The proposed bargain has always been “no, we won’t really fight corporations, but we’ll defend social progress!”
Well, they’re in charge, the rich are richer than ever, & now people are being charged with murder for miscarrying & it’s illegal to admit gay people are real.
liberals are the most insufferably ignorant people on the planet holy shit
This is the most important takeaway, imo. The important thing everyone should realize is that this has always happened when the Dems are empowered, post-Reagan, and comes with additional denunciation of actual and nominal lefties.
Clinton was the first of the corporate-friendly Dem presidents after the Dems had been shredded for more than a decade. Clinton passed some heinous, right-wing shit during his presidency like gutting welfare, the crime bill, and NAFTA. NAFTA was proposed during HW Bush's presidency, but got nowhere because the Dems were in opposition to it. Cue Clinton pushing the same deal and all of a sudden, the opposition is scattered. Looking back at the actual vote on NAFTA is pretty telling as well. The Dems still opposed it. NAFTA passed the Senate 61-38 with the Dems voting 27 For and 28 Against. The House is even more telling as it passed 234-200 with the Dems voting against it 102 For and 156 Against. Literally passed with mostly Rep support and a minority of Dems in both houses. Crazier than I remember.
Obama had a similar trajectory by pushing a model of healthcare reform outlined by conservative think tanks in response to Clinton pushing for a better program. Perhaps most heinously, he tried his best to cut Social Security and Medicare and was only stopped because the Reps were so unhinged. He also deported a shit ton of people.
Biden continuing down the same path is nothing new, just more of the same. I remember all of the endless VOTE talk from my lib friends online and IRL. They seemed to give a shit about climate, police, immigration, etc. I'm still as engaged as I've always been, but aside from the issue du jour, there's no talk of any of that stuff anymore.
Heh didn't know dems were opposed to NAFTA and only half signed on when Clinton joined office.
Yeah, even the Dem House Majority Leader at the time, Dick Gephardt was against it citing that NAFTA would exacerbate job loss and declining incomes of US workers and would cause excess environmental impacts. He didn't vote for it. And yeah, the foundations of NAFTA went all the way back to Reagan. HW Bush actually signed the NAFTA agreement his last year in office and then the Dem controlled Congress and Clinton ratified it in Clinton's first year.
Since Congress is an absolute gerontocracy, every Dem in leadership today voted on NAFTA when it passed ~30 years ago. Biden and Pelosi voted for it. Schumer voted against it.