A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch

[Dark Jaguar]

ABF, that's the thing, you need to realize JUST how important "kitchen table" politics are.  That college forgiveness thing, small as it was, provided an absolutely MASSIVE bump in Biden's popularity.  For most people, that was THE most important thing he did his entire term, and the republicans KNOW it.  That's why they hated it so much.  For most people, "parents paid for my college" is not the reality.  It certainly wasn't for me or any of my siblings, or any of my friends, or any of my extended family, or most of the friends I have online that I've actually discussed such things with.  Actually directly helping out people financially is THE biggest thing a candidate can do.  There's a reasons republicans are labelling as a "bribe", and that's because they're trying to make people forget that oh so long ago, this was how politicians won over voters.  They helped them directly.  Now, let me be very clear about why "targetting" (means testing) is a problem.  The wealthy don't need the help, but it also won't hurt the poor if the wealthy get that "debt forgiveness" too.  Why?  The wealthy AREN'T IN DEBT IN THE FIRST PLACE!  It's the same reason that means testing free college access isn't an issue.  The wealthy will still be sending their kids to the most expensive private colleges anyway, and the taxes they are paying GREATLY outweigh whatever relief any one of them might take advantage of.

Poor people DO NOT CARE if wealthy people also benefit from things like free education and health care and... like fire departments.  They only care about having that access themselves, and for wealthy to pay their fare share in taxes.  Do that, and sure, let the wealthy take advantage of the same roads and schools we do if they want.  Heck, the wealthy's kids mingling with the poor can only be a good thing for society in the long run anyway.

But, and this is important, means testing will ALWAYS end up leaving anyone right at the margin high and dry.  It only ever hurts people, and never hurts the wealthy.  THAT is why I'm generally against such things.  So yes, ALL college debt could have been forgiven, and it could have been done without any means testing.  But, this was still a good thing even in an unnecessarily weakened form.

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NEXT TOPIC! That speech.  That speech was, frankly, the best speech Biden's ever given.  Most of the time he's hemmed and hawed and not been willing to call out what needs calling out, but not in this speech!  He was aggressive and he even used the republican's favorite color. (Which for some reason they called "satanic".  I guess because this time it wasn't a baseball cap that was red.)  Biden called out fascism and specifically went after the MAGA movement itself without pretending it could be ANY group.  He went after Trump and his fanbase directly with specifics.  The 14 characteristics of fascism ( https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html ) were even hinted at numerous times.  Fox of course is melting down over it, and the results have been frankly stunning.  In their haste to try and turn it around and label Biden the fascist, they didn't realize they failed to call him a socialist or a communist even once.  Good.  If they're shifting their framing from "socialism bad" to "fascism bad", then that's where the discourse and the discussion between people is going to move.  Mind you, _ucker Carlson may object to how the rest of Fox went after Biden, but it's a good move.  Whoever wrote that speech should be pretty proud.


My only hangup here is that he merely called Trump a "semi-fascist".  By the end of Trump's presidency, he ticked all 14 characteristics.  By definition, he's literally a full fledged fascist who was attempting to become a dictator on top of it (and fortunately failed, that time).  I don't see the point in going half-in on that when the rest of the speech had so much fire.

I may have wanted a lot more from the IRA bill, and I'll list that to start with. First of all, it won't really reduce inflation so labelling it that was disingenuous.  The inflation is a worldwide phenomenon brought on by corporate greed after (sure... "after") the pandemic).  Biden couldn't have caused it, and nothing Biden can do could end it either.  It's ending on it's own now that all that price gouging has reached it's limit and people are freezing their purchases as much as they can.  That said, it's real stealth purpose was an attempt to FINALLY get a weak version of infrastructure reform passed, and a first attempt at actually combating climate change.  These were important, and I'm glad they happened.  In terms of survival of the species, yes, the IRA bill contains the most important thing he's done.

Alright, I've been rather critical here, but that's because I'm discussing this with you ABF.  I want to be clear that Biden, while having exactly the lackluster presidency so far that I expected, REALLY turned things around the past two months. Is it all I could have hoped for?  Of course not, but it's downright impressive and welcome.  The added fire for the first time in his life (that ISN'T going after black people... no I will NOT forget all of Biden's absolutely terrible policies from the 90's, and that goes for Hillary "All lives matter" Clinton too), is also incredibly welcome.  He's starting to live up to that fun "Dark Brandon" running gag you see online, and I welcome it.

All that said, I have never believed in the concept of a "great man".  There is no such thing.  No one person can "save us all from ourselves" and the belief in such a concept is what leads to Trumpism and fascism in general.  I'm not just saying we need to pay attention to congress and which judges get in power.  Real change involves local organization among common people.