In 08 I was a little too young to be politically active but I always understood that Obama convinced a ton of people that things were gonna change, and was able to put a friendly face on the American Empire.
Nowadays theres definitely a lot of people just happy that the orange man is off the television, but sleepy joe has negative charisma and hes already doing really bad with the stimulus bill and is openly refusing to reverse trump policies like closing the camps.
Am I accurate in this or am i just trapped in my commie safe space?
this time in 2009 the mood was still pretty excited about Obama and the possibility of a public option
from where I'm sitting nobody thinks anything good is gonna happen now
By March we were past the point he appointed his ghouls to the treasury and fed. The libs were still happy but the mask had definitely dropped
This administration sucks but it's leagues better than the flaming train wreck of 2009. People really do not remember how shitty and conservative the Democrats were in 2009 compared to now. Obama bragged about putting three Republicans in his cabinet, the most nominees from the opposing party of any president in history. Imagine if Trump just let the Democrats run one-seventh of the government for no reason.
At this point in 2009 Obama had asked Bush's defense secretary to retain his post in Obama's administration. Imagine if Biden had just told the Trump guy "hey you're doing a great job wanna stick around." Rahm Emanuel was Chief of Staff. Larry Summers, a right-wing austerity hawk, was Obama's top economist. Eric Holder, A Reagan appointee who defended Purdue Pharma, was the attorney general. Arne Duncan, a notorious union-busting school CEO ran Education. None of those ghouls (except Eric Holder) would be confirmable today because the left is powerful enough to block them.
The Democrats of 2009 would not have passed anything close to resembling Biden's covid relief bill, which was still not enough as it was. The Democrats, while still not nearly left enough, have moved leaps and bounds to the left of where they were in 2009. It is not Biden apologia to admit this. In fact, it is Obama apologia to deny it.
Biden has done so much more to help people than Obama. Even the paltry ass shit he has done. Worlds better than Obama. Obama immediately bailed out Wall Street and bankers to the detriment of homeowners. Biden is good on trans rights so far.
Yes, foreign policy wise, Biden sucks, but one strike is different than Obama’s continuation of the wars. Honestly I think we pay too much attention to one minor strike and not enough attention to crippling sanctions on Iran and Venezuela that have caused many many more deaths and much more misery that Biden could unilaterally wipe away and has not
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Rescue_Plan_Act_of_2021
Also worth noting that by the end of 09, Obama announced a surge in Afghanistan. God knows what Biden's surge will be, maybe even another surge in Afghanistan.
Here's something interesting too, it's a stunt by the Yes Men
https://vimeo.com/129322969
You'll note that they mention how the media is saying how Obama needs to return everything to normal. This shit has all happened before my dude.
Obama's campaign promised change. They were mealy mouthed enough so that you could fill in the gaps yourself. People expected to end the war, do healthcare, and other stuff. But almost immediately it began to go the other way. I mean I guess at least Biden is as-is. They didn't put much effort in pretending to change things.
Totally forgot about the Yes Men. Did a quick search and saw that they’re still up to their on-brand antics too.
There are big differences in attitudes towards spending. The stimulus back then was 900B because they were cautious about inflation
The current Covid bill is 1.9T and there is supposed to be an infrastructure bill also being passed with budget reconciliation this year, also in the trillions.
The change to child tax credits mean that parents universally get it, there are no work requirements attached to it. That's another change in attitude. Earlier you had to make money to have taxes to deduct so the tax credits were useless to many
This take misses the mark a bit, that talking point was towards stimulus spending that would help normal Americans, not the bailouts, which Obama went all in on without helping homeowners who had been fucked over by predatory lending
Not saying you’re wrong overall
that talking point was towards stimulus spending that would help normal Americans, not the bailouts,
What do you mean?
Economists on both sides (like god damn larry summers in the Obama White House) were going and saying direct assistance to people was inflationary and not necessary but bailing out corporations was necessary
ah yeah for sure. That's what I'm getting at, the consensus with economists today is that the 2009 stimulus was too small in hindsight since there was such low inflation. So the approach Biden is taking is he would rather go too big than too small
Larry Summers is still against a big stimulus though be thankfully he is not in the White House
Yeah on the 1.9T thing, there's actually a recent clip of Biden like, super vaguely criticizing Obama for the 900B, which is the reason Democrats got so absolutely fucked
The recent story where the First Dogs are getting sent away for attacking a staffer feels like such a far fall from grace compared to Obama's perfect image
What? His stimulus package makes Obama’s look like pocket change. And most of that is going to the poor.
