The sheer gall of someone elite enough to be published upon the Times telling us plebes not to expect anything from someone elite enough to be a former president with the influence and megaphone that entails—just, shit this is the rot within liberalism. Times like this I get why we lose.
Sorry Obama but if you truly believe we are sliding toward fascism and people will die you better get out of your damn retirement and go on TV and hold rallies—you know, like you did for your own election—and pull out the damn stops. Otherwise your legacy is being remembered as one of many who just….tolerated this.
And no he was no Reagan, even besides political orientation—Reagan transformed his party to a right wing orientation and even smacked Democrats so hard they tacked to the Clintonite center. Reagan and his politics dominated his party until Trump. Obama didn’t really have such an effect, despite his accomplishments as president—much of which promptly got upended by his enemies the minute he was out of office (ACA being whittled back, Iran deal getting tossed). This illustrates the importance of continuing the fight, broadening your coalition and making the fight for your legacy a part of your post presidency (and Obama retired in his 50s, not an old man).
Sorry if I’m expecting too much from him, but this is just reality.
Anyone who thinks President Obama was ANYTHING like WHITE rightwing reactionary Republican Ronald Reagan needs to see a neurologist about their memory issues. Also, for those who forget, President Obama was BLACK. In today's America that is sadly still an indescribably HUGE difference between all former Presidents and Obama. As communicators, WHITE Reagan was a B-movie actor who could convincingly deliver a scripted monologue and josh with the crew off-camera, while BLACK President Obama was a lawyer and Constitutional scholar who could seamlessly code switch and speak extemporaneously from the heart across diverse audiences. If people want to compare and contrast President Obama with a Republican, maybe they should look to an equally "imperfect" earlier example, President Abraham Lincoln.
Obamacare as "objectively progressive legislation" when it was a republican plan created by the Heritage Foundation and later called Romneycare? I'm not complaining about Obamacare but Universal Healthcare like they have in every other western democracy is "objectively progressive legislation". Obamacare was the compromise that Obama used to try to meet Republicans in the constantly-shifting-to-the-right "middle" with their own plan.
I would disagree that the ACA was bowlderized just to appease Republicans. It also had to get the votes of conservative Democrats in red states.
The ACA is overtly progressive bc it benefits the poor and vulnerable and is subsidized by the more fortunate. It’s why Republicans rejected it on principle.
ACA was the Republican Heritage Foundation Healthcare plan. A plan to avoid "socialist" healthcare that every single other industrialized nation on earth has and to keep healthcare tied to profits and jobs. To call the worst healthcare system in the entire industrialized world "progressive" seems like a stretch that could only happen in our revolting and despicable for-profit healthcare society. A society that I had hoped Obama could have ushered us out of. But the red state conservative democrats and the Republicans did what they always do, which is push the left rightward.
The simple answer is you get a lot of online clout for shitting on Barack Obama, and similarly Bill Clinton. And it will continue with Joe Biden.
And it's not like there's any clout in trying to build on transformative legislation that is now all in the trash. Now that the rightwing media human centipede is fully powered, only some Democrat that has a captive and intractable cult of personality to go toe-to-toe with MAGA and all the factors that let someone be in the thrall of that death cult will win. And will there be any progressive legislation? Hell no.
If Prof. Cottom is throwing around [X] Derangement Syndrome in earnest, she's spending way the hell too much time online. Also, the lefty circular firing squad never fails, does it?
So many people have tried to sell me on Obama basically being a republican. And so many times I’ve said “that’s insane”. And will continue to. It’s revisionist history and it’s inaccurate. Did he wind up having to make compromises? Yes. I wish he hadn’t. But he gave a shit about the rules and couldn’t shove through his whole agenda.
Even the most conservative Democrat like Manchin is still more liberal than Reagan. “Obama is like a Republican except for being pro-choice, pro civil rights, and pro welfare state” is such an absurd assertion.
