I always have opposed it, and always will. It’s not my fault we only have the illusion of a choice. I am not your enemy. I’m your peer who is going through this with you. Rather than argue with each other we should be figuring out how we can come together and stop this while we still can. “Vote blue no matter who” is not necessarily the answer. If it was, it would’ve worked by now.

Remember 2021 when Democrats controlled congress and the White House and tried to pass a massive reconciliation bill that STILL got watered down because of establishment Democrat holdouts whose fossil fuel industry donators would make less money if it passed?

https://www.businessinsider.com/manchin-no-guarantee-reconciliation-bill-senate-infrastructure-democrats-aoc-2021-8

What about when the Senate decided that because a unelected parliamentarian said so, they couldn’t give undocumented immigrants (including dreamers) legal status?:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-the-senate-rules-decision-that-blocks-democrats-from-putting-immigration-reform-in-budget

These were all issues Democrats ran on and were elected to solve, and even with all the power to do so they somehow couldn’t get it across the finish line. This is a pattern for establishment democrats. Do just enough to make it look like they’re on your side without really doing anything to upset the status quo. Then they have the audacity to convince you and so many others that if we don’t keep them in power we are somehow the ones morally at fault?

FUCK THAT.

They have wasted every chance they got and shown that they would rather lose an election than learn lessons of the past failure and put out a popular message. As soon as the Supreme Court decided last year that Presidents were kings, Biden should have used that power to push through the rest of his agenda. Trump as a 34x convicted felon shouldn’t even be eligible to be President, but the DOJ did nothing to uphold this basic constitutional requirement and instead just let him back in.

If that weren’t enough, he even mentioned getting Elon to rig the election for him, ON ELECTION NIGHT. Why wasn’t that immediately investigated? Instead we just got reassurance that the election is highly secure. Maybe it wasn’t rigged, maybe it is secure, but why even leave it up to chance?

Trust me, I oppose EVERYTHING wrong with the current administration. But I’m also no longer going to be told how to vote by a party that fails every single time they get the chance to do the right thing.

I’ll be right there with ya pal. I hate this too. :(

Sorry man, you’re not going to scare me into voting your way. I already did that and we still got the concentration camps. At this point I’d rather have my dignity of choosing who I want to choose, rather than being pressured or shamed into choosing someone I don’t want.

The descent into fascism will continue as long as we continue to support only the two big parties. The only way we win their game is by not playing it.

If the Democrats want to win, they’ll pick a popular candidate with popular policies. If they want to lose, they’ll double-down on a losing strategy, which it seems they are.

That’s a vast oversimplification of what I stated but you do you.

I’m a minority, my family members are minorities, and just because this country doesn’t actually allow us to have a decent choice of candidate doesn’t mean I’m enabling nazis by refusing to choose which elite to fuck us over for another 4 years.

“I will continue to vote for the candidate that more closely aligns with my progressive policy stances and doesn’t want minorities to fuck off and die, rather than be scared into voting for the lesser evil which probably still wants us to fuck off and die” is my point, which is much different than what you just said.

For the record, I have voted D for every election that Trump has been on the ballot.

I 100% get what you’re saying, but 2/3 times that ended up being a waste of a vote.

Republicans vote Republican because they like what the Republican party does. Democrats vote Democrat either because they like what the Democratic Party does, or because of the Republican on the ballot. I’m simply refusing to allow my vote to continue to be held hostage under threat of a fascist that wins anyway. Anything else legitimizes the threat and perpetuates the 2 party system.

That isn’t to say I will no longer vote Democrat, I’m just not going to play into their narrative of “we’re less evil than the other guys” anymore when they fumble at every opportunity to fulfill their promises to their progressive base, while also refusing to change tactics and instead double down on trying to appeal to Republican-lites when it is made clear THAT is why they lost the election. The Overton window can only shift so much before you start realizing you don’t actually have a choice.

I have never voted for someone because I like their platform, and I want to dammit. If a Democrat wants my vote, they’re going to campaign on a platform I like, and will not get it for any other reason. They have scared me into giving me their vote and failed to deliver on their promises every single time.

What wiki article? My source was Reuters.

Regardless, all I can only comment on is my own take of the situation. And that take is his priorities conflicted with his campaign promises. This makes it harder to give my vote to future campaign promises by other candidates of the same political party.

See the source in my previous comment. The 31% increase was a total over a period of 5 years (so in 2027 any workers left will get that amount), the jump from 1-4 days off came after Biden’s involvement concluded and yes, the original request was for 15 days off. 7 is less than half of 15.

To answer your question, the unions eventually accepted these terms, but the bill signed by Biden prevented workers from being able to strike again on this issue. This, coupled with the lack of their requested sick time and 5 year waiting period for their agreed upon raise, made clear the focus was on getting the workers back to work, rather than actually addressing their grievances. In short, nothing fundamentally changed. They were just told to go back to work.

Once again, how is this “nearly all” of their demands?

How are 10% less raise than they asked for, 1 additional day off instead of 15, and the inability to say no or continue striking to be “nearly all” of their demands???

This Reuters article frames my issues with this event in the clearest possible way.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/

“It was tough for me but it was the right thing to do at the moment – save jobs, to protect millions of working families from harm and disruption and to keep supply chains stable around the holidays,” Biden said, adding the deal avoided “an economic catastrophe.”

“That fight isn’t over,” Biden said of the push for sick leave.

Biden’s focus on was on the economic impact going into the holiday shopping season, not the best interest of the workers. So he inserted himself to make sure that, qualitative demands be damned, there wouldn’t be an interruption to the flow of commerce.

I wouldn’t have been so upset at the outcome if the workers who didn’t agree were prevented from continuing to voice their displeasure. It reeks of “shut up, take this handout which is peanuts compared to your original demands, and get back to work.”

And the most substantive demands revolving around healthcare coming out of a pandemic were almost totally ignored. This is something a corporate administration does, not one who is looking out for the people, or concerned for worker’s rights.

Biden ran on affordable healthcare for all, and when he had the opportunity to provide even a tiny example of that, he prioritized economics over wellbeing for the people.

It sums up most of Biden’s term: too little, too late. Nothing fundamentally changed.

Yep, this was the moment I became completely disillusioned at the Democratic Party. Joe “nothing will fundamentally change” Biden showed his true colors here.

They’re all just corporate fuckwads. The DNC’s reaction to the 2024 loss and “Project 2029” prove they would rather lose than ever run a popular candidate that doesn’t fall in line with their own agenda.

I’m sick of voting for the compromise candidate that merely slows down our descent into fascism. If we’re heading that way anyway, might as well vote for the candidate whose values closest align to our own, democrat or otherwise and be satisfied we stuck to our convictions.

If the Democrats want my vote ever again, they have a lot of work to do to earn it back, and will need to run a candidate I actually want to vote for. I genuinely hope they get there, but I’m not going to be shamed into fruitlessly giving my vote to them again if they don’t.

You’re totally right I forgot about that part. That’s absolutely covered in the doc.

Ron Watkins. He slipped up and outed himself in a documentary: https://www.vice.com/en/article/q-accidentally-outed-himself-but-qanon-followers-dont-care/

I highly recommend the documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14215442/