Voters punished Biden for problems he didn’t cause and effectively addressed

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/biden-trump-presidency-accomplishments-rcna179235

33 comments

  1. Yes MSNBC, but then again your news team did much to undermine him.

  2. That’s true.

    But also, Biden insisting on staying in the race until a month before the convention (even as we now know, his internal polls were showing Trump winning +400 EVs against him) hamstrung the eventual nominee from having time to distance themselves from the nomination (whether that was Harris or anyone else)

  3. Fuck them. I can’t wait for those voters who didn’t vote for Harris and for those who voted against her to realize the mistake they made.

    It’s all like some of us forgot what 2017-2020 felt like.

  4. This article in the title already misses the real issue, “The fight against rising prices has essentially been won. But few in the electorate seem aware.”

    Yes, inflation has slowed down, however things are still very expensive and people are understandably mad about that. Like, great we beat inflation! Does that mean my food prices and housing prices are going to drop to where they were 5-6 years ago? No.

    Just saying the economy was great and job growth is great was horrible messaging from the Democrats, and I say this as a Kamala voter. No one feels that.

  8. The entire problem is that Harris brought facts, plans, and data to an electorate that has no interest in it. They want to be angry at the government and turned to Trump’s lies and fairy tales. Nothing Harris could do would change that.

    Americans do not want logic or experts, they want Santa Claus.

  9. “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” -George Carlin

  10. And those people still don’t care.

    Why do we keep doing this same song and dance every four years? People who voted for Trump don’t give a fuck about reality. People who didn’t vote at all this time are lemmings who aren’t swayed by lofty ideas of “protecting democracy.” You want to sway those people you gotta stoop to Trump’s level. That being offering quick easy sounding solutions to problems whether they’re realistic or not.

    Cause at the end of the day, people today are fucking myopic idiots. And in a democracy that means we have to cater to idiots, which is exactly why Trump keeps winning.

  11. Never underestimate the effectiveness of propaganda on the poorly educated.

  13. Basically Trump got credit for the economy he inherited but no blame for the crash. Biden got no credit for the recovery and all the blame for the worldwide inflation. The cherry picking is unreal

  14. We all know this, dwelling it on us gets us nowhere. Time to move forward and spend every day of the next 4 years tying Trump to the corporate interests that will be all over his Presidency.

  15. This is what is getting missed in the left attacking the left right now. Blame whichever politician you don’t like all you want. The reality is that Biden effectively cleaned up Trumps mess and was rewarded with Trump being re-elected. So now it’s clear good governance isn’t enough to win. If the voters reject logic and reason, it hard to know the next step. Sure, the party could go full tilt to the left. That will make a lot of people happy and they will bathe in their “right-ness” but I doubt that the country will suddenly see logic and reason. It seems that the only language they understand is pain. Obama cleaned Bush’s mess. Biden cleaned Trump’s. And now Trump gets a second chance to mess the country up more.

  16. Most disrespected president ever…because MAGA.

  17. Reposting here: It’s the economy, stupid. That’s why Democrats/Harris lost (and Biden not dropping out farther in advance). For all the macro econ numbers that look good, people’s underlying wallets do not look good for working class Americans, and we have the same structural issues with the economy today that we’ve had for decades. In that scenario, incumbents can lose. Trump may be completely a charlatan, horrible in many ways, and un-serious about addressing these issues, but his rhetoric is populist economically. The messaging is key. His populist rhetoric cuts through, and the Democrats have a lack of messaging/outreach that can match.

    For instance, think back to 2022 when inflation was raging. If Trump were president, he would have been shouting 24/7 scapegoating corporations, greedy boards/ceos, and throwing everyone and anyone elitist under the bus he could. Biden on the other hand was tone deaf and blase; almost completely absent in general (and aside from just the messaging/narratives, he should have actually done something with emergency COVID powers to rein in price gouging, even if courts tried to stop him).

