Vice President Kamala Harris has been criticized for not having her policy positions prominently available on her website, but that ended Sunday.The media and some conservatives have suggested Harris is relying on "vibes" instead of listing her specific positions on issues facing our nation. But her...
  • LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world
    641·
    2 months ago

    Here’s the page. There’s moments of specifics, and moments where I wish there was a bit more detail. But overall, now people shouldn’t be able to say she doesn’t have any policy positions. They still will though.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
        361·
        2 months ago

        I agree that she’s not as progressive as I wish she was. But the overton window is stuck on a fascist dictator, so I’m going to vote for Kamala and we’ll call that progress.

        • Landless2029@lemmy.world
          5·
          2 months ago

          I say win 2024 and do good work.
          Then get re-elected and go nuts on super progressive policy.

          Massive taxes on billionaires (legit 50-70% and/or maybe maybe inheritance tax). Oh look at this! Tax on Extreme Wealth Massive taxes on land barons. (Limit to 2 or 3 per person. Then tax the hell out of vacant units and increasingly per unit over 3).
          Medicare for all.
          Abolish tipping culture. Increase minimum wage.
          Abolish the corn welfare system. 95% of corn is not grown for human consumption. Let’s grow more of our own food.

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
            236·
            2 months ago

            We’re at the restaurant. The waiter is walking towards the table. The menu is in front of you. It’s the dry chicken, or a rusty fork in your eye. Those are the choices. You don’t have to like it, but you will choose or the choice will be made for you. You can complain to the chef, but if you don’t order the dry chicken, you will get the rusty fork stabbed into your eye. You can demand we go to a better restaurant next time, but right now you’re either going to eat some dry chicken and look for ways to make the best of that situation, or someone is going to stab your eye with a mangled fork that is almost certainly covered in tetanus.

            When Harris is President, and Trump is in jail, we shall discuss the next election. Until then, you’re either with Harris or you’re with Trump.

            Remember, this is what Conservatives are good at. They don’t bitch and moan that their candidates aren’t perfect. They bitch and moan that reality isn’t what they want, and consistently demand that politicians cater to their brand of narcissism. Conservatives have installed acolytes at every level of government, in every judicial system across the country, on every school board and election board. They have achieved this by unwavering devotion to make the world benefit themselves at every turn. They have lost more battles than they have won, but they don’t need to win every time. They just need reasonable people to grow tired and give in a little. That’s how you end up controlling six Supreme Court Justices, two of the three most populous states, and most of the religious institutions in the country.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
              13·
              2 months ago

              When Harris is President, and Trump is in jail, we shall discuss the next election.

              We shall not. When the time comes, we’ll be ordered to vote for Harris again and Trump still won’t be in jail. All the trials currently ongoing will have concluded unsatisfactorily or will still be ongoing. Same for any new ones that arise between now and then. When Trump finally dies, there will be someone even worse to replace him. And we’ll chase the approval of the reasonable-by-comparison trump wing of the party, just like we’re so proud to have Dick Cheney’s vote now.

            • orcrist@lemm.ee
              12·
              2 months ago

              I’ll try to show why what you’re saying is not entirely accurate.

              Here’s the easy reason. Most people don’t live in swing states. If they vote third party, or if they stay home, it’s not likely to change the result of the election. My vote has never made a difference in the presidential race, not once in my life.

              Then we get into the more complicated reasons.

              Depending on the candidate, I might feel that they don’t plan on pushing any policies that would make my life better or that I think are important. So why would I vote for them? Of course my motivation would be low.

              The strategy of triangulation, where the Democrat candidate moves farther to the right because people don’t have any other choice, we saw that fail already. I hope you haven’t forgotten Hillary Clinton’s loss. I think if Clinton had been left wing instead of a centrist hawk, that she would have gotten more votes and she could have won the election. You can blame her loss on people who voted third party, or people who stayed home, but the reality is that it was a predictable situation. She gambled that they would believe in the wisdom that you’re pushing, and she was wrong.

              Some people like to say that every vote is equal. And others rebut that with the comment, “everyone’s equal but only on election day”, and yet others note that the electoral college means we’re not even equal on election day. All of which is to say, as voters, we have more power to impact policy before the election than we do after it. You’re suggesting that we throw that power away. Meh.

