Philosophical Vegan Forum

Before election day, I was so confident that Trump would win that I bet $500 bucks on that. I will say I don't think I've ever been happier to have been proven wrong.

Anyway, now that Biden's going to be President, here is a small list of predictions.

Since Democrats likely are not going to take back the Senate, the first two years are going to be challenging for Biden, but he does have experience working with Republicans apparently, and I've read he has a decent relationship with McConnell. We'll see what happens.

I'm pretty confident that the Democrats will gain back the Senate and a few seats they lost in the House next midterm, since Trump's name won't be on the ballot, and now more Democrats turn out to vote and understand the importance of it. Hopefully in the meantime, some more moderate Republicans like Romney can be recruited to the cause.

Biden will definitely reverse some of the executive orders Trump has put in place, and bring back some of the ones Obama got rid of. He'll also rejoin the WHO, Paris Agreement, and other international organizations that Trump pulled us out of (except TPP unfortunately). Speaking of the TPP, I think Biden will chill out on the trade barriers Trump put up and maybe open up trade with more countries.

Biden seems to have been pushed somewhat to the left, and proposes a list of relatively progressive policies such as universal college, higher minimum wage, the Equality Act, infrastructure spending, and decriminalization of cannabis. Of course he's gonna have to compromise a lot, especially in these first two years, but it'll still be progress.

Biden also has a great energy policy, which gradually lowers our reliance on oil and coal, uses natural gas in the meantime, and replaces all of them with Nuclear and renewables. I think he has a good chance of getting some of this stuff done (at least with Nuclear), since Nuclear energy is supported by most of Congress if I'm not mistaken.

I think Biden will serve out his first term, win reelection, then step down halfway through, meaning Harris could potentially serve 10 years as President. Since Biden has been in the White House, he can probably help her learn how to be practical and compromising.

Either way, I can only see the US going forward from here on out.

There is nothing moderate about Romney. He was just pissed at Trump for not making him secretary of state. Don't expect him to deviate from any future republican votes.

It will indeed be extremely difficult for Biden to get anything accomplished. The republican senate will fight him on every little detail. Republicans, having seen the success of Donald Trump, will do everything to avoid pissing off Trump's 70+ million supporters. Don't expect Trump to stop tweeting. He will still be politically influential.

Jebus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:50 pm There is nothing moderate about Romney. He was just pissed at Trump for not making him secretary of state.

I do know he has a history or flip-flopping on certain issues, especially social issues. We'll see.

Apparently he's trying to get a seat in Biden's cabinet but I think that's just hearsay AFAIK.

Jebus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:50 pmDon't expect him to deviate from any future republican votes.

We'll see. I think the reason he voted to move forward with the new court appointment was that since he's from Mormon Land, voting against it would pretty much mean the end of his political career. I'm not sure if I blame him for that.

Jebus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:50 pmIt will indeed be extremely difficult for Biden to get anything accomplished. The republican senate will fight him on every little detail. Republicans, having seen the success of Donald Trump, will do everything to avoid pissing off Trump's 70+ million supporters.

Hopefully that won't last for his whole tenure.

Jebus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:50 pm Don't expect Trump to stop tweeting. He will still be politically influential.

If @brimstoneSalad is right, he'll be doing that out of a jail cell (or, he gets banned from Twitter).

Red wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:59 pm If ]brimstoneSalad is right, he'll be doing that out of a jail cell

.

That would be awesome although I don't believe it will happen. He will certainly try to pardon himself before leaving office, and if that doesn't work and he goes to jail, his base will be even more rev'd up.

Jebus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:07 pm

Red wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:59 pm If ]brimstoneSalad is right, he'll be doing that out of a jail cell

.

That would be awesome although I don't believe it will happen. He will certainly try to pardon himself before leaving office, and if that doesn't work and he goes to jail, his base will be even more rev'd up.

The next few months will be curious.
I'm just hoping Trump doesn't step down then Pence pardons him, that'd ruin EVERYTHING. Not likely I hope, since Trump never accepts defeat.

EDIT: I got bad info, Romney isn't a prospect for Biden's cabinet: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2 ... is-health/

Biden has delegated John Kerry to be the Climate Change Envoy thing guy.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/23/politics ... index.html

I think it's a great pick, Kerry has been always concerned about climate change recently, and he's strong on Nuclear Energy. I know he's been pro-agribusiness in the past (and I haven't read anything significant on him changing his mind on that, though I would kind of expect him to) but I think this position pretty much deals with just energy policy.

