You're correct that a vote between government and anarchy maybe could still convince me to vote democratic. But my central issue with Biden is that he's decided that the the far left side of the spectrum is the only part that matters, because fuckit, everyone else is going to continue to vote for "government" over chaos, and the extreme leftys are the ones who might get pissed and take their ball and go home. So while there's no chance of ever enacting a leftist agenda via legislating, the administration has decided that they just get to dictate the law. This is the logical conclusion of the abuse of executive orders that has been accelerating since the Iraq War. Each president keeps pushing the limits of what he can get away until the point where we're just executive ordering hundreds of billions of dollars worth of policy changes at the stroke of a pen. It's getting damn hard to support, and I think it's very destructive in the long run. The most unsexy thing one can say these days is that separation of powers matters. But it does.
Tell me more about this "far left side of the spectrum." What's on it? - legalizing weed? - reproductive rights? - gun control? - Student loan forgiveness? - Medicare for all? - Climate action? - transgender rights? - critical race theory? There's exactly one issue there that isn't 60% or more favored by the entire mutherfucking country. That one issue? definitely favored by those it affects (people with student loans) who are (a) young (b) democratic. Your whole "extreme leftys" viewpoint could be rewritten as "anyone under 30" who, due to Biden's "extreme left" agenda, actually turned out and voted. I hate to break this to you but abortion is legal in fight-the-real-enemy Ireland while here in the land of the free, home of the brave, the Republicans are going after no-fault divorce so I'm going to have to ask you to give me that Overton Window back, you've yanked it clear over to "whatever the Republicans do is conservative" rather than "conservative means 'let's not change things'". "Executive orders" is pure whataboutism and you're better than that. You know it. One party is firmly at "we'll crash the economy to prevent veterans from getting healthcare" while the other is at "let's roll back the AUMF" except no movement on that, we're too busy playing brinksmanship over Judy Blume books. The Judicial is busy going "I am the law", The Legislative is busy going "no money for woke Marines" and the Executive just announced re-election and you're at "the real problem these days, lemme tell ya, executive orders, maaaaan" like you live in some other country or something. You're gonna vote. You're not gonna vote Trump. And I get that this is all displeasingly lolbrooks academic to you but some of us are already underground railroading misoprostil so get your cranking out of your system and rejoin the human race. You wanna bitch about executive orders? Work towards functional legislative and judicial branches.
I won’t debate the merits of any of those policies, because you and I agree on policy more often than not. Where I will continue to be the scold is in the what’s-good-for-the-goose side of the coin. I can guarantee you that if you can create an albatross of a program with an executive order that the next Republican president will take us to places we’ve never dreamed of being. Trump took the example of Obama’s dreamers executive action and gave us the travel ban. President desantis will take the percent of the student loan forgiveness and give us the abortion gestapo or something. This isn’t academic chin stroking to me. It’s about imagining all the deranged shit that deranged people can dream up and put into action by executive fiat. It isn’t a good place.
My point is not "these are good policies" it's "these are centrist policies." They enjoy a plurality of support across the political spectrum. Just click one - nine out of ten Americans support some form of legal weed. By way of comparison, Trump selected Jeff "marijuana is the devil's lettuce" Sessions as his Attorney General before firing him for not being culture-warriory enough. Crazy executive orders? Eight days in, yo! The horse, as they say, has left the barn. By your logic, the correct move for the Biden administration is to come up with the most objectionably batshit executive orders they can think of just so they can provoke bipartisan legislation to limit executive orders for the good of the country. I can't believe you really think the Trump administration showed restraint when it came to executive orders. I can't believe you really think the Biden administration will somehow trod fresh ground that hasn't already been trampled to mud by Bush, Obama and Trump. I can fully believe that some part of you resists being painted by friends and relatives as some crazy Green New Deal liberal moonbat so you've gotta triangulate to "biden bad tho" despite any evidence to the contrary. You're in Michigan, yeah? Where the Republicans figured on kidnapping the governor to get their way? There's no "both sides" here. There's "government" and "fascist crazytown" and anyone who thinks the Republican Party is somehow going to do something reasonable between now and 2026 has not been paying attention.