United States | News & Politics

Yes, both sides suck. One side sucking more than the other doesn't change that.

Biden is awful on policy, and I dislike much of what he "got done" in his 4-years of office. And I actually voted for him in 2020. I voted for him for three reasons:

1. get out of Afghanistan - both presidents promised that
2. not start new wars - both presidents alluded to that
3. not Trump - I thought it would be funny if Trump lost my very red state (Trump got ~45% here in 2016)

This year, "not Trump" is still true, but that doesn't change the fact that Biden still sucks on policies I care about. His website just says "defeat Trump." Here he is on "the issues":

• "Protecting and strengthening our democracy" - basically "defeat Trump"
• "Growing the middle class" - again, "defeat Trump"
• "Fighting to lower costs for working families" - "unfair junk fees charged by banks, credit card companies, and airlines" - I guess that's cool? But this isn't really solving systemic issues, this is just pandering to poor people IMO and I doubt he'll actually do anything about it
• "Building a fairer tax system that works for the middle class" - cool, the TCJA is sunsetting in 2025, which is why it's weird he's proposing a 28% corporate tax rate when it would revert to 35% if he does nothing; "cracking down on wealthy tax cheats" - looks like increased audits are starting this year, we'll see who they actually target
• "Making health care more accessible and affordable" - "They strengthened the Affordable Care Act" - this only really applies to people who don't have coverage at work; earlier they said they'd strengthen the middle class, but this sounds like it's going to increase rates for the middle class to benefit the poor, so I'm getting some mixed-messaging here
• "Fighting to restore reproductive freedom" - "Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade" - yeah, that was the Supreme Court, not Trump; "Joe and Kamala are fighting to restore the protections of Roe" - no they're not; they had 4 years and did exactly nothing about it, aside from some feel-good EOs, I see no reason to expect this to change in the next 4 years

And comparing them on the issues:

• Economy - edge to Biden
  • Bidenomics - lol; at least Biden wants to spend money on stuff, instead of just lowering taxes and running deficits for no reason
  • "Mr Trump has blamed his successor's big spending for inflation" - nope, that was mostly you, Trump
• Immigration - about the same
  • "Democrat to shift in favour of more restrictive measures" - big nope
  • "Mr Trump rallied his congressional allies to kill that bill, claiming it did not go far enough" - bigger nope
• Abortion - about the same
  • mud-slinging against Trump, but no actual planned action
  • proud of overturning Roe, and prefers states rights vs national ban
• Ukraine aid - eh, Biden is a wet blanket here, but Trump is potentially way worse; edge to Biden I guess?
  • I'm not a fan of Russia, so I'm fine with continuing aid; ideally we'd be pushing for peace talks, it's gone on way too long
  • Trump - ??
• Israel/Gaza War - both about the same, and I disagree w/ supporting Israel here; slight edge to Trump for finishing it quickly I guess?
• Taxes - edge to Biden because Trump is so bad here; we need to balance the budget, and neither seems to have a plan here
  • Biden could literally do nothing and tax policy would revert midway through his term, yet he proposes a lower corporate tax rate than what would happen if it reverts; so... ??
  • big nope
• Healthcare - both are meh here
  • Biden's wins are mostly just natural changes to an existing program; I see few actual proposals here
  • ?? He seems scared to cut entitlements, and he has even less of a plan
• Crime - Biden, because doing nothing is better than what Trump is doing
  • "Biden credits investment in public safety for the significant decline in violent crime after major spikes during the first two years of the pandemic." - no, pandemic lockdowns and whatnot likely caused the spike (people getting less social interaction), so this is just reversion to what would've happened w/ no pandemic; he shouldn't take credit for inaction
  • pointing out anecdotes to stir anger; big nope from me
• Climate - Biden is bad, but Trump is somehow worse...
  • I see Biden's policies as largely cronyism, but at least he did something
  • more oil? WTF?
• Gun laws - meh, both suck
  • gun safety laws just make things worse for responsible gun owners and don't actually reduce crime
  • tried to ban bump stocks, but that actually has nothing to do with gun crime whatsoever (how many mass shootings used bump stocks? I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it's at or near 0)

So I guess Biden wins a slight edge here by being less terrible than Trump, actually trying something, and not messing things up too bad. But I disagree with pretty much every policy proposal he has.

Here are my priorities:

1. peace in Gaza - don't send aid to Israel, engage Fatah, and try to bring someone to a table somewhere
2. balance the budget - increase taxes and cut spending; my preference is to make the TCJA tax simplification permanent (nobody wants to mess w/ personal exemptions...), increase the tax brackets back to pre-TCJA levels, remove income cap for SS taxes, and implement a Negative Income Tax bracket to replace the EITC (max age 62), and offer people to opt-out of SS to get access to the NIT instead; spending cuts should primarily target defense (mostly foreign bases) and student loans
3. end federal student loan program - I'm fine with grants, but aid shouldn't come with strings attached; I believe education is so expensive because schools know the gov't loans are easy to get, w/o gov't loans, student loans would be dischargeable in bankruptcy and the problem would likely correct itself (though likely reduce college enrollment)
4. expand legal immigration, and simplify the legal immigration process
5. climate change - I'd like to see a carbon tax, not subsidies (more cronyism) and certainly not more pollution

Neither candidate seems to have a plan for any of that, they are either silent or opposite. So that's why I consider both to suck, they suck on the issues I care about, and they're decent on issues I care much less about.

So yes, both sides are pretty much the same to me, and since I live in a very red state, it won't matter if I vote for the less crappy option. So I'll be voting third party instead, since I do have options that align with my priorities.