Laws? Enforced? Against rich people? Against politicians? So naive this one....

I do hope I'm proven wrong...

The TL;DR of it is that the people with the power to change that are the same people who benefit from it the most and therefore whose best interests are to prevent it from changing.

And America is the greatest democracy in the same way that corporations find that they did nothing wrong upon investigating themselves.

Technically yes, but no, not really.

America is one of the greatest democracies but I’m really not seeing it.

We're not a great democracy at all. We're a world power. Big difference. World Powers have this weird history of being shit governments. Ask Russia and China sometime

Or, as Republicans would remind you, we've never been a Democracy at all, but a Republic.

In a technical sense, yes. In a practical sense, no.

We aren't the greatest democracy. The only choice we have is some state ballots and representatives from a 2 party system. It takes decades to get things passed that 70% of Americans want. The largest predictor of something getting passed is if rich donors want it.

People say America is one of the greatest democracies but I’m really not seeing it.

As an American, I can tell you it's a shitty democracy. Politicians are openly bribed in the form of "lobbying" by corporate interests and the rich. Its a two party system thanks to having FPTP voting everywhere.

Any given legislation has a 30% chance of getting approved regardless of public support, unless said legislation is supported by the rich, then it's far closer to 100% chance.

America is is on the fence post with outright fascism on one side, and milquetoast flawed democracy on the other.

Maybe, but it's hard. It would take a Constitutional amendment.

Yeah, you are. You can criticize a Democrat for anything. Republicans are above reproach.

Obama was criticized on national news for wearing a tan suit. Trump bragged about being able to kill someone on the streets of New York and not lose a vote - to zero criticism. The man has horny audio about being able to walk through the dressing rooms of minors at a competition he ran and anyone who criticizes him for that is seen as too "partisan".

So yeah. It's not about 4 years difference. Trump could be 90, and his side would still criticize Biden for being too old while running Trump for president.

He can't pardon himself from the State charges. He can however create a Constitutional Crisis for 4 years where nobody is quite sure if they can prosecute or jail him or not.

> Charges 91 felony counts

> some idiot on Lemmy says you aren’t charging anything

What do you think criminal charges are?

He's literally being prosecuted for 91 felonies by governments at the state and federal level.

He keeps supplying Israel with weapons. He didn't challenge the government and fully cancel student loans. Marijuana isn't legalized yet. He hasn't changed tax cuts. He Essentially moved the whole democratic party right on the border and immigrants. He originally was suppose to be a one term president.

Lifelong blue-voter. Watched the SotU. He did a good job and certainly shut down the age argument a bit. I would still prefer to see younger candidates - I think Biden is out of touch.

My thoughts are that we just haven't made any progress on issues that affect the largest demographics of the population. A couple off the top of my head:

• Corporate greed is driving inflation for food and homes while wages have stagnated.
• College is prohibitively expensive and student loans are predatory (even federal loans). We are robbing our youth of a future.
• Gun control progress is basically non existent despite more school shootings.

A lot of my feelings can be summed up as the middle class is being squeezed too hard. We need more money or less expenses (school, healthcare, childcare, mortgage, rent, food, etc). I don't see Biden doing anything here except ask nicely "pretty please snack companies stop gouging us" during the Superbowl. I also feel very gaslit because every day I see articles and press releases claiming how great the economy is, but my eyes and ears tell a very different story.

Maybe Biden can't fix these things without a functional Congress but I wish Dems wouldn't lie and instead give us a real plan to fix the country. It's really hard to get excited about voting blue when all we see is more aid for Israel and corporations instead of the people.

Because I'm tired and cynical. He's a career politician who's always saying what he needs to say to stay in office at the time, but often ages poorly given enough time, example two. He's being praised for his economic policy, but all that means to me is more consumption and pollution.

I'm also cynical that any politician could get elected on an effective climate change platform as that would be the voting public would have to give up too much shit they were brainwashed into believed that they deserve.

Did I watch the State of the Union? Have you seen the CO2 concentration levels? Speeches are theater.

What's not to like about puppies?

Because it is between absurdly rare and unprecedented for a sitting president running for a second term to not get the given the significant advantage an incumbent possesses. The party not standing by the practical and spiritual leader of the party would have been taken by most amaricans as surefire evidence that the party had discovered a scandal about his so massive and overwhelming it put everything Trump ever did to shame.

While the primaries were and are an excellent place to put pressure on the sitting president to actually do something, their outcome was a forgone conclusion unless Amarican voters cared a whole lot more about Palestine than they actually do, as that was the primary thing that changed between 2020 and 2024 where Biden’s perspective has an impact. Practically, the time to find a better candidate are 2019 and 2027, the mid presidency elections are a time to push the president to fulfill more campaign promises. Something that is more difficult when the legislature is controlled by obstructionists who are publicly committed to blocking everything they possibly can until they have complete control.

There were primaries for the democratic party, but typically the parties back their incumbent and nominate them. I don't actually remember or know of a time where a sitting president had a meaningful primary challenger.

Tbh, people want to hate on Biden for whatever reason but he's done so much to actually move the needle--and with the cluster fuck he was handed plus a completely divided Congress.

He's been exactly what we needed as a country and I will happily vote for him in November and not just because the alternative is racism...but because he's actually doing great things and I'd love to see him with a democratic Congress to back him.

How come the Dems have not understood after 2016 and 2020 that they need to stop being a right wing neoliberal party that fucks over poor people just slightly slower than the Reps?

That's exactly what they want to be. Politicians and billionares don't give a fuck about poor people, they are in for profits. As long as red and blue keep winning the elections they aren't going to change anything, why they should? They always win...

I mean I'm not.

Going into this we was that it's best to just go with the incumbent. Then when we saw how weak and shitty the incumbent was doing we're being told it's too late and we already have a candidate.

The DNC is maybe one of the least democratic institutions in a western democracy. It's ridiculous to not consider primaries a fundamental part of the process, but then the apologists come out and defend them as private institutions that cand o whatever they want. They rat fucked Bernie, twice, and we just keep getting told we better vote right or else we get the hose again.

They out progressive policies on the platform but it's only lip service. They simply don't pursue them once elected. Even worse they take our donations and fund Republican candidates to further rat fuck progressives.

Running against Biden meant throwing out the biggest indicator for success against a "worst case scenario" opposition candidate. Incumbency is worth all the young guns waiting 4 years for their shot. Despite what you may have heard, nobody in DNC is more likely to win 2024 than Biden despite all the baggage and Republican hate.