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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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This is a perfect point to discuss. At no point in the last several decades have Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate that were pro choice, nor 50 votes to remove the filibuster. One of those are needed to enshrine abortion rights in law. The closest Democrats came was in 2008 with Obama, where they had 60 Senate votes for only a couple months because of contested races for Franken and Ted Kennedy's death. They used that window to pass Obamacare, which was the most progressive bill for healthcare possible at the time. There would've been a single payer option, except they needed Lieberman's vote to pass it, and he refused single payer. At this point in time there were a lot more Manchin types in the party too. They all lost their seats in 2010 when the Tea Party dominated and Democrat voters stayed home. You've been around long enough that you should know all of this.
2016 was a critical election for abortion rights because of the supreme court, but many professed abortion supporters didn't seem to understand that, nor that Roe being overturned is a direct consequence of that. Many people recognized the risk and warned them, but they said "don't threaten me with the supreme court!". I sincerely question how many of them actually care about abortion and how many of them just try to find reasons to dislike Democrats -- much like Republicans do.
Given how long this comment is with discussing just one of your points, I hope you'll understand if I don't go through every single point you've raised. Instead I'll ask you something, in general -- how much time did you think was necessary to undo the damage caused by the Trump years, and not only return to the status quo of 2016, but improve on it? I know you didn't expect everything to be fixed on Day 1 of the Biden presidency. When did you think we'd at least return to the 2016 status quo? In my line of work, changes that we make to the process take time to show up. You don't see the consequences of some of them for years. You could make all those changes on Day 1, and it could still take 10 years for you to see results. That's just how it works -- I'm not going to see the impact of lower temperature on piping stresses until its at the end of its life.
I can't fault Biden nor Democrats because given the resources at their disposal, I don't think there's much more that they could've done. Things are still shitty, but it's because change takes time. If I go on a diet I'm not going to hit my goal weight the next day. It's going to take months to become noticeable. The same goes for fixing poverty and wages and what have you.
Change does not take time, that's bullshit liberals tell themselves to avoid acknowledging their party can't govern. It allows the party leaders to shirk responsibility for their inaction as they take small, unnoticeable, miniscule steps to the right.
People have been fighting against poverty and wages for decades, in the words of James Baldwin 'how much time do you want for your progress?'
There have been multiple times since RvW was ruled where Dems have had super majorities in Congress when they could have passed it. But like Obama said it was no longer a legislative priority, he said this while they had the majority to pass it.
Lieberman was their convenient rotating villain for the time they needed him. They always have one when it comes to passing legislation benefitting the public. It's always someone that's safe from being voted out, or soon retiring.