Joe Biden has just completed the first six months of his Presidency.
While I think most of us agree it was overwhelmingly better than any six months of Trump’s Presidency, does anyone have any other comments?
I think the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a good decision even though I expect the Taliban to take over in the fairly near future as it’s obviously that otherwise the U.S. was probably going to stay there forever.
He did as well with Covid as anyone could have given anti-vaxer and Republican sentiments.
Unfortunately his philosophy of doubling down on identity politics will result in a continuing alienation of the white working class from the Republicans and I expect lead to one or both of the houses of Congress switching to Republican control in the 2022 or 2024 elections. For example he announced a program of loan forgiveness to black farmers. Why just black farmers? A huge chunk of the population sees this as unfair.
Well, maybe because that’s just not true. Here’s a hint, anytime you hear “identity politics” just assume there’s a right wing talking point behind it.
Of the $10.4 billion in the American Rescue Plan that will support agriculture, approximately half would go to disadvantaged farmers, according to estimates from the Farm Bureau, an industry organization. About a quarter of disadvantaged farmers are Black. The money would provide debt relief as well as grants, training, education and other forms of assistance aimed at acquiring land.
A lot of this is also still following on from a major class-action lawsuit black farmers won in 1997, for which thousands of payouts are still outstanding, and because black farmers have been consistently heavily discriminated against by the USDA and other government agencies for well over a century.
And the “huge chunk of the population” that sees this as unfair didn’t give a damn for all those years when the “unfairness” went the other way.
As for “identity politics”, I note that when the system benefits white straight Christian males, that’s just business as usual, but pointing that out - or attempting to rectify any bias - is “identity politics” for some reason.
About as well as I had hoped. The ship is in steady hands. Given Republican sabotage of covid vaccination, the pandemic was handled as well as possible. My only beef is that he still thinks bipartisanship is possible, it’s his great white whale. It isn’t going to happen, the Republican party has no interest in governing.
I feel bad for the Afghans, but the alternative is remaining for eternity. Even though I received the money, I didn’t favor the $1400 stimulus. Other than a few minor quibbles, I think he’s doing well. To paraphrase Captain Kirk, steady as she goes, Mr. Biden.
Yeah, this. When he first took office, I wrote a post on another forum about how it was time for them to put up or shut up. We all know the 2022 midterm elections will, as usual, be a “referendum on the Biden administration”, and they really need to show Americans how the Democratic plan is different from what the Republicans want to do. But to do that, they need to actually pass some legislation. They had a few successes with the pandemic relief that was so brain-dead obviously needed even the Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to block it, but they need more.
They need to kill the filibuster, and pass everything that’s currently stalled by Republican gamesmanship. They need at least a year of obviously successful programs to have even a hope of getting through the bubble of enough new voters to hold Congress in 2022, and those successes need to be promoted at every opportunity.
I think he’s done a great job urging covid-19 vaccinations. Mindful that he’s actually doing just an average, sane job of it, but after the last guy…
I do wish he’d have the support of all of the congressional Democrats, though. With barely a majority, he needs them all, but not all of them are on board. I swear, Democrats can’t get out of their own way. Now is the time, Democrats, get on board already!
He’s off to a good start on climate change. A lot of that has been reversing things that the former President & his administration put in place, but he’s also empowered someone to make climate change their main job, reoriented government contracts toward EVs, put loan programs in place for green manufacturing, and, well, a lot of other stuff.
Sure, but not one GOPer voted for it, even though it was quite similar to earlier relief bill passed under trump.
We need the Voter bill.
It does look like there could be a bipartisan Infrastructure bill passed.
Yeah, and while I understand where Manchin is coming from- the filibuster would be nice if in 4 years the dems have a minority in the senate. Except that Moscow Mitch has shown he will get rid of it in a heartbeat, as he did with SCOTUS nominees.
And again, yeah, this. Moscow Mitch has proven that he has utterly no scruples, and will do whatever it takes to get his way. Anyone expecting fair play from him the next time he has even a one-vote majority is delusional. He’ll burn down every check and/or balance he can hold a match to.
It is? Biden has been quite firm about using reconciliation as much as possible - he may have gotten in trouble of it when talking about the infrastructure bill, as Republicans who agreed to the smaller infrastructure bill got annoyed when Biden said he would only sign it when the reconciliation bill (which was much bigger) also got to his desk.
The white whale is that you have two (at least) Democratic Senators who are opposed to modification of the filibuster rules.
I think Biden has been a very good president so far. The only problem potentially is that very good may not be enough, and in another sense, it might be too much.
To add a little more clarity, I think of the Barack Obama example in 2009-10. He in many ways had a very good start to his presidency. He accomplished an awful lot, and yet it was his accomplishments that were misconstrued and ultimately used against him.
It was the only sane decision, and long overdue. But just watch, he’ll be slammed for “betraying the Afghani people and opening the door to world terrorism, when victory was so close,” because the Pubs know their base will eat up that narrative, regardless of its basis in non-reality.
I would add the important phrase “if it suits his goals”.
I actually don’t think he will remove the filibuster any time soon. He’s had plenty of opportunity to get rid of it for regular legislation, but hasn’t yet. I think this is because constipated government serves his purposes better than a functional legislature would. As seen from their lack of platform and lack of legislative actions when they had all three branches, the Republican party doesn’t actually want to do anything. The only thing that they want to pass is tax cuts which they can get through reconciliation. If they actually had the power to pass legislation then the base might actually expect them to take action which could lead to some embarrassing votes. Far better to just keep the whole thing stopped up and go home early.
He certainly had the chance for several years before. Maybe he’s also smart enough to realize how it could come back to bite him in the ass (like right now). I hope the Democrats are also that smart.
I’ve been an active and vocal supporter of liberal causes since the 50s. I was wondering if any of them have been advanced so far in the Biden term:
– Reproductive rights
– Penal reform
– Single-payer health care
– Progressive taxes
— Free college education
– Immigration
– Firearm controls
– The environment
Anybody hearing about any of those in the Biden list of goals?
Why don’t you do your own research and report back with how you believe Biden is doing on those issues? I’d suggest comparing his platform on those issues with what he’s accomplished or working on now?
I think Biden has been excellent. My minor quibble is that he’s still too protectionist on trade. I’d like to see an end to the Trump tariffs as well as him using the bully pulpit to promote free trade.
The ‘Buy American’ thing is a bit hokey, but I’m sure Biden, given his age, is still a bit nostalgic for the lunch pail and hard hat image of a strong America in the post World War II era.