    Democrats never should have tried to pass off the economy as “good;” instead they should have said they’re a recovery admin, insisted they’re still cleaning up the Republicans mess throughout Biden’s term, acknowledged people’s finances, and pointed the finger at Republicans plus Corporations/Wall St. for out of control price gouging.

    Going forward, they need to simplify the message and platform, and get big and bold. The power of three. should promote these three exclusively as their party platform going forward:

    – “We’re going to raise taxes on the wealthy and specifically dedicate those funds solely to maintaining and expanding Social Security and Medicare, and nothing else”

    – “The era of the government and our party catering to Corporations and Wall St is over. We will rein in Corporate and Wall St dominance of our government and give a voice to working Americans and small business.”

    “We’re going all in for working Americans and small business, and will address their needs, particularly by reining in the costs of housing, healthcare, prescription drugs, education, and childcare.”

  18. Alternate Title: Voters punished Biden for problems he indirectly made worse, failed to effectively address, and failed to communicate on.

  20. I see it like Biden oversaw massive deficit spending for COVID relief, and things would have gone a lot worse without it, despite the inflation. It would have been easier without the Trump administration’s gross mishandling of the pandemic.

    I see Trump’s tax cuts as massively burdening the federal budget, and they will now presumably continue to do so. Our interest payments on the debt alone are already eating up something like 23% of the budget. With the continuation of tax cuts for the insanely wealthy, this will get worse, and is unsustainable.

    This is how wealthy nations have routinely killed third world nations: debt service. This is how third world nations die.

  21. If Biden *had* managed to address the economic issues of the working class, why did they punish him? Why were they mad the only ones to be able to take vacations is the upper middle class and the wealthy? Why did they get mad the have to work two jobs to try and keep their studio appartment? Paycheck to paycheck and promised 25k off a half million dollar ‘starter’ home? Why were they upset about the massive surge of wealth upwards while they are one medical emergency away from living in their car? Why were they upset all the money is spent on foreign wars and to payback college tuitions?

    Come to that, why were they they pissed off that at the last moment it is revealed Biden is not holding up. Why did they get pissed that a new and untested candidate is dropped in his place without any sort of primary?

    I mean, seriously. The working class should just smile and vote straight Democrat down the ticket no matter what, as many of them have for 40 damn years? Give them a *damn reason.*

  22. Just run this headline everytime GOP follows Dems. It’s the same rerun my whole life time. A good chunk of swing voters just flip flop against the current establishment. there’s always grievances, ppl don’t care about much outside of their preview.

  23. Yes, because we rely on the establishment media to inform people and they were more interested in raising questions about his age.

  24. So many stories pointed out how much better the economy was thanks to Biden and how we recovered better than pretty much any other country. The numbers don’t matter because people don’t FEEL things are better. They want to jump in a time machine and go back to pre-Covid. They have this crazy idea in their mind that Trump can somehow do that.

  25. Maybe if the so-called liberal media had actual helped convey the work Biden did – instead of constantly being baited by Trump into questioning his age – we might be in a different place now.

  26. and will continue blame him as things get worse under Trump.

  27. The Dems never backed Biden. Throughout his term he was treated as a usurper by his own party. I believe that the Dems expected him to lose in 20 and never wanted him around in 24. He did great things and will be missed by many of us who know the truth

  28. Let’s be honest with ourselves, the Democrats did not effectively message their accomplishments

    I bet no one evens knows who the FTC chair is…

  29. That is utter bullshit. He was about to lose the election in Mondale-esque fashion and was forced to step down. He abetted this loss.

  30. Biden was truly a decent man in an indecent time. History will look kindly on him

  31. Trump inherited a great economy, now watch him fuck it up!!!

  32. Republicans crash the economy and run up the deficit, democrats spend the first half of every administration putting out the dumpster fire and then getting things back on track, voters forget and punish democrats and vote for republicans who then in turn crash the economy. Trickle down economics is financial terrorism.

  33. Biden was a very good President yet it went practically unnoticed. In a sane political environment and if he was age 55-65 he’d win reelection by a mile. It sure is an odd looking-glass timeline we’re living in.

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