompli, and especially not when he will lead an enormous team of people who will shape his decisions in innumerable ways.

The team of apparatchiks drawn (thus far) from the last 30 years of Democratic politics, responsible for designing and implementing the policies we want him to break from?

I dunno, you seem to agree with every point in the summary of why Joe Biden sucks but your desire to find hope in him makes you upset to see those points raised. Which is fine, but I don’t think it’s anyone else’s duty to not raise them?

"Big, massive dumps" for December Title.

Can we please not? The last time we had a gross preteen-humor-level "heh heh" title it got old very quickly and many people didn't want to see it pop up several times a day

Those are not posted in seriousness.

Hell, I find the levity of the toilet humor a nice contrast to what we all argue about in the actual threads.

I dunno, you seem to agree with every point in the summary of why Joe Biden sucks but your desire to find hope in him makes you upset to see those points raised. Which is fine, but I don’t think it’s anyone else’s duty to not raise them?

No, you're right. It's on me. Maybe this just means I should stay away from ILX politics threads and find nourishment elsewhere.

(Personally I think the likelihood that he will do any of them is fairly low: it's campaigning on them in the first place that concerns me.)

― huge rant (sic), Monday, November 30, 2020 8:41 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I suppose an optimist would say that he was pandering toward swing voters, and that he will govern more progressively than his campaign suggested. That optimist would have no actual reason whatsoever to believe it, but dammit I THEY hope it's true.

Politicians generally attempt to enact the platform upon which they campaigned

DJP's big post upthread OTM.

My husband said the other day that what had happened in his lifetime is that when people like him used to say something was racist, white people told him he was crazy. Now, they say 'that is horrible' while doing nothing to change the behavior or actions in question.

Step 1

too often a sidestep though

How convenient

Wow. Flynn’s pardon extends to any crimes within the “investigatory authority” of the Special Counsel, including crimes *arising* out of facts “known to” the SC within the scope of its investigation. Kinda suggests that his criminal liability wasn’t just lying to the FBI 🤔🙄 https://t.co/iTuPk2yxn3

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) November 30, 2020

Maybe they should have fucking charged him with a lot more than lying to the FBI, then, like, I dunno, for conspiring to kidnap that Turkish priest.

Anyway, these criminal will continue to do new criminal shit, so maybe next time.

shoulda charged him with having a face that could paralyze a village

since I can see Europe gladly joining a war against Iran and/or Syria (and/or Turkey? au revoir OTAN)

― All cars are bad (Euler), Monday, November 30, 2020 4:52 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I can't think of any basis for seeing this as even a remote possiblity.

Silby keeps repeating that same line but Biden’s energy policy is hardly expected to be fracking friendly even if he ruled out a full on ban (which he couldn’t do anyway)

Expected by whom?

yeah and based on what?

I took Biden's stance on fracking to be that the oil industry is dying either way, so why not just let it die of natural causes.

“There are several ways Biden could halt fracking on federal lands using executive power. He could ban new oil and gas leases, halt new permits, or seek a specific regulatory ban on fracking, all of which Biden has telegraphed at one point or another on the campaign trail..”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-10-21/here-s-why-biden-couldn-t-ban-fracking-but-could-restrict-it

“He can’t ban fracking” is playing dumb in the most annoying way. He can support bans on fracking, which then automatically makes it an issue with potential movement.

Biden is on the record as not supporting fracking bans.

It should be embarrassing to simp for this desiccated ballsack of a man.

what about donating to him!

Yes, that's true. Otoh, the oil industry has suffered massive job losses this year, so it's not exactly clear what would be gained by loudly proclaiming you want to blow up what's left.

xxp

Okay man there’s quotes from environmental groups in that piece. It’s a lot more valid than some guy who barely pays attention to these things saying “I hear he LOVES fracking” over and over.

Yes, that's true. Otoh, the oil industry has suffered massive job losses this year, so it's not exactly clear what would be gained by loudly proclaiming you want to blow up what's left.

You package it with your massive new federal jobs guarantee that brings back the CCC and WPA to revitalize the crumbling infrastructure of this hellhole country.

A sentence never uttered in the offices of a Democratic consultancy: “Instead of advocating nothing perhaps we could try advocating... something.”

It would be funny to compare left and right Biden doomsday predictions and see who's closer. Will he plunge us into communist hell and privation or sell us all to ExxonMobil to be used as fracking fluid?