“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser
Cuz the man who gave up Universal Healthcare to give us fucking Romneycare while having total control of the govt really knows how to play hardball.
I don’t like Obama much - his drone strikes and war-hawkish policy nor bailing out the banks when he had them over a barrel, but i’m tired of this bullshit narrative.
House control: yes, no question.
Senate control: barely.
Obama would not have even been able to pass his bank
robbery‘stimulus’ without three Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it in early 2009. Yes, very much a man with ‘total control’ of the government…Obama had just 4 months with senate control, and that whole time it was on a knife edge. 60 (of 100) votes are needed to bring legislation to the floor to even be voted on without filibuster. So for ‘total control’ a party needs 60 seats/votes in the senate. The dems had 57 in Jan 2009 at the start of Obama’s congress, with 2 independents (Bernie and Joe Liebermann) who caucused with them, taking them to 59. Republicans had 41.
That 59 included Ted Kennedy whom had a seizure during an Inauguration lunch of Obama’s (he was privately dying of brain cancer) and he never returned to vote in the senate - dropping the number to 58. Also, Al Franken was not seated until july due to a very close election in his seat and multiple recounts - until then the number was 57.
Long story short by September 24th they finally had 60 seats… But democrats are not a monolith. Just as there are Manchins and Sinemas and other ‘Democrats’ in recent memory that are barely left of Ted Cruz, there were several of similar ilk back then like Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson - and their independent caucus member Joe Lieberman, mentioned earlier - who all fought against much of Obama’s legislation, for example with respect to Obamacare they quashed any chance of a public option and single payer.
So did he have control: technically, briefly. Could Obama just run through any legislation he wanted during that time? Absolutely fucking not.
The audacity of hope through the governing of what’s possible.
He’s a fucking coward. First time in my lifetime that Democrats had a 60-40 majority, and he totally compromised.
says the asshole who started the drone war in Yemen
Mr. Obama, you caved on all of the major issues. You were a great candidate, an amazing speech giver, and a mediocre president. And that’s OK – we would be happy with mediocre today – but you don’t get to tell us what’s good for the party when you are the perfect example of its biggest problem.
Obama promised to close Guantanamo if elected. He noped out of it almost immediately.
That is a bit of an exaggeration.
To me, it never felt like Obama was truly committed. Also why promise it if you don’t know if you can actually do it or is contingent on factors outside your control?
This motherfucker is half the reason we’re in the position we’re in. How many whistleblowers and journalists did he prosecute?
We see you
Dubba’s third and fourth term.
It’s kinda ironic, I don’t know whether this reflects how the guy actually thought about his presidency, but when he was in office there was a lot of chatter about the kind of “legacy” his administration would have. I’m fairly certain now that he’s gonna be one of those overlooked presidents, seen as a caretaker-administration to all the shit started by GW Bush and a preamble to a lot of what Trump has ran wild with.
Maybe the history books also mention he passed a healthcare bill inspired by the Heritage Foundation and insurance lobbyists.
Yup.
That is rich coming from him.
Obama, just like the Republican Party is no more under Trump, the Democratic party is no more under Pelosi and Schumer.
There is no true two party anymore. There’s simply the fascists and the enablers.
Jesus. You know it’s bad when even a spineless centrist like Obama is calling them on their shit.
“Stop whining and Vote Blue No Matter Who”
“Great, I’m voting for Mamdani for Mayor”
“WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Not like that!”
Exactly like that. Quit your bitching and vote for Mamdani.
Mandani 2028
He can’t, he wasn’t born in the US.
I don’t really remember Obama as spineless lol what is he spineless about?
Look he’s a politician they suck but acting like Obama wasn’t one of the best presidents we had in like 40 years is silly.
Remember how he ran on hope and change? How he presented himself as a progressive? Then how he failed to close Guantanamo, never even tried to codify abortion rights, didn’t bother prosecuting the Bush administration for their war crimes, did a bunch of war crimes himself, and expanded the surveillance state? Because I do.
And like the other commenter said, he completely capitulated to the Republicans when they invented some bullshit about how outgoing presidents aren’t supposed to appoint justices or whatever.
This is why I love Lemmy. On reddit accurate criticisms of Obama would be downvoted into oblivion.