              Finally, I’m not on either candidate’s side, because neither candidate is on my side. We are all on our own sides, advocating for the things that we think are important or good for us and our community. There’s nothing wrong with saying that you disagree with a candidate on several major issues, even if you think they are generally a solid choice. Many of us strongly value honesty and integrity.

              You used the expression “bitch and moan”, which is self-destructive. If you’re complaining that other people are complaining, that means you are “bitching and moaning” too. And you’re not going to get any support with that kind of antagonistic hypocrisy. (I’m not trying to attack you here, simply to point out the kind of attack that your position encourages.)

            • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
              710·
              2 months ago

              There is never going to be a time when people get a better choice lol. This has been the same song and dance of the lesser evil for 40+ years. There people celebrating the endorsement of Dick Cheney. This country is cooked. I get denying the Trump admin. But better is never happening.

              • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
                111·
                2 months ago

                Progress is about movement, not destinations. Some days you move the ball forward. Some days you stop it from moving backwards. On really shitty days, you just try to slow it down moving in the wrong direction. It takes effort, and dilligence, and I agree it’s exhausting. We may not live to see the mountaintop, but we stand on the shoulders of giants and we try to make the world better for the next group. If we live our lives that way, we can die knowing it was worth being alive. Anything else is just killing time.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.worldOP
      455·
      2 months ago

      Your username is known around here already. You think any person in politics who isn’t doing EXACTLY as you think they should do is making concessions and pandering, but you’re wrong. You’re not voting for her anyway, so why even bother commenting here?

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
        1829·
        2 months ago

        To be clear, it’s not the job of voters to be cheerleading sycophants for “team”.

        Lemmy doesn’t really have a strong grasp of the importance of not supporting politicians or parties blindly. It’s important to be critical of them, their policies, their approach, everything.

        We didn’t give ourselves a shot in this election carrying water blindly. In fact, those who were (the downvoters to op’s comment) were enabling and empowering Trump. In-fact Lemmy moderation even went as far as enacting bans to support this narrow and now demonstrated to be wrong approach to electoralism. What gave us a shot this cycle was a small cohort making a difficult but obvious point that we need to hold our candidates accountable, and if they aren’t acceptable, to reject them.

        So I haven’t looked at the policies, but it’s awful late. It sounds like OP thinks they are vague. This was a real problem that we learned under Obama is that we can’t trust them to follow through with things in spirit; we need it in ink, or ideally in blood. Harris is clearly campaigning to the right and looking for Republicans rather than the left to carry her through. This has been shown to be a repeatedly terrible electoral strategy since 2012.

        • TheHiddenCatboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          61·
          2 months ago

          I’m all for having an honest debate about our politicians, and calling them out when they cowtow to the other side and either don’t lay down their policies to be held accountable or end up not doing what they promise, and in a Bush v. Gore situation, I’d even condone punishing Team Blue in one election to encourage them to be more Blue next election, but I’m not sure that that’s the smartest policy when Team Red has gone full Fascist. We get 2024 wrong, we may not get a 2026 or 2028 to fix it.

          And to understand the downvotes, you have to understand the environment right now. Russia’s got a vested interest in the US falling to Authoritarianism. Trump wins in November, it’s only a matter of time until Russia snatches up parts of, if not all of, Ukraine, and wins a bigger seat at the International table as Trump turns a blind eye to Russia’s adventures in the world. Their strategy is to rally right-wing voters behind Trump, while distract Lefties with things like the war in Palestine, not getting exactly what they want domestically, and whatever else the Russians can dig up to shut down the Left as they work on revving up the Right. While I’m not saying EVERY criticism of a Leftie by a Leftie is Russian propaganda, I AM saying that there’s an awful lot of Russian propaganda posing as Left-Wing criticism of Kamala Harris, and this all serves the goal of depressing Left-Wing participation in the election so the Authoritarians can win.

          Lemmy ‘voters’ are expressing that they think RangerJosie is either a right-wing plant, a ‘useful idiot’ Leftie, or a Russian troll (or bot). Each of these are bad in their own ways, and all three lead to the same outcome – an authoritarian takeover of the government that will leave lefties high and dry for a long while. Your own downvotes are coming from people who think you’re aiding Trump and are dishonest about your intentions, and you sure don’t help yourself with your replies.

