• balderdash@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    You do realize that the powers of the president have been growing for some time now? That the militarization of the police took several decades? That the US has been involved in forever wars under both parties? That the working class has been on the decline for 50 years?

    Just ask yourself: why would Biden increase the ICE budget after the first Trump presidency. Democrats told us to vote for them but they never addressed the precursors to fascism. There is a massive overlap between Establishment Dems and MAGA, the Dems are just more polite about serving their billionaire donors.

    • DomeGuy@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      why would Biden increase the ICE budget

      The null hypothesis here would be with “inflation”, and simpler explanations than yours would be “because Trump cut the funds” and “COVID lockdowns”

      You may be right, but if you want anyone to accept your theory you need to provide sufficient evidence to overcome the simple answers.

        • DomeGuy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Did the growth outpace inflation under Biden?. The only thing I found in your link was a graph that ends with Biden’s first year that showed flat funding for ICE, plus some assertions about its total decades-long growth.

          You’re absolutely right that ICE should be replaced with a few hundred bureaucratic functionaries to stamp passports. But I don’t think we get there without clear partisan blame.

          • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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            2 months ago

            If you scroll down there is a graph showing an increase of 760 million dollars. Here’s the graph for your convenience:

            Note that the ICE budget is now over 9 billions dollars. (Even before Trump’s massive increase in 2025.) Inflation in 2023 was 4%. An increase to keep up with inflation would be about half of the increase that we see from 2023 to 2024.

            The point is that there is no one to vote for that will abolish ICE because both parties agree that it should continue. And there are many such examples of bi-partisan agreement that supports the wealthy, fascism, or both. I’d be happy to list them for you if you’d like more concrete examples.