2 ms·
Terrible narrative. Lina Khan under Biden was more than willing to go after big companies. She was forced out because the American people voted Trump into off
by SR2Z 25d ago
Terrible narrative. Lina Khan under Biden was more than willing to go after big companies. She was forced out because the American people voted Trump into office.
Eight years of Sanders would have left us with a far more gridlocked country. The man has virtually no political talent.
- Computer0 25d ago>The man has virtually no political talent. More unique individual people donated to his primary efforts than any other candidate in history. Wouldn't this be indicative of some large amount of political talent?
- soulofmischief 25d agoI love Lina Khan as much as the next guy. But as you've already pointed out, it's kind of pointless if the fundamental problem is a malfunctioning executive branch (and a federal government with far too much power). But I'm going to need receipts on your claims about eight years of Sanders.
- SR2Z 25d agoI can't prove a negative but consider that winning the Democratic primary requires convincing a bunch of left-of-center voters to support your plan. Sanders couldn't do that. How do you think he would have fared with Republicans? He's never passed a significant bill of his own and focuses on renaming post offices. The man has no political skill. As president he would have been a disaster.
- soulofmischief 25d ago> The man has no political skill This is what I take issue with. It's a heavy enough accusation that it needs receipts. It needs proper framing on why exactly the benchmarks you've listed are important for delineating political skill and why other benchmarks are not.
- SR2Z 24d agoSure, here are a few that are directly relevant to political jobs: - legislation proposed and passed - elections won (i.e. candidate WAR) - ability to make backroom deals - campaigning skills He's not good at any of those except the last one. I've mentioned the bills, he lost two primaries (his staffers engaged in election denialism both times), only has a seat because he's in a safe Dem state, and has a reputation for being a difficult politician to work with. He is obviously out-of-touch with American voters, his policy proposals are very fluffy and barely substantial, and about the nicest thing I can about his campaigns is that they draw in an enthusiastic crowd, but not one that seems to vote for him and his candidates. Progressives have much better politicians now: Mamdani, AOC, Al-Sayed. If all of them can deliver like Mamdani - who might genuinely have the best political skills of any American politician living now - then maybe this "what if Bernie won" stuff could actually work. But Sanders would have crashed and burned the second the GOP shut down the government, because he's not good at convincing people who disagree with him.
- soulofmischief 22d agoCan you name another serious candidate at the time who had both political skill to your liking and also was an actual honest-to-god man of the people, even if some their policies are out of touch or misguided? Virtue alone was a good enough reason to make it an obvious choice for me, I'm not even here to defend his actual political prowess.
- SR2Z 22d agoFFS, Biden won on the most left-leaning platform of any politician in history. Considering that he actually won the primary, I would consider him to be much more of a "man of the people" than Sanders. Even Mitt Romney, who has the WRONG LETTER NEXT TO HIS NAME, spearheaded bipartisan COVID tax reforms that halved childhood poverty. I think calling someone a man of the people requires them to have successfully accomplished things on behalf of the people. Sanders... has really not.
- handedness 25d agoSome argue gridlock is a feature, not a bug. I'm of two minds about it, but I understand the appeal.