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Democrats need to pull themselves together and remember: Biden is still better than Trump
(www.usatoday.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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politics
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On nearly every single issue, not only is he "better than Trump," he's actually good. On the environment? Actual progress in the form of a massive infrastructure bill that invests in green energy sources and tamping down on pollution. On education? He's made student loan forgiveness a central tenet of his policy agenda. On the economy? He's gotten inflation under control and the economy is actually doing great now.
The elephant in the room is Israel and Palestine, of course, but I wish people would pause and think before knee-jerk reacting to... not even his policies there, just headlines about his policies.
The fact of the matter is that the Middle East is a fucking mess and Israel is currently run by a government hell-bent on making it ten times worse, but Israel actually falling and the conflict overtaking the entire region would be a global catastrophe. Biden is doing what he can to pressure Netanyahu over the insane and genocidal treatment of Palestinians while not giving Iran and others the sense that they have free rein to invade. (And for FUCK'S sake, can we stop pretending Iran is suddenly the good guys? They're supplying arms to Russia.)
This is a nuanced, complex, and fragile situation, and like it or not, Biden is exactly the right kind of person for the presidency at a time like this. Not only that, Trump would make it ten thousand times worse on purpose, because it would please Putin to see Russia's influence in the Middle East overtake that of the United States.
There is literally only one sane choice on the ballot this year.
Yeah, agreed on everything. Dark Brandon, you have my vote.
Netanyahu is a madman though and I hope he sees his day in international court for these crimes.
Oh, absolutely. The most despicable thing about him is also very Trumpian: He's maintaining a grip on power to try to stifle an ongoing corruption and bribery case against him.
The sooner that man is out of power and in prison, the better.
Which is the real problem, has been a problem since before I could vote, and is a problem that cannot be fixed.
I actually think it can be fixed, but doing so is hard work. It requires:
If we're shooting for the stars, for election reform, I think we might need proportional representation. First-past-the-post is only one problem in our first-past-the-post, winner-take-all voting system.
There are issues with that sort of system too, though I'd consider it preferable. We have a decent distribution of parties in parliament here in Sweden, but it's still kind of tough to find a party you really jive with. At least you have options, but generally it's all compromises and nothing really fits at all.
I think that's always going to be the case. I'm not sure how to fix that beyond direct democracy, and even then, you generally still have to have some group drafting the laws and most people only get to decide yes or no. Trying to govern a large group of people on a large number of issues is just a hard problem.
Ranked is better than our current system, but STAR and approval would be even better.
If we are doing election reform, we should go for the best.
I think it's possible. Generally, some form of ranked choice is happening in democratic strongholds. Shut out the fascists, and you get a broader range of Democrats.
THANK YOU. This is what I was wanting to say.
The Middle East is a mess. Israel is hated by literally everyone around them, and I guarantee you that Russia is waiting in the wings for us to do the stupid thing and stop backing Israel. It would solidify Russia's ties with Iran, weaken America's stance in the Middle East, and make us look bad internationally. I guaranfuckingtee you that if Israel gets glassed by its numerous opponents in the Middle East because America held up aid over Gaza, that shit will be spun WORLD WIDE as America giving in to Antisemitism, which will be hung STRAIGHT on the Global Left's shoulders. It's fucking transparent. And calling Biden a genocidal Zionist just plays RIGHT into Russia and the Global Right's agenda. Again, if you're saying that bullshit, you're either part of the Right-Wing attack on the Left, or you are a useful idiot being leveraged by the Global Right as a weapon to hit the Left with.
Oh, if I only had more Upvotes to give you, kescusay. :)
Not to mention that Netanyahu staying in power (similarly to what will happen with Trump) is the only thing keeping him out of dealing with legal accountability. He can’t afford to lose any power.
I don't see how america holding up aid will instantly result in Israel getting glassed. It should be theoretically feasible to stop aid to Israel unless a) Israel stops its murderous campaign in Gaza or b) Israel comes under attack from a non Palestinian country. Unless Israel will fall within a few days, the US should be able to back them in case of an attack even though aid was previously being held back.
I’m a little confused, I didn’t realize that US stop supporting Israel would make them look weak. It would make them look strong in my books, especially if all the money is used for Ukraine.
As someone not from a western country, people always hated US using their military to police the globe.
