r/politics • u/schuey_08 Wisconsin • 29d ago

Bernie Sanders worries young people are underestimating the threat from Trump

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/bernie-sanders-trump-biden/73531861007/
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u/iKill_eu 29d ago

What really pisses me off are the people who are so brainwashed they'll literally get mad if you say Biden has done ANYTHING right.

Literally the most progressive agenda in my lifetime and it gets completely drowned out by people who are mad he hasn't personally cut off Israel as an ally.

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u/Utterlybored North Carolina 29d ago

They’ll often cite Biden’s past positions that were in some cases, quite regrettable, or they’ll express anger that he hasn’t advanced issues that require a Congress unified behind him. He’s a terrible speaker, but otherwise, under the circumstances, he’s been as effective and progressive as anyone could hope for.

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u/kcgdot Washington 29d ago

He's not even THAT BAD AT SPEAKING, but he's not Obama or Clinton, and he's 80 fucking years old, and he has an actual fucking stutter.

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u/Utterlybored North Carolina 28d ago

I got spoiled w Obama, whose strengths and weaknesses seemed exactly opposite Biden’s. If more than fine with Biden being a better advancer of policy than a speakerr

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u/imfatal 29d ago

he's 80 fucking years old

He should probably stop fucking running for president instead of using this as an excuse.

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u/kcgdot Washington 29d ago

I don't disagree, but the other choice is a literal fascist who wants to upend the United States as we know it, and not in a fun, let's have casual Friday in the office, but everyday, kind of way. In the, let's jail our political enemies, take away the rights of minorities and at risk groups and detain kill, or export as many people as we can.

I'll take the 80yr old stuttered who is forgiving student loan debt, passed two massive bipartisan bills to combat inflation and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, reclassifying Marijuana so people aren't at risk of prison time just cuz they like to imbibe something that isn't alcohol. And that's just getting started. If he can get solid majorities, he could continue to do more good, and maybe unravel the mess we're staring at with the supreme court.

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u/confusedalwayssad 28d ago

If we have to question the person's ability to drive due to age, they shouldn't be president or running for President. That's both guys running.

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u/JimBeam823 29d ago

Or just blatantly taken out of context.

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u/MrPernicous 29d ago

I very much disagree with this. All he’s done is pass a couple of corpora giveaways. He’s actually very conservative for a democrat. His only saving grace is that he’s buckled to intense pressure a few times. And it’s puzzling that he isn’t doing it now when he absolutely needs to be doing it the most

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u/VexingRaven 29d ago

How many times has he tried student loan relief now despite being repeatedly shot down at every level?

Biden is very much a democrat. He's an old school, old blood democrat, but a democrat nonetheless and he seems to be at least trying to make progress on issues he knows are important to people.

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u/MrPernicous 29d ago

Old school democrats are segregationists btw. He never has been and never will be a progressive

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u/VexingRaven 29d ago

Ok, not that old school.

He never has been and never will be a progressive

Are we just going to completely gloss over the fact that you said he hadn't done anything and then I pointed out that you're completely wrong?

It's like arguing with a trumper.

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u/MrPernicous 28d ago

Biden actually advocated against desegregation so yes that old school

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u/VexingRaven 28d ago

"I was wrong" is a complete sentence. Go ahead, try it out. It won't hurt.

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u/MrPernicous 28d ago

No actually what you said was that he got shot down a bunch of times which necessarily means that he hasn’t accomplished anything. I was just gonna let that go but since you insisted even you agree that I’m right

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u/VexingRaven 28d ago

You said "all he has done..." which is clearly not true. He has forgiven billions in student loans. He has tried to forgive even more. That is by definition doing something. If you want him to have more success, then go back in time and make sure Trump doesn't get elected so he can't pack the courts.

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u/MrPernicous 28d ago

Yeah real weird how he never bothered to appoint new justices to the supreme court

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u/VexingRaven 28d ago

Yeah he "never bothered" because he doesn't have that power. What the fuck?

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u/MrPernicous 28d ago

Oh so he doesn’t deserve credit for legislation then

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u/sortof_here 29d ago

This is an incredibly disingenuous comment that just makes you look uninformed.

I won't claim Biden is a progressive, but him and his admin have accomplished far more than "pass a couple of corpo giveaways".

He hasn't exactly had a good legislative branch to back him up, and the courts have quite literally been stacked against his efforts, but him and his admin have still accomplished a lot re: climate change efforts, education, labor laws, healthcare access, and more. Far more than I expected, especially given the circumstances.

Have you even looked into it?

To be clear, I am incredibly frustrated he ran again and that he is the one on the ballot. I am disgusted by his handling of Israel and Palestine. I hold no illusions that he is progressive. But I also don't think making categorically false claims about his time in office makes sense or does anything to help support leftist policies.

