So, Kyle Kulinski covered Obama's rally today for the democrats, and I think he hit on some really key points that I think really need to be brought to focus here, since this is important, and it's why the democrats are losing this election, and why the democrats have been in the crapper since 2016. Because, regardless of Obama's actual presidency, which was mediocre, Obama was a populist who knew how to campaign and reach people. Obama is a significant influence in me shifting to the left, after all, and with him gone as the democratic party's main frontrunner, I feel like the party has suffered immensely.
Obama was, in 2008, to many people, what we later saw in Bernie Sanders and even Andrew Yang. He was the guy who was going to come in and fix everything, and he actually had a mandate to do it. I remember looking at the left in 2008 the way i view in right in 2022. Basically, we're screwed. They're going to win, and there's nothing we can do about it. Our side is crapping the bed hard. And they are so in their own little world, they couldn't reach and appeal to people. I remember McCain being a cringe candidate no one really wanted, but everyone accepted because what else can we do? And then, as the right radicalized in the Obama era, I found myself abandoning them outright and shifting hard left in the process. Obama won me over. He told it like it was, and how he was helping unemployed people keep their homes and while the right was just giving tax cuts to the rich.And you know what? He PERMANENTLY shifted me to the left in the 2012 election cycle. A huge reason I am not on the left was Obama's 2012 election appeals. And it's something the democrats have struggled to replicate since, and right now they really look like hot garbage.
I'm not saying obama was perfect. In 2014, I looked at things the way I look at them now. I saw a left that had run out of steam, that was demoralized, and that just missed all the right notes. And it was because Obama seemed to stop fighting for the right things. As I said, Obama should've been out there screaming "GIVE ME A CONGRESS" instead he just sat there like "well democracy is hard work", refusing to call out the right. And as a result, he lost.
Obama also, as Kyle said in his video, had the mandate to be the next FDR, but instead was the next Bill CLinton. And that centrism helped no one.Maybe it won me over temporarily, in 2011 and 2012 as the GOP proved to be insane and unreasonable, but i quickly shifted left during obama's second term, coming to the social libertarianism I still support now by 2014.
And by 2016, the democrats hit ALL the wrong notes. As HRC was poised to win with her "it's her turn" attitude and generally being centrist, the magic was GONE. Obama won me over in 2012, and it was working class populism that did it. It wasn't identity politics. Identity politics was present in 2008, it alienated me. It was present in 2016 and later, and well, just look at the dems now. And centrism doesnt do much. In 2012, Obama was doing things. Even if he was moderate, he could claim he got the ACA passed, as imperfect as it was. And he got massive expansions for unemployment too, which ultimately led to my UBI obsession in the first place.
The fact is, in 2016, I feel like people wanted MORE of obama's populism. And someone who actually would have expanded on it. Someone like, say, Bernie Sanders. The Obama to Sanders pipeline is actually obvious, as I listen to Kyle talk about Obama's rhetoric. He was the OG populist and he was party realignment material. Nixon had the southern strategy, but it was Reagan who capitalized on it turned it into an enduring coalition. Likewise, Obama was like our Nixon, and Sanders could have been our Reagan. But because the democrats fought their own base so hard on sanders and pushed clinton on us, they completely screwed up the moment.
People will go back and forth, and i expect this in coming years, wonder if anything would've gone differently if Clinton won in 2016. I'd argue no. Because she had zero enthusiasm behind her. The party would've imploded like it's doing now under Biden. And given COVID in 2020, I think that the dems would be DONE right now and trump or similar candidate would've won in a literal landslide. Maybe they'd be rebounding in 2022, but at the same time, it's possible that the right somehow pulled a reagan out of their hat. They are much better at politicking than centrist democrats are.
And that's the big problem. As I notice how the right seems to have this "teflon don" aspect to them while the left gets flak for ANYTHING, i've noticed a huge double standard in American politics where people are largely forgiving to the right, but tend to be highly critical of the left, and it's messaging. The right is spinning everything as the problem of the democrats. But when the right is in trouble, their attacks are nowhere near as effective. Obama was literally the only serious threat to the modern right in the modern era and it took them doing everything they could to actively derail him to stop left wing ascendency in the country. And because the democrats that came after decided to go more centrist without the populism, and bringing back identity politics, they just started losing elections again. This is the weak centrist left of the 90s again. And it's replacing the results of the 90s, where we once again have a strong right wing, and a weak left wing. The democrats have pushed to go abck to that, than to actually have a left that hit back.
Honestly? This is why i keep saying it, but the left needs a bit of a populist flair. it doesnt have to be crazy left. Thats another issue that the left has. Obama's populism was still liberalism. It was social liberalism, but it was liberalism. And Bernie, despite the socialist appeals, actually was just talking social democracy in practice in 2016. I feel like the modern progressive left misses this. Since 2016, because the left lost, the left that has remained left has gotten extremely radical. And I could only follow them so far. The modern left left is almost like the comic book left I opposed as a conservative. The stereotype of the "feminazi" and the pink haired social justice activist. All the flagrant race baiting which ends up just turning off white males. The mentality of "hating America" like the "anti war" left has recently. And now you got people advocating for literal marxism too. It's a joke. This stuff is never gonna fly with the bulk of the american people. It's TOO far left, and it's too out of touch.
