Tinidril

Obama was practically the platonic ideal of the perfect neoliberal president. He said all the right words, checked all the right boxes, and effortlessly combined warmth and charm with an air of stern authority. He was, in all likelihood, the best neoliberal president we will ever get. Neoliberalism is clearly not enough.

It's time for the Democratic party to stop pretending they can serve the elites while paying lip service to the proles. In a rational world, the proles would have no option. Democrats are not their friends, but they will never be as bad as Republicans. But it's not a rational world, and fascism thrives with the disaffected masses. When faced with the choice between "bad" and "worse", "worse" is far more attractive than it should be.

I know how we could short circuit the "both sides" arguments. Let's reform the Democratic primary process into something actually democratic.

• Everyone gets to vote on the same day.

• Replace "first past the post" with any of the more functional systems for all elected offices.

• Let a neutral organization manage debates as an open and consistent process.

The Democratic party has total control over their primary process. Presenting themselves as the "defenders of democracy" while continuing to subvert democracy is a losing strategy, and no amount of complaining about "both sides" arguments will change that.

"Can't" is a funny word.

Just like Jesus.

Great post, but I want to correct the inference that undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes. That isn't true.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/us/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-cec/index.html

For those that don't pay income taxes, they are no different than the 40% of US households with low incomes. Gaining documentation is not likely to push their income to a level where that would really change.

They also pay sales taxes, and property taxes (indirectly through rent).

Sometimes it may be subsidized somewhat, sure, but the vast majority of it is coming out of pocket for these companies.

You seem awfully sure about that. What are you basing it on? MRNA research alone was massively funded with taxpayer money. Coding for new proteins is almost trivial compared to what went into developing the technology.

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/u-s-government-invested-31-9-billion-in-mrna-vaccine-research-and-procurement/

Let's not forget how hard Biden worked to rehabilitate the anti-Trump Republicans. He has more Republican speakers at the DNC than progressives. All the worst shit Trump did had been Republican agenda items for decades. He should have hung Trump around their necks. Instead, he nearly handed them congresss.

You are massively underestimating the role of Democrats in getting us where we are today. It's not like industry consolidation slowed down when Democrats were in power.

Anti-trust is the real answer, at least within the scope of what neoliberalism will embrace. Biden has never been good on anti-trust. He's made some noise on that front recently, but it doesn't seem to have slowed down consolidation of every single industry.

Neighbor of the beast.

I'll bet there are going to be some great deals for these on the used market when whatever cool factor there is collapses.

An apple crate would allow him to promote his own voice far beyond what it's worth.