Then he had the gall to go on 60 Minutes and say that 20 years earlier he would have been considered a republican. Hated that shit.
Obama personally promised me that he’d close Guantanamo, when I was a kid at one of his campaign rallies. He straight-up lied to me and didn’t close Gitmo.
Did you not follow the entire Obama-era policy on Gitmo?
It was attempted to be closed, multiple times.
And he accepted an award for transparency in a “closed” meeting so attendees wouldn’t have to sign in.
Killed two Americans in Pakistan with no due process.
Expanded the wars to six nations.
I think what you call spineless I’d consider being a decent politician in an indecent politician sphere
Obama isn’t without criticism but calling him a war criminal is a bit of an eye roll in my opinion. It’s usually about the drone warfare stuff and it is a drum the Republicans banged his entire presidency claiming he was drone striking everything possible. The truth is drone tech advanced in his presidency that allowed different missions to take place that removed soldiers from harms way, you’d probably make the same choice. It wasn’t even his war, say we should’ve pulled out sure but look how poorly things are going now that we have. The war crimes he’s accused of are dogpoop compared to the human rights issue that exists now. I’m sorry, I don’t think it is the greatest things anyone has done but I just find the Obama is a war criminal argument so silly. Our entire government is a war criminal, this dude was not a warmonger nor did he do anything to escalate fighting. How you gonna dump it all on him?
Prosecuting Bush. For what? War crimes again? Our government has been doing war crimes forever. Every single person in that federal government should be charged. But Obama isn’t going to arrest Bush because nothing would’ve come of it and again, on what exactly? Every judge, lawyer and politician wouldn’t support that or respect whatever exactly the war crime was. So why pursue that? So redditors and Facebook dads have less shit to throw?
I’m not saying Obama is the best. Absolutely do not try to act like I have to be completely black or white about very complex issues. You will not put that on me.
But acting like Obama is the boogie man is literally because Republicans and the like have sold that messaging. Obama is a mid politician, I don’t think he relishes in human suffering but he seems okay with a degree of it. But he was easily better than Trump, Biden, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, the Nixon baboons, Kennedy and Eisenhower. Carter is the only one who is a better man by a landslide but still not the best politician because he was also “spineless”. People only liked Kennedy because he was a liberal who was assassinated. You wanna talk about war crimes? Look up Nixon/Kennedy era.
So yes. Obama is easily without contest best president of my lifetime and over the last 60 or 70 years.
Be real about this stuff.
Are you seriously saying since other people commited war-crimes, that Obama’s war-crimes are no big deal?
I’m gonna hard disagree on this one: Bombing children is always a big deal. He didn’t “remove soldiers from harms way”, he deliberately put them there. And for what? Mostly, to help his friends make a whole lotta money.
Just because the Republicans are a horrid party does not mean that they are wrong about Obama being a monster. Both can be true at the same time.
Well to be quite frank with you. The US didn’t ratify the literal protocols that talk about protecting victims of conflict. So in all legal senses, they didn’t by their own metric. So if you obey the legal system, which I personally don’t entirely embrace, no he didn’t at all by American legal definitions. Sorry.
Now do I think the military is shitty and does shit? Yes. They’re literally a monopoly on violence. If not them, then someone else would be. They’re dogs of the state. I would never work for a state in the realm of harming people I think it’s disgusting but the world isn’t mine to control and some people are out there to hurt you. So what do you do?
Now this drone shit is fuckin dumb because is Obama flying these drones himself and plotting out missions to target the most civilians and innocent he can? Is he googling a list of brown kids to blow p? No. He’s listening to his staff and generals and making decisions often with the idea of civilian lives in harms way. Don’t believe me?
I think it’s roughly 200,000 folks died in the middle east fighting since 2001 to 2023 when they left. That’s 20 years. 10k a year average but I’m sure it’s not steady or consistent. Afghanistan and Iraq I believe both have a population of 45million roughly so 80million. That’s 10k deaths a year per 80 million folks.
In Ukraine alone it’s estimated it’s estimated to be 70,000. In three years. Population 38million.
In Palestine it’s believed to be upwards of 58,000. In two years. Population 5million.
Those are the numbers. So what do you make of it?
