Former president has given series of blistering speeches to help candidates in key races – and deployment has proved a hit with party’s progressive wing

Former president has given series of blistering speeches to help candidates in key races – and deployment has proved a hit with party’s progressive wing That could have been awkward. Barack Obama, campaigning for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, acknowledged that his fellow Democrat has criticised some aspects of the Obama presidency. “Yeah, Abdul didn’t agree with some things we wanted to do – that our administration was doing – when I was president,” he told a rally in Detroit. “You know who e…

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2111·
    3 days ago

    Obama has always been super progressive, except for a very specific 8 years of his life when he wasn’t.

    But it was only 8 years right so no harm no foul. Right?

    • KindnessisPunk@piefed.caEnglish
      371·
      3 days ago

      In those 8 years he faced a Congress that, for most of his tenure, and especially after 2010, filibustered or refused to move on nearly everything to the left of neoliberal.

      Democrats had a filibuster-proof Senate for about seven months, that’s the window the ACA came through, watered down to get the 60th vote they needed for it to pass

      When the legislative window closed in 2010 (because in midterms Republicans won more seats), the record shifts to executive actions like; DACA, the Iran deal and the Paris Agreement because that was the lever he had.

      Republicans used the filibuster at unprecedented rates to produce the appearance of failure, then campaigned on “he got nothing done.” McConnell was explicit that the goal was a one-term president.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
        16·
        3 days ago

        watered down to get the 60th vote they needed for it to pass

        Joe fucking Lieberman, Al Gore’s choice for VP.

    • PangurBan@lemmy.world
      9·
      3 days ago

      He was, perhaps, progressive for the time, but only in certain ways.

      Also, 7 years of Republican Congress…

    • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk
      9·
      3 days ago

      I mean, I was no fan of Obama when he was President of the US serving the interest of said polity. Except… when compared to literally almost everybody else who’ve held that position.

        • KindnessisPunk@piefed.caEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Agree that we should criticize him. It’s just important to understand that context so that you can do so accurately. You can’t blame a guy for not passing a public option when his own party’s conservative wing (and Lieberman) refused to vote for it.