Don't Blame Biden

The fact of the matter is that Biden does not bear the SOLE blame for the current problems the US faces. Rather the problems are rooted in systemic flaws that flow from poorly thought out conceptualizations of what actually constitutes individual self interest, AND importantly national interest.

Having said that, I would put forward that if one wants to look at the what were the destructive ideological policies and what were the critical inflection points in recent history (recent meaning the last 50 years) where embrace of these destructive ideologies took SIGNIFICANT, concretized form, consider the following two points:

1. The over embrace of trickle down economics that started with the administration of Ronald Reagan. The problem here is that this over embrace has led to the extreme income inequality that is the primary fuel for much of the social unrest that is troubling the US today.

2. The over embrace of military aspect Wilsonian Liberal Internationalism, which views military intervention in others states as necessary in order to achieve economic AND/OR social liberal objectives. The critical inflection point here was the invasion of Iraq during the administration of George Herbert Walker Bush. The problem here is that, this emboldened foreign policy elites such as neo-conservatives and so called liberals to over rely on heavy handed violent coercion, or the threat thereof to achieve US foreign policy goals.

Biden, although part of the problem, does not bear the preponderance of the blame.

 

I'm not partisan and I don't get the ones that blindly love or hate an elected official SOLELY based on the letter behind their name.

The reality is every single POTUS we've had has contributed to the problems we face today. Jockeying for position with no plan to support the ideologies We, The People, deem most crucial (on either side or in the middle) is just busy work. We can't dismiss that as harmless because it's actually counterproductive to our best interests.

 

You are correct when you say that every single president we have had has contributed to the our current problems. However, I do believe that in terms of what we are looking at currently, the two points that I put forward stand out more than most or any others.

One place where I differ from you is your assertion that they have no plan to support ideologies that 'We the People' deem crucial. Without dissecting too much at this point, I would argue that this 'We the People' (whatever that is) doesn't do enough critical thinking to have an intellectually consistent ideology. They are mostly lead/mis-lead by appeals to emotions by leaders who are more concerned with their self-aggrandizement than the welfare of 'the People'.

 

Those two statements are contradictory, no?

 

Yes they are indeed contradictory, and that's the point I was making. To be clear, there can't be a plan to support ideologies that this 'We the People' deem crucial, if those ideologies do not exist in the first place.

To give an example, I am a American of African descent. There is no plan to help poor black people because, among other things, poor black people, as a group, have no clearly identifiable, consistent ideology. Its just not there.

 

Then, what is the point in having elected officials in the first place?

In the US, someone can choose to see a mental health professionals if they feel the need and it's covered by their insurance or they self-pay.

However, the imbalance of power in the professional-client relationship leaves the client vulnerable to abuse, neglect and/or exploitation. Currently, there is no remedy for that. The usual feedback is "A person has to keep searching for the right mental health professional so things like that can't happen." That makes no sense. A person usually seeks therapy and/or medications because they need help to learn how to recognize and interact with the world around them in a way they aren't being constantly rehurt. It's unrealistic to expect them to be able to choose the "right" therapist if they are starting from the position of not knowing how to do that in their best interests.

In much the same way is the issue you raised. Poor black people (and poor people, in general) do not have the ability to change a system in which they are dependent on a more powerful person (or social construct) to help them. Essentially, they are "voiceless" and expecting them to develop whatever ideologies you say are missing is the exact same scenario in every situation where we "blame the victim" and excuse the ones that are victimizing them.

 

I really like your response here! Thanks!

As for your first point, you hit the nail on the head. Because the truth is that right now, IN ESSENCE, elected officials merely support a system that robs from the poor and gives to the rich. The poor are exploited for very cheap labor that does not even pay them a living wage, and yet they pay taxes for things like bombing other people in lands thousands of miles away from them, that enriches an elite that doesn't really give a damn about the human suffering that they cause. That's one point.

I suppose the other is related. You may have misunderstood where I am coming from, but I said that NOT to blame the poor, but merely to point out that part of their problem is that they do not have a consistent ideology that unites them and empowers them. That is not their fault, rather it is the fault of the leadership of this country. To make this point clear, whatever one might think of Louis Farrakhan, he does care about black people, and one reason why he has had a limited amount of success in the black community is that he gives his followers an ideology that empowers them in their mind and gives them dignity and hope. I that's one thing the political elite in this country has failed to do. They can't do it, because they are more interested in themselves than they are the welfare of their followers.

