The American left will be reborn under President Trump

[rainbows_]

Clintonian-centrism was defeated in November, but attempts to repeal Obamacare show the Republicans are weak and divided. Now is the time for the left to craft a populist alternative.

Donald Trump is now the most powerful man on Earth. You would expect the American left to be despondent; it’s not. The left is stronger than it has been for decades

Comments

[meadowphoenix]

my mother’s healthcare has gone up even though Obama campaigned on this stuff.

This is why we have to understand that the left isn't incredibly fact-reliant either, thought the right has abandoned facts completely. Yes, premiums went up. And they would have gone up higher without ACA, so not only did the ACA help people, it diverted worse outcomes. However, that is apparently useless and too complex to campaign on.

[maynardsong]

IA. And people's unwillingness to see nuance is one reason the far left hates Hillary. And it pisses me off even more than the GOP, to be perfectly frank.

[fka]

right, because hillary loyalists just know SOOOO MUCH about nuance

[amyura]

This.

[evildevil]

https://www.healthcare-now.org/blog/obama-for-single-payer-before-he-was-against-it/

Single Payer. Obama could have done it if he had the balls for it.

[meadowphoenix]

Honey, they're all for single payer. Clinton, Obama, probably Biden, if the latter two had any leaked speeches.

But, "if he had the balls" is an interesting and useless statement. So give me more details. How many Dems did he have for single-payer for sure? How many could he have convinced? Set it up for me.

[evildevil]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom-harkin-obamacare-single-payer-blew-it

When Obama entered office first he was the most popular President at the time. He could have bullied the blue dogs to either support a single payer or primary them out of existance. He could have used LBJ's playbook to crush anyone who stood in his way... he didnt... and the GOP could smell the weakness as a result. he is always this way, Obama has to always play it safe. If you dont see that I dont know what to tell you.

[meadowphoenix]

Okay, first, I don't disagree that this was super conciliatory towards insurance companies. That's a fair criticism, regardless of whether he should have pushed for single-payor. That doesn't change the fact that this ~liberal dude isn't especially fact-reliant here, but fair criticism

[evildevil]

You are making it sound like what I am asking is impossible. Trump is President, and the GOP repealed Obamacare. The impossible happened. Something tells me if Obama had called the base to push and add some pressure on the GOP a lot could had been done or at least it could have build the road for the next person to finish it, walk over the dems and the GOP all together to get shit done, hell Trump was using twitter to get shit done before taking office. If it takes losing the healthcare bill to save the debate at the time, at least Obama could have come out like a champion for the people and he could have try and try again. THe GOP tried to repeal Obamacare houndreds of times, that's not normal and they still got it done. I am done of excuses, if the GOP/Tea Baggers can act as extremists to get what they want, why cant the Dems do the same? Why? The Dems have to be the sane Party? The more grown up? THe more realistic so people would vote for them in the next election because they are more appealing, or is it because they lack the

[meadowphoenix]

Lmao, you think this scenario was impossible? Before we started getting real polling numbers, this scenario was likely. You had an administration with mixed economy numbers, which historically has meant full party change. And that's on the base, who, as I said, doesn't do facts as well as they think they do. (Do you also know how many times this has happened before? Girl, how the fuck do you think people felt after Nixon and Reagan won? What discernible difference is there between repealing Obamacare and gutting civil rights legislation?)

You know what the fuck I'm tired of? I'm tired of people pretending that progressive issues sell as easily as conservative ones. That there is no discernible difference in the way people respond to them. That Republicans didn't have a ton of non-politicians go around and trick people for decades. That they didn't have extremely politically active non-elected officials. That they didn't sell out everyone they could. That the refusal of people to stay politically active wasn't an issue.

[backincharge]

He wanted to but the democratic controlled Congress was more conservative at that time. Obamacare barely passed.

[evildevil]

I am done with compromises. Now we have nothing.