Some of the positions of Biden going into this election:
Abolish the death penalty.
End cash bail as it disproportional punishes the poor.
End cocaine sentencing disparity as racist
Eliminate mandatory minimums
Scrap past marijuana convictions
Eliminate private prisons
Raise minimum wage to 15$/hour
Supports a government mandated 12 weeks of paid family leave for all workers
Two years of college free
Expand student debt forgiveness, including 10K of forgiveness for all student loans and complete forgiveness for all undergraduate loans from 2 and 4 year public colleges and universities, and other loan forgiveness and payment reduction plans.
Eliminate funding gap for k-12 schools based on location (essentially between white and non white/poor and non poor division) with specific first steps outlined to do so.
Increase teacher pay, especially in underfunded schools (poor and POC schools)
Plan outlined to get us back in on the Paris agreement and goal of switching to clean energy by 2035 with first steps specified.
Supports voluntary gun buyback (similar programs have had huge success in reducing gun violence in other countries)
Supports firearm registry
Supports universal background checks for fire arm purchase
Supports huge expansions of medicare and the creation of a public run health insurance option that everyone is automatically enrolled in if they lose other coverage. You would also be able to use this free option if you did not want to use employer coverage. He has moved left in a huge way since the pandemic came into full swing but most people just ignore it. There is a good chance that by the time we get to the point of implementation he could just go medicare for all.
Citizenship for dreamers (DACA)
Outlined steps for increasing the quality of life, access to resources, and autonomy of disabled people, including expansion and strict enforcement of non discrimination policies
Universal hazard pay for “front line” workers during the pandemic
Specific first steps outlined for reducing systematic LGBTQ discrimination
Large increase of taxes on the wealthy, including a direct wealth tax and increasing taxes on corporations, with short term proposals in place that include undoing much of the damage done by trump.
You will notice that a lot of these positions can be described as halfway progressive. As in they move in the right direction but stop short of the ultimate goal. Sure, we didn’t win the primary and get a truly progressive candidate in, but the strong showing of progressive ideals during the primary means that we strong armed the democrat party into compromising with us. We forcibly moved the Overton window significantly left, imagine if we did this election after election! We could force real change regardless of the presidential candidate that is ultimately chosen.
We are slowly winning, but in order for it to stick we have to demonstrate that progressives will reward the shift in our direction. We absolutely need to vote Biden in, as well as support democrats in the senate, congress, and local levels. We need to prove that progressives are a powerful political group that can make promises and deliver to those who compromise with us. This is critical for the long term viability of progressive politics.
Biden isn’t just damage control. We wont be sprinting towards an ideal world but we will be taking significant steps in that direction. Don’t throw away all the progress we made because you don’t like the names on the ticket.
Please read, this is so important.
There’s a difference between compass statements and navigational statements.
“Compass” means “this is the general direction I want to go. This is my ultimate goal.” Such as “ending the school-to-prison pipeline.”
“Navigational” means “the steps I take to get there.” One might be “defund the police.” A different one might be “abolish private and for-profit prisons.” Another might be “universal basic income.” Or any combination of those.
You may not care for Biden’s navigational statements, but the point is the compass statements. Is he going in the right direction? Does he want basically what you want? Then you vote for him. Because you know the Orange Cockwomble IS NOT going in that direction.
Worry about navigation once we’re pointed the right way. There are many roads to take to get to our goals. Backwards isn’t one of them.
Please remember: at this point, anyone trying to convince you that the two parties are the same, or that Biden is “facism light” either hasn’t bothered to actually look at what his CURRENT stances- not his stances from twenty years ago- are……or they know all of the above points and it’s exactly why they’re trying to ensure that Biden loses by willfully misrepresenting those stances in the hopes of either convincing you to be too apathetic or angry to vote, or convincing you to waste your vote on a candidate who has zero chance of getting more votes than Trump while simultaneously ensuring that Biden gets a fraction fewer votes that he needs to win.
Anyone convincing you NOT to vote for Biden is someone convincing you to help hold the door open for Trump. Why would you trust someone like that in the first place?
Why would you want to slam the door on the possibility of ending for-profit prisons and gaining student debt forgiveness? On supporting green infrastructure initiatives or holding trillion-dollar industries accountable for paying their taxes?
What’s Trump doing that’s so great that you’d THROW ALL THOSE POSSIBILITIES AWAY because of your dislike for Biden?
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
