Thursday, June 30, 2022

Obama And Biden, Minus Biden


If you go on a rant, it might as well be a righteous one. Early in the video below, TYT's Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian note that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has defended President Obama's decision not to urge legislative action to enshrine reproductive rights.  Uygur recognizes that unlike many Democrats (most, he believes), Ocasio-Cortez "doesn't take corporate cash- she's not influenced by that and I don't think she's at all corrupt." 

However, Uygur's focus is not on the New York congresswoman because

All of the progressives in Congress including Bernie Sanders is hat they get brainwashed by Washington. The minute you step into Washington, they tell you the most important thing to do is to kiss Democratic ass and if you're not kissing Democratic ass 24/7, you will be tarred and feathered and that part is true. You will be tarred and feathered, the mainstream media will  viciously attack you and say that every problem that the Democrats have is your fault.

Although Ocasio-Cortez has "fought more than all of them,"

There's good progressives that fight on some issues but they are still under the spell of Washington. They live in that toxic culture and they believe in a deference to authority on Biden and Obama.

He continues

You think A.O.C. would call Obama a liar. Not one progressive in Congress would ever call Obama a liar. They would call that the rudest, most offensive thing ever. Women's rights being flushed down the toilet a little less offensive in Washington? No, I'm not exaggerating or joking. If you called Obama a liar in Washington, that would be considered a thousand times more offensive than Roe v. Wade being overturned; a thousand times more offensive.

In fact, here I'll make a prediction. For you at some point, some Democratic operative and everyone in mainstream media will even use this exact clip to attack me and any ally of mine and say "can you believe that he dared to call the beloved and angelic Barack Obama and Joe Biden liars? How do you?"

My own prediction, a safe one, is that Cenk Uygur will not be returning to MSNBC any time soon. Democrats don't defer to authority only as pertains to (Democratic) presidents.  We Democrats defer to legal authorities, such as the former federal prosecutors on cable news networks who the past few years have been implying doom for Donald Trump. Or the lawyers appalled at racial bias in policing and unquestioning of the black lives movement who defend every jury decision, for the defendant or the state, and never question America's terrible jury decision.

I digress, but only barely because a naive deference to authority is the common thread in much of Democratic politics. Uygur argues this instinct is applied to "the beloved angelic Barack Obama and Joe Biden." But in so doing, he gives Joe Biden too little, or too much, credit.

Among both Democratic professionals and the Democratic street, Joe Biden is not in the same category as is Barack Obama.  President 44 is in a class of his own.  Despite the damage it can do to Democratic electoral prospects later this year- and the absence of a clear and credible successor- party people have been leaking to the media their lack of confidence in Biden being the party's standard-bearer in 2024.  Under no circumstances would this ever have been done to Barack Obama. Never.

On a positive note, there is no divide between those professionals and rank-and-file Democrats on the issue of Barack Obama. He is not to be criticized. witness the defense of his presidency by, of all people, the leader of The Squad, who pleads "The Democratic Party/voters simply did not have thee votes or solidity on this issue that they do now and swing voters weren't willing to support reliably pro-choice policies until very recently." 

Ocasio-Cortez's defense is legitimate but glosses over the reality of eight years of a Democratic President who chose to do less than he could have. From  his perspective, however, there was no real reason to govern otherwise. He was- and still is- Barack Obama, and to the powers and the voters in the Democratic Party, little else has been necessary.



 




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