 

If you think poor people pay taxes then your logic is a rocket that can’t even get off the ground

 

If you think they don't, your logic is like that of people who thought that rocket propulsion from thrust was not possible in space because there was no ground for the thrust to push off on. A big misunderstand of how thrust in a rocket actually works.

In a similar way you ignore the various ways the poor are taxed, in the form of the payroll tax, and in indirect ways when they consume products from retailers who pay taxes and pass that tax liability on to their consumers.

Looks like that one got off the ground after all! LOL!!!!

 

Yeah. They don’t pay anything in federal taxes. That’s what being poor means buddy—you don’t have very much money, and that means you have little to spend and that means little that can be taxed by other methods, making your statements about how their tax money going to fund wars so grossly over stated that you get a big fat F for intellectual honesty. You add all the free stuff they get with food banks and money assistance and F is too good for you to be quite frank

but hey, whatever it takes to make BS points about evil rich people exploiting poor people. So exploited over here there are millions of people walking just to get here cause I guess exploitation is super fun or you have no idea what exploitation is. Meanwhile all these “exploited” people here arent getting off their asses to go walk anywhere better. I wonder why that is.

If liberals believed half the crap they talk about the US they’d be shutting our borders to keep all the poor of the world from being exploited. The least you can do is stop pretending.

 

To be quite frank? Perhaps you THINK you are being 'quite frank', but the reality, TO BE QUITE FRANK, is that the poor are taxed in the way that I mentioned. To see this consider Walgreen's corporation. Walgreen's stores have a problem with theft. Who do you think ACTUALLY pays for those stolen goods? Walgreen's passes the cost of that theft right on to the consumers of its products. Another point is that while a poor person might have little to spend on the individual level, as a group, a company like Walmart, gets a sizeable amount of its revenue from the poor. I think around a 25% of its customers are poor. Walmart pays billions of dollars in tax every year. A good portion of that tax money comes ultimately from poor people. So its not intellectual dishonesty to point out that poor people pay tax in that way. What is dishonest is to try to label that assertion as intellectual dishonesty. You are seeing the dishonesty in your own mind and projecting it onto me.

Perhaps you find it so disturbing to your view of the world that you have to resort to derogatory language when confronted by the fact that powerful people exploit the less powerful. In this case, yes, rich people exploit poor people. Anyone who is actually honest in the intellectual sense and has thought about it knows this is true. Sorry to bust your little bubble.

You want to know why the hell it is? TO BE QUITE FRANK, its because imperialistic powers and multinational corporations have gone everywhere in the world, and raped every nook and corner of its resources. And if someone in a given country tries to do something about it, the US will either overthrow the regime, or pay opposition groups good money to weaken the regime. So there is no place for the poor to walk to.

Ain't no pretending over here bro. Hell, I'm just getting warmed up.

 

1. is a gross misstatement. Trickle down economics has been around and the watchword since the industrial revolution in the US.. Reagan simply attached a catchy name to it while trying to recognize its effectiveness. In general belief in trickle down economics I have asked numerous times to no avail someone to explain how trickle up economics works at all, let alone better..
2. is right on IMO. We made major strategic errors by both Republicans and Democrats in concluding that fighting overseas so that some foreign country can become a civilized democracy, and having no clue that that was an impossible pipe dream.

However, we have fundamental problems today that do not stem from either, and which Biden is either a strong proponent and a strong supporter from the wings. Our biggest problems today stem from the anti-Constitutional coup attempt by the Democrats for five years and counting, although Biden was an almost bystander. Secondly the rape of our electoral system in 2020, though Biden, while the beneficiary, was not actively involved. Biden's shutting down America's energy production is a major factor in our current problems, as his bis opening of the borders to any potential Democrat voter. Lastly his drive to spend trillions we don't have on ideology (as opposed to real life situations like Trump and, in part, Obama did, however ill-advised, did) is a major source of our upcoming problems.

 

Hi precision, I read this yesterday and totally spaced out on replying. My bad.

You're welcome. I'm glad I could add something of value to your thread.

And, that is the way of the world in any nation. The "haves" get to make all the rules and the "have nots" have to live by them. This is the primary reason that I don't understand partisanship. We fighting amongst ourselves when we need to find some palpable middle ground to work on civil discussions. There is no reason in the world that anybody outside the White House should be fighting with those they view as political opponents. All these hot button topics are clearly designed to keep us busy while they fleece us every chance they get.

In elementary school I asked my history teacher why our elected officials can't get in a boxing ring and duke it out instead of sending other people's kids and grandkids into war. He didn't have an answer.

