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Comment on xkcd #2875: 2024

I think it was more like the guy before him drug us into multiple, decades long wars - then the guy after him tried to overthrow our democracy and instill himself as president after losing an election. So having an 8 year break of semi-normalcy was refreshing.

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uid0gid0@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No, tan suits and Dijon mustard are so much worse than either of those.

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UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I think it was more like the guy before him drug us into multiple, decades long wars

We got into a shooting war in Syria under Obama. We overthrew the Libyan government with US-French joint airstrikes, too. We fostered relations with the fascist Modi regime in India and failed to secure any kind of lasting peace with Iran. We couldn’t actually end the embargo of Cuba or even close down Gitmo. Instead we ended up ramping up police powers in the wake of the Baltimore and Ferguson riots.

Despite having a supermajority in the Senate, we never managed to get DC or Puerto Rico their statehoods… which is a shame because DC statehood alone could have kept Mitch McConnell out of the Senate majority position and flipped a host of federal judicial appointments including two in the SC. Extra important given that we lost the Voting Rights Act case under Obama’s DOJ and a bunch of redistricting fights as well. That gave us a Republican House Majority despite those districts representing less than 45% of the total voting base.

Hell, one of the first things the Obama House, Senate, and Presidency did after a sweeping win in 2008 was… to strip federal funds from ACORN!

Maybe some of those fuck-ups were what cost him the House, the Senate, the SCOTUS, and then the Presidency in the snowball of failure that lead up to 2016.

having an 8 year break of semi-normalcy was refreshing

Having an 8 year break of a smooth operator in office definitely blinded us to the decay of the republic that accelerated under his watch. But who did that ultimately benefit?

I guess it benefited our nation’s budding crop of fascists.

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- Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sorry for trying? The guy took a legitimate run at peace with Iran, normalizing relationships with Cuba, and closing Gitmo. The GOP found ready allies among Democratic senators to block it all. (Except the Iran deal which they just blew up the second they were in office again.)
  
  The GOP blocked the aid that would have seen us take a Ukraine like stance to moderate rebels in Syria.
  
  The Super majority in the Senate didn’t even last a full year. They had it for six months. People think Obama should have shoved the entire progressive agenda through in six months but you forget Manchin and crew were part of that majority.
  
  Finally, he didn’t lose shit in 2016. He wasn’t running because there’s a term limit on presidents. It was Hillary Clinton and she shit the bed on campaigning.
  
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  - UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Sorry for trying?
    
    Trying what? When he took office in 2009, he had all the accumulated Unitary Executive authority accrued under Bush plus direct Treasury Ownership of the six largest banks in the country, plus a Senate supermajority and overwhelming House majority, plus the world’s most powerful military.
    
    What did he do with all this in his first two years? Bailouts for the richest of the rich and Mitt Romney’s solution to insurance industry reform. No mortgage debt relief, despite naked criminal behavior by the banks his US Treasury Department then owned. No student debt relief. No emergency authorization to expand Medicaid and Medicare - something even dumb-dumb Trump happily waved through without Congressional approval by way of the Stafford Act. No immigration reform which he had the votes for but was afraid to pass without Lindsey Graham’s blessing. No climate change bill despite the fact that it was John McCain’s fucking bill, he just didn’t want to pass it without McCain’s official endorsement.
    
    He did not try. He was notable for how much he didn’t do, particularly relative to Bush before and Trump after, because he was afraid of looking bad on cable news shows. He was entirely fixated on his public image, rather than on the real social impact of the administration he was orchestrating.
    
    The GOP blocked the aid
    
    The GOP didn’t block shit. They had no majorities anywhere in government for two full years.
    
    The Super majority in the Senate didn’t even last a full year.
    
    Donald Trump did more with a simple majority than Obama did with 60 votes. And when he lost that majority, he pulled every lever available to the executive branch. Trump was turning out executive orders as fast as his fat little fingers could sign them. Obama couldn’t even be bothered to nominate a full slate of federal judges to fill Bush-Era vacancies.
    
    Finally, he didn’t lose shit in 2016. He wasn’t running
    
    He didn’t try to campaign for Hillary in big swing midwestern states. Given how he was underwater on approval through most of his last year of office, maybe it wasn’t even the worst move. But this was yet another instance in which he just couldn’t be bothered to try.
    
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    Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    He had the banks and the military? (We already tackled why a decorative supermajority doesn’t equal progressive heaven.) So he should have what? Led a palace coup and ruled as a dictator?
    
    And the GOP don’t need a majority. Or have you not been paying attention? They can block anything they want with 40 seats.
    
    You’re looking at a president and expecting a king.
    
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