Well, I hear you, too!
I have to say I was pretty disappointed when the Democratic field went from a bunch of contenders, including my favorites Warner and Sanders, to a sudden, seemingly out of the blue (no pun intended) stomping by Biden during the primaries.
I sighed deeply, cursed the South again, and tried to look for hope.
When Biden won the general election, I was like, “well, okay, at least the court situation will improve, and we’ll have his ear. And Trump is gone.”
Trump was literally traumatic. It really went well beyond a choice of lesser evils. It was an existential election, and thank God the orange beast didn’t find a way to win.
With Biden, I expected another Clinton, to be honest. A big old neoliberal love fest. I wasn’t happy about that, but it seemed the best this country was capable of, for reasons Umair has well illustrated many, many times.
The jury is still out, but I’m beginning to think that Biden is for real. So I want to support and encourage that.
A lot of his appointments, especially just below the cabinet-level, but including some in the Cabinet, are really progressive ones. He’s filling a lot of positions in the economics arena with Warren people, for example.
And Republicans are right about one thing. The covid relief bill was a trojan horse for all kinds of progressive goodies.
Of course, I want much more. I’m left of Bernie. Left. Not right. Pretty far left, to be honest. I consider capitalism to be a pretty vicious economic system. I play well in that playground, but I’m a software developer and writer, so the playground for me is moot.
About executive orders, I say screw it. Jam as many out there as he can. I really don’t care how democratic they are, not after Trump’s bullshit, and not after McConnell’s treatment of Merrick Garland (among other things), and not with all the voter restrictions Republican states are trying to pass.
So when I talk about the reality of politics, I’m not professing some kind of love for our “democratic” system. I think our system is antiquated and kind of stupid.
I’m just talking about the current realities on the ground, right now. Dems hold the Senate by a thread, and one of those threads is a noose that people like Manchin will try to hold around Biden’s throat when the midterms get closer.
I hope Biden can play hardball with these centrist Democrats who have helped enable Reaganomics during the last 40 years. It seems to me that he has hired a bunch of pros to do his dirty work.
And now my comment is almost as long as Umair’s post, lol. Sorry about that. It’s just that I’ve gone from being completely disgusted about Biden’s nomination to actually kind of excited about the guy, which surprises the heck out of me.
I thought at best we’d be taking baby steps towards progress, but the guy seems to more interested in long jumps. I really think we should be getting behind him on that, and encouraging him.