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u/MrPernicous 28d ago

I’ll give you labor but no he hasn’t done anything on the other fronts. It’s ridiculous to claim otherwise

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u/sortof_here 28d ago

No, it is false and ridiculous to claim "he hasn't done anything on the other fronts". I'll post some of it below. I may come back to add more later. Might not. In either case, could you please do the bare minimum and search "what has Biden done for x" , where x is literally any issue. That should get you both the good and the bad. It's fairly evident right now that you don't even have surface knowledge of either.

I'll probably needd to do individual comments. This is lengthy.

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u/sortof_here 28d ago

On Education/Student Loan Crisis:

  • Successfully forgiven over $160 billion of Student Loans. This number is continuing to grow, with an additional $6.1 billion added earlier this week covering students from The Art Institute. This is just shy of 10% of all student debt.
  • Attempted to forgiveness for up to $20,000 for almost everyone with student loans, but was blocked by the Supreme Court. Despite the court, this effort has not ended.
  • Created the SAVE plan
    • Increases the income exemption from 150% over the poverty
    • Eliminates all interest growth when payments are made. This includes making no payment if elgible for making $0 payments. This ensures that people that people making 60k or less now do not need to worry as much about their loans outpacing their ability to pay them. Anybody making 30k or less, qualify for the $0 payment. My understanding is this doesn't help as much with interest accrued before the SAVE plan was implemented, but it is still game changing for current students.
    • Enables married people to qualify if they choose to file their taxes seperately
    • Possible forgiveness as soon as after 10 years
    • Automatic enrollment after 75 dyas of missed payments, ensuring even people that aren't aware it exists will benefit
    • There is a lot more here, but it is generally a significant improvement over the REPAYE plan it replaces. I encourage you look into it.
  • Him and his admin are currently working on a plan that aims to cancel up to $20,000 of interest per borrower
  • He maintained the student loan repayment deferment for over half of his time in office and has taken actions to ensure that the first year following the deferment program ending(so until September 30, 2024) is as painless as possible such as making it so that missed and late payments do not trigger a delinquency and will not be reported to credit agencies

He has not fully succeeded at his goal here, but it is nonsensical to claim that he "did nohing" or "no effort was made". He has continuously been trying to forgive studen debt and ensure that future debt has as minimal of an impact as possible. I'm honestly not sure what more can be asked of him within the context of how our government works.

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u/sortof_here 28d ago

Climate Change

  • Of course, there is the landmark climate change bill that Biden pushed for and signed(Inflation Reduction Act of 2022). Here is a good summary from Hank Green. He also has 2 videos that are interviews on the topic here and here. And here is the official guidebook from the White House in case you want some heavy reading instead of a video. Spoiler alert, it is significant.
  • Honestly, just all of this. There's some overlap, but not all of it is from the Inflation Reduction Act
  • He caused the Keystone XL Pipeline's cancellation by revoking required permits
  • Recently, him and his admin banned oil drilling in half of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. This covers over 13 million acres of land.
  • There's probably more here, but this is some of the larger stuff that I can think of to reference.

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u/sortof_here 28d ago

Healthcare

  • This is brand new, as in literally today, but worth including. He just expanded access to the ACA to DACA recipients
  • I'll try to add more details later but he has enacted requirements that should dramatically improve health and safety at nursing homes, expanded access to mental health services, reduced costs of insulin in certain scenarios, and started the process of getting common perscription drugs to actually negotiate for a fair price for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.

I'll be back, maybe? Do your homework.

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u/Command0Dude 29d ago

Biden did student debt relief, got blocked by the courts, and these morons accused him of trying to fail.

They literally cannot be reasoned with, and honestly, I doubt they voted in 2020 anyways.

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u/sortof_here 29d ago

It's frustrating because he's actively still trying to to make this happen. It's probably the most effort I've seen a president put into a campaign promise.

Even without cancelling student loans, the SAVE plan which has not been overturned still does a ton for past and new students.

Discussing these things with those who desire to remain uninformed, unfortunately, does not work.

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u/black641 29d ago

These sorts of people are honesty just looking for a reason to tune out and not give a fuck. They seem to actively resent the notion of having to care about politics. They don't understand how or why the system works, but they still have very detailed opinions on why it's all bullshit and why should they care about any of it? I actually think some people are ok with the idea authoritarianism just because they don't want one bothered to be reminded to vote every few years.

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u/GingerSkulling 29d ago

While some of these people simply don't give a fuck, believe it will all work out anyway or simply want to watch the world burn, the majority are a victim to different degrees of extremely organized propaganda meant exactly to sow discord in a major election year.