Governing is a team sport!

[In It to Win It]

I just have to get this off my chest.

I've been talking with friends regarding the upcoming election.

"Progressive" voters settling for Biden has been shoved in my face all day along with things like "Obama didn't do anything and he ran on a progressive agenda" and "Obama bailed out the banks" and "Biden is a corporate Democrat" and so on but I'll take him.

I appreciate the vote! I'll take it! But my counter to this "corporate Democrat" narrative is that in order for a president to do progressive things, that certain president would need a more progressive congress. A president, although a powerful person, is not all powerful. Obama couldn't do much because he had a mountain of opposition against him. In order for a president to be as effective as you would like a president to be, that president needs back up. That president needs continued support. What often happens is that people go out and vote during the presidential election and don't come out to vote until the next presidential election. They skip all the other elections which are just as important. It took the nuclear bomb that is Trump for people to realize the importance of off-year elections, and to increase turnout for local elections and the midterm. Once the president you want is in office, the work doesn't stop. You need to elect people in congress (and other offices) who also have that vision.

Obama was a progressive-minded president with a not-so-progessive congress. The only thing that could pass the congress of the time was a bank bailout (and a few other things but I'm keeping it simple). There was nothing Obama could have done to get universal healthcare passed, free college, UBI or anything else on the progressive menu.

If you really want progress, run progressive candidates in congress, in governorships, and local elections... and win! Assemble the Avengers!

Joe Biden is running a pretty progressive agenda. He's not the most progressive candidate in the world but maybe if you give him a progressive congress, he'll at least have a shot to come around to your idea of progressivism.

[Laelth]

1. Reasonable analysis.

Obama had 40 days to get something done. He used that time to give us the Lily Ledbetter Act and the ACA, the latter of which was an enormous achievement. After those 40 days, Obama couldn’t accomplish anything legislatively, but he did a bang up job of running the executive branch, both on domestic and foreign policy issues, and he did so as a solid, liberal Democrat.

Joe? Who knows? If we eliminate the filibuster Joe could be one of our GREAT liberal Presidents—up there with FDR and LBJ. If we don’t, the Republicans will obstruct everything that Biden wants to do, and disappointed Democrats (rightly or wrongly) will continue to make the same kinds of arguments that inspired you to post this thread.

I.e. We MUST eliminate the filibuster.

-Laelth