You’re gonna say war shouldn’t happen. Yeah I fuckin agree but the truth is America is at war. And pulling out isn’t really the option you imagine it doesn’t just end there. They always really weren’t bombing like it is perceived, effort was made to reduce casualties on both sides and stability in the area was better with American presence.
It’s so easy to piss and shit and pick other people apart but I know you would’ve done a more shit job. Acting like Obama is the antichrist is fuckin goofy. It’s why we have Trump. It’s why we don’t get progressives because one shows the smallest sign of it and y’all act like they’re the devil if they make any errors. Y’all are eating Republican talking points.
Well, since we didn’t sign papers saying that bombing children and other innocent people was a bad thing, then I guess it all can be forgiven. I guess we’ll call it a “big oopsie woopsie” instead.
He literally bragged about how good he was at killing people. He knowingly picked targets, and knowingly approved the bombing of children. He sent soldiers to die on pointless missions that gained us nothing. You can keep telling us that it was actually a good thing all you want, but I think that tells more about your values than anything else.
I don’t know what Ukraine has do to with anything. Why are you bringing up irrelevant data?
The reason we have Trump, is because of the failures of Obama (and the Dems in general). If he had actually done the things that he campaigned on, people wouldn’t have given up on America. People were so desperate for “Hope” and “Change”, that after Obama openly abandoned those ideals, a large chunk of people ran to Trump.
If “bombing children and torturing innocent people is bad” are republican talking points, then yes, I admit that I’m buying into them. I’m not ashamed to agree that those things are evil, even if it is the Republicans that are saying it.
Roll my God damn eyes.
You’re dramatic as hell and it does not highlight the point you’re making. When you look at other wars the death toll are far higher because Obama is literally explicitly NOT doing what your foolish ass is saying.
Trump happened because a bunch of bozos like you ate up everything they pushed on Obama and now they know how to slam the news cycle and plant your brain how they want it. Good job buddy you have no idea how to tell reality from crap.
A lot of these people would call Jesus a centrist. Their mythical ideal progressive will never exist.
Lol 100%. Liberals, the left, progressives whatever you wanna call them die because one criticism and folks act like they’re basically Hitler or something.
Crabs in a bucket
Liberals and Leftists aren’t the same.
In North America, they call leftists liberals & don’t split hairs like Europe & Latin America.
In Europe and Latin America, liberalism means a moderate form of classical liberalism and includes both conservative liberalism (centre-right liberalism) and social liberalism (centre-left liberalism). In North America, liberalism almost exclusively refers to social liberalism.
People in the US get seriously confused that the Liberal party in other countries (eg, Australia) isn’t liberal.
LMFAO how is that your take away?
“The worst thing for a (liberal/socialist/leftist/progressive) is another (aforementioned word here)”
That’s the famous quote. Progress dies because everyone nitpicks it to deal. Obama wasn’t perfect therefore he is Hitler, that is what people think of this as.
Bad things in the past don’t justify future bad actions. Using that exact same logic it can be argued that opening a concentration camp in Florida is totally good and cool because we had Japanese concentration camps before. That’s fucking stupid and you know it.
What are you talking about exactly? The war?
Obama isn’t without criticism but calling him a war criminal is a bit of an eye roll in my opinion.
Prosecuting Bush. For what? War crimes again? Our government has been doing war crimes forever.
Lol I don’t think you understand and I don’t really understand what you’re talking about.
Nothing what you’re reading is being said. What is being said is what war crime did Bush do that Obama could’ve even gone after him for without tanking his own political position and also absolutely getting nowhere. Do you think after Nixon any president will face true legal repercussions? On top of that, dunno how old you are, but Bush’s whole presidency he was somehow seen as almost a little kid. He would goof, shrug say aw shucks and people would laugh and move on. In no universe I can imagine is Obama getting that guy prosecuted at all.
On top of that, aside from that. I don’t think Obama did any war crime. I think people who say that are genuinely uninformed or stupid. That’s a Republican fox news adjacent Joe Rogan ass take on Obama’s military practices.
Bush has far more casualties, Trump removed the ability to see how much he was drone striking and also illegal used drone strikes against Congress approval.
