The perpetual advice to Democrats is that moving rightward will solve all their problems. But look where the party is at the moment: already embracing Republican affect and policies, yet still losing.
I voted for Obama in 2008 for exactly this reason, that was his platform. Then I watched from my hospital bed in 2010 (partial colonectomy due to diverticulitis) while they (the House and Senate) voted it down. I don’t know if he/they was/were corrupted by pharma money after the fact, or if he/they ever intended to follow through to begin with.
In the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, he quotes Obama where he makes the excuse that having Medicare for All would leave 3 million insurance workers out of a job. That would be like stifling the proliferation of electric lighting because of the impact it would have on the whaling industry.
The d’s have been actively disallowing progressive agenda to come into fruition. Someone(s) in the party was not allowing Obama to move forward with the plan.
The dems could have taken him off all committee assignments and had the AG go after he and his family’s financial misdeeds unless he played ball. They could have included it in budget reconciliation. They could have simply changed the rules to allow them to break filibuster with 50+vp. They chose to let Lieberman stop them.
The public option was there to be bargained away. They never intended to enact it. Joe Lieberman had to play the part of the opposition since the republicans are too racist to ever bargain with a black president.
Lieberman was reviled by the party after that. Trying to act like he was some kind of avatar of the Democrats is revisionist history. The party literally primaried him out and he had to run as an independent. He spent the rest of his life whining about how mean Democrats were to him.
I voted for Obama in 2008 for exactly this reason, that was his platform. Then I watched from my hospital bed in 2010 (partial colonectomy due to diverticulitis) while they (the House and Senate) voted it down. I don’t know if he/they was/were corrupted by pharma money after the fact, or if he/they ever intended to follow through to begin with.
In the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, he quotes Obama where he makes the excuse that having Medicare for All would leave 3 million insurance workers out of a job. That would be like stifling the proliferation of electric lighting because of the impact it would have on the whaling industry.
The d’s have been actively disallowing progressive agenda to come into fruition. Someone(s) in the party was not allowing Obama to move forward with the plan.
The public option was killed, specifically, by Joe Lieberman. Not the Democratic party as a whole, or Obama.
The dems could have taken him off all committee assignments and had the AG go after he and his family’s financial misdeeds unless he played ball. They could have included it in budget reconciliation. They could have simply changed the rules to allow them to break filibuster with 50+vp. They chose to let Lieberman stop them.
The public option was there to be bargained away. They never intended to enact it. Joe Lieberman had to play the part of the opposition since the republicans are too racist to ever bargain with a black president.
Lieberman was reviled by the party after that. Trying to act like he was some kind of avatar of the Democrats is revisionist history. The party literally primaried him out and he had to run as an independent. He spent the rest of his life whining about how mean Democrats were to him.
He was primaried before that happened. That’s why he played that part.