          And you’re bitching about modding? The moderators shut down any attempt to call out the paid actors or bots over ‘civility’. They sure aren’t shutting down the dishonest attempts by Russia to shut down Left-wingers and amplify authoritarians.

      • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
        556·
        2 months ago

        I may not be bothering to vote. But I reserve the right to complain.

        Fear not. If she fucks around and loses ill talk mad shit about chump too.

          • anticolonialist@lemmy.worldEnglish
            522·
            2 months ago

            Handing off leverage would be the ones that hate everything that Democrats stand for, but will still vote for them. Those are the same people that said they would push Biden left after the election, when all they did was go to brunch. their failure to make even attempts at pushing left has resulted in right wing authoritarianism being on the menu.

          • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
            921·
            2 months ago

            What im doing is using my leverage to its greatest effect.

            Dems move right. They’ll lose. Proven track record. They think they’ll turn Republicans. But they won’t. They’ll turn a few comfortable fence sitters who would be fine either way. But no real numbers. And definitely not those motivated by cultural grievance.

            Wait and see. They’ll move right. Get almost no Republicans. And lose the liberals out near succdem territory. Left of that was already gone. We have hard demands. Like Universal Healthcare, ending the genocide in Gaza. Small asks, you know. But they’re not asks, they’re demands. Red lines. And we like unions on this side. We’re used to holding the line. We do not caper and simp for politicians. They come to where we are, or they can fuck off.

            Now by all means. Unleash your impotent fury upon me. Tell me how I am all manner of villain and don’t forget to tell me about how I’m helping chump win. Do not forget the finger wagging. Not one wag.

            You know. I was going to vote for her at one point. I was going to suspend my demands after she “snubbed” Netanyahu immediately after Joe stepped down. But then came the mixed messages and hem hawing on LITERAL FUCKING GENOCIDE. Then the DNC. Where she let AIPAC dictate that no, a Palestinian American could not give a pre-screened speech at the DNC. That sealed it. I, me, myself. Will never compromise on genocide. That’s not a line. That’s a cliff. There is no circumstance in which I will support or give my vote to anyone who would support a genocide. Doesn’t matter where. That they’re ok with it at all is the ultimate indictment on them. I don’t care about pragmatism or geopolitics. There are many things in this world that run a spectrum of grey, this is not one of those. This is black and white. Good and evil. And if both candidates are fine with it then this country is lost. And deserves whatever ill fate befalls it.

            Edit - Pretty much Harris’ only hope is that enough Republican women will secretly vote for her against the wishes of their husbands and church leaders. Which is possible. But not guaranteed. But Harris needs to lean on Roe hard. She should be throwing bills right now. Even if they’re doomed. Force them through. Force the Republicans on the record. And use those votes as ammunition. It’s really too bad that dems only know how to play politics when it comes to crushing dissent from within.

            • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
              619·
              2 months ago

              No Josie, I think you’ve got 💯 the right of it and that your downvoters are all idiots. I’ve caught multiple bans here, there and elsewhere specifically making the exact points you are right now. So most importantly I want you to know you aren’t alone, and you’ve got friends here that both agree with you, and have also suffered the slings and arrows the, frankly reactionary, Lemmy userbase.

              It’s a fucked system and your vote is the only thing you have. Withholding it for some kind of policy position is literally the only thing that has been demonstrated to be effective at moving political actors over the previous 20 years of politics. You are making the right choice.

              • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                81·
                2 months ago

                It does move politicians… To the right.

                Because dumbasses who don’t vote aren’t courted. Same reason politicians don’t bother with young people. Because statistically they don’t vote. But all those old fucks do. It’s why social security never goes away but Medicare for all never comes.

                You guys are down voted for stupid ideas. Not because Anyone is “reactionary”.

                • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
                  14·
                  2 months ago

                  Yeah except you are just completely ahistorical and wrong. The preponderance of evidence supports my position not yours.

        • just_another_person@lemmy.worldOP
          368·
          2 months ago

          No, you don’t “reserve the right to complain” if you aren’t taking part. That’s like saying you’re the asshole who gets to tell everyone else how they need to be living their lives just based on your own confidence that you have the better ideas.

          You don’t. You have this tone of being some magnanimous asshole thinking everyone is just fucking up around you, but you’re just “allowing” it to happen.

      • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
        941·
        2 months ago

        I’m sorry for the double post. But this teen girl clique drama sounding ass first line is incredible.

