“What’s funny about that is they assume my ambition is positional. They assume my ambition is a title or a seat. My ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go, elected officials come and go, single payer healthcare is forever.”
I get what you’re saying, but Americans, for whatever reason, paint Obama as the farthest left option when he was centrist at best.
The “they go low, we go high” mentality sounds nice but we’re seeing that directly play out where establishment Dems play by the rules and are too scared or too paid off to fight for the people while the Republicans break the rules all the time. And we choose to “move on” rather than hold them accountable. So, they learn that they can just fuck everyone over and no one will charge them with any crimes. Exactly what Obama campaigned on.
Not to mention that, rather than bail out the people who were suffering during 08, he bailed out the banks who caused the crisis. And what did the banks do with the money? Lay people off still and use that money to pay executive bonuses and for stock buybacks.
Also not to mention all the deportations and bombings across the world still. And the ACA being a right wing heritage foundation project that was adopted to provide more funding to private healthcare insurers. Which many just increased the prices of services to fleece taxpayers with so 🤷♂️
Obama is no comparison to Trump, of course, and I don’t hate Obama. But I also can’t forgive him for how ineffectual he actually was for the working class. We don’t need another “work across the aisle” “oh, let’s focus on the future, we don’t need to prosecute Trump or his administration” type candidate. We need one that will be an enemy of organized wealth and corporations so we can pull ourselves back out of authoritarian/billionaire control. The elite need to be held responsible. Otherwise, why would any citizen believe in the rule of law if it can be selectively applied?
I imagine many Virginians are feeling exactly that right now. They voted and approved a map and then their SC knocked it down because they felt like it. Meanwhile, the Republican maps are being forced through, held privately with no voter input, in some cases ongoing elections are even being halted with votes being thrown out to redistrict. All without any voter say to remove voter power. Why would anyone feel like their vote even matters anymore?
We need accountability. And I’m sorry, but a neoliberal Obama I don’t believe would hold any of them accountable.
I agree with almost all of this and even the parts I disagree with I agree in principle. There will never be someone who can reach level or power needed to actually do what you’re describing without being a very, very good liar. Because they are never reaching that position on merit and message alone. It’s not just republicans outnumbering us. It’s people who are indifferent outnumber republicans and democrats and progressives combined. And not performatively indifferent. I mean people who genuinely do not care and do not vote and never will vote no matter how bad their circumstances get. A rock bottom low enough to engage that many people can not exist in a world with drive thrus, cell phones, and air conditioning. There’s no way to make that many people uncomfortable enough to care without it already being too late.
I remember the arguments I had in 2008 with my lefty friends when they kept saying Obama was the most liberal candidate. I’d go over each of their positions and showed my reasoning and they wouldn’t even consider what I said but instead would get emotional and insist he was more liberal.
Hell, in his own book Obama talks about how Reagan was a huge role model for him.
Obama is a great example of how charisma can put you over the top. And I love the guy, I just wish he had been a progressive and realized early on that the Republicans would never compromise on anything and that they were always working in bad faith.