Interpret improvements as you like. For me it’s any large scale reforms or legislative packages designed to improve the country for all or see to the material interests of the majority without overly benefiting the elite.
Any big consumer protection, environmental, infrastructure, or other legislation from Clinton onwards that materially improved the lives of all?
Obamacare and the medicaid expansion comes to my mind. It has obviously improved people’s lives but considering how broken the healthcare system remains, and that it was written by the insurance industry to undermine single-payer, it seems to me a mitigated win at best.
Gay marriage and marijuana legalisation but that was the courts and the states although i’m sure the federal government could’ve stood in the way had they chosen to.
I’ve only live here since the 2010s so that’s all I can think of.
The border wall. But it should be further reinforced. People can’t just enter the country illegally.
Most illegal immigration occurs from visa over stayers, not crossing the southern border. A wall won’t help.
The worse problem is that they also sneak in illegal drugs like fetanyl through the border. A wall can definitely help here
Why would they do that when China can ship it in large quantities in containers? Like I know some drugs come that way but it’s not even the major source.
Smuggling is done with drones now not people
In that case we just need to build a wall that reaches the stratosphere. What do you think?
It also should extend underground into the Earth’s core to prevent tunneling.
Legalization would help more than anything. Full legalization of all drugs is the only drug war outcome compatible with conservative values such as personal responsibility and individual autonomy.
Nope, the border wall is expensive, ineffective, and it destroys ecosystems.
They don’t though. It’s not illegal to seek asylum.
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I would say that the legitimate process of seeking opportunities has been intentionally made to look illegal by waves of xenophobic policy from both Rs and Ds who have created an immigration system that’s designed to generate workers without a legal foothold. If there was a functional way for people to seek the life they want, they wouldn’t need to resort to fake IDs and hiding in trucks to get a job. But then industries would have to pay them legal wages.
A lot of people want to create a distinction between someone who’s fleeing full-blown war or starvation vs someone who’s fleeing poverty. I can’t see how it is a crime to flee either. It is just a reality that humans will try to escape suffering, monumental suffering and everyday suffering - legislation and bureaucracy can accomodate or ignore that but it won’t change it. So when we ignore it, we know that the black market will step in.
More broadly it suits the needs of capital to restrict the flow of labour as much as possible. Labour free to seek the best conditions means upward pressure on wages, lower margins and less leverage for capital.
A large part of this is being driven by illegal trafficking operations that recruit desperate families looking to give their families a safer life. Republicans have chosen to demonize both the families as well as the traffickers. It must suck living a life incapable of empathy for others less fortunate.
Anyways, this is actually a pretty good read on it, despite it coming from CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/us/migrant-surge-travel-agencies-smugglers/index.html
What believing in imaginary lines in the dirt does to a MFer
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Was this congress?
Aside from Boats, Tunnels, Ladders, Airplanes, Ropes or any of the large gaps where it’s not feasible to build a wall on. It’s more useful as a grift to pay Republican donors in the form of bloated contracts than it is effective at stopping people from crossing the border.