All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[Mister Mets]

You came of age supporting the Republican Party that had practiced a toxic, divisive, obstructionist, anti-democratic style of politics for over a decade. Party over the good of the country became the norm and you were all-in on that until the inevitable result in the form of Trump emerged and you’re still married to it. You just pretend authoritarianism is a fluke instead of where things were headed the whole time.
If all the moderate-ish Republicans are like you we’re all well and truly f**ked.

It's better to avoid discussions about the person and not the topic. People do not seem happy on this thread when I, or anyone else, responds to personal attacks. But I don't think I should be expected to ignore it.

I really liked John McCain. I think he was the best presidential candidate from either party since Dwight Eisenhower.

If you believe that John McCain was roughly as bad as Donald Trump and should have been treated as such, I will respectfully disagree with you, but that is not the message of President Biden or most of the Democratic party.

And if we're going on the whole discussion of what it would be like if more people were like me, I supported Joe Biden consistently in the 2020 presidential election. I voted for him. I argued in his favor on earlier iterations of this thread over people who supported Warren or Sanders in the primary. Given the closeness of the election, it does appear that if the majority of the regulars of these threads got their way in primaries, we would have another Trump term right now. Without the baggage of January 6. I do not imagine that would be a better outcome for the Democratic party or the United States.

Here is the obvious issue...

If "Improved..." is simply more(or all...) folks having access to what currently clearly does not work?

(See diabetics dying because they used the Walmart insulin because their plan did not cover insulin...)

Plenty of folks do not support that goal. Including me.

While I know that some folks want to ignore basic realities like that?

Plenty of folks do not.

I likely asked you a question like this before, and you may have responded to it, so I'll apologize for being repetitive.

But why is anyone acting like you're a Republican?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, you are not a member of the Republican party. You do not support Republicans over Democrats. You do not frequently, or ever, promote Republican politicians over their Democratic opponents.

I recognize that we disagree politically, but it seems your main points are about what the Democratic party could do to make you and others like you more enthusiastic, as opposed to any hint of support for Republicans from you.

And if the Republican party were to get its act together and be center-right supporters of liberal democracy ("liberal" as the idea that there should be rule of law), you would support politicians to its left.

Am I off on any of this?

[numberthirty]

...

I likely asked you a question like this before, and you may have responded to it, so I'll apologize for being repetitive.

But why is anyone acting like you're a Republican?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, you are not a member of the Republican party. You do not support Republicans over Democrats. You do not frequently, or ever, promote Republican politicians over their Democratic opponents.

I recognize that we disagree politically, but it seems your main points are about what the Democratic party could do to make you and others like you more enthusiastic, as opposed to any hint of support for Republicans from you.

And if the Republican party were to get its act together and be center-right supporters of liberal democracy ("liberal" as the idea that there should be rule of law), you would support politicians to its left.

Am I off on any of this?

First off, no you are not off.

As for what's in blue, been a long time since I cared one bit about that aspect of this thread.

If I was going to guess because a bet was involved?

I'd guess that most of the regulars in this thread see "Democrats Exist..."/"Republicans Exist..."/"Maybe, One Libertarian Exists..."/"Green Party IS SCAM...", and only that.

If they see anything else? I've never really seen anything that points to it.

[numberthirty]

As for "Is Biden Doing A Good Job?..."



When Axelrod has to hip you to "Basics 101..." stuff?

That is telling.

[Jack Dracula]

It's better to avoid discussions about the person and not the topic. People do not seem happy on this thread when I, or anyone else, responds to personal attacks. But I don't think I should be expected to ignore it.

I really liked John McCain. I think he was the best presidential candidate from either party since Dwight Eisenhower.

If you believe that John McCain was roughly as bad as Donald Trump and should have been treated as such, I will respectfully disagree with you, but that is not the message of President Biden or most of the Democratic party.

And if we're going on the whole discussion of what it would be like if more people were like me, I supported Joe Biden consistently in the 2020 presidential election. I voted for him. I argued in his favor on earlier iterations of this thread over people who supported Warren or Sanders in the primary. Given the closeness of the election, it does appear that if the majority of the regulars of these threads got their way in primaries, we would have another Trump term right now. Without the baggage of January 6. I do not imagine that would be a better outcome for the Democratic party or the United States.

I likely asked you a question like this before, and you may have responded to it, so I'll apologize for being repetitive.

