Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November — if so many US voters didn’t find him personally repugnant.
Roughly 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the former president. And yet, when asked about Trump’s ability to handle key issues — or the impact of his policies — voters routinely give the Republican candidate higher marks than President Biden.
In a YouGov survey released this month, Trump boasted an advantage over Biden on 10 of the 15 issues polled. On the three issues that voters routinely name as top priorities — the economy, immigration, and inflation — respondents said that Trump would do a better job by double-digit margins.
Meanwhile, in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 40 percent of voters said that Trump’s policies had helped them personally, while just 18 percent said the same of Biden. If Americans could elect a normal human being with Trump’s reputation for being “tough” on immigration and good at economics, they would almost certainly do so.
Biden is fortunate that voters do not have that option. But to erase Trump’s small but stubborn lead in the polls, the president needs to erode his GOP rival’s advantage on the issues.
Slightly off-topic, but I really hate that the Rs are so goddamn horrific that the Ds can just gesture at how bad the Rs are and not actually do much tangibly for their voters compared to… say… like how LBJ did with the passing of the addition of Medicare and Medicaid to Social Security or FDR with the “Rural Electrification Act”… because they know that the alternative for voters not voting for them = enabling of fascists who will speedrun the 4th Reich.
I really wish the left was even half as powerful as what the demagogue-spouting right-wing news stations pretended.
Obama floated a single-payer option for healthcare, he was stopped by Republicans. People also need to realize that the Democrats scraping by means they have to compromise to survive.
You want them to do more? They need a mandate, not a razor thin slice. The Republicans have gerrymandered the fuck out of your country and made it so that even when they aren’t elected, they can control or block everything. They’ve made it impossible for Democrats to get a landslide, blocked absolutely everything they can, stirred up as much voter apathy as possible, so that even when they lose, they win. And you’re buying right into it.
This is also why everyone should vote Democrat. You only have two parties in your country. If the Democrats always win because the Republicans are too right wing, they will forced to abandon their most repugnant social policies to save the golden goose, tax cuts and cutting social programs.
This will force Democrats to move left to differentiate themselves, and so forth. Short of electoral reform which will never happen, it has to become political suicide to be against abortion, LGBTQ issues, etc like it is in other countries.
You might want to check that one out again. The Ds had a majority in Congress and managed to fuck themselves on that one.
Single payer will never pass, big insurance owns too many congress people on both sides of the isle. A couple million dollar payoff for a dissenting vote is much cheaper than the billions they’d lose if either ACA is repealed, or we cut them out of the game with something like universal healthcare.
Stopped by republicans and republicans cosplaying as Democrats. Is that better?
Point is, slim majority at best. Look to any parliamentary democracy to see what a real majority is.
… So Democrats.
but we need to vote for the republicans cosplaying as Democrats so that they can continue to be the reason we don’t get anything instead of Republicans. The fatal flaw in the idea that people like Manchin, Sinema and other blue dogs are another obstacle the Dems need to overcome is that Dems. Chose. Them. Those people are in congress getting in the way of the democratic agenda because democrats put them there.
The self titled “Blue-Dog democrats” ruined the ACA into the insurance company payday. Was guys like Manchin.
Never forget that bastard Lieberman
Lieberman, Manchin, Sinema. There’s always going to be a rotating villain. Our political landscape is designed to invest the least amount of political capital for the preservation of the status quo. Our Congress is beholden to the interests of the ruling class and that money flows to both sides of the aisle.
Presidents can’t just make laws without going through Congress, despite what pretty much every news media organization likes to imply. For two years Biden had an obstructionist Senate and now it’s the obstructionist House.
To your point though, I think Democrats could do a better job promoting all the changes they would make. Say you’ll “enshrine the right to an abortion” into law, say you’ll establish a minimum wage that keeps up with inflation, say you’ll let doctors heal and teachers teach, say you’ll take the title away from China as the leader in renewable energy, and for fuck sake say you’ll stop kowtowing to the Israeli government.
Did you watch the State of the Union?
Your point being? Strong presidential talk at the State of the Union does not give them the power to pass laws without congress.
I was responding to the second paragraph where they said that Democrats need to message better. I believe a lot of the topics they gave as examples that the Democrats could push in their messaging was in the State of the Union.
Oh, alright, my bad, the State of the Union was definitely some of the best messaging I’ve seen of a united democratic party I’ve seen in a while.