"Speaking with a candor he would soon be unable to afford, Mr. Obama directed his fire across the entire political spectrum. He denounced a broken status quo in which cynical Republicans outmaneuvered feckless Democrats in a racialized culture war, leaving most Americans trapped in a system that gave them no real control over their lives. Although his sympathies were clearly with the left, Mr. Obama chided liberals for making do with a “rudderless pragmatism,” and he flayed activists — with the civil rights establishment as his chief example — for asking the judiciary to hand out victories they couldn’t win at the polls. Progressives talked a good game about democracy, but they didn’t really seem to believe in it."
A Lost Manuscript Shows the Fire Barack Obama Couldn’t Reveal on the Campaign Trail
Can't wait to see what he does if he ever becomes a senator or maybe even the president. I hear that he is hiding his power level on the campaign trail! Imagine having this radical in power!
It’s truly amazing that liberals really denounced the civil rights movement as too radical lol
This isn't calling the civil rights movement too radical -- it's criticizing the strategy of relying on courts to grant rights instead of building a political coalition and obtaining rights legislatively. That's a fair criticism.
The criticism isn't that winning court cases has never done anything, and it's not that it's inappropriate in all circumstances. It's that we may be putting too many eggs in the impact litigation basket, the window when courts were even decently open to this stuff has closed and was an historical aberration, and even big legal wins badly need to be consolidated with legislative action (see Roe v. Wade, see schools remaining segregated long after the courts forbade that).
It can do plenty of good, but it's also a huge resource suck that in many ways overpromises and undelivers.
often times it takes someone who has some level of understanding of the game to play it and really crush it and that's exactly what obama did. his influence is still immense on the social and political spheres. he understands the role dems play and being 'feckless' is part of the character. obama was never serious about fixing anything but he can speak and articulate in a way that suggests he understands the overlaying dynamics but what makes him really an evil person to me is that he does it all in a calculated, conniving way. i think obama has been one of the most successful presidents of the last few decades purely on his ability to deceive and sway people.
for asking the judiciary to hand out victories they couldn’t win at the polls
It’s like the pieces of shit you’re allowed to vote for aT tHe PoLls won’t actually do anything once in power and lawsuits were the most direct mean to win these changes and cement them on precedent. Wonder why the Dems willingly ceded all judicial victories forward to the GOP and made sure that these victories were tied to something as infirm as precedent
