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President Biden’s Tech To-Do List

7 points by mcenedella 6y ago

LatteLazy 6y ago
For the next 2 Years, Democrats have Congress and the White House. They need to stick to issues with no bipartisan support and clear policy changes already broadly agreed and actually pass some of their manifesto. That mostly rules out changes to big tech legislation. They should shore up Obamacare, take action on foreign interference in elections, get universal internat access, go after China for 101 reasons and force through some major upgrades in climate and science policy. It would be nice to see them support abortion rights too but thats harder. That is plenty to get on with without getting into complex, unanswerable, internal debates about the nature of free speech.
- jfengel 6y ago
  I think there's a stray "no" in your second sentence, so I'm not sure I'm understanding you correctly. If I am, I'm not sure how to reconcile your first paragraph with your third. None of the issues you mention are "broadly agreed". They may poll well with everybody, but the opposition in Congress has been repeatedly re-elected on promises to oppose them. If they are passed along partisan lines, they will be battlefronts in the next election. Expect to hear "rammed down our throats" a lot. Maybe, just maybe, you could get some actual bipartisan support on policy changes about China. But it's not actually all that popular an issue -- except when reduced to racist name-calling. It's important, to be sure, but any policy change will have winners and losers, and you can expect the losers to scream bloody murder. That will quickly become cemented along partisan lines. It's a thorny, tangled issue with many, many parts, and and substantive policy change will require years of detailed negotiation. There's an argument to be made that they should go ahead and ram through issues important to their base, on the grounds that they might as well be popular with somebody. Centrism and bipartisanship sound great in the abstract but rarely please people in reality. At best, they result in boring incrementalism. At worst, one side sees a partisan advantage in portraying everything you do as extremist. Actually, the worst case is that both sides use that tactic. I myself still support the idea of bending over backwards to assemble a centrist coalition and passing things that have broad support. But I've watched those efforts fail, over and over, with very few successes, and have become very jaded.
  - LatteLazy 6y ago
    The "no" is entirely intended. I think the Dems ran on a manifesto, now they hold power they should deliver. Not compromise. We've had zero compromise from the republicans for decades. Even when it's in their interest. Obamacare was a let down exactly because instead of writing a new, decent system the Democrats kept giving away bits only for the republicans to still refuse to support it. That's how they ended up with RomneyCare. Which was still opposed by republicans and which they tried to repeal and complained was forced down their throat. The republicans will cry no matter what happens. They'll call it partisan when a democrat is appointed majority leader. I don't think the Democrats could appease them if they impeached Biden and then all committed group suicide. So here we are. Ironically we actually agree about a centrist coalition. The issue for the last 20 years has been that when the Democrats take a step towards the right, the Republicans take a step even further to the right. They don't get closer together, they just debate far right vs far far right. I actually think that a taste of their own medicine is long overdue and might be the only thing to bring to back to the table and make a real centrist coalition possible. I'd say I'm an exhausted centrist. Or a cynical one? Sorry this is a bit extremist. I've been burnt before...
marcus_garvey 6y ago
When you factor in China, there's nothing you can do about things like TikTok. The cat's out of the bag when it comes to China. You can't stop Chinese monopolistic tech infiltrating US infra. It's like trying to instantly stop a juggernaut.

7 points by mcenedella 6y ago

For the next 2 Years, Democrats have Congress and the White House. They need to stick to issues with no bipartisan support and clear policy changes already broadly agreed and actually pass some of their manifesto. That mostly rules out changes to big tech legislation. They should shore up Obamacare, take action on foreign interference in elections, get universal internat access, go after China for 101 reasons and force through some major upgrades in climate and science policy. It would be nice to see them support abortion rights too but thats harder. That is plenty to get on with without getting into complex, unanswerable, internal debates about the nature of free speech.

jfengel 6y ago
I think there's a stray "no" in your second sentence, so I'm not sure I'm understanding you correctly. If I am, I'm not sure how to reconcile your first paragraph with your third. None of the issues you mention are "broadly agreed". They may poll well with everybody, but the opposition in Congress has been repeatedly re-elected on promises to oppose them. If they are passed along partisan lines, they will be battlefronts in the next election. Expect to hear "rammed down our throats" a lot. Maybe, just maybe, you could get some actual bipartisan support on policy changes about China. But it's not actually all that popular an issue -- except when reduced to racist name-calling. It's important, to be sure, but any policy change will have winners and losers, and you can expect the losers to scream bloody murder. That will quickly become cemented along partisan lines. It's a thorny, tangled issue with many, many parts, and and substantive policy change will require years of detailed negotiation. There's an argument to be made that they should go ahead and ram through issues important to their base, on the grounds that they might as well be popular with somebody. Centrism and bipartisanship sound great in the abstract but rarely please people in reality. At best, they result in boring incrementalism. At worst, one side sees a partisan advantage in portraying everything you do as extremist. Actually, the worst case is that both sides use that tactic. I myself still support the idea of bending over backwards to assemble a centrist coalition and passing things that have broad support. But I've watched those efforts fail, over and over, with very few successes, and have become very jaded.
- LatteLazy 6y ago
  The "no" is entirely intended. I think the Dems ran on a manifesto, now they hold power they should deliver. Not compromise. We've had zero compromise from the republicans for decades. Even when it's in their interest. Obamacare was a let down exactly because instead of writing a new, decent system the Democrats kept giving away bits only for the republicans to still refuse to support it. That's how they ended up with RomneyCare. Which was still opposed by republicans and which they tried to repeal and complained was forced down their throat. The republicans will cry no matter what happens. They'll call it partisan when a democrat is appointed majority leader. I don't think the Democrats could appease them if they impeached Biden and then all committed group suicide. So here we are. Ironically we actually agree about a centrist coalition. The issue for the last 20 years has been that when the Democrats take a step towards the right, the Republicans take a step even further to the right. They don't get closer together, they just debate far right vs far far right. I actually think that a taste of their own medicine is long overdue and might be the only thing to bring to back to the table and make a real centrist coalition possible. I'd say I'm an exhausted centrist. Or a cynical one? Sorry this is a bit extremist. I've been burnt before...

marcus_garvey 6y ago

When you factor in China, there's nothing you can do about things like TikTok. The cat's out of the bag when it comes to China. You can't stop Chinese monopolistic tech infiltrating US infra. It's like trying to instantly stop a juggernaut.