But why is anyone acting like you're a Republican?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, you are not a member of the Republican party. You do not support Republicans over Democrats. You do not frequently, or ever, promote Republican politicians over their Democratic opponents.

I recognize that we disagree politically, but it seems your main points are about what the Democratic party could do to make you and others like you more enthusiastic, as opposed to any hint of support for Republicans from you.

And if the Republican party were to get its act together and be center-right supporters of liberal democracy ("liberal" as the idea that there should be rule of law), you would support politicians to its left.

Am I off on any of this?

McCain had more integrity than most Republican politicians but was still evidently on board while Republicans eroded democracy in the US to the point where someone like Trump could emerge and thrive.
It’s no fluke that he succeeded as a Republican candidate.
Again, moderate Republicans were apparently happy to watch their party tear down the guardrails that should’ve kept someone like Trump from getting nominated, let alone elected.
Now that he’s on the verge of a second term you’re all pretending you had nothing to do with helping to get him there.

[aja_christopher]

First off, no you are not off.

As for what's in blue, been a long time since I cared one bit about that aspect of this thread.

You were asked a simple question -- how does criticizing Democratic efforts to improve healhcare and ignoring Republican obstruction help you achieve your alleged goal of universal health care.

If you don't care about that then you (legislatively) don't care about what you yourself claim to care about.

Which is your prerogative -- but don't expect people not to address political hypocrisy on a political forum.

[numberthirty]

You were asked a simple question -- how does criticizing Democratic efforts to improve healhcare and ignoring Republican obstruction help you achieve your alleged goal of universal health care.

If you don't care about that then you (legislatively) don't care about what you yourself claim to care about.

Which is your prerogative -- but don't expect people not to address political hypocrisy on a political forum.

To put this about as simply as possible...

See the above video.

Starting at 10:45 discussing exactly what happened to the public option that Biden said that he would introduce.

Which, honestly, isn't even really a criticism.

It is pointing to an actual fact, and wondering why that fact is what how things wound up.

[numberthirty]

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/artic...lth-insurance/

Whatever Happened to Biden’s Public Option?

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023...ic-option.html

Bring Back the Public Option! Biden’s “battle for the soul of America” rerun won’t be enough against Trump. He needs to give voters something real.

[numberthirty]

https://jacobin.com/2022/08/joe-bide...ance-subsidies

Joe Biden Promised a Public Option for Health Care. What Happened to It?

[Kirby101]

https://jacobin.com/2022/08/joe-bide...ance-subsidies

Do you understand how Congress works?
D,o you know anything about needing 60 Senators?

[Tendrin]

Do I need to post the 30's Politics Flowchart again?

[numberthirty]

Do you understand how Congress works?
D,o you know anything about needing 60 Senators?

When you need either of them to propose it during a term?

Let's talk.

[Kirby101]

When you need either of them to propose it during a term?

Let's talk.

It was a nonstarter. Proposing things that have zero chance of getting to the floor is not a good way to govern.

But that's a new trick for you, criticizing Biden for something he could never get done.

I mean you are arguing that the problem is Biden didn't propose it?

I guess you prefer the GOP and doing away with the ACA.

[GindyPosts]

You know what fucking pisses me off about all this? There's zero debate whatsoever about transgender men in sports. NONE!

Either ban all transgender athletes altogether or don't bitch and just leave it alone. This is all explicit in their cruelty to show they want to still control women but can't roll back laws on actual females (besides abortion) so they're looking at ersatz women as targets to demonize and ridicule instead. And once that's all in place, then rolling back actual women's rights will become easier because nobody bothered to fight for transgender women.

[numberthirty]

It was a nonstarter. Proposing things that have zero chance of getting to the floor is not a good way to govern.

But that's a new trick for you, criticizing Biden for something he could never get done.

I mean you are arguing that the problem is Biden didn't propose it?

I guess you prefer the GOP and doing away with the ACA.

Figuratively killin' me, Smalls...

Setting aside the possibility that a sitting President steps down/passes away during his first term/decides against running for a second term?

The period of time where he is running for reelection is during that first term.

It can rather easily be proposed as a part of one's pitch for a second term.

It would also be a pretty good way to make the case for that the President in question would also need voters to elect as many members as possible to Congress to support it.

(Never mind that one could also as those voters to make sure not to send any dead weight like Manchin or Sinema to Congress...)

That second article lays it out rather clearly...

[numberthirty]

Now, all that said?

It could be that the guy intends on doing so, and is picking a particularly spectacular moment to do so.