You’re not removing the military industrial complex from America, Obama is not going to be able to stop the war or solve anything really and that is clear in his handling of the situation. They attempted to train up a local force to hold peace which didn’t work and they pulled from aggressive military campaigning to drone strikes and policing. Where’s the war crime?
The last theater of war we engaged in (the cold war). They’re napalming folks by the gallon, slaying babies in Vietnam, overthrowing governments galore and attempting to assassinate De Gaulle, Castro and whoever else they don’t like.
Obama appears on the scene after all of this. After the CIA has gone rogue and the military industrial complex is both the heart and lungs of your economy. The war is already happening and your predecessors has made a lot of enemies for you. The fuck do YOU do in that instance? Really put yourself there don’t give me some crap liberal socialist answer. I’m a socialist myself, ain’t no fuckin way the world is letting me do what I wish to America in his shoes.
You seriously don’t remember when Obama went the pro-corporate road at the expense of the American people, or even the globe itself? Really?
The Affordable Care Act. The bailout. The housing bubble collapse. The drone strikes. Letting the courts get stacked. The continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… My god, that’s like every major issue, isn’t it?
Of course he wasn’t alone. I’m not blaming him as the only person responsible. But he was responsible, he was a lackluster president at best, and he spent eight years pushing the country towards where it is right now. Millions of us were saying that at the time, and we still are today. If you weren’t listening, that’s your own fault. If you didn’t believe us, that’s your own fault.
Every politician is pro corporate? That’s how they have any money or political pull ever really.
A bail out and a collapse he didn’t orchestrate? Drone strikes in a war he didn’t start? Court stacking?
Your opinion of the world is very shallow, if you think he can wave his magic dick around to solve all this you’re crazy. Pulling out sounds easy but ask your father it takes strategy and the middle east we pulled out of under Biden was different than the one under Obama or the one under Bush.
You’re literally saying what I’m saying. Obama is literally lackluster and that’s half of why he’s the best we’ve had in 70 years or more for fuck sake. He’s a man, he’s not God and he definitely isn’t a pedophile or a grifter and he TRIED for things.
Weird Trump seems to get to do whatever he wants
And is that right? You like that I’m understanding?
Bailouts, not ending the wars, gave up his SCOTUS pick without even the slightest hint of a fight.
Supreme Court Justices among other things.
If that’s your biggest gripe I’d say it isn’t that bad.
People usually bring up the increase in drone strikes on Obama not realizing he was taking steps to prevent American soldier’s death.
He tried to get healthcare, changed his stance on gay marriage and stuck to it.
Obama was fine. I’d even argue good compared to his contemporaries.
He was drone striking in Yemen and Pakistan, he wasn’t replacing soldiers killing people, drone strikes were a way to kill extra people in places where he couldn’t send soldiers.
No drone strikes were a method of war that greatly reduces your rate of casualties.
I’m so serious man think about what you’re saying and tell me it isn’t a Republican talking point. You think Obama is just flying these drones himself? Scouting the missions himself? Calling up a general and asking if they can swing by and drone strike some folks?
There’s a whole military apparatus that transcends presidencies and the public/private sector divide of our system.
It was because the tech evolved and the military missions looked different. Go play modern warfare and go look at Ukraine, the technology changed and so did the culture of war.
the supreme court justice that got rid of abortion, birthright citizenship, and giving trump everything he wants isn’t that bad?!
american soldiers aren’t the only lives; “collatoral damage” are lives too but it’s worse than that because they’re killed at things like a wedding party instead of a war zone.
a pair of senators opposed so they stopped healthcare again (it only took one senator last time) whereas an eightfold number of senators and house members were steamrolled over by the republican’s agenda in the big beautiful bill.
he’s also still the “deporter in chief” even with alligator alcatraz being a thing and unaccompanied migrant children was his doj’s favorite group to target.
there’s also the crackdown on whistleblowers; maidan coup; the new egyption military dictatorship; destabilizing libya; disregarding isis; and on and on and on…
No. A president not being a power grabbing shit fuck and stuffing the bench isn’t that bad. You’re mad at Obama because he didn’t cheat? That’s not it.