I also think people forget that Obama is black, and that every single thing he tried to do did was stymied by "patriots" who were really plain ol' racists. I also have always found it a little problematic to be extra mad at the one black president because he didn't save us from the Republicans. Feels like we could have all been doing more to save ourselves.
And just like Biden, Obama choose to stay "neutral" on Trump's criminal activities. He was an idealist and a moderate, not the transformational figure some seem to believe he was.
Well said! If not for Obamacare, I couldn't have retired early, and considering health issues with family members, it's a good thing that I am retired so that I have the time to help them.
What happened to Reagan? He supported Truman in 1948, and even campaigned for him! This was after Truman desegregated the Army. 1948 Reagan seems reasonable, but by 1960, he was radical.
I agree that Obama is not like Reagan. But I'm also on record that I didn't love the Obama presidency and almost didn't vote for him for his second term. ACA aside - and it didn't go far enough - I never thought Obama used his bully pulpit and oratory eloquence to push more Democratic policies, preferring to try to bi-partisan everything. Of course, I "predicted" - maybe not Trump - but where we are now politically and I was against, and am still against , bi-partisan leadership with a radicalized (as it was then as well) opposition party. One that had sworn to oppose all Obama policies. If the opposition is already voting in lockstep - no Republican votes on ACA though it was originally developed by Republicans- you may as well swing for the fences.
Bipartisanship for the sake of partisanship is stupid, but Dems are expected to do it, while repubs aren't. Dems should stop that crap, the repubs and the MSM be damned. Dems don't seem to have figured out that no matter what they do, they will be demonized by the Right and by the MSM, so you are right - swing for the fences.
Indeed, he's better.
The sheer gall of someone elite enough to be published upon the Times telling us plebes not to expect anything from someone elite enough to be a former president with the influence and megaphone that entails—just, shit this is the rot within liberalism. Times like this I get why we lose.
Sorry Obama but if you truly believe we are sliding toward fascism and people will die you better get out of your damn retirement and go on TV and hold rallies—you know, like you did for your own election—and pull out the damn stops. Otherwise your legacy is being remembered as one of many who just….tolerated this.
And no he was no Reagan, even besides political orientation—Reagan transformed his party to a right wing orientation and even smacked Democrats so hard they tacked to the Clintonite center. Reagan and his politics dominated his party until Trump. Obama didn’t really have such an effect, despite his accomplishments as president—much of which promptly got upended by his enemies the minute he was out of office (ACA being whittled back, Iran deal getting tossed). This illustrates the importance of continuing the fight, broadening your coalition and making the fight for your legacy a part of your post presidency (and Obama retired in his 50s, not an old man).
Sorry if I’m expecting too much from him, but this is just reality.
Anyone who thinks President Obama was ANYTHING like WHITE rightwing reactionary Republican Ronald Reagan needs to see a neurologist about their memory issues. Also, for those who forget, President Obama was BLACK. In today's America that is sadly still an indescribably HUGE difference between all former Presidents and Obama. As communicators, WHITE Reagan was a B-movie actor who could convincingly deliver a scripted monologue and josh with the crew off-camera, while BLACK President Obama was a lawyer and Constitutional scholar who could seamlessly code switch and speak extemporaneously from the heart across diverse audiences. If people want to compare and contrast President Obama with a Republican, maybe they should look to an equally "imperfect" earlier example, President Abraham Lincoln.
Obamacare as "objectively progressive legislation" when it was a republican plan created by the Heritage Foundation and later called Romneycare? I'm not complaining about Obamacare but Universal Healthcare like they have in every other western democracy is "objectively progressive legislation". Obamacare was the compromise that Obama used to try to meet Republicans in the constantly-shifting-to-the-right "middle" with their own plan.
I would disagree that the ACA was bowlderized just to appease Republicans. It also had to get the votes of conservative Democrats in red states.
