I don't think I'll ever really get over Obama letting the banks off with zero repercussions in causing the 2008 meltdown. He proved himself a true corporate Democrat at that point and even though he did many other good things, it's a truth that sticks in the back of my mind forevermore.
Bush bailed out the banks. Obama handled the auto industry, who had to give up some control of their companies and pay us back with interest, and they did so.
I couldn't find the one in the rose garden (that is burned into my brain), but this is how they sold it at the time. I understands they were "worried about making things worse," but those banks got away with complete bullshit. It wasn't Bush.
He's a war criminal
I think he disenchanted an entire generation. People have lowered expectations from government here because of him and it sucks.
For me Obama will always be the US President that did the drone killings.
I'm not trying to defend Obama, especially I abhor his drone warfare, but politics is known to be cut throat, and politicians are beholden to campaign donations. Election campaigning is an expensive endeavour, and those who could throw more money have increased likelihood of winning. There are exceptions to the rule of course, and sometimes those who spent less still wins, but the candidate increases his/her chances of winning by having more campaign funds.
With all that said, this means playing ball with the campaign donors and their lackeys, or else they will gang up on you. Obama is all too aware of this. Consider that Lena Khan's aggressive FTC investigations under Biden on tech giants pissed off the oligarchs. Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos threw their weights on supporting Trump and now we are here. Apparently, Obama told Bernie in 2016 that he "can't be the president and be the good guy".
What is required is someone who is not afraid dip their hands into the mud and throw some, without being in the mud pit itself. People villainise Machiavellianism for good reasons, but evil don't play by the rules and evil never sleeps. Why still be nice if they already stabbed you? You definitely need to be Machiavellian when the situation requires it. We had that with the Roosevelts, and the fact that they were already wealthy insulated them from being beholden to the whims of campaign donations of the oligarchs and their attack dogs, made them have more free reign to pursue actually more progressive policies. Some people say JB Pritzker has those qualities-- an already wealthy politician willing to be Machiavellian to pursue progressive policies, although I don't know much about the man to warrant the observation.
Edit: JB not Joseph Pritzker
On one hand, Obama is a capable person with the right connections. On the other, he is still a neoliberal democrat, who likely wants to be a 'steady' hand on Mamdani's policies.
I don't want to trust the future to Obama, he has already proven himself to not be a supporter of "Hope and Change". The opposite, really.
Exactly. Obama is probably the best stump speakers America has ever seen and he'd be of great value to any campaign by doing more of that... but he really should not be shaping policy.
The American working class really does want 'Hope and Change', but Obama ain't that
Idk. I feel like he really gave it an earnest shot.
We are all thinking and talking about health insurance and what that means in regards to the American dream. I think that's good for people to think about.
In my view, one of the better Republican presidents that we've had in my life.
I didn't see eye to eye with him, but that first midterm brought a lot of opportunists that may not have had the good of the nation as their goal.
Plus the economy was absolutely trashed and the poison pills inserted with the wall street bailout.
I can see a way to cut him some slack.
No flinch, calling Obama a Republican, i'm gonna think about this one.
As opposed to letting the idiot masses hand the future over to a crybaby manchild being manipulated by proto-Nazi racists?
Trump is a symptom of First Past the Post voting. So long as American politics continue to be inbred, things will always become worse. Given enough time, Trump's stupidity and malice will be the norm in our candidates for both parties.
That meme also applies to tankies that discourage voting and forming a third party.
That's the end for Mamdani. Prepare for disappointment.
Mr. Mamdani thanked the former president for the call, the people said, and told him that he had drawn inspiration for his own recent speech on Islamophobiafrom Mr. Obama’s speech on race during his first presidential run.
This is literally the only reaction from Mamdani cited in the entire article. It seems like the kind of thing you would say if a powerful person in your industry endorsed you. He even pivoted to Islamophobia.
Seriously, your take is so braindead. You’re editorializing like crazy and you just sound like some kind of establishment dem bad actor.
Campaign Obama rocked. I really wish we could have gotten him as president.
Mamdani is what we need to get on the right track. That and dems that have a spine. Hell we probably need a new party for progressives. The 2 party system is messed up
Getting rid of the 2 party system would require a crisis of such magnitude I cannot in good conscience wish for it.
Losing world war 3. A pandemic 10X deadlier than covid, hostile Aliens, something at that level.
Nothing less will do it.
As someone who doesn't want to spend the rest of my life being terrorized by MAGA, I prefer an divided American crisis over a fascist certainty.
I don’t think the issue is that kind of crisis. It would take some type of crisis for one of these parties to fail though.
The great recession didn't touch it. Covid didn't touch it. Jan 6 didn't touch it.
Ending the two party system would require changing the way national elections work. That would require a constitutional amendment.
That would require one party taking full control of Congress and more importantly 2 thirds of state legislatures. The most plausible path to that I see currently is trump taking his coup to the next level, interfering in elections nationwide and placing maga in control all over the country.
Then they start passing constitutional amendments changing what it means to be a citizen and who can vote.
"Wait, not like that" you are probably thinking.
That's why I think there would have to be mass death. The pandemic is probably the next most likely, Democrats seek safety in distance and Republicans cheerfully host parties and deny the threat. The administration blocks efforts by the CDC and other researchers to study the disease. but it's somehow both deadlier than covid and slower, so by the time hospitals and morgues fill up, way more people are infected than with covid. 120 million Americans die before the crisis stabilizes, 2 thirds of them right leaning and one 3rd left leaning or apolitical.
The next election sweeps democrats into power nationwide, a 50 point swing as so many more right leaning voters have passed and the living turn on the party that refused to address the crisis.
That scenario makes constitutional amendments possible. Maybe not plausible though, they would be rushing to address the crisis, the mass graves, the shattered economy. If the plague somehow hit the billionaire class hard, maybe then.
Things get less likely from there. The US arbitrarily declaring war on the rest of the world, alien invasion, etc.
Ending the two party system would require changing the way national elections work. That would require a constitutional amendment.
There is no mention of political parties in the Constitution, and elections are mostly left up to the states. It would take an unbelievable amount of will to change them but it wouldn't take an amendment.
All the good will in the world would collapse before the mathematical reality of single member districts.
Ranked choice voting can be done without amendments, and it might move the needle, but a true multiparty system cannot survive single member districts for representation.
Canada and Britain both have single member districts and functionally 2 party systems. Britain is in flux right now due to the collapse of the conservatives and Labor, but they will shake out with a 2 horse race just like Canada does.
you are probably right.. I cannot wish for it either
Obama needs to fuck off. Democrats will do everything they can to co-opt what he's created, ride his coattails through the midterms, then neuter the entire thing.
I assure you, Mamdani's campaign team does not idolize Obama and isn't going to campaign with him. But what's wrong with building coalitions and sharing ideas with other camps?
If mamdani doesn't let himself get neutered by the advice, it is very much a good thing to have a former president throwing support behind him. And it would be his choice.
Look you guys! I found the time cop!
This very special hour of the year has revealed you.
I think it's good that Obama, and in effect the establishment that he represents, is standing up to the tidal wave of threats against mamdani, kind of calling their bluff. It also helps to normalize his legitimacy as a politician on the national level.
This is basically an endorsement
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