American soldiers aren’t the only lives. But again you’re not being realistic. Obama does not sit there and control every single thing. He’s in meeting with experts feeding him advice, numbers and cost. If I told you this mission risks 0 American lives, this one risks dozens. You’re literally making the wrong choice risking your soldiers both politically and morally. The why to the fighting is a whole different question that I think is immature to put on Obama solely.
Again, you’re angry someone didn’t play dirty. Obama was doing what he could to represent a fair decent president so we don’t have a Trump and people like you embracing these stupid talking points are what helped bring us here because now people genuinely believe Obama is just as bad as Bush or Trump so what’s the difference, why vote, who cares. And that above all is literally the stupidest ever.
Deporter in chief? Please. He didn’t have masked dudes kidnapping Americans and deporting them to God knows where, ICE didn’t have the budget it has now, people weren’t being bussed to other parts of the country or flown places and used as political pawns cause brown people scary or something.
Was the dude perfect? NO. Would I vote for him again? Maybe in the right election. Are you guys being so drastic in your criticism you’re allowing no room for actually seeing the situation clearly? Yes, you’re being absolutely obtuse and obnoxious.
Goldman nutsSachs
Bailing out the bank?
I personally believe the financial system in America is the core of corruption. I also know that corruption is why America has any standard of value. Not saying it’s right, just the truth.
In that situation, you just let the boat sink? Because morally it’s wrong? We like to pretend there would be no blowback from letting that happen but there would be and not in a good way. So he did what everyone else does, kick the can down the road. What do you do in that instance? Let it die and watch your economy shit the bed because you don’t like it or something?
You guys are such idealists man c’mon. This is why progressives don’t exist in America.
My friend, you could have called us “idealists” back then, but now you’re just fooling yourself. Hillary and Harris lost. They lost, your agenda lost, your agenda failed. But somehow you have the gall to accuse us of being “idealists” when your own ideals keep losing in the polls.
Why don’t we try something good, something that would actually benefit the people? Maybe that would actually work.
What would have happened if the finance industry had to regulate? Ask the history books. It has been done in the distant past, successfully, several times. And of course in other countries more recently, also successfully. It turns out that we can stop ultra rich from getting richer, but only if we have the courage to try. Maybe someday you will find it.
My agenda? The fuck?
You’re absolutely idealist. You think back then and now someone can march in and slap a new world that YOU like for everyone. Fuckin goobers.
I’m a socialist you bozo. None of this is what I want. But there’s a reason even if you got Sanders or the most socialist socialist on there they wouldn’t come out as you imagine. Hindsight is 20/20, no policy passed will ever ONLY help and inevitably the baby crushing machine will never not be running. So what do you do?
None of you are treating this like reality. You’re in his shoes. The country is handed to you. You pull out of the middle east, bust in new socialist policies and deflate military spending to fund them? Force affordable housing and open immigration?
Now you lost political influence on oil prices, your policies are hated because whether they work or not people are dumb and angry you changed stuff and you dropped military spending so now the military industrial complex is mad and pays politicians and judges to fight you every step of the way. Good job you got nothing done you’re worse than Obama.
It’s easy to talk shit. No solution will come of it, not even a worthy consideration. Obama had to manage the largest ship in history while it went through some bullshit and he’s black and accused of insane theories like he’s piloting the drones himself and laughing as he blows up children.
C’mon man ffs
Just say you’re a conservative and go. “Progressives” like you are such cowards. You’re so eager to slobber over politicians’ boots and make up excuses for why they can’t do anything good. I wish I could at least believe the DNC was paying you off, but I was one of you once, so I know full well you’ve just drunk the neoliberal Kool-Aid that hard. The people ready to jump down leftists’ throats with “um, ackshually, it’s physically impossible to do better than center-right austerity and authoritarianism” whenever we speak up have far more to do with why leftists have no power than any leftist “idealism.” Throughout history, it’s always been the lunatic radicals who made actual change, while the craven moderates fought them tooth and nail to preserve the intolerable status quo. Ever notice how conservatives are utterly unrestrained by all the things liberals insist are holding them back from making change? When MAGA wants something, they get it, no matter how unreasonable or flat-out absurd it is. But when the Democrats’ base demands better of them, they wring their hands and lament how gosh golly gee, they’d love to make things better, but they can’t because something something civility something something norms. If progressives fought like conservatives, we’d have fucking fully automated luxury gay space communism by now.
