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I’m a conservative moderate independent. I very briefly considered Haley because I heard some good things about her. BUT, her views on abortion and pardoning Trump so we can “move on” as a country feel unconscionable to me.
I really don’t like Biden, but I can’t blame him for running for reelection. Incumbent presidents tend to have an advantage with voters. Part of the reason I dislike him is that my ideal candidate, Warren, is unlikely to run in 2028.
And the thing I admired about conservatives is no longer valid. I can respect that you have a different view than I do, and that you stand by your values. Republicans threw away their values and are set to throw away democracy to accomplish their goals.
And the thing is, I would vote for a literal flaming pile of poop over Trump and Biden certainly is better than that, as much as I don’t like him.
Honestly Biden has been pretty great, and the only really liberal thing he's doing is forgiving student debt. That's not that radical or expensive.
He doesn't go far enough, imo, but with this Congress he can't. I'd love to see a top marginal rate of 80% for earnings over 4 million per year.
I'd consider voting for someone slightly worse and younger, but that candidate doesn't exist this year. There's a hell of a lot worse, more loyal to Putin than America, fascist, and still about the same age.
I disagree that forgiving student debt is a good thing. They signed a contract and they should abide by it. I do think that he should be fixing the root cause: why is college so expensive and what can we do to make it more accessible? Also, why are student loans so predatory? Why can the interest rate exceed inflation?
I would also love to see a high marginal tax rate, but I disagree with the 4 million cut off. We shouldn’t write in 4 million. It should be an equation of X times the poverty rate.
And yeah, there’s no good candidates this year
I don't understand: if you acknowledge that the loans are predatory, why shouldn't the victims be entitled to relief, as is perfectly normal under contract law? Furthermore, about 92% of student loans are considered "federal loans," made up of money from the government.
What is the proper way to handle the situation?
They should be entitled to refinance from their initial principal to a loan with an interest rate of not more than inflation.
If they’ve paid off more than that amount, they should get a check. If they haven’t, they should keep paying the new loan.
It seems like this is just another way to do the same thing though except with more paperwork required by those seeking relief.
What good does it do to effectively make borrowers pay with their time when the government already knows who should be entitled to that relief?
Moreover, it wasn't blanket student loan forgiveness in the EO. The recipients include:
Borrowers with Income-Driven Repayment Plans: The administration proposed changes to income-driven repayment plans to make them more generous. These changes could result in lower monthly payments for borrowers and eventual forgiveness after 20-25 years of qualifying payments.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program Participants: The Biden administration temporarily relaxed the requirements for the PSLF program, allowing more types of payments and loans to qualify. This program is designed for individuals who work in public service jobs for either a government or a non-profit organization, offering forgiveness of remaining debt after 10 years of qualifying payments.
Borrowers Defrauded by For-Profit Colleges: The Biden administration has been discharging loans for borrowers who were misled or defrauded by certain for-profit institutions, under the Borrower Defense to Repayment program.
Total and Permanent Disability Discharge: The administration has also taken steps to streamline the process for borrowers who are totally and permanently disabled to have their loans discharged.
Targeted Forgiveness Initiatives: President Biden announced a plan for broad student loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 for individuals earning less than $125,000 per year, or households earning less than $250,000, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
These seem like good measures to me to get people to be able to afford homes and retirement; from a consequentialist perspective, it seems like a faster and more effective way to improve our nationwide economy.
Here’s the thing. We shouldn’t have bailed out big businesses in the first place. We should claw back that money. We shouldn’t have to bail out people with student loans. We should fix the root cause and give them a non-predatory option.
Also, we need reparations for black people.
I completely agree with all of that. Forgiveness is merely a bandaid for a broader solution, but providing intermediary relief is not saying we shouldn't also address the root cause.
What would you say to pausing the payments until a solution can be found?
So you and people like you turned 1 of our 2 political parties into a giant dumpster fire that threatens world wide stability...
And now you want to lecture Dems on what kind of candidates we should be happy with?
Why would anyone care what your opinion is on political candidates?
Go fix your own house first instead of burning down half of the only remaining house.
Thanks for displaying what it looks like when one is siloed-off and can no longer muster the good faith required for a simple conversation across ideological lines.
Ironic.
good faith? HAhahahahahaha Man, the early 90's called, laughed and hung up. Newt Gingrich much?
Yes, good faith.
You know, the thing you lack when skipping over the substance of a person's argument, even while rushing to equate them with Newt Gingrich.
That's some fine petard hoisting.
American conservatives haven't done or said a single thing in good faith in the last half a century. You don't get to ask others to do what you're unwilling to do.
Such a sweeping statement is useless on its face. An educated look at an exit pool from within the last week leaves this analysis in tatters.
I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I just firmly believe in government working for the people. I don’t play party politics.
You have to realize that at the end of the day, we’re all people and that treating people like individuals is better than treating government like a competitive sport.
The "big tent" is just an excuse to move the democratic party right so no matter who wins the billionaires never lose...
That's why the party fights any movement to the left, and takes every opportunity to move right.
I'm sorry you can't understand that, but as a "conservative moderate" I'm sure this isn't a new experience.
Have a nice life
I’m not trying to be a Democrat. And I also don’t believe democrats should move right. That’s something Obama did wrong.
If the middle is 0, one side should be -5 and the other side should be +5. Obama had too much faith in republicans, offering 0 right off the bat, allowing republicans to go to +10.
What should really happen is that the Republican Party should be split into far right crazies and center right, and the Democratic Party should be split into center left and far left.
It is absolutely ridiculous for the Republican Party to characterize the Democrats as “the far left” and throw terms like “communist” and “socialist”. The US NEEDS a socialist and communist party such that the Republican Party can stop mis-using these terms and come back to reality.
I’m sorry if you think I misunderstood, and I welcome any corrections
TL;DR: you're a reasonable person, but one who has no understanding of the game theory of how our political system works.
Here's the thing: you can't just want the Overton window to not be skewed and for all ideologies to be represented by political parties; you have to understand the current fucked-up framework we have that structurally suppresses all but the two most popular parties in order to figure out how to change it to be fairer.
The only alternatives to developing that understanding and strategy -- sitting around whining about it, or trying to burn it down and start over -- range from ineffective to foolhardy.
TIL that there’s a term for the concept I’ve been trying to explain what’s wrong with American politics.
By framework, do you mean FPTP naturally becomes a two party system? Because honestly, we need RCV. And it might be prudent to go back to the system at founding:
Most votes is President, second most is vice.
To be honest, I’m not sure why we have to vote for a ticket.