gaffs
Full Member
Honestly though, so much of this can be laid at the feet of Obama. He was granted a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a lasting governing majority in the mold of FDR. Came into office with overwhelming support and a clear mandate, but let his legislative inexperience and conservative instincts took over and failed to deliver on a signature policy (public option/M4A) or robust reforms (Glass Steagal revival/Wall St. prosecution for the financial crisis) that could've cemented the goodwill to the Dems for a generation, also failed to use the bully pulpit to communicate directly to voters in the style of the fireside chats to bypass legacy media/right wing disinformation network, or let the grassroots organisation that fueled his campaign to be dismantled and retreat from rural areas, letting Republicans recover and run unopposed in thousands of state legislative seats that won the 2010 census and created a damnningly tilted playing field for them ever since. Despite his electoral success, his party has been in rough shape ever since, riven by the established interests that adopted him and the activists wing that was the fuel for his rise, that is also increasingly marginalised and engulfed in internecine squabble themselves (Sanders/AOC being disowned by DSA)
It feels like the US have missed the boat this time, the 1939 Nazis were *in* government, the 2024 Nazis are now the government.
A lot of truth hera, but lets remember Obama only had two years where Democrats controlled the three branches of Government. There was always going to be a reaction to his presidency, which we saw in 2010 with the tea party movement.
He passed a lot of regulation in his first two years including the ACA, Dodd-Frank and the ARA post the 2007-08 financial crisis and a tax relief bill, among many others.