“The short-term strategy is, win the House of Representatives,” stated the former president, garnering applause. “Because that’s going to be the circuit breaker that will give us control of one major component of the federal government. With that as a bulwark, we’re now able to block some of the worst impulses that are coming out of this White House.”
The former president laid out a two-pronged strategy for Democrats: to reclaim a House majority next year, and to work on honing the party’s messaging in the coming years.
“Long term, let’s tell a story, a better story about who we are as Americans and what we share,” Obama said, according to excerpts shared with CBS News. “We have to tell the story that makes people who feel outside that process, we’ve got to bring them back in.”
The Centrist Democrat is saying we should support centrist Democrats?
I… uh… think we should… uh… focus on… winning elections. Just like I… uh… did in 2008.
Please don’t ask how I did in any subsequent year. Thank you all for coming. Vote Blue No Matter Who. I’m going to fuck back off to Martha’s Vineyard to… uh… hook up with Jennifer Aniston.
Good luck out there, losers. Obama out.
And this is why it’ll never happen.
There’s far too much divide amongst the left and It seems rampant fascism isn’t even enough for these people to get with the program and shut it down.
Obama & Biden should shut the fuck up. Their dedication to kicking real problems down the road is half the reason we are in this position to start with.
What about irreconcilable fundamental differences in how we think government should serve the public?
Amazing stuff, never question what the people you are voting for actually support, always compromise with fascists, eventually you’ll be able to enact the fascist policy yourself!
Again with the messaging. The problem isn’t “messaging” it’s that you and your ilk insist on leaving the working class out to dry you capitalist ghoul.
It doesn’t matter what they say because I know they’re not gonna do it and make excuses.
But it’s not like I have anyone else I can vote for.
Political power is not something that can be given in a ballot box, it must be taken. Too many people believe that their only political outlet is voting. Join a community organization and start fixing the problems you see instead of listening to politicians who tell you to wait for 4 more years until the “good guys” get back in power.
BRB, headed to Sunbelt to rent some cones and a road painting kit.
I’ll finally get that bike lane!
Honestly, guerrilla infrastructure construction might just be what we need.
Never vote for a capitalist party. But do literally everything else you can think of.
Biden did more for the working class than Trump ever did or will. There are just too many “freethinking” conspiratard clowns who are easily scammed by republican lies. Unlucky
I never said anything about Trump. Biden did something, which is rare for his type, but it’s certainly not enough, and as long as it’s not enough people will keep flocking to the right because the right actually does things (bad things, to be clear, but that’s irrelevant).
Tbf Obama also did more for the working class than Trump ever did or will. ACA alone covers that. The issue is brainlets getting brainwashed by rightwing propaganda.
ACA was a gift to insurance companies. It was cowritten by the heritage foundation ffs.
Tell me how many people are getting hurt by republicans cutting it, then cry about “gift to insurance companies” again. The kind of take that only people too privileged to not need it would have.
He had the opportunity to give everyone universal health care and instead he chose to give us the half-baked “solution” that is utterly dependent on republican good will while also driving up health insurance profits, leaving us more reliant on middlemen insurance companies than ever before.
So yeah, people are hurting without it, but don’t pretend like it was some nice gift. It was a token that was tossed our way so we wouldn’t ask for more.
Obama had the opportunity to “give us universal health care”? When?
It was Congress that killed the public option btw.
Both things are true. It was obviously a gift to the insurance industry, but it doesn’t mean that it didn’t help millions of people.
Yeah you’re right, those people are way better off being required by law to purchase a product from a private company that doubles its rates every year. Who needs a public option?
I thought you guys didn’t like the Heritage Foundation?
You probably love bump stocks because Trump banned them huh. Even if there are better alternatives to ACA, until the political climate in the US allows for that, it’s still better than nothing.
Even ACA, the hEriTaGe CrEaTioN, is constantly being successfully shot down by conservatives. What chance in hell do you think there is of implementing and sustaining a socialist alternative? Until the country stops being braindead enough to elect MAGA-level candidates, it won’t happen.
It still managed to help a hell of a lot of working class people. It’s a net positive in my book.
As a working class person, my rates doubled every year for the first 4 years I was on ACA. When they got to $800 a month I cancelled my insurance and decided to take the tax penalty instead.
That happened to all plans during that time period, not just ACA plans.
Why do the people have to compromise with the democrats? How about the democrats REPRESENT THE PEOPLE.
Why would they do that? There’s no money in it
They’ve been “working on messaging” since Hilary lost in 2016.
Maybe, I don’t know, have a platform and message that helps everyday people instead of telling people everything’s fine, stop complaining.
Actual positions piss off donors, messaging* is free.