Edit:
The situation is like the strong boyfriend defending their crazy partner. They look weak for bending over backwards for craziness.
I agree with your first two paragraphs, but disagree with you minimizing the conflict with the rest. The Israel Palestine conflict isn't a mess because it's in the Middle East or ancient tribal grudges or religion or any of that. It's because one group wanted another group's land and so they decided to take it even though people already lived there. And now a genocide is happening. Same thing happened in the US, Canada, Australia, it's basic settler colonialism, but happening recently enough that we can try to stop it this time. He's acting way too slow. It's a hard line for a lot of people, and for good reason. That's the biggest crime you can do basically.
It's one of the simplest situations in the world right now. And Biden hasn't done anything about it but words and some small aid towards Palestinians. He needs to start taking actual action to stop the killing and start denying weapons to Israel, censuring them in the UN, using sanctions, things like that, that they'd be doing for any other country, like Russia. Netanyahu is making Biden look very weak. Iran has no reason to invade, that's a silly worry. There's no evidence that would happen. And Israel can defend itself with all the weapons they already have. The only reason Biden is acting slow is because he's a self-professed Zionist and Israel Stan, and has been his whole life.
And Iran isn't the "good guys" but that also doesn't mean they're the "bad guys" for retaliating when they're attacked, that just invites other nations to keep doing that. Same excuse we give for helping Ukraine stop Russia. International law is there for a reason. The US has done plenty of horrible stuff to all of South America, that shouldn't give them the freedom to start killing our officials or attacking near or at embassies. In this situation, we're the ones defending the bad guys trying to ravage this conflict, which is Israel.
But on all other topics, Biden is good. But this is just an important one for a lot of people. This is the most we've been involved in causing ethnic cleansing since manifest destiny and the Native Americans. We have the chance to at least not enable a genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign from a country that we directly supply the weapons for, and we're blowing it.
Your analysis of the Middle East completely disregards religion?? AND the history of conflict between the various powers?
...you sure you're not over simplifying it?
Religion is used as an excuse now, but revisionist Zionism was actually originally a very secular movement. Now it's one post of the Zionist tent but still not the only one. In the same way that religion in the US is often just a means to end to gain voters and power, the same is true in Israel, but to gain land.
And there are conflicts between the various powers involved, it's how Israel succeeded to even become an apartheid state, Britain and France really fucked this situation up good, for example, but it all still comes down to a population trying to displace another population. Usually everything other argument is put up to obfuscate this fact. I'm just trying to cut through brass tacks (is that right? Just realized I've never used this phrase lol). Of course I'm simplifying out as well, and there's a history to learn about it all, but people often use it as an excuse to dismiss because it's too "complicated". It is, but not as much as people think, is all I'm basically saying.
You're getting down to brass tacks.
That was it 😅 Thanks lol
So obviously I don't want to see the massacre of the Israelis any more than the Palestinians, but if "Israel fell" why would the conflict overtake the whole region? Israel's existence, and constant poking of the hornets nests, is the catalyst for instability in the region. If it went away, wouldn't there be relative peace over there? I'm not advocating for it... Just a thought experiment.
A couple of reasons...
First, because any such fall would be slooooooooow. Israel wouldn't fall quickly, it would take a long time and would be absolutely catastrophic for everyone on all sides of the conflict, because they would take a lot of Iran and others with them.
Second, because it would reduce western, secular influence in the region considerably, while massively increasing Russia's influence. Russia doesn't give a shit about stability and quality of life in the region, they just want vassal states from which to work to expand. Russia doesn't think any country that isn't Russia should exist, especially near them.
Western influence in the region has been a curse on the Middle East, and most other places for that matter.
Na, Islam does a fine job of creating horrors while fighting itself. Like using children to clear minefields, for example.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/iran-iraq-war-child-soldiers-mines/
I just like to think that we're currently playing the Weimar Germany game. Let Trump win and you'll have given the Republicans decades of power if not more. They've been planning for years to control the government through the supreme court, you think this is the worst they can do?
For those wanting acceleration towards collapse, that's not guaranteed, and will cause many deaths in the process if it does, and there probably still won't be any guarantee or high likelihood of some sorta takeover by the proletariat or what have you. Seeing as how most of the militant groups in the US are likely to be right wing, all you'll have is a right wing take over after a collapse.