• Jordan117@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This would be a compelling argument if the Biden administration hadn’t been the most economically progressive since LBJ.

    • socsa@piefed.social
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      1 month ago

      Yup, and this is why Democrats lose. They are allergic to actually supporting the party’s real accomplishments and prefer to throw stones and circle the firing squad. Democrats need to learn how to play the game. There is too much of this fart sniffing on the left these days.

    • would_be_appreciated@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      My gut says “that’s probably true, but that doesn’t mean much.” Let me pick it apart.

      • LBJ attempted his War on Poverty and Great Society, and while it didn’t go as far as he wanted, he still got some good stuff out the door. Food stamps, medicare, medicaid, minimum wage, just to name a few. No contest compared to everybody that came later.

      • Nixon was a Republican, and I’ll skip all of them because by this point in history they would never be as economically progressive as Biden.

      • Ford was a Republican.

      • Carter ran on being socially liberal and economically conservative. Outside of minor policy like the Community Reinvestment Act, there’s no help there, obviously.

      • Reagan was a Republican.

      • Clinton ran on the Third Way, which was sort of what Carter did but even more disastrous. Notable policy included gutting welfare and widespread deregulation.

      • W was a Republican.

      • Obama got ACA passed and used an obviously Keynesian approach to economic recovery with the recession he was given, pulling away from Clinton’s conservative Third Way.

      • Trump was a Republican.

      • Biden did a similar Keynesian approach to economics.

      I would assume your statement hinges largely on the “biggest infrastructure bill” type rhetoric, because he didn’t do anything new, he just continued to fund things that the government needs to fund in order for the country to operate. He sure spent a lot, but whether that’s the metric we should be using for most progressive is up for debate.

      Personally, I’d say Obama was more progressive because he actually did something substantial and new with the ACA, but it doesn’t put him in another tier above Biden. Of course, neither comes remotely close to LBJ.

      What that statement really shows is how far the government has fallen from even attempting to provide value for people.

      • Jordan117@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Democratic presidents since LBJ:

        • Jimmy Carter
        • Bill Clinton
        • Barack Obama

        Which ones had a bigger record of progressive economic accomplishments than Biden? Closest one is Obama, but his Recovery Act was less than half the size of Biden’s Rescue/Infra/IRA/CHIPS packages. Biden was also more strongly pro-union and pro-regulation, and accomplished his many wins in half the time and with far narrower majorities in both houses.

          • Lasherz12@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Howard Shultz doesn’t think so. Neither does Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or any of the other ghouls that prefer to violate union rules. Doesn’t mean you have to like the guy to admit the obvious.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              They just weren’t the right Billionaires. Biden gave gifts to the railroads, auto industry, and construction. They don’t like to jump up and down on stages but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

              And yeah he taxed them a little bit but their wealth still grew at record pace under Biden while middle America is struggling to buy cereal. I don’t care how much the guy says he loves unions, if Union members can’t get a house then it doesn’t matter does it?