        I’m waiting for you to call me Becky while shaking your head side to side.

    • Djtecha@lemm.ee
      811·
      2 months ago

      What are you talking about? The first paragraph in is showing clear policy points to achieve objectives. Do you think you’ll get bill numbers or something here?

      • thefartographer@lemm.ee
        989·
        2 months ago

        I don’t Bill nor Hillary’s number! I’ll take Bernie’s, though…

        “No you hang up. Nuh uh, you hang up this time. Okay, but before I hang up, tell me again about how I deserve dignity in life through healthcare?”

        Edit: I forgot the word “want.” Oh well.

          • thefartographer@lemm.ee
            933·
            2 months ago

            @[email protected] asked a snarky and well deserved question in response to RangerJosie’s either uninformed or specifically malicious comment. Rhetorically, they asked

            Do you think you’ll get bill numbers or something here?

            Intentionally, and for comedic effect, I pretended to misread this question to say “Do you think you’ll get Bill’s number or something here?”

            Since this is a political community, I decided to pretend that Djtecha was offering Bill Clinton’s phone number. I threw Hillary’s name in the mix to keep the theme political vs sexual since Bill is often an easy target on that front.

            Then, I used this joke to bridge the gap to include everyone’s favorite advocate, Bernie Sanders. Finally, I crafted a situational punchline to make it sound like I’m a smitten party on a phone call with Bernie Sanders, doing the classic teenager “no you hang up first.” Finally, instead of saying something like “fine, but sing me that song I love until I fall asleep,” I acted like I’d ask Bernie to explain single-payer healthcare and why everyone deserves it until I fall asleep.

            I hope I’ve clarified on my latest episode of my joke apparently wasn’t funny, and this explanation is surely making things worse. Y’all have a nice night!

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    147·
    2 months ago

    After criticism. Who the fuck cares. Only repubs. I want to know her policy too, but it’s not like I think she’s been dodging. They took time to craft it. Whatever, gotta be fair to both sides.

  • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    1253·
    2 months ago

    It only took her two months to figure out what her policies are 😂 I was wondering if she’d solidify her platform going into the debate or just talk about vibes like she did at the DNC. Looks like she’ll be focusing on the issues, thankfully.

    • TheHotze@lemmy.world
      132·
      2 months ago

      She has had policies available since the DNC. Literally the Democratic platform, it’s like a 90 page document.

      • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.clubEnglish
        39·
        2 months ago

        Isn’t that the DNC platform? It doesn’t mean that’s what she’ll run on, it just means that’s what most Democrats supported by the party support. That’s like saying Trump’s platform is 2025 😂

  • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
    582·
    2 months ago

    “Post your positions already!”

    Posts positions

    “Ugh, I can’t believe she posted her positions …”

    It’s fair to ask for the positions, and fair to criticize the positions, the piece just reads like they are peturbed either way.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
      2·
      2 months ago

      It felt like the authors of the article accurately pointed out how skewed mainstream media’s portrayal is. I appreciate that.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
      181·
      2 months ago

      the US corporate media is run by a bunch of right wing billionaires, I don’t think fairness is ever going to be in the cards.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
    2613·
    2 months ago

    It is crazy how it took criticism for this to even happen. Someone you’re voting for should be able to list what their actual platform and agenda is. It helps to have it for record if you actually plan to attempt to hold these people in power accountable and not be on some weird parasocial worshiping stuff.

    • BoofStroke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      In fact, I’d say that’s all they can do. No more advertising. You get a gvt funded web site where you post your resume and positions.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
      32·
      2 months ago

      the corporate media will never hold both parties to the same ballpark standard but like trump has pointedly denied involvement in project 2025 and he’s not once talked about a policy grounded in reality, but the point is this isn’t unusual its like the standard playbook. The only reason they went after Kamala on it is they don’t like her.

      Voters should expect policies, like you said. Its crazy this is allowed in the first place and the media enables it.

      • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
        121·
        2 months ago

        The media has been awful when it comes to Trump and letting him set and control the conversation. He has made it so normal just to lie without pushback. I could understand to some extent why listing a platform feels pointless.

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
    573·
    2 months ago

    We can have a policy based debate when the Republicans nominate a non-fascist candidate. Until then it doesn’t really matter.