Opinion | Voters punished Biden for problems he didn’t cause and effectively addressed - eviltoast

Summary

President Joe Biden’s economic achievements—lowering inflation, reducing gas prices, creating jobs, and boosting manufacturing—are largely unrecognized by the public, despite his successes.

His tenure saw landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and major infrastructure investments.

However, Biden’s approval ratings remain low, attributed to inflation backlash, weak communication, and a media landscape prone to misinformation.

Democrats face a “propaganda problem” rather than a policy failure, with many voters likely to credit incoming President Trump for Biden’s accomplishments due to partisan messaging and social media dynamics.

    • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I hoped that 2016 was a fluke, that Americans weren’t that dumb and hateful but rather we got caught unprepared by a personality we didn’t expect to run for president.

      I hoped that 2020 was the true thoughts of Americans, that the insurrection represented the dying grasp of an extreme minority.

      I don’t think Trump stole the 2024 election. I think it proved that yes, this is America. Whether you think America has changed into this or was always this, it doesn’t take away the fact that a majority of Americans will believe anything so long as it makes them hate. Good news doesn’t drive votes. Fear and anger drives votes.

      I’ve tried so much to try and be a middle of the road voice of reason and moderation with my friends and family. I didn’t want to be a knee jerk conspiracy theorist, I was always patient with people, listened to them, told them the places they were right, and asked them questions hoping they would ask themselves. I’d say “be like Mr. Rogers. And if someone isn’t acting like Mr. Rogers, be like Mr. Rogers.”

      It started to hit when a friend of mine who is very left wing told me that people with college degrees are brainwashed by the deep state. I had just told her I had a degree in political science.

      I ordered another drink and changed the subject but it hurt. Now I know she is representative of a majority of Americans. I’m worried civil war is all but inevitable when facts just don’t matter as much as anger.

      Edit: Lord grant me the strength to be like Mr. Rogers in this comment section.

      • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        I had just told her I had a degree in political science.

        All due respect, you are literally brainwashed by the deep state. Universities are institutions of the wealthy; of the status quo. They exist to train the managerial class of capitalist society. The ideas that rule are the ideas of the rulers. You specifically took as your major the mainline ideology of that ruling class. The only way you could have done yourself a worse service in that regard is if you took economics.

        • propofool@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          With all due respect youre simping or even more brainwashed than the people you are trying to argue with. You’re either paid or played, and have enough time to respond to everyone here.

          Why is it that the “deep state elite” universities always have such liberal voters? Why do liberals and deep state want to expand social welfare programs? Doesn’t seem very “wealthy brainwashing”.

          Most rulers didn’t take polysci, they got law degrees. Or bankrupted casinos.

          • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            Why is it that the “deep state elite” universities always have such liberal voters?

            Because liberalism is the governing ideology of capitalism and has been since the 1700’s. The problem you’re having is that your definitions of words is mush.

            Why do liberals and deep state want to expand social welfare programs?

            Can you please observe reality? When since LBJ has that been the case? When, since the Soviet Union was a rising threat, has the capitalist state done anything but austerity, union busting, and violently suppressing popular movements?

            Doesn’t seem very “wealthy brainwashing”.

            “I’m immune to propaganda”

            Most rulers didn’t take polysci, they got law degrees.

            Oh heavens, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about the law, which is completely free of the entrenched governing ideology.

            Perhaps you’d like to go to bat for Sociology next? Just because I didn’t mention a major by name doesn’t mean it’s exempt from institutional indoctrination.

            • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              Idk if any of this will help, but you’re very actively involved in the discussions and I encourage that. So, as a friendly commenter who sides with your disgruntlement of the situation, I thought I would at least point out the things that I understand but don’t 100% agree with.

              When it comes to degrees, I agree that it is a “machine” (education as a whole) that produces desired individuals to fulfill the roles it has established as “important/valuable”. Everyone can disagree on the opinion of what a “valuable” society is, but I digress. You have to understand that knowledge comes from experience and research though (just like you’ve probably done, just as an individual and not mandated by a course). The most succulent of critiques can come from someone deeply established in a field, kinda like how Bernie Sanders made comments about the DNC after the election and it forced the media and all of us to discuss it and the message.

