Dylan Mathews now argues that whatever you think of this presidency it will go down in history as one of the most consequential-and that he is the most successful Democratic President since LBJ.
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/26/8849925/obama-obamacare-history-presidents
It's something of a minor quibble but I do think that Clinton was an important President who put the Democratic party back on the map. Prior to Clinton the GOP had 5 of 6 elections, 4 by total blowouts where they picked up at least 40 states and over 400 electoral votes.
Starting with Clinton's big win in 1992, the GOP has won the popular vote just once. I do think he laid the ground work. However, Mathews point was about liberal legislative achievements and on this, there's no question that Obama has the most to hang his hat on since LBJ.
Mathews talks about how often it is not appreciated how much he did achieve in passing Obamacare-and beating back now 2 major SJC challenges. Hes right and by the way, with all due respect to Bernie Sanders, I don't know that we needed to hear him on Rachel Maddow that night demanding Medicare for All.
I'm not saying that isn't desirable but can we just say that this leftist attitude of what Sinatra once sung of 'All or nothing at all'
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/sinatra-all-or-nothing-at-all
is totally wrongheaded? In Maine all the firebaggers managed to give us was Paul Lapage being elected twice despite being in the opinion of many the worst Governor in the country.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-drive-emoprogs-crazy-say.html
I'm just saying. In 2010 we had the Right wing demanding that ACA legislation be scrapped and that we go back to the drawing board and start over. What was very interesting is this is exactly what Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake was also saying.
She didn't simply say the bill must be improved she said 'Start over.' That looks very intelligent now. There is just no excuse for this. Anyone who argued in this way on the Left was sabotaging healthcare for all Americans.
What they never seemed to get is that Social Security was far from universal when it was first passed-in fact it had far less reach than the ACA did right off the bat. SS initially only covered about 5% of Americans-why weren't there more? FDR didnt' believe there was the political capital to do this right away.
Yet in time it expanded. Indeed, with the ACA states can if they want expand to Medicare for all now. Obamacare has nowhere to go but up.
You'll hear the Obama haters of the Left signing from the very same hymnbook as the Right that ACA has been a failure because there are still 25 million uninsured ignoring that there were previously over 50 million uninsured previously. What all those who seemed to want Obama to do a mind meld ignored was that there is a Congress.
A very recalcitrant one that the Dems still have to figure out a way to send home. My sense of the future continues to believe that the next 20 years are going to be years of real machine gun like conflict with a Right wing that simply can't accept the social and political changes of this country. The Dems have pretty much locked up the Presidency but what do they do about Congress and the state level?
How do they beat back the voter id laws, teh gerrymandering all the chicanery the GOP gets up to when it's in power. At this point we have to admit that there is a signficant minority in the country-about 1/3 not at all happy with the progress being made by the 2/3. They don't like where the country is going and are determined to throw a monkey wrench in it by hook or by crook.
As William F. Buckley put it to 'Stand athwart history and yell stop!'
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/223549/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr
He wrote these words in 1955 and we can't deny that he's seen a lot of successes in the last 60 years.
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-American-Conservative-Thought-Twentieth/dp/0672512408/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435431959&sr=1-1&keywords=buckley+dream+walking&pebp=1435431959740&perid=10QV8DKNTSAJ4DEJAWXT
Still the trouble with being a conservative means you're always in sudden death. You can beat back the winds of social change 5 times 10 times, 50 times, 100 times, but if it gets through on the 101st time there's still no consolation prize for you.
Today this large minority of conservatives no longer has the numbers to win the Presidency-though they don't admit this to themselves. That's another trouble with being a conservative. Unlike progressives you find it very unpleasant to admit you were wrong. After all if you're fallible then how can you be so certain that the social changes you are decrying really will be the death of us?
They have about 1/3 of the country. It can't take the WH but it can gerrymander and write voter id laws in conservative states. It has been very successful during the Obama years at the state level. This is something the Democrats still need to get a handle on. Eventually they will but it probably won't be till the 2030s that they really will be able to declare victory.