Literally a socialist. Nice try.
No you aren’t lmao
Okay sure you know me best I guess?
Yes you let the boat sink because what they did after being bailed out was simply take everyone’s homes for free.
Fuck centrists and capitalist bootlickers.
Then go make it happen? Why can’t you?
Cause an entire apparatus is in the way? Go break it then why can’t you?
Because it’s designed to crush resistance at every turn with a monopoly on violence?
So what do you do besides cry online and accuse people of things they’re not you fuckin dolt.
If you’re this pissed cause I said Obama is a good president when placed beside contemporaries. You’re the bozo.
“when placed beside contemporaries”
Alao, it seems like you responded to the wrong person
I didn’t respond to the wrong person. My point is fantasy, ideals and desires are nice. But then apply reality.
No no. He came in with a latex spine. Take a look at his cabinet. He did the job rather well but change was never going to come with that group.
Your economic false dichotomy is funny though. There were a whole range of options like nationalization and criminal charges for executives that did not get explored because centrism.
Hindsight is 20/20.
But no. There was no criminal charges afoot this is why I’m calling y’all idealists. Do you think this country is or was or is going to be clean enough to do any of that, ever?
Maybe if you do some shady shit too to get it done. But by the book as you’re suggesting? No fuckin way.
He did run on “change”. What’s your point? Mindless centrism is realistic? Mine is Obama didn’t get much done, his greatest legacy is the ACA and that is being undone as we speak because of his failures elsewhere.
Runs a parallel to Biden doing alright generally but completely failing on Merrick Garland negating everything else he did.
Both hin and Biden were actually really good. The main difference is they weren’t always hogging the limelight.
This is one of those platitudes that is too vague to be of any real value.
It’s like telling someone to be confident. “Just figure out what you need to do and do that thing!”
Yeah - the centrists and neoliberals will take this to mean “do more centrist and neoliberal things”; progressives will take this to mean “do more progressive things”; the DNC will take this to mean “give more money to centrist and neoliberal consultants and ignore what people are actually saying”. Not helpful in any sense.
So, in an unironic, but still very sarcastic and disappointed sense: thanks Obama 😒
Seriously, maybe tell the Democratic leadership to pull their head out of their ass and listen to people - as you did back in 07-08, which carried you to victory. And then gasp follow through on what they say, up to and including taking a page out of the GOP playbook - just do things that are helpful to normal people and say “fuck you, make me” when centrists and republicans try to stop you. We now have an imperial presidency, after all, so why not try to use it to do some good when (or if 😓) non-fascists get into power again.
This is exactly it. Unless we get really specific, this shit is more of the same middling platitudes, and different audiences will only hear what they want to hear. Seriously disappointing, and not at all helpful.
Ex-politicians like Obama (but not just him) need to shut the hell up unless they have PRACTICAL ideas that we can use. Someone like Obama should understand that his words have gravitas (love your username btw, fellow Banks fan I presume?), but his rhetoric goes straight in the garbage unless it’s backed by actionable ideas.
It’s a bitch-ass move. He needs to be calling out fascist pigs by name.
Bring back the Bull Moose party. We need FIGHTING progressives. I’ll do it if no one else will
Post the website when you’re done.
I’m sure Chuck Schumer will have a strongly worded letter for this. Wait what am I thinking, Obama is on their side, they’ll completely destroy him for this.
Be honest have you ever watched Chuck Schumer on CSPAN or do you only see him in the clips Jon Stewart shows?
Not enough people voted for Democrats so Chuck Schumer currently has less power than Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart has a much larger audience on his show (and therefore more influence) than Chuck Schumer has on CSPAN yet he devotes a significant amount of time complaining about Chuck Schumer.
It’s weird.
I cut the cord years ago and never bothered to replace it with a OTA cable replacement since I cut the cord because I wasn’t watching the content, so I don’t have C-SPAN.
That being said I do keep up with politics outside of the daily show, and I remember when the Vichy Dems had the house, the senate, and the white house in 2020 and they still failed to make meaningful changes. Sure they passed a few spending bills to fund the economy… sorry I mean support the American people, but they could have put in stop gaps after what they saw from the first trump regime.