              The truly dangerous ones are those who can fully understand how flawed a system is, but realize they must play it to their advantage to get what they “want” out of life. I just can’t demonize the whole entire system when the people I’ve learned and read from were birthed from that experience. A lot of people realize after or during pursuing a degree, just how bad it is so it’s some kind of awareness for a certain %. Now if they’ve fully embraced the system, you just have to find the examples they choose to ignore in their flawed beliefs.

              I also don’t know how effective the “per quote response” is. I’ve been guilty of it in the past, but honestly I think people just dont really read the “tit-for-tat” style comment replies (I find myself scrolling past if it’s too long). If they see one thing they disagree with then they downvote the entire comment. I try to hit the points I want but change the length and style of response in regards to how effective I can actually communicate to the person.

              I’m just happy that a little bit of sanity has returned to Lemmy (obvious from the changes in what got downvoted/upvoted or discussed heavily). It felt like everyone just completely drank the kool-aid so we could “save Democracytm!!” Unfortunately, I think people sold all the common-sense realty in their head for the Blue Superhero fallacy that could save us all from all the boogeymen. It will take time for some to let their head critique things effectively, some will never come back to reality. It’s one of the reasons I just asked a simple question instead of critiquing their entire argument (I think his entire premise is flawed, and happily skewed so Biden is still a hero in their eyes). It’s mostly there so other readers can see it and makes them pause for a second instead of just “believing” it’s true. If the OP comes back with a sane comment I’ll engage in a discussion, but we see from the response to me they don’t want to discuss facts so I’m not engaging further.

              • Maeve@midwest.social
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                1 month ago

                If we’re going to have the superheroes, they’re going to be us, so I guess it depends how badly we want them.

    • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      I’m ootl, what monopolies got broken up? I tried looking it up but it’s not returning results.

    • isaaclw@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He could have ran on it more. Trump understands the art of putting his name on the checks.

      Call Americans stupid, and we are, but I wish the party that was helping people was a bit more grandious and better about messaging then they are.

      • Randelung@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s also pretty hard to point to things and go “see? remember the thing we did 10 years ago? this is the effect it had!”

        Many of Biden’s policies will come to fruition during the next term and Trump will falsely claim responsibility because he can point to it right away.

    • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      So its a good thing that Biden used the SEC to break up monopolies

      The election is over you can stop lying

      implement things like click-to-cancel

      Oh fuck yeah an unsubscribe link on spam emails! America is back, baby!

      O BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES

      invested 5 trillion dollars in the middle class and green energy manufacturing

      I said you could stop lying. Fucking infuriating how cynical liberals are when constructing their fantasy world.

      You’re taking credit for the bad bill that was supposed to be passed along with the good bill.

      Except the point of separating them was to only pass the bad bill. (remember when Elizabeth “Redface” Warren RAN on pulling this shit on you?)

      So now you take the full price tag of the bad bill and pretend it was for good things. Remember what we called it when we called the other bill (again, the fucking ghouls, with maximum cynicism) ‘the green new deal’? We called it the ‘toll road bill’.

      You’re warping reality and history.

      Oh and he also tried to

      Love when liberals take credit for not doing good things, Remember when they “tried” to raise the minimum wage but were stonewalled by an instantly fire-able employee?

      pass student debt relief but kept being stonewalled by repugnants.

      Again, as was said to you thousands of times but you were too obstinate to acknowledge: he didn’t need congress. He could have literally thrown away the paperwork if he wanted to. Somehow the previous president had the authority to halt the loans but when the senator from MBNA took office that power suddenly didn’t exist?

      You know better and you’re pretending not to.

      Biden was the first president to turn away from neoliberalism

      Because you want to live in a fantasy world that would shatter upon literally a single fact being thrown into it

      • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        This by the way is a perfect example of how the democratic party never learns from its mistakes. Because the adults are no longer in the room and the children believe all the lies they were told growing up

        Same thing happened with the republicans, just 20 years ago