• zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      hexbear
      58
      6 months ago

      I'm old enough to remember a guy running around the country promising "Hope" and "Change", claiming that we need a popular people-powered revolution to bring about sweeping economic reforms, and advocating for a large grass-roots organization to overturn a stagnant and deteriorating national regime.

      That guy was absolutely full of shit and walked away from all the cool rhetoric as soon as he was sworn in (twice, because god forbid some bow-tie nerd question whether you followed the rules). But fuck, it was fun to believe better things were actually possible.

      • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]
        hexbear
        52
        6 months ago

        the thing i remember is believing he was genuine right up until the moment he nominated biden for vp. i held out hope for a little while that it was a ploy to manipulate party leadership, and then he just never closed guantanamo, and started bombing weddings and hospitals and pine nut farmers. but i recall a solid couple of weeks i thought things could turn around.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          hexbear
          44
          6 months ago

          Back in 2008, I honestly had no idea why Biden's nomination was significant. He looked like a sop to the centrists rather than a broker for the plutocrats. In retrospect, I probably should have known better. But I was high on that "Anybody But Bush" drug, and Obama seemed like a far more attractive option than Clinton (nevermind McCain). So Biden didn't bother me until much later on.

          he just never closed guantanamo, and started bombing weddings and hospitals and pine nut farmers

          Yeah. The Gitmo thing in particular was just so nauseating. After all that Unitary Executive bullshit Bush had employed with abandon, it seemed downright trivial for a decent human being with Presidential authority to finally lance and drain that shameful sore on the American conscience. But year after year, long after the whole Congressional do nothing charade had turned into a sick joke, he just kinda organized another commission to question the logistics of thinking about the legality blah blah blah.

          Literally all that asshole was good for was another package of excuses. Absolutely worthless piece of shit.

          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
            hexbear
            31
            6 months ago

            When Dems whine about DeSantis I like to remind them that he got started in GITMO. Obama was such a fucking failure. I remember when talking about climate change he brought up how his daughter was very distressed and her friends had questions and she wanted to know what to say. I am sure he thought his answer was salient because he repeated it. It was some bullshit about "well if we can't avoid 2C we will try to keep it under 3C.

            The man basically told his daughter that we are fucked and asking for an unfucked future was meaningless. I can understand saying that to a child you don't know Ala Feinstein but saying it to your own kid is a special kind of fucked up.