Democrats talk about the "good things" they've done for the economy, and while I'm glad the economy didn't crash because of COVID, these are the same people who underwrote the financialization of every industry while neglecting to appropriately tax, regulate, and break up monopolies, exploiting workers and consumers.
The "good things" Democrats do are mostly tertiary or benefit niche groups, like manufacturing or infrastructure, whose real impact is minimal or takes years to materialize.
It's obvious from the dramatic increase in homelessness and Americans' struggle to afford housing, healthcare, groceries, and other necessities that welfare and other programs aren't keeping up either, and while Democrats "dramatically" expanded the safety net during the height of the COVID crisis, it was only temporary and has mostly since expired even as the structural problems remain.
It's not that America isn't generating wealth, it's that the wealth isn't going to the people who need it.
Democrats like Biden, however, remain fixated on the stock market and economic stats that mask the two tier nature of the economy, mostly because the bottom tier has little real political influence. But the contempt shown to poorer Americans, especially women, minorities, and younger people, is one of the major drivers of political instability and disaffection with the party, which can't even seem to protect them on social issues anymore either.
To the extent Democrats seem to care about anyone outside of wealthy and older white professional suburbanites, it's only to cater to nostalgia about white male blue collar manufacturing jobs, which are mostly gone, aren't coming back, and are practically speaking, irrelevant to the vast majority of the country. Outside of a few high skilled jobs, new factories won't lift anyone into the middle class, especially when the productivity gains continue being siphoned exclusively to the top.
Republicans already have a lock on wealthy and white conservative voters, even the poorer ones who benefit from Democratic programs. Stop wasting time on racist and bigoted assholes.
Democrats need to focus on the voters they can actually reach, the jobs that actually exist, what those people want, and the realities of a consumer economy driven by millions of ordinary people and not the fortunes of the ultra-wealthy.
But I'm not holding my breath.
"Why don't Americans appreciate all Biden has done for them?"
Like what, exactly? COVID is in the rearview mirror as far as most people are concerned. Nobody cares about infrastructure. On-shoring tech production could take decades, too, if it ever amounts to anything.
Like, yeah, okay, he did some student debt relief. That's good.
But in the meantime, all people know is shit costs too much, and he doesn't seem to think that's a problem.
See the issue?
The more affluent you are, the less likely you are to understand this point.
But nobody cares if the economy is good for you.
If you want to win elections, you need to focus on the bottom 90% and not the top 10%.
You need to demonstrate you'll stand up for marginalized people.
Otherwise shit happens.
@gwynnion
The way affluence *limits* *impedes* *slows* our ability to literally understand.
The internalized ableism that tells us we know what limited cognitive function looks like, and it can't be us.
The embodied oppression. The literally embodied oppression.
@gwynnion I agree with this, and I think the Democrats serious lack of attention to housing affordability is the linchpin. If anyone working full-time could afford housing right now, things (like the record low unemployment) would feel much different. The problem is, Democrats are capitalists, and ultimately, capital always wins. I don't know how to change that equation.
All Biden has done is slow the march toward fascism. He has no intention of stopping it. And his reaction to the genocide in Gaza is doing everything to make up for lost time.
And he could have won major voter approval, especially with younger voters, by simply not sending weapons to Israel.
But he would rather detonate Palestinian children than win.
@gwynnion He could push through executive orders forcing price controls, but he doesn't try to or care.