Wow, a lot of vitriol on this topic! Okay, so, for my first post on Lemmy I am going to make a positive leftist case for Biden.
Biden is not the problem! He wants to do big things; he wants be a great president. If congress sent him voting rights, reproductive rights, major climate action, and many other leftist priorities, he would sign them. He could definitely be better, but he is mostly not standing in our way. How many decades would you have to go back to find another president you could say that about?
Biden is not the problem. Congress is the problem. State and local governments are the problem. Nimbys are the problem. We have a lot of problems to solve but the presidency is not one of them. What we need to do with the presidency is simply reelect Biden and then get on with the work of solving the actual problems.
I think you’re wanting him to be more like LBJ, using his political power to drag reluctant congress members along, and you’re right, someone like that would have gotten more done. But LBJ wasn’t perfect either, and the LBJ approach isn’t the only way to get things done. Another way is more bottom up, get the support in congress and then just have a president who’s willing to go along. I’m guessing that’s probably AOC’s intention, to bring liberals and leftists together so we can present a unified front and get majorities in congress.
But yeah, I agree about the railroad strike. Also the vaccine patents. He’s not perfect.