Personally, I would most definitely get behind a plan that anyone elected to office has to be a veteran or at least one of their kids or grandkids have to be active duty. Maybe they'd back away from the football when our soldiers aren't just nameless, faceless, voiceless pawns.

My apologies on not explaining that clearly. I didn't get the impression that you were blaming anybody. I meant to convey that the status quo is designed that way across the board in every facet of society.

I agree but We, The People put them on those pedestals and we're the only ones that can take them off.

I'm on the other side on Farrakhan, Jackson and Sharpton. They all talk a big game but aren't really "movers and shakers". I also believe that they are corrupt and get incentives to steer minorities toward complacency (versus non-violent advocacy and self-empowerment).

My litmus test is that white racists have never tried to assassinate any of them. The only reason to assassinate a community leader in the various subgroups of our society is when they can move people in a positive direction that feels like encroachment to the other side. Since none of them feel threatened by anything that the three aforementioned people have done or are currently doing, the tide isn't changing in any appreciable and measurable way.

Again, that's on us. It can only change if we make it change. Fighting amongst ourselves leaves us vulnerable to our enemies so we have to make a collective decision to not allow our political elite to spoon-feed us barbs by which to attack the other side and pay attention to what is actually happening behind the magic curtain. They have absolutely no reason in the world to stop doing that because it works. It can only stop working when we stop allowing it to work. And, given the climate in the aftermath of Trump's reign of terror, most of us aren't ready to sit down and break bread and get it sorted out. That's unfortunate. Our country, Constitution and way of life are teetering on the edge.

 

It might not be Biden's fault, but it's definitely his problem. That is to say it is his responsibility to resolve whatever issues are going on right now, and if he doesn't do a sufficient job at resolving those issues, then he ought to be critiqued accordingly

 

Although the principle has been around in some form or another for a while, what I said is is not a gross misstatement because in fact, it was during the Reagan/Thatcher era that New Deal style government policy, which reached its apex during the administration of Lyndon Johnson, started to come into widespread disrepute. Instead there was an enormous reduction in the tax rate for those in the highest tax break. These and other types of policies, implemented in successive administrations, Democrat and Republican alike, led to the increased income inequality, which politicians have sought to leverage to their advantage by stoking hate in people dissatisfied with their lot in life. The result is the deep divisions we have today.

Trickle up? You can't trickle nothing up if you ain't got nothing in the first place.

Agreed. Actually any fool could have told that it wasn't going to work a priori.

 

No worries! I actually have quite a bit to do, so I really don't have much time to mess around with this stuff.

Sharpton and Jackson are OK guys, they have just been co-opted by the system.

Farrakhan on the other hand genuinely cares about black folks. His problem is that he adheres to an ideology that has some serious flaws.

The rest of what you said I pretty much agree with. If I had more time, I would respond in depth, but thanks anyway for the thoughts.

 

Well said!

 

Russia invades Ukraine 2014... Obama/Biden
Russia invades Ukraine 2022.... Biden/Obama

HHHHMMMMM... looks like the same name comes up on both invasions...

 

Hmmmm... Begs the question of why did you decide to put Obama's name for 2022.

 

Biden is obviously not running or capable of running our country… there are many players behind Oz’s curtain

 

I never blame the village idiot.

 

We have had people less capable than Biden running this country, which is why Biden does not bear the preponderance of blame for the current mess.

 

Now that was a good one!

 

True this.

 

When I hear someone get on the "income inequality" bandwagon I want to puke. When I was making minimum wage I educated myself in my trade, worked hard, worked long hours, and put myself in search of an employer who paid the most. I retired at age 55 and am financially secure. No president or senator or congressman ever helped me make more money. You want to make more money then get off your duff and work for it and stop waiting for a phony politician to "do something for you". And stop complaining about income inequality. Sheesh.
The poor does pay taxes in some ways but not amounts like the wealthy. And when I hear the rich don't pay "their fair share" or "don't pay taxes" I know I'm hearing from some ignorant person who has never researched the IRS or doesn't have the work ethic to make money. My mother was poor all her life and when elderly she received $8,000 a year from her social security account. She did not pay income taxes and didn't even make enough money to have to file an income tax return. My wife and I on the other hand receive about $32,000 a year from our social security account but we have to pay income taxes on $27,000 of that money. Uncle Sam gets most of his money from the wealthy. You can't get money from poor people. Stop listening to the ignorant and think for yourself.