President Biden

[Couchpotato]

Funny as there are no more moderate Democrats.

Moderate Democrats are now mythical creatures, like dragons and unicorns. Nothing remains but leftists and far-leftists. Your father's normal Democrat Party is far, far away.

 

[dteowner]

That might be overstating things a bit, Couch.

I do agree that the middle has disappeared, though. Remember blue dog democrats? Only time I ever voted for a democrat was for Evan Bayh, one of the more prominent blue dogs of his day. On our side, it's getting pretty tough to find an actual Reaganite, too.

 

[Stingray]

Funny as there are no more moderate Democrats.

Moderate Democrats are now mythical creatures, like dragons and unicorns. Nothing remains but leftists and far-leftists. Your father's normal Democrat Party is far, far away.

Funny you mention it, as one of their highest profile 2022 Senate candidates is trying to establish that "normal Democrats" are still a thing, and arguing that he is one:

https://twitter.com/ConorLambPA/status/1457553657898184705

 

[Couchpotato]

Funny you mention it, as one of their highest profile 2022 Senate candidates is trying to establish that "normal Democrats" are still a thing, and arguing that he is one:

https://twitter.com/ConorLambPA/status/1457553657898184705

It's an act to get votes.

There is a study about how conservative congress and the Senate was rated by party lines.

The highest democrat Joe Manchin scored in the twenty's and that is not a moderate. Joe Biden also earned a 13 between 1973 and 2009 so yeah he is not moderate either.

 

[Pladio]

Funny as there are no more moderate Democrats.

Moderate Democrats are now mythical creatures, like dragons and unicorns. Nothing remains but leftists and far-leftists. Your father's normal Democrat Party is far, far away.

What's a leftist for you then ?
I don't understand that at all.

 

[Couchpotato]

What's a leftist for you then ?
I don't understand that at all.

The whole democrat party that's the point. Yes I'll concede the republican party is vastly different also. The point is to see were these shifts started to occur in both parties.

You can't even get a bi-partisan vote with a majority on each side anymore.

The old democratic party was about liberalism and free markets.

The difference between ‘left’ and ‘liberal’ – and why voters need to know

Link - https://theconversation.com/the-dif...nd-liberal-and-why-voters-need-to-know-120273

Voters need to understand the fundamental differences between liberalism and leftism. It’s the difference between a candidate who believes capitalism, with just a little refereeing, will eventually provide what working people need, versus a candidate who believes serious intervention in the capitalist economy is necessary.

 

[Stingray]

It's an act to get votes.

There is a study about how conservative congress and the Senate was rated by party lines.

The highest democrat Joe Manchin scored in the twenty's and that is not a moderate. Joe Biden also earned a 13 between 1973 and 2009 so yeah he is not moderate either.

I think there's a fair amount of "normal" (by our standards) Democrats in Congress. The problem is when it comes down to actually voting on policy, almost all of them just vote in lockstep with whatever Nancy Pelosi (representing SF) or Chuck Schumer (representing NY) tells them they should be doing. Which, these days, is usually nutjob left-wing economic or social stuff. So, when you choose whether to vote Republican or Democrat, you're best off just pretending that that Democrat you may be voting for is Pelosi or Schumer, because that's essentially what they are - just a proxy vote. And that, of course, means you should be voting Republican :lol:

 

[Ripper]

Lol, yeah - that's the problem. Have you seen the actual state of the Republican party lately?

 

[Stingray]

I don't know what precisely you mean by "actual state", but if we're talking about being positioned for electoral success (which is the goal of a political party) then the Republican Party, right now, is in the best state it's been in in over 25 years - possibly in our lifetimes. All you have to do is look at current polls on any topic, from trust in handling various issues, to 2022 Congressional voting, to a hypothetical 2024 Trump vs Biden rematch, to even actual voting just 2 weeks ago. Here's a sampling:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/eco...biden-lift-gop-record-early/story?id=81095146

https://news.gallup.com/poll/355511/gop-viewed-better-party-security-prosperity.aspx

https://dailycaller.com/2021/10/31/nbc-news-poll-republicans-ahead-democrats/

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-beats-joe-biden-latest-2024-election-poll-1646713

Granted, this isn't entirely due to Republicans running around doing awesome things. A big chunk of it is just a reflection of what a disaster the Biden administration has been so far. But it is what it is.

 

[Ripper]

I was thinking more about the parade of lunatics and extremists among the Republicans, including the ex-President attempting to undermine American democracy, and the legitimacy of the sitting President. That sort of thing.

They're certainly "positioning for electoral success" by all manner of shenanigans, including the purging of the more moderate and sane people that spoiled the game last time. I think there is a pretty good chance of Republican victory, but the state of the US electorate hasn't anything to do with what the rest of us see to be moderate or extreme. Economically, the Biden public spending program is really nothing shocking at all - again, you'll find plenty of sensible, moderate economists who see it as a necessary move at this point.

The thing that "the left" needs to get their head around is that the Republicans want to fight on culture war issues, and they're helping them. Much of the electorate hasn't got a clue what's actually economically in their interest, but they sure know the stuff they see on the interwebs that grinds their gears.

 

[Stingray]

I was thinking more about the parade of lunatics and extremists among the Republicans

Sounds more like the Democrats to me - and I suspect most Americans agree, or at least more than would agree with your comment. I think current polls bear that out, too. But we can all have our opinions.

 

[Ripper]

Indeed. But I think it might be worth bearing in mind that for most moderate people around the world, the idea that the Biden administration is remotely comparable to the astonishing degeneration of Trump Republicanism is not a serious proposition.

 

[JDR13]

and I suspect most Americans agree

You may be right, but no one is going to accuse the average American of being too intelligent lately.

 

[dteowner]

You may be right, but no one is going to accuse the average American of being too intelligent lately.

So true. Thus, we get Biden.

 

[Myrthos]

Was getting Trump a sign of intelligence?

 

[JDR13]

More like gullibility.

Though I'm not sure if the alternative at that time would have been much better.

 

[Stingray]

Was getting Trump a sign of intelligence?

I figure you're referring to 2016, but if you apply a bit of that reasoning to 2020, it's actually a good point. Meaning, Trump isn't the greatest candidate around either. So, the terrible situation we're in right now, of ending up with Joe Biden as our president, may actually be more indicative of the intelligence of Democratic Party primary voters, rather than American voters at large. Their primary voters had a multitude of choices who weren't incompetent, blithering idiots - and turned them all down in favor of this. Everyone else had to choose between Trump and whoever they gave us.

And the ultimate irony is that often when this sort of thing happens with Democrats, it's because they insisted on picking someone based on immutable qualities (a woman, an ethnic minority, someone with out-of-the-ordinary sexual preferences, etc), rather than concentrating on picking the person who's most competent. But in this particular case, they don't even have that excuse. Biden's only redeeming "identity politics" attribute is that he's Catholic, and I don't think that even counts for anything anymore.

 

[Couchpotato]

Old Uncle Joe claims he will run for president again in 2024 when he's 82 years old.:lol:

Link - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...portedly-telling-allies-running-for-president

 

[Carnifex]

To even have a slim chance of that happening, his administration needs to actually make some progress in their collective agendas.

 

[Pladio]

Old Uncle Joe claims he will run for president again in 2024 when he's 82 years old.:lol:

Link - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...portedly-telling-allies-running-for-president

I am not American so I can't think like you guys, but to me Biden was just a placeholder President to get rid of Trump. He needs to step aside and let a new contest begin.