So what they do? They followed Schumer’s lead and bent over backwards to try and accommodate the republicans who once they got what they wanted would move the goal post and delay everything even longer.
And yes I’m calling them the Vichy Dems, they have capitulated to fascism. The fact that the January 6th commission was slow rolled, and Merrick Garland wasn’t hauled in for questioning every week until something meaningful was done about the attempted insurrection, means the Dems are just as responsible for the meds we’re in now as the republicans. Dems had the power and Chucky pushed to not use it, and now we’re all paying the price.
Chuck Schumer currently has less power than Jon Stewart.
Seeing what Chuck Schumer does with power, I’d say this is a good thing.
It’s a bunch of nonsense. Stewart has more influence on the public, and Schumer is an actual politician with real political power and decades of experience to know how to use it. He just doesn’t, because he’s a Zionist neo-lib and his interests don’t align with the American public’s.
"You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,”
So he called out Cuomo by name? No? Who’s the coward really? He’s out there telling Dems/lefties to get shot in the face by “riot gear” his and his VPs admins put in the hands of police, and he can’t even grow enough of a spine to tell Dems to honor their own primaries. What a disgrace. Apparently the protesters and activists are the ones he thinks need to toughen up, because he clearly doesn’t think any specific politicians need to.
I noticed that, and that it’s a private fundraiser. Ok. When will the DNC actually stop shutting out the voices of the ones who miss needed working hours to vote for your candidate–or not.
He’s pleading with people to fund the DNC, when DNC-backed candidates are often the most useless losers on the ticket.
Honestly, I don’t care too much about this kind of private fundraising. Do I wish we had a system that was different, yes, but he’s not actually running for anything. He’s getting money for the party in general. If people wanna pay X to have dinner with Obama, I’m pretty indifferent about it. It’s like a rent party for people who have no community, no solidarity, and no sense. I wish they would donate directly to candidates that need the support because I don’t trust the DNC to make any decisions, but they probably would not be donating to the people I want anyway.
I think town halls are important though and if a candidate only has time for fundraising and not to listen to their constituents then that’s a problem. Unfortunately these kind of fundraising events are the way a lot of Dems get funding since they don’t actually inspire people with their platform.
I guess I’m remembering leaked tapes from HRC’s private banker fundraiser.
Yea, it helps if they’re not two faced or scummy to begin with so that their private events aren’t them admitting to lying about their beliefs etc too. See Romney for a great example of exactly the issue, but honestly it’s just a quiet part out loud thing. We all know these are the conversations they’re having regardless of how much they pay for the plate.
Yes and I hope people are waking up to the fact that liberal isn’t left, nor neoliberal, and socially left neo/lib also isn’t left.
As Democrats debate who should lead the party, Obama encouraged them to channel their energy into the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, saying the off-year elections could be “a big jumpstart for where we need to go.”
“Stop looking for the quick fix. Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,” Obama said, calling out the New Jersey and Virginia elections, according to the excerpts of his remarks.
RTFA
I did read the article. I even quoted it. That absolutely does not address the fact that pouring money into races (which he said needs to be done in the article) is useless if the candidates don’t actually help people. The NJ race features a 53 year old who’s been an office holder since 2018. She’s part of the “New Democrat” caucus who are pro business centrists.
He’s calling for more of the same. He’s not asking for “hope” or “change”. I mentioned NY because that is an example of what the future of the party should actually look like.
Hope and change was always a lie to just get into office and then hand it all to businesses. I mean fuck the ACA insurance mandate was basically holding citizens hostage and forcing them to pay healthcare insurance providers whether the insurance actually left them with enough money leftover to use their “access” to healthcare or not.
Fuck all the navel gazing about how it would bring insurance costs down. A public option would have done more.
I was definitely using them mockingly here, but I think he actually did want universal healthcare. Congress fucked us over bad. The ACA is unfortunately a huge step up from what a lot of people had. Plenty still fall through the cracks, but the ACA was largely an improvement for people, especially after the federal penalty was removed so people were no longer fined.
He absolutely did want universal healthcare. Bill Clinton did too. They both tried. They were both shut down.
