This story is how my inlaws feel, well one of their issues. They’re single issue voters and absolutely would have voted Trump if he hadn’t mocked Jorge Ramos.
They’ve come here both legally and illegally but over time have nearly all become citizens. They, almost unanimously, are furious at the “handouts” given by asylum seekers, as they felt they didn’t get any. And they usually didn’t. But there is a difference between asylum and crossing how they did, in fairness.
That said, one valid point they raise is that there should be a quicker, easier route to legality and citizenship. It’s only gotten harder each year. And, what I try to point out to them, there’s really one set of people to thank for that. Not that dems have been nationalizing anyone who crosses the border, but the GOP makes immigration harder and harder each year, which increases the desire for people to do illegally.
And of course, there’s the statistic that the GOP never mention - the majority of currently illegal immigrants came here legally and overstayed visas, and are not from Mexico.
This is the same stupid argument I keep hearing for not easing student debts. “I paid mine without help!” In a totally different situation, that does not translate. But seriously, should we not be trying to make things better for the next generation? “My experience sucked, so yours better suck at least as much!” is a really petty and shitty take.
Just as an FYI, my student debt out of med school was $37k (yes, I am that old), and my first job paid $125k. Now, we see kids coming out with $250-300k in debt, going into jobs that pay in the $200k range. These situations are not at all comparable.
I paid mine off literally the month before Biden made his (first) announcement. It was the student loan from my first degree and I paid it off while finishing my second (paid for by work).
I was thrilled for the people. Paying the loan for 14 years sucked. I was laid off 3 times in that period. There were times I didn’t pay my rent or house, but I paid my student loan. Because in my past, I worked for ISAC, who manages loans for my state. I understand the default process too well, and just how bad it can get and how quick.
The things I could have done with that $500/month. Gotten a house earlier? Less ulcers in worrying about bills? Some silly extravagant purchase? I borrowed around $30k, paid back over $80k, never missed a payment. I absolutely benefitted from my degree, but making me pay it 3x over was a whole other lesson. And one I don’t want anyone to have.
It’s like when Boomers tell Gen Xers and below, “I bought my own house, why can’t you?”, and refuse to be told “because 1) you guys bought all the houses, then 2) changed regulations so not enough new houses could be built, and 3) wages have stagnated, but 4) because of 1 and 2, the price of houses has increased by orders of magnitude, and you don’t care because you guys still own them all, except for the ones that you’ve sold or reverse-mortgaged to venture capital real-estate stockpilers.”
Even for early Gen X, it was that way. Working minimum wage at McD’s I was able to afford a car, pay for my college, insurance, gifts for my girlfriends, although in fairness I wasn’t paying for board at that time. The cost change was moving then though and it’s crazy to me that 40 years later there are people making only a tiny bit more than I did despite how much more expensive everything is.
Yes, and NEITHER party is pushing for that, sadly.
Very true, but the Democrats tracked to the right on this issue, chasing those mythical centrists.
We’ve needed to overhaul our immigration systems for a long time now. It needs to be easier to get in to work, shorten the time to get citizenship, and all that… The pressure needs to be on employers with regards to hiring undocumented workers. They hire them (when they are companies owned by white American born, wealthy employers) because they can exploit those workers. Who can they complain to if you don’t pay them overtime or ignore injuries, or hire children?
As Gen X, I am acutely aware of this disparity. I’d add, in the US at least, many Boomers and GenXers not only own their house, they own rental property and expect a magical 10% per year increase in rental income. Assholes.
President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, on Sunday night, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after his convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
ok, so now that the lid is off the pardon juice, how about pardoning a few dozen folks that trump is surely to go after? (and there is precedent for a presidential pardon prior to prosecution, namely Ford doing so for Nixon)
While that’s quite true I would very much hate to see that be the standard by which we decide whether or not it’s acceptable for Biden or any other politician of any party do something.
Edit to add (and this isn’t directed at anyone in particular): I absolutely understand the reflexive instinct to respond with “well Trump is much worse!” to any reports about Democratic politicians doing questionable things. I’ve probably done a lot of that myself, especially when the election was still ongoing. But I don’t think it’s a great strategy for finding a winning path forward. For Democrats to win back support of the public they will need to not give the appearance of excusing poor behavior, and bringing up Trump every time someone else does something wrong just feels too much like we’re trying to excuse something. Especially since the question of “who will be elected in 2024” has now been settled.
