Faced with existential threats from the right, the Democratic leadership remains timid; faced with demands for justice from the left, it goes on the attack.
[We’ve seen President Barack Obama with all his rhetorical powers hector young Black men, but not aim his electric cadence at Musk and his Palo Alto brownshirts.]
This is not really fair. We’ve seen Obama deliver some excellent speeches against the GOP at national conventions. But Obama is retired and not an active politician any more. You could criticize Obama for laziness, but there is nothing nefarious here. And there is also the problem that the media likes to bury any good stories about Dems so we don’t even know how much coverage he would get.
But don’t get me wrong, overall this article is pretty good.
Obama was instrumental in orchestrating Biden’s rise over Sanders in 2020, which was exactly the moment a fascist victory became inevitable. No, he doesn’t get to play the fucking “retired” card now. This is a fucking war with actual casualties and the future of nations and the world at stake. What’s going on right now is arguably more impactful than even WW2. It’s all hands on fucking deck - even shitty former Presidents, if they have anything to offer.
Obama was instrumental in orchestrating Biden’s rise over Sanders in 2020,
I thought the voters were instrumental in that. Obama controls how millions of people vote? Wow that sounds like an awesome power to have. Except that I don’t know one single person who gave a shit how Obama wanted them to vote, let alone many millions of people.
I’m sorry, did you sleep through the 2020 primary? Obama brokered the deal behind the scenes where right before super Tuesday every single establishment friendly candidate dropped out simultaneously and endorsed Biden, even though most were well ahead of him at that point.
The only other candidate that stayed in besides Sanders was Warren. Warren was at that point too far behind to have a chance and had effectively shut down her campaign, but she held onto enough of the progressive vote to be an anchor on Sanders. She is the only candidate that it hasn’t been confirmed that Obama pressured, but I’ll go to my grave with the pretty much obvious assumption that he did.
Voters might not care who Obama wants them to vote for, but black voters in North Carolina care very much who Jim Clyburn wants them to vote for. Clyburn has tremendous pull over the black churches that are the social hubs of the black community there. Clyburn had announced he would stay neutral but, the same time everything else happened, he got a call from Obama and immediately gave Biden his enthusiastic endorsement. Just in case you think I’m exaggerating his influence, watch Bill Clinton’s speech at RBG’s funeral. He takes that opportunity to publicly thank Clyburn for “settling the dispute” in the Democratic party.
Biden won North Carolina with overwhelming support from black voters, despite being attacked by Harris early on for his former stance against bussing for school integration. That was the only moment where Harris momentarily became relevant in the race, but voter interest in her lasted about three days before she crashed back to the bottom. Yet, we ultimately got her as the nominee anyways, despite overwhelming rejection in the only primary she was in. Kinda makes you wonder how she got on Biden’s ticket in the first place, but that’s a whole other deal.
Despite the fact that less than a quarter of the country had voted after Super Tuesday, the Democratic party and their media talking heads immediately started treating Biden as the presumptive winner. Whether people do it consciously or not, as soon as that happens in a primary the remaining votes shift massively towards the presumptive winner. Obama’s machinations didn’t directly shift enough votes to lock the race for Biden, but they provided the window for the media to steer the narrative. Narratives are everything in politics, a fact that Democrats understand in primaries but somehow forget in general elections.
There is a whole lot more I could say on the subject, but I don’t want to write a book here.
[We’ve seen President Barack Obama with all his rhetorical powers hector young Black men, but not aim his electric cadence at Musk and his Palo Alto brownshirts.]
This is not really fair. We’ve seen Obama deliver some excellent speeches against the GOP at national conventions. But Obama is retired and not an active politician any more. You could criticize Obama for laziness, but there is nothing nefarious here. And there is also the problem that the media likes to bury any good stories about Dems so we don’t even know how much coverage he would get.
But don’t get me wrong, overall this article is pretty good.
Obama was instrumental in orchestrating Biden’s rise over Sanders in 2020, which was exactly the moment a fascist victory became inevitable. No, he doesn’t get to play the fucking “retired” card now. This is a fucking war with actual casualties and the future of nations and the world at stake. What’s going on right now is arguably more impactful than even WW2. It’s all hands on fucking deck - even shitty former Presidents, if they have anything to offer.
I thought the voters were instrumental in that. Obama controls how millions of people vote? Wow that sounds like an awesome power to have. Except that I don’t know one single person who gave a shit how Obama wanted them to vote, let alone many millions of people.
I’m sorry, did you sleep through the 2020 primary? Obama brokered the deal behind the scenes where right before super Tuesday every single establishment friendly candidate dropped out simultaneously and endorsed Biden, even though most were well ahead of him at that point.
The only other candidate that stayed in besides Sanders was Warren. Warren was at that point too far behind to have a chance and had effectively shut down her campaign, but she held onto enough of the progressive vote to be an anchor on Sanders. She is the only candidate that it hasn’t been confirmed that Obama pressured, but I’ll go to my grave with the pretty much obvious assumption that he did.
Voters might not care who Obama wants them to vote for, but black voters in North Carolina care very much who Jim Clyburn wants them to vote for. Clyburn has tremendous pull over the black churches that are the social hubs of the black community there. Clyburn had announced he would stay neutral but, the same time everything else happened, he got a call from Obama and immediately gave Biden his enthusiastic endorsement. Just in case you think I’m exaggerating his influence, watch Bill Clinton’s speech at RBG’s funeral. He takes that opportunity to publicly thank Clyburn for “settling the dispute” in the Democratic party.
Biden won North Carolina with overwhelming support from black voters, despite being attacked by Harris early on for his former stance against bussing for school integration. That was the only moment where Harris momentarily became relevant in the race, but voter interest in her lasted about three days before she crashed back to the bottom. Yet, we ultimately got her as the nominee anyways, despite overwhelming rejection in the only primary she was in. Kinda makes you wonder how she got on Biden’s ticket in the first place, but that’s a whole other deal.
Despite the fact that less than a quarter of the country had voted after Super Tuesday, the Democratic party and their media talking heads immediately started treating Biden as the presumptive winner. Whether people do it consciously or not, as soon as that happens in a primary the remaining votes shift massively towards the presumptive winner. Obama’s machinations didn’t directly shift enough votes to lock the race for Biden, but they provided the window for the media to steer the narrative. Narratives are everything in politics, a fact that Democrats understand in primaries but somehow forget in general elections.
There is a whole lot more I could say on the subject, but I don’t want to write a book here.