• FIash Mob #5678@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    The problem with the bully pulpit is that it only works on people who feel shame,

    I don’t know that I agree.

    The president has the power to call special sessions of Congress under the Constitution. If he started making these legislators cancel vacations they’d be a whole lot more pliable. The problem with the bully pulpit is Biden doesn’t have any intention of using it, and Republicans know this because they’re all owned by the same donors. Just once in my life I’d like to see a president fight just as hard to raise the minimum wage as Trump did to ban Muslims.

    Hell, when people told Bernie it was impossible to get a minimum wage increase through congress he gave speeches outside Amazon and Disney, and that act led to a living wage increase (at the time) for more than 200,000 people.

    • Cylinsier@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      If he started making these legislators cancel vacations they’d be a whole lot more pliable.

      Would they? I have seen zero evidence to suggest that.

      Hell, when people told Bernie it was impossible to get a minimum wage increase through congress he gave speeches outside Amazon and Disney, and that act led to a living wage increase (at the time) for more than 200,000 people.

      That’s an apples-to-oranges comparison. You’re talking about a legislator putting enough attention on private companies that they chose to raise their minimum wage because it became good PR. That’s completely different than an executive trying to pressure legislators into doing something when their voters elected them specifically to always do the opposite of what said executive wants.