*Read: “lies”
And Dems should stop with “voting for lesser evil”. Are they saying they’re still evil? I mean, sure, on presidential elections, do that if there are no better alternatives to neoliberal Democrats running. But in the meanwhile, there should be grassroots attempt to primary progressives in local elections and then work their way up to federal level. The left used to be good at organising. And now modern day Americans will have their ancestors, who ended the gilded age and elected the two Roosevelts, rolling in their graves for passivity and being brainwashed by corporate media to accept breadcrumbs because “perfect is the enemy of good” thought terminating cliché that most Americans accept.
The message never really evolved past, at least we aren’t trump. The working class and hard leftists are fucking pissed with milquetoast centrist democrats. They spend all their time trying to win over republicans than holding on to their core fucking base. I voted for Hillary and Kamala because, at least they weren’t trump, but I wasn’t fucking happy that those were my choices.
They’re also absolute liars. They’ll say primaries are the time to disagree then vote blue no matter who in the general, but you see how they tried to sabotage Mamdani.
They expect progressives’ votes but won’t throw us the smallest fucking bone while in office — instead they pass legislation written by The Heritage Institute and tell us to eat our vegetables.
Socialism for the rich, rugged capitalism for the poor.
And they’re doubling down on THE SAME BROKEN GAMEPLAN AGAIN.
Liberals gave us Donald.
They’re also absolute liars. They’ll say primaries are the time to disagree then vote blue no matter who in the general, but you see how they tried to sabotage Mamdani.
100% agree with you on this. Let’s not forget how the fucked over Bernie Sanders too. At this point, they’re controlled opposition to give us the illusion of choice.
They won’t help us. It’s up to us to save ourselves. And that means a tea-party style takeover of the Democratic Party via major grass roots effort.
Edit: I just remembered, we didn’t even get a god damned primary for president because Biden dropped out and we just had to Swallow Kamala.
They’ll say primaries are the time to disagree then vote blue no matter who in the general, but you see how they tried to sabotage Mamdani.
Yes, but Mamdani did something that liberals are still scratching their heads on how to use to their advantage-- social media. The right managed to successfully exploit the new digital machinery to brainwash people. But the actual progressives and left are learning from their previous mistakes and using social media to gain attention and improve their messaging. It is gradually working as more and more progressives are getting elected on the local level.
Possibly, but I think the problem is more the message than the medium.
Plenty of right-wingers have been radicalized by old-fashioned cable news.
And the democrats haven’t struggled to get their message heard — they’re the less openly racist center-right party. But no one wants to vote for Diet Republicans™️.
I totally agree with this strategy. However if the democrats are unwilling to do anything about it does it even matter? Checks and balances require the checks part.
Get the majority and then START using it. Be aggressive to fix this shit and start actually doing something.
There is no amount of democratic supermajorities that will be able to fix anything in this country. They have neither the vision, willpower, nor permission from their donors. The only thing that will improve material conditions for the working class in this country is not discussable on platforms like this.
Donors being the key word. Or if you really wanna get technical, owners. Yep… totally agree.
It’s good that Obama is stepping back into the spotlight. He still resonates with people as the last president we had before the world went insane.
He also reminds anyone wanting to run Trump in ‘28 that he would have another two-termer to contend with.
Barring that, he is still a unifying figurehead in the short term, while everyone watches Trump’s rapid decline.
We got Biden because Obama interfered in the primaries when it looked like Sanders was going to win.
Rumor amongst the political class is that he was motivated by wanting to preserve his legacy, rather than let someone upstage him.
Fuck Obama. We’re exactly where we are, in part, because of him.
It’s good that Obama is stepping back into the spotlight.
It is, in fact, very bad. As is obvious from his long list of broken promises, Obama is part of the problem, and any advice he gives—indeed, the advice he’s now giving—won’t address what really needs to be done.
iirc when whats his face was proposing the amendment it was worded to exclude two in a row potuses. Basically custom written for Trump.
It’s good that Obama is stepping back into the spotlight
It would be even better if you killed yourself and anyone who agrees with you.
The man in the high castle that coordinated all the candidates to drop out behind Biden in order to crush Bernie says this huh
When did that happen? Have a link?
They’re talking about 2020. Bernie was winning primaries until all moderate dems dropped out to back Biden. Elizabeth Warren stayed in to split progressive vote.
What’s crazy is many had delegates in the table and their home states hadn’t voted yet. This was all right before Super Tuesday they dropped. Normally you stay in and you barter with all the delegates. At least through Super Tuesday.
man in the high castle
Lol I immediately thought of Man in the High Castle the TV Show about nazis taking over America…
Obama LovEs Gen0siDee!1!1
Well yeah he does support it unironically.
There ya go
work on honing the party’s messaging in the coming years.