The ACA is overtly progressive bc it benefits the poor and vulnerable and is subsidized by the more fortunate. It’s why Republicans rejected it on principle.
ACA was the Republican Heritage Foundation Healthcare plan. A plan to avoid "socialist" healthcare that every single other industrialized nation on earth has and to keep healthcare tied to profits and jobs. To call the worst healthcare system in the entire industrialized world "progressive" seems like a stretch that could only happen in our revolting and despicable for-profit healthcare society. A society that I had hoped Obama could have ushered us out of. But the red state conservative democrats and the Republicans did what they always do, which is push the left rightward.
The simple answer is you get a lot of online clout for shitting on Barack Obama, and similarly Bill Clinton. And it will continue with Joe Biden.
And it's not like there's any clout in trying to build on transformative legislation that is now all in the trash. Now that the rightwing media human centipede is fully powered, only some Democrat that has a captive and intractable cult of personality to go toe-to-toe with MAGA and all the factors that let someone be in the thrall of that death cult will win. And will there be any progressive legislation? Hell no.
If Prof. Cottom is throwing around [X] Derangement Syndrome in earnest, she's spending way the hell too much time online. Also, the lefty circular firing squad never fails, does it?
Obama is an American, unlike Reagan, who was a Republican.
So many people have tried to sell me on Obama basically being a republican. And so many times I’ve said “that’s insane”. And will continue to. It’s revisionist history and it’s inaccurate. Did he wind up having to make compromises? Yes. I wish he hadn’t. But he gave a shit about the rules and couldn’t shove through his whole agenda.
Even the most conservative Democrat like Manchin is still more liberal than Reagan. “Obama is like a Republican except for being pro-choice, pro civil rights, and pro welfare state” is such an absurd assertion.
I also think people forget that Obama is black, and that every single thing he tried to do did was stymied by "patriots" who were really plain ol' racists. I also have always found it a little problematic to be extra mad at the one black president because he didn't save us from the Republicans. Feels like we could have all been doing more to save ourselves.
And just like Biden, Obama choose to stay "neutral" on Trump's criminal activities. He was an idealist and a moderate, not the transformational figure some seem to believe he was.
Well said! If not for Obamacare, I couldn't have retired early, and considering health issues with family members, it's a good thing that I am retired so that I have the time to help them.
What happened to Reagan? He supported Truman in 1948, and even campaigned for him! This was after Truman desegregated the Army. 1948 Reagan seems reasonable, but by 1960, he was radical.
"...at one time, would have been recognizable as a Reaganite."
Bold move, Cottom.
I agree that Obama is not like Reagan. But I'm also on record that I didn't love the Obama presidency and almost didn't vote for him for his second term. ACA aside - and it didn't go far enough - I never thought Obama used his bully pulpit and oratory eloquence to push more Democratic policies, preferring to try to bi-partisan everything. Of course, I "predicted" - maybe not Trump - but where we are now politically and I was against, and am still against , bi-partisan leadership with a radicalized (as it was then as well) opposition party. One that had sworn to oppose all Obama policies. If the opposition is already voting in lockstep - no Republican votes on ACA though it was originally developed by Republicans- you may as well swing for the fences.
"I never thought Obama used his bully pulpit and oratory eloquence"
There was a term for that back then: "Green Lanternism", that he could just use his 'bully pulpit' to will peoples preferred policies into existence.
And 'Swinging for the fences' fails more often than not, whereas a solid ground ball game wins. gotta get people on the bases to score runs.
Ok, but the Democrats don't have anything resembling a positive OPs+. And you can't convince that Obama couldn't have done more in eight years.
Bipartisanship for the sake of partisanship is stupid, but Dems are expected to do it, while repubs aren't. Dems should stop that crap, the repubs and the MSM be damned. Dems don't seem to have figured out that no matter what they do, they will be demonized by the Right and by the MSM, so you are right - swing for the fences.
Asymmetry (Murc's Law) in bipartisanship: Nice.