I am hoping this is the open salvo to a flood of ‘alright then, let’s do this’ to lock down as much as possible with no concern for MAGAts’ delicate fee-fees.
I don’t give a damn about the feelings of MAGA folks but I do think that it’s always fair to judge people’s actions by the standards that they set for themselves, and by what they say they’re going to do. Biden was extraordinarily clear that he was going to allow the Justice system to proceed with these cases without his interference, and was still saying that as recently as November 8th, days after the election was over. Hunter was scheduled to be sentenced on December 17th for the crimes that he pled guilty to, and on December 13th for the crime that a jury convicted him of. The president didn’t even wait for that to play out. Maybe the sentencing would have been perfectly reasonable for the circumstances, maybe not, but now we’ll never know.
He was also very clear that he was going to run again for president. And then he stepped down, and clearly should have done so. Just because he was adamant about a course of action in either situation doesn’t mean to me that he shouldn’t change his mind.
Why did Democrats lose? The question is still haunting many people today.
There are the usual theories. Did they reach out to moderates too much? Did they go “too left”? Did they not speak to the youth enough? Was it that Harris was introduced too late?
These are all, in the arena of punditry and political discourse, the normal and fair questions to ask. I have my opinions on them too. But we need to remember something in a moment when fascism is on the rise. The rise has been building for 8 years (which many activists, historians, and sociologists will tell you has actually been building for decades). This means that punditry and political discourse have missed a lot. The norms of our debates and discussions are themselves deeply flawed, missing underlying realities that have gone under or undiscussed.
We need a different way of thinking. We can’t just get into the usual debates because the usual debates led us here . They are the issue.
Instead, we need to go deeper. We need to examine more than debates, and dive into psychology. We need to see the trends and the patterns that led us here. And we need to stop expecting this to only be about campaign decisions. This is by definition structural.
Two notes:
This is a long piece. My goal is to take you on a journey of Americans’ psychological experiences as they entered the voting booth, and that, I believe, requires more than a quick analysis.
This piece doesn’t judge voters for their choices. There are plenty of other legitimate places to have those debates, but this is about examining why we got here as opposed to who is good or bad. And generally speaking, I do my best to do this with leaders and systems instead of individuals.
About the whole Hunter Biden thing I pretty much have no fucks to give here. I don’t really care how many times Biden said he wouldn’t pardon him, of course he would. It was just a matter of when. Is there some level of hypocrisy here, of course there is. Would Hunter Biden have been pardoned if his last name wasn’t Biden? No, but he also wouldn’t have been the target of the amount of persecution he had to endure. He evaded taxes, then paid it back with penalties. He lied on a form and was charged with crimes that are rarely prosecuted as primary offenses. His crimes were victimless or sufficiently punished as far as I’m concerned. I just think of all of the millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars spent to investigate and prosecute this guy and who really benefits from this? Certainly not The People.
Hunter Biden’s pardon wasn’t a reward for criminal behavior in contrast with Trump who says, “do these illegal things and I’ll make sure you’re pardoned”. He pardoned fraudsters and other criminals as a QPQ. Like Charles Kushner who wasn’t even in prison anymore, just because he was a family member. He pardoned many people who committed crimes for him the first time around, and with his promise to unilaterally pardon anybody involved with January 6, will continue to abuse the pardon power to help himself. That’s very different than what Biden did.
But hey, let’s see him pardon the many more injustices deserving of it. Let’s see him commute all death row inmates to life in prison while we’re at it. That would be a good Catholic thing to do. Let’s see him pardon more low-level non-violent offenders unfairly sentenced under “3 strikes” rules. Time to go HAM. There’s nothing to lose at this point. As long as he doesn’t decide to pardon Trump. That would be unforgivable.
At this point in his presidency Biden has actually issued fewer pardons (deserved or otherwise) than any president since Nixon. According to a NY Times article back in September he had only issued 25 pardons and 131 commutations at that point, which is a very low rate (14% of the petitions that came to him through the Justice Department) and clearly means that a lot of deserving folks were passed over. He’s still got time to do better.