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/26/8849925/obama-obamacare-history-presidents
It's something of a minor quibble but I do think that Clinton was an important President who put the Democratic party back on the map. Prior to Clinton the GOP had 5 of 6 elections, 4 by total blowouts where they picked up at least 40 states and over 400 electoral votes.
Starting with Clinton's big win in 1992, the GOP has won the popular vote just once. I do think he laid the ground work. However, Mathews point was about liberal legislative achievements and on this, there's no question that Obama has the most to hang his hat on since LBJ.
Mathews talks about how often it is not appreciated how much he did achieve in passing Obamacare-and beating back now 2 major SJC challenges. Hes right and by the way, with all due respect to Bernie Sanders, I don't know that we needed to hear him on Rachel Maddow that night demanding Medicare for All.
I'm not saying that isn't desirable but can we just say that this leftist attitude of what Sinatra once sung of 'All or nothing at all'
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/sinatra-all-or-nothing-at-all
is totally wrongheaded? In Maine all the firebaggers managed to give us was Paul Lapage being elected twice despite being in the opinion of many the worst Governor in the country.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-drive-emoprogs-crazy-say.html
I'm just saying. In 2010 we had the Right wing demanding that ACA legislation be scrapped and that we go back to the drawing board and start over. What was very interesting is this is exactly what Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake was also saying.
She didn't simply say the bill must be improved she said 'Start over.' That looks very intelligent now. There is just no excuse for this. Anyone who argued in this way on the Left was sabotaging healthcare for all Americans.
What they never seemed to get is that Social Security was far from universal when it was first passed-in fact it had far less reach than the ACA did right off the bat. SS initially only covered about 5% of Americans-why weren't there more? FDR didnt' believe there was the political capital to do this right away.
Yet in time it expanded. Indeed, with the ACA states can if they want expand to Medicare for all now. Obamacare has nowhere to go but up.
You'll hear the Obama haters of the Left signing from the very same hymnbook as the Right that ACA has been a failure because there are still 25 million uninsured ignoring that there were previously over 50 million uninsured previously. What all those who seemed to want Obama to do a mind meld ignored was that there is a Congress.
A very recalcitrant one that the Dems still have to figure out a way to send home. My sense of the future continues to believe that the next 20 years are going to be years of real machine gun like conflict with a Right wing that simply can't accept the social and political changes of this country. The Dems have pretty much locked up the Presidency but what do they do about Congress and the state level?
How do they beat back the voter id laws, teh gerrymandering all the chicanery the GOP gets up to when it's in power. At this point we have to admit that there is a signficant minority in the country-about 1/3 not at all happy with the progress being made by the 2/3. They don't like where the country is going and are determined to throw a monkey wrench in it by hook or by crook.
As William F. Buckley put it to 'Stand athwart history and yell stop!'
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/223549/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr
He wrote these words in 1955 and we can't deny that he's seen a lot of successes in the last 60 years.
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-American-Conservative-Thought-Twentieth/dp/0672512408/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435431959&sr=1-1&keywords=buckley+dream+walking&pebp=1435431959740&perid=10QV8DKNTSAJ4DEJAWXT
Still the trouble with being a conservative means you're always in sudden death. You can beat back the winds of social change 5 times 10 times, 50 times, 100 times, but if it gets through on the 101st time there's still no consolation prize for you.
Today this large minority of conservatives no longer has the numbers to win the Presidency-though they don't admit this to themselves. That's another trouble with being a conservative. Unlike progressives you find it very unpleasant to admit you were wrong. After all if you're fallible then how can you be so certain that the social changes you are decrying really will be the death of us?
They have about 1/3 of the country. It can't take the WH but it can gerrymander and write voter id laws in conservative states. It has been very successful during the Obama years at the state level. This is something the Democrats still need to get a handle on. Eventually they will but it probably won't be till the 2030s that they really will be able to declare victory.
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