I think focusing on the message isn’t going to help all that much. I think most voters have become desensitized to political messaging. Obama’s own “hope and change,” message helped with that desensitizing, after people felt that in the end they had neither.
I think most Americans are now looking more for a real, material plan for improving things. And I don’t think the problem is that no one has a plan, plenty of politicians do, but I think Americans just aren’t sure which plan will work. It’s the perfect environment for political grifters who are able to convince people they have a plan to help them, even though they have no such thing. One thing I think most Americans were pretty confident about was that the plan that establishment Democrats put forward of “nothing will fundamentally change,” was not appealing. When the people are absolutely desperate for positive change, that’s the last thing they want to hear.
100%. I think Biden’s “status quo” messaging only worked because of the chaos that was Trump’s first term and COVID. That is not a platform to run on when Trump pushed the country into full-blown fascism. The pendulum needs to swing in the other direction. The only thing I fear is that those in charge of the DNC have proven they are not interested in supporting social democrats or democratic socialists for the presidency. We sorely need a third party that is taken seriously.
And the comments here illustrate exactly why it’ll never work.
The far left seems to be totally fine with status quo while they arrogantly wait for their perfect candidate to white-knight themselves into our political system.
It must be nice to be entitled to such an extent so as to risk other people’s lives and freedoms while they hold out for Mr/Mrs. Perfect.
News flash: Politics isn’t defined as issuing the most perfect policy. It never was! It’s about making the best compromises you can. It’s about making difficult decisions, but the best ones you can given the options you have.
You people make up this perfect world where everything should be so easy with ZERO understanding of how it works. And when those things don’t happen- you throw a shit-fit online to complete strangers and fold your arms, refusing to stand on the line drawn against fascism- all while complaining about how much fascism sucks.
Hate to break it to you- but you don’t fight against those that work forces with funny memes.
A major reason shit is so fucked right now is when Obama won he just ignored the DNC for 8 years running his own campaigns and not helping out state parties with fundraising.
Which lead to a 2016 DNC funded and controlled by Hillary and trump becoming president.
The time for him to have done something was 17 fucking years ago
Maybe some of those insider trading dems could have ponied up some cash instead of relentlessly begging working people for money to lose against Donald fucking Trump, twice.
Goddamn everything really is Obama’s fault isn’t it.
Hear me out… the holocaust? Obama’s poor decision making created a backwards temporal shift and yeah that’s him too.
Obama was fundamentally a centrist who enabled just about every one of our worst impulses as a country.
Endless war? Murdering thousands of innocent civilians in the middle east? Massive deportation? Deregulation for big corporations? Massive bailouts on the taxpayer dime?
Oh sorry the supreme court set the precedent with gay marriage and that half baked compromise cooked up by the heritage foundation as an alternative to single payer healthcare with the Affordable Care Act happened so I guess him being a piece of shit and a massive opportunistic liar doesn’t matter.
I mean, he was president between Bush and Trump at the head of a Senate near-supermajority (at one point a supermajority). A lot of shit happening today could’ve been avoided if Obama had been less of an establishment ghoul; that is how missed opportunities work.
Back on planet earth, where you may live, he did in fact abdicate his influence as the head of the Democratic Party and then disappeared to relax on the beach as is American tradition of presidents staying out of politics.
There is a working theory among the world’s forefront experts that Obama was not only imperfect but actually did some really bad stuff too. But that’s just a theory…like gravity
This the same Obama who routinely comes out and chastises black men for not voting how he thinks they should? Or maybe the same Obama who has been doing his best to cape for Israel?
Whichever Obama made those phone calls to ensure Bernie lost the primary
Here me out, maybe don’t reward Wall Street for their fuck ups? Maybe throw the exectutives and board members in jail? Maybe nationalize Goldman Sachs. Maybe don’t deploy the FBI on Occupy Wall Street. Maybe don’t sign into law a heritage foundation healthcare privatization plan? Maybe try to do literally anything except look into the camera and say that “Abprtion isn’t your highest priority”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxiDZejZFjg
In other words…“vote blue, no matter who”…unless they’re a progressive. Then, vote for the newly “independent” corporate Democrat that just lost the primary.
This motherfucker is one of the last nails in democracy. History will not be kind to Barrack Obama, if anyone is left to write it.
I don’t think public opinion of him is great today. The right hates him for a number or valid and invalid reasons, and the left hate him for his war crimes and not pushing for universal healthcare instead of obamacare, as well as trying to browbeat people into voting democrat last election.
I guess I could be out of touch on him though.
Extrajudicial killings, ramping up the drone war, prosecuting whistleblowers using the espionage act. The man is a psychopath, but you have to be to be allowed to be president.
