I'm trying to imagine a world in which Democrats don't allow Republicans to dictate the terms of debate, and, honestly, I can't. Gender affirming surgery for minors is a manufactured controversy that only serves to boost the right wing agenda, no matter what position Biden takes. It does not deserve to be legitimized in this way. I'm sure the NYT editorial board is cackling with glee.
"In an abrupt reversal this week, the Biden administration confirmed its position that gender-affirming surgeries should be limited to adults, a major retreat from Democrats on transgender rights that has sparked an outcry from LGBTQ+ advocates in the U.S."
@other_ghosts Literally. Biden got led by the nose into comparing golf scores during the debates, so yup Democrats won't/can't take hold of the narrative.
@rejinl Yeah, it really grates on me that Democrats impulsively and condescendingly presume to be the party of greater intelligence, that Republicans are just dupes being manipulated by a tiny cabal of zealots and billionaires.
I have nothing but disdain for Republican priorities, but when it comes to the day to day stuff of adversarial politics, where is that great Democratic intelligence? When they keep getting their asses handed to them year after year in elections, or barely squeaking by? When they keep showing up unprepared to debates? When they keep getting outmaneuvered congressionally, judicially, and everywhere else? When they fall for every patently disingenuous right wing pseudo-controversy?
The system of American government is rigged for minority rule and a practically insumountable status quo. I get it. But these are things that Democrats have shown feeble willingness at best to overcome.
It's fucking pathetic and inexcusable, and you really have to wonder if they want to lose. I said it four years ago that Biden was a sacrificial candidate, that they didn't really think he could win, but losing to the right was better than winning on the left. I still believe that.