Ultimately, Americans care about their pocketbooks. And so did Obama, and that's why he could appeal to people. if you push for ideas that help the average american voter, you will get votes. My whole ideology is based on this. Let's have a UBI, universal healthcare, and free college. And I feel like my ideology tries to avoid the pitfalls that many American voters hate. I avoid, and at this point, openly condemn the social justice stuff. I try NOT to race bait, instead, mention my ideas in a colorblind sense of winning everyone over. Because you know what? The last thing you wanna do is come off as the dude who wants to help all the racial minorities at the expense of white middle class people. Keep in mind much of america's opposition to social programs circa 1980-2016 came down to dog whistle politics that amounted to that kind of mentality toward them. But that's exactly what the social justice left sounds like sometimes. And that might win democratic primaries, which skew heavily toward POC and centrists, but it tends to alienate literally everyone else. And no, people aren't racist, they voted for the black guy who gave them unemployment, they just won't vote for the people who want to help SOME americans at the expense of themselves. On foreign policy, i dont think americans have a set ideology. If anything they lean kind of isolationist. Because again, they ultimately care about their pocketbooks. They want intervention when it benefits them but otherwise they wanna be left alone. Maybe an attack on the homeland like 9/11 will send them into a blood frenzy for a few years, but generally speaking, they wanna be kept out of stuff. If it's across the ocean, it doesnt affect us, is their mentality. So we should be noninterventionist, but we should still back up say, Ukraine and defend Europe's territorial integrity since its pretty obvious the last time we played isolationst over there it didnt go well for us. And on social issues, I honestly think most americans dont really care. They want to be left alone to do their thing, and they hate authoritarians. Any side that comes off as wanting to police americans is the side that loses. The right ultimately lost the cultural battles during the late 2000s and 2010s because people realized that their politics dont help them. So what if gay people get married. So what if women get abortions, doesnt affect me. But they do care when the left screams at them that theyre racist and sexist and privileged if they dont buy into the social justice stuff. Still, the cause isnt completely lost with the left. I do recall, at least for a couple months the country was up in arms over abortion rights being taken away, before the creeping concerns about crime and inflation came back. And why are they seen as top issues? Because they're perceived as important. Inflation is eroding peoples' spending power and making it harder to afford essentials, and crime is making people feel unsafe. And if anything drives people to authoritarianism, its fear of others harming them. Again, it's why we went nuts after 9/11, and it's why people are freaking out over crime. As more robbings and shootings happen, people become concerned about crime.
But again, most people just tend to vote for whomever gives them the best quality of life. They want to prosper, they want to be left alone, and they hate being asked to do things for the greater good or whatever. My ideology and platform does attempt to provide a left wing answer to that, and while i will, occasionally, take swipes at the public for being overly selfish or missing the forest for the trees, like over covid, or forcing people to work for cheap middle class luxuries, all in all, I do understand that an important part of winning elections is keeping the population happy.
But the democrats in recent years have done a crap job at this. They've tried to force hillary on us despite no one wanting her. They did the same thing with biden, and then biden couldnt do much, and now we're screwed as inflation and crime destroy the left's credibility and the left seems overly obsessed with wokeness and ideological purity with no clear benefit for the people. It's frustrating. And I honestly think this is why the democrats are losing. They only won because trump was unpopular, and now that they are in control and cant govern worth a crap, the left is losing big time and the right is gaining ideological ground to the point it almost looks like we're about to repeat the reagan revolution. Which is the worst outcome possible for us. Seriously, I aint posting my final predictions until closer to this weekend, but I looked at the senate recently, and yeah, we're gonna lose that too. And it aint even fetterman that's the cause, he's still a scant 0.3% ahead of Oz last I looked. It's Warnock looking to lose to walker that's the problem. This is just a bad year for democrats all around.
Sadly, I did predict this. I kind of knew, if biden won in 2020, he'd govern so ineffectively that we'd be looking at an apocalpytic red wave in 2022, and despite him trying to do some last minute concessions to stoke voters (which worked for me but isnt working for everyone else), it seems like this is the final result. I did have hopes, in June and all, that the dems could reverse this. but whatever bump they got from the repeal of roe is gone, and we're back to this looking to be a terrible year for the left. To some extent it was inevitable, they just came to office at the wrong time, but to some extent, yeah they do deserve blame.
And that's where I think Obama's way of politicking is so important here. When I heard him speak here, I was back in 2012, like, yeah the GOP want to take away social security and medicare. Yeah, the GOP want to take away abortion rights. The GOP is nuts. And their agenda shouldnt be popular. And i honestly dont know, if they got into office and actually did this stuff, if they'd keep power, I suspect they would not. But, I do know that it's possible given the economic conditions, that if the GOP does win in 2022 and 2024, they'll have carte blanche the next few years, and if nothing goes seriously wrong with them, they might just get away with it where people keep referring back to the upcoming republican era of governance as the "good old days", like Reagan again.
We are so screwed.
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