Jebus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:50 pm Don't expect Trump to stop tweeting. He will still be politically influential.

Well I guess we won't have to worry about that anymore

All of this, including the original article you wrote in November, seems to be a fair take.

I think Biden's priority in January-February should be

1) unifying the country by offering to improve the election system, working to increase the % of people that accept that the result was fair, and so on

2) fighting COVID with rapid vaccine deployment and adding some national leadership to the stay at home, wear a mask type suggestions

I also think he should pass a carbon (greenhouse gas) tax in 2021 if he is able to do it. I am starting to prefer fee and dividend as the best approach, where you have a carbon tax but send all the money back to the people, perhaps in an annual check.

Jamie in Chile wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:53 pm 1) unifying the country by offering to improve the election system, working to increase the % of people that accept that the result was fair, and so on

What would you suggest as far as improving the election system?

The US's election system (first-past-the-post) is the worst of all developed countries (and even of a lot of developing countries), and it would require a few constitutional amendments to implement systems like MMP or IRV, and I highly doubt Democrats and Republicans are willing to give up power and make other parties more relevant. That isn't to say that the US will never implement new voting systems, but for now it looks like it's here to stay. Plus, people like FPTP. It's simple, it makes sense, and it's easy only having two choices.

Also, I think the current districting we have in the States is pretty antiquated, but I'm no expert.

The other thing we need to do is fix the electoral college, but that's something that's underway, and it's being decided by the states rather than the federal government.
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

When this becomes a reality, the Republican party will either reform to be more centrist/libertarian (rather than fundamentalist conservative), or it will collapse. @brimstoneSalad speculates that Libertarians will fill the void.

That all being said, Biden has no real power in either of these things, the best he can do is put pressure on Congress and the states to support these reforms. New voting systems are unlikely, but the National Popular Vote Bill is definitely something he can encourage the states to do.

I highly doubt a lot of the die-hard Trump supporters will ever accept that the results of the election were fair unless Trump himself admits they were (even in his concession he didn't really admit anything). He kept on beating the electoral fraud drum since even before the election, and now his base will never be open to the possibility that the election was fair; They pretty much only trust Trump, since everyone else is fake-news.

Biden definitely wants to unify the country, but a lot of Trump-supporters will never concede. They are good ol' rebels, now that's just what they are. Biden does have Congress, so he will likely be able to get some shit done in his first two years at least.

Jamie in Chile wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:53 pm2) fighting COVID with rapid vaccine deployment and adding some national leadership to the stay at home, wear a mask type suggestions

Of course that's the sensible thing to do... but Americans aren't sensible. They think masks are a violation of rights and freedoms and all that bullcrap (since Americans have a 4-year-old's grasp of what freedom is, and are willing to let other people die to preserve it), and similarly people are still going to violate the quarantine orders and continually partake in large gatherings since it's all a big joke to them.

I know this isn't a thought I should have, but honestly a part of me sort of wishes that a family member of these people dies from COVID so they finally understand that this isn't a fucking joke, since they only really care about something once it affects them. I guarantee you if Trump took COVID seriously and went on Twitter and expressed how dangerous it was, these people would be obeying stay-at-home orders religiously, wearing masks 24/7 (even in their homes) and would crucify anyone who even considered going to a gathering.

Also, if Trump handled this Pandemic competently, he definitely would have won reelection, I guarantee it. He didn't seem to understand that he could have done literally anything and his supporters would love him for it; He could declare the US to be a Communist regime and his base would still support him. If he handled this shit like a true leader, not only would he have had the Republican vote, he would have had the Independent and a lot of the Democratic vote (since they wouldn't be able to attack him on it). Hell, I'd probably consider voting for him.

People are going to be paranoid about vaccines too, but I'm not sure how many people Biden will be able to vaccinate. Definitely faster than Trump, but we'll see how it goes.

Jamie in Chile wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:53 pmI also think he should pass a carbon (greenhouse gas) tax in 2021 if he is able to do it. I am starting to prefer fee and dividend as the best approach, where you have a carbon tax but send all the money back to the people, perhaps in an annual check.

As I said, Biden has the best energy policy, but I'm not sure how useful a carbon-tax would be if he is able to implement his climate change agenda.