5421

I feel like you are dramatically underselling the Democratic party’s accomplishments with statements like this.

Passing the largest pubic works effort since Eisenhower is a huge freaking deal. It is not a “minimal level of competence”.

This is what’s so weird… You have gotten sucked into this fucked up position where you are badmouthing your own freaking side, doing the GOP’s job for them.

5422

I’m not selling them at all in this discussion. Selling them or not isn’t germane to what I’m saying. I’m commenting on how alone the BIF is a hard sell, especially with the state of our media.

Though, if it needs to be noted. Infrastructure, fuck yeah! This bill is indeed a huge and important investment and it has a lot of great stuff in it. It should be the biggest political headline now and for some time to come. You’re preaching to the choir.

5423

That’s taking it too far. People recognize things that help them directly. Stimulus, tax breaks, changes that affect their paycheck, health care, etc. That’s one of the reasons something like paid leave is important. People will notice that and when it makes a direct difference for them they’ll remember why they have it. Stuff like infrastructure that both has a large time delay and mostly helps in the background will be forgotten.

5424

Also comically hard infrastructure like roads and bridges with signs up and construction delays leads to “Thanks Obama” sentiment like we saw a bit of with all the road projects from the post 2008 crash stimulus.

And in case it needs to be said I don’t say this in support of the notion but just another observation on the fickle nature of the “swing vote” and historical evidence of how infrastructure alone doesn’t necessarily move people.

5425

Another reason people act like infrastructure isn’t that exciting is because our infrastructure has been neglected for so long. Setting aside the net dollar amount, this bill brings us to where we should have been infrastructure-wise fifteen or more years ago. Clean drinking water? Bridges that aren’t falling apart? Real first-world country we have here!

So there’s a real concern that the stuff that would bring us to where we should be now as a developed nation - universal healthcare, paid family leave, etc - will take another fifteen years. At which point we’ll all be too busy fighting in the climate wars.

It’s not just that progressives want the full BBB as initially proposed. It’s that we should all collectively be embarrassed as a nation that we don’t have it.

5426

Will Biden’s unpopularity and Dems’ need for a win lead to marijuana decriminalization? Might be able to find some Rs for that.

5427

After the die is cast on BBB I’m guessing Biden will do something about student loans and marijuana. But probably something pretty small given his usual positions.

I hope it’s enough. As nice as the infrastructure bill is it will be forgotten by election time, IMO*.

* People seem to need that disclaimer.

5428

What swing voters want from government is simply: They want to save more and spend less from their paychecks, and not get ripped off by excessive taxes or fraudulent businesses.

Swing voters don’t care about social justice, unless it becomes too obvious and blatant an issue where they become afraid of the side effects on injustice (this is why Trump lost- he became scarier than anything he was railing about- Youngkin just wasn’t scary enough) They do care about order- the white cishet moderate is order above justice at their core.

Infrastructure is important, but it’s gotta translate into money into people’s pockets. The neutering of the broadband changes hurts- if they could have forced Comcast/Charter to lower bills, that would have been a huge win. (You can thank the radical centrists for that neutering)

If I had been able to mind-control Biden, I would have used executive action to forgive as much student debt as I could next. The folks who would get mad about it would get over it eventually, and the folks who got help would remember it.

5429

Ah, youth.

5430

But you can sell this by saying things like, “Trump and the GOP said they wanted to do this for four years. Infrastructure week became a meme.”

Joe Biden was president for less than one year and we got it done. We can actually make government work."

Also, yeah, legalize weed, and you might get some youth vote.

5431

Yes. Good. It should be sold that way and I’m sure everyone here hopes the liberal media spends a few moments noticing it before returning to how inflation is hurting the average american family of 11.

5432

Biden is strongly opposed to this. Decriminalization is most we can get.

5433

I dunno, I feel like if good government wins elections, Trump never wins in 2016, Republicans would not have won an election in Virginia last week, nobody would be worried about the midterms next year, nobody would be worried about 2024, the Senate wouldn’t be evenly divided between Rs and Ds. It’s almost as if there isn’t a very strong connection at all between good government and winning elections.

5434

I think it’s the policies and results of the policies of the current administration and the state of the economy in terms of how it affects the average person, that is what keeps/energizes people voting for the same person/party.

Right now I hear a lot of complaints about things that are issues out of Bidens control, but the blame will go to him and the party in control of the legislative branch of government (our representatives), so it’s the Dem’s fault for:

Gas Prices
Energy Prices
Food Prices
Lack of stuff on shelves

At the end of the day, for the average american, if it affects your wallet/happiness (I want this stuff now) people want to blame someone. The average american is pretty dumb and short sighted. :P

I have heard almost zero news about the infrastructure bill on TV other than its headed to the President’s desk. And once Biden signs it, I bet it will be a day or two news cycle hot topic, then forgot. Probably because the good it will do, isn’t going to help with the issues people are having or at least think they are having this very minute.

I checked and current polls on Bidens approval rating are at 42% approve. Does anyone think the Infrastructure bill will help that number go up? I really don’t.

5435

To a lot of the country, good government just means making sure they have someone to put a boot on.

The things Biden is getting blamed for now- it has a real collorary to Reagan’s 1981-1982. History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. Lets hope we hear Parappa the Rapper soon.

5436

I don’t think it would hurt for Biden to declare the passage of the bill is a “New Morning in America”

5437

It’s Hangover In America.

5438

The Republicans are talking about giving the same punishment to the 13 Republicans who voted for infrastructure that they gave Marjorie Greene for being well, insane and Steve King for being a Nazi.

Stripping committee assignments.

5439

How is that punishment? We are going to give you less work to do.

Sigh.

5440

Committees is how you get your lobbying $$.

Greene doesn’t have to worry about this too much, as she’s funded more by grift and suckers, but it really hurts centrists most of all.