A public option would have done more.
Yes, it would have. Damn it, Obama, why did you vote against…oh wait.
He’s literally at a fundraiser with a bunch of pro-business fucks giving this mealy-mouthed speech. He literally expanded all the worst parts of the Bush admin which are now being pointed at US citizens like mass surveillance.
No he didn’t explicitly vote for it himself, but he admitted himself that if he had run in the 80’s he would have been considered a Republican. For fucks sake, “Obamacare” was actually “Romneycare,” can we stop acting like the entire party apparatus as a whole doesn’t deep throat big business? Because it fucking does and it doesn’t matter if he didn’t directly vote for that himself, he’s still part and parcel to the people who make it this fucking bad. That’s literally the people he is giving a speech to here.
I don’t even disagree with your points on where the party was or is, or how left Obama really is/was, but the neutering of the ACA to what we got wasn’t Obama’s fault. It barely got through even as a Republican-based idea, and from then for two terms on any other efforts were subjected to “just vote no” mentality.
You deliberately took his words out of context so you could lambast him with an imaginary dis of Mamdani.
The NJ race is a former Navy pilot who already beat five other candidates for this race. You want to say no one else had a chance?She won four terms in the US Congress. It’s her or the republiQan now; you had four years to get someone “who would help people” and once again there’s nothing.
This is bullshit “leftist” whingeing that mean old Obama and the mean old DNC are keeping the socialists down with their cheatin’ ways and it’s bullshit.
Socialists, communists, and whatever ist you wanna ist still have to run, still have to raise and spend large amounts of money, and still have to put up with mindless attacks from the right and, now, “left” to get into a position to help people and that’s before they do a single thing in office. It’s really difficult and mostly boring so if you can’t be bothered to find someone to support, try not to cast us down the well of fascist incompetence again.
I didn’t take them out of context. He admitted he thinks there are some great candidates that we should support but doesn’t have the courage to back the one needing it most, or alternatively he doesn’t support him. I didn’t imply he dissed mamdani, just that he’s a coward for not talking about one of the most watched races in the country at the moment. The DNC is actively not supporting the winner of a dem primary. Pointing that out is not “whingeing”. I’m also not saying he’s mean. He’s either a coward or doesn’t care. Possibly both.
I also didn’t say she didn’t have a chance, I’m saying to a certain extent it doesn’t matter (though I always tell people to vote at the bare minimum). What are the dems in congress doing to stop Trump right now? Oh, that’s right, at best nothing, and at worst voting for his policies. The same old Dems with the same old policies are not going to stop Trump.
You are clearly having a different conversation than anyone else here because no one was attacking you unless your name is Obama. If you want to be indignant, be so at your faves who apparently can’t get anyone to like their policies enough to start a grassroots movement, or better yet at the people pushing this country to the right. Leftist are running candidates and raising money and supporting them getting things done, and if you actually cared about that you’d have something to say about the fact that Dems aren’t supporting mamdani instead of acting like pointing this out is somehow a dis.
I didn’t take them out of context.
You did.
He admitted he thinks there are some great candidates that we should support but doesn’t have the courage to back the one needing it most, or alternatively he doesn’t support him.
He voiced support for the candidates he was there to voice support for. He was not talking about Mamdani by design, as stated. Saying he ignored him is the definition of taking him out of context.
I didn’t imply he dissed mamdani, just that he’s a coward for not talking about one of the most watched races in the country at the moment.
Do you even hear yourself.
The DNC is actively not supporting the winner of a dem primary.
I’m also not saying he’s mean. He’s either a coward or doesn’t care. Possibly both.
Okay we’re done.
Yeah, that’ll get the neoliberals fired up. Jesus Christ.
Is the Hope and Change guy back again?
Haven’t seen him since Jan 21, 2009
coming from the guy who helped to pay the way into trumpism… yeah they should “toughen up” but it should’ve come already in his tenure.
Literally the guy who said “we need to look forward, not backward” when it came to prosecuting the Bush admin for fucking war crimes of all things and then expanded, codified, and legalized the mass surveillance and the drone wars… Which are now all being used against US citizens.
I don’t think we need to hear from the Signature Strike, Surveilance State, and gross expansion of executive power guy right now
