this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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I agree in the importance of real progressive policy and messaging to match, but I very much disagree with your assessment of Obama's 2008 campaign. Obama ran as a Rorschach candidate, allowing voters to imprint whatever they wanted to see. (Not unlike Trump in some ways.) It was a good strategy for a Democrat in 2008, but that ship has sailed. Potential Democratic voters are past believing in empty rhetoric.
No, there was a ton of progressive actions he promised during the primary, from withdrawing from Iraq earlier than Bush's plan to prison reform and cannabis legalization to healthcare.
The ACA was based on a right wing healthcare plan from the Heritage Foundation, the same think tank that just brought us Project 2025. It was hardly a progressive plan, yet it was perfectly compatible with what he ran on. I don't see anything about cannabis legalization in the 2008 platform.
Iraq is all over the place, but that was an obvious thing to campaign on given how unpopular it was. Even so, the only real promise made was to withdraw from Iraq to free up resources to send into Afghanistan, so it was more of a strategic plan than a progressive shift.
Obama's campaign gestured in a lot of directions to give everyone something to be happy about, but it carefully avoided real commitments to anything. That's what allowed voters to imprint their own ideas onto his campaign. It really was masterfully done.
In any case, even if he was vague about specifics, most people voting Obama believed they were voting for progressive policies that would help them.
By failing to deliver material improvements to the conditions of their constituents, they decreased turnout in 2010 and 2016. People reelect politicians that help them.
We can definitely agree on the reasons his presidency faltered. Even 2012 was pretty sad given his blowout in 2008.