Obama was far too timid for 8 years. His “centrism” hurt the USA and helped to elect Trump.

The Democratic Party keeps glorifying Barack Obama and claiming he had a terrific legacy.

Actually, Obama governed like a “CENTRIST” REPUBLICAN!  He kept caving in to Republicans.  He failed to take positive actions within his power.  Instead, he promoted War and Wall Street.  Obama was a grossly inadequate president!

 

When Obama took office in January 2009, Democrats had majorities in both the House and the Senate. He could have done a lot if he had wanted to. The massive support from labor unions and non-profit organizations got him elected. They had some hot priorities. But Obama and the Democrats running the House and Senate refused to act on these hot priorities.

Organized labor worked hard and donated much to elect Obama in 2008.  Labor’s OVERWHELMING TOP PRIORITY was a “card check” law that would allow unions to be created in workplaces if a majority of the workers signed cards stating that they want a union.  The current system is rigged in favor of employers and against workers.  Democrat Obama had Democratic majorities in BOTH THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE, but starting in 2009 Obama and the Democratic House and the Democratic Senate REFUSED TO SUPPORT LABOR and totally refused to promote a “card check” law.  They ANTAGONIZED WORKERS and left the way open for Trump in 2016 to claim that he was on labor’s side.  WITHOUT A DEMOCRATIC TRACK RECORD OF SUPPORTING LABOR, Trump was free to lie his way into the presidency!

 

The biggest contributor to Obama’s 2008 campaign was Goldman Sachs, so Obama filled his cabinet with big shots from Goldman Sachs and catered to the giant Wall Street banks and other elements of Big Business.  When the big banks ILLEGALLY crashed the economy in 2007-2008, Obama BAILED OUT THE BANKS with trillions of taxpayers’ money but REFUSED TO HELP PEOPLE WHO WERE LOSING THEIR HOMES.

Just like President Bill Clinton had vigorously supported Republican neoliberal “free trade” scams (NAFTA, the WTO, etc.), Obama vigorously proceeded with the “free trade” scams that Bush had started with several nations (e.g., Colombia, Panama and South Korea).  Also, Obama — and 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton — vigorously promoted the horribly anti-worker and anti-environment Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  The TPP was horribly unpopular, so Trump outsmarted Hillary Clinton by running to her left and opposing the TPP until she finally switched to oppose it, but nobody believed her “deathbed conversion” because Democrats had been supporting anti-labor “free trade” scams for so long.

Nearly all of Obama’s appointments to cabinet positions and Attorney General came from elite business positions, so he appointed foxes to watch the henhouses they used to run, and OBAMA REFUSED TO PROSECUTE THE HORRIBLE CRIMES THAT HIS ELITE BANKING CRONIES HAD COMMITTED.

Obama was more vigorous than any previous president (including Nixon) in prosecuting whistleblowers and harassing journalists. Despite campaign promises for transparency, his administration has been very secretive and obstructionist.  Obama prosecuted more whistleblowers under the brutal 1917 Espionage Act than ALL previous presidents for the past century!

Much more could be said, but I’ll let the information above suffice for now.

Obama governed like a “CENTRIST” REPUBLICAN!
He caused people to see that DEMOCRATS DO NOT SERVE ORDINARY PEOPLE!

Therefore Obama’s 8 years of timid “centrism” PROVED TO VOTERS THAT DEMOCRATS DO NOT HELP ORDINARY PEOPLE.  Obama’s timid “centrism” unwittingly SUPPRESSED VOTES from the Democratic base after 8 years of “centrism.”  The low voter turnout in 2016 led to Trump.  See this information:  https://www.nationofchange.org/2019/09/18/did-barack-obama-bring-us-donald-trump/

 

Now some parts of the Democratic Party are soliciting donations with the gimmick that want to nominate Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court if a Democrat wins in 2020. That is a scam.

Republican Presidents nominate RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS to the Supreme Court.
But Democratic Presidents nominate only MILD LIBERALS to the Supreme Court.
Therefore, Democrats have SHIFTED THE COURT TO THE RIGHT WING!
Our next Democratic President must nominate a VERY PROGRESSIVE LEFT-WINGER to the Court!

Obama — a “centrist” — would only perpetuate the Court’s shift to the extreme right by failing to push it seriously leftward.

 

The Democratic Party refuses to learn from its mistakes with “centrists” such as Obama and the Clintons.  VOTERS DEMAND THE TRULY PROGRESSIVE SOLUTIONS THAT BERNIE SANDERS (and to a somewhat lesser extent, Elizabeth Warren) IS PROPOSING, but the Democratic Party is REBUFFING VOTERS — ANTAGONIZING AND ALIENATING VOTERS — by attacking Sanders and promoting “centrists” (Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, etc.) who are SUBSERVIENT TO WALL STREET and do NOT inspire new people to turn out and vote.  Democratic Party strategies say they MUST INCREASE VOTER TURNOUT, but their actual campaign strategies are UNWITTINGLY SUPPRESSING voter turnout.  Such behaviors are likely to help Trump get re-elected in 2020.

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org