• octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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    8 days ago

    The fact that someone can post this without at all reflecting on the fact that democrats have been in power for 12 of the last 16 years and the average american is worse off than they’ve ever been.

    That really doesn’t look at the entire picture. Don’t get me wrong, Dems are hotrodding it to the right and their response to trump seems to have been to abandon anything left of center and ratchet their party and the entire country to the right.

    However:

    Since 1981 Democrats have had control of the Presidency and Congress a whopping 4 years. One 2 year period under Clinton and one under Obama. That’s without factoring in the ability to fillibuster in the Senate. In over 40 years they’ve only had control 10% of the time.

    and

    That period of filibuster-proof control during Obama’s term is why we have the ACA. It was ~70 days and they passed the largest healthcare overhaul in generations.

    Repurposing a comment from @[email protected] because they said it so succinctly.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      And I don’t remember under Clinton because it’s been to long, but under Obama, you had Democratic senators like Joe Donnelly who was very much GOP-lite (hence getting elected in Indiana), including being anti-abortion. So it was no different then when Manchin made it to the senate a couple of years later.

      Obama could never have done things like codify Roe v. Wade or pass a more robust healthcare reform and people who think he could have are not looking at reality and just think, “his team won so he could have gotten whatever he wanted and he blew it.” It’s only slightly less ignorant than the idea that the president controls gas and food prices.