Obama warns about going too far left

[Morphine Prince 109,654]

Former President Obama cautioned the crowded Democratic 2020 primary field from moving too far to the left, saying voters could be turned off by messages calling for massive societal and government transformations.

"Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality," Obama said at a meeting of fundraisers, according to The New York Times, which was in attendance at the event. "The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it."

The former president cited health care and immigration as issues where certain proposals from 2020 contenders, none of whom he mentioned by name, may be beyond the pale for many voters.

His comments could be implied as critiques of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who have called for a "political revolution" and "big structural change," introducing policies that would eliminate private health insurance and place a moratorium on deportations. 

Obama, who is still widely liked among the Democratic Party faithful, recognized that 2020 candidates would have to move beyond his White House's platforms, but that there could be a limit to how far left the contenders' plans could go. 

"I don't think we should be deluded into thinking that the resistance to certain approaches to things is simply because voters haven't heard a bold enough proposal and if they hear something as bold as possible then immediately that's going to activate them," he said. 

Obama has expressed worries in the past that the 2020 field could be too liberal, saying in April that progressives could be adopting purity tests.

"One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States - maybe it's true here as well - is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I'm sorry, this is how it's going to be,' and then we start sometimes creating what's called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues," he said at the time. "And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens."

[Didymus 34,380]

I mostly agree with him but... ugh. "Reality" is a very vague reference. I think he's right in general but I also think he should propose what would work instead of simply joining the sh-t on the left train that's so popular these days.

I mean, what? Obama's idea of reality was drone bombing more people than Bush? Committing war crimes is part of the game? That's all very problematic. In fact, most people have chosen for a more "extreme" left exactly because classic "leftist" figures like Obama have completely and shockingly failed to uphold any real leftist values in practice. So... I don't know. Not sure what to think of that kind of rhetoric now.

[JevyDuty 2,961]

I think he's talking from personal experience with the whole one-payer system  fight with health care reform that he never got even with supermajorities in both chambers of congress.

That's the reality.

[Gov Hooka 8,008]

He needs to sit his centrist ass down and shut the **** up. 

[Othon 34,299]

He's only pushing this defeatist language because the left in the US is undergoing a real resurgence and his brand of "progressive" centrism that involved bombing innocent people in the Middle East and caging Mexican immigrant children at the border isn't going to be tolerated anymore.

My favorite take on this nonsense:

[MJHolland 12,725]

1 minute ago, Gov Hooka said:

He needs to sit his centrist ass down and shut the **** up. 

The ungratefulness jumped out.

Obama has been the most liberal leader this county has had this century/since most of us were born.

[Othon 34,299]

2 minutes ago, JevyDuty said:

I think he's talking from personal experience with the whole one-payer system  fight with health care reform that he never got even with supermajorities in both chambers of congress.

That's the reality.

He gave away the public option before negotiations even began, he made concessions to republicans for years and ended up with zero conservative votes for the ACA to show for it. He chose to pander to conservatives in some foolhardy attempt at bipartisanship. Better things are possible when we fight rather than unilaterally disarm before the battle even begins. That's the reality.

[Morphine Prince 109,654]

I’m tired of the “too far left” narrative when the Republican Party is one of the most extreme right wing parties in the Western world. 

They managed to win with nationalist rhetoric that even bothered traditional Republicans. 

[Othon 34,299]

5 minutes ago, MJHolland said:

The ungratefulness jumped out.

Obama has been the most liberal leader this county has had this century/since most of us were born.

..."He's not as bad as Bush or Trump" is an insanely low bar to clear.  

He bombed countless brown kids in the Middle East, was silent when the Native people at Standing Rock were fighting corporate greed that was going to (and DID) poison their water supply, caged children on the border and deported millions of immigrants. Totally reasonable that the left wouldn't embrace someone with that record.

[PunkTheFunk 125,703]

So now we're attacking Obama?  Good luck in 2020

[Gov Hooka 8,008]

6 minutes ago, MJHolland said:

The ungratefulness jumped out.

Obama has been the most liberal leader this county has had this century/since most of us were born.

And a right shame that is for our country, that his brand of centrist policymaking including terrible foreign policy is the most liberal in American presidential history. I’m not grateful for his continued subtle attacks on the thriving progressive movement of this country. It’s clear he’s trying to prop up his good buddy Joe. 

[Gov Hooka 8,008]

3 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

So now we're attacking Obama?  Good luck in 2020

Considering he’s launching attacks on the progressive movement, yeah his presidency had a lot of wrongs that need to be addressed and never repeated by any democrat presidential candidate aka not Harris or Biden

[Othon 34,299]

3 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

So now we're attacking Obama?  Good luck in 2020

1. He's attacking the left.

2. Why do you, a Canadian, keep coming into these threads to lecture Americans farther to the left than you? 

3. And why do you think it's unacceptable to criticize a president that obliterated Libya, murdered countless civilians in Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan with drones, facilitated arms deals to Saudi Arabia, a country in the midst of committing genocide in Yemen, supported a right-wing coup in Honduras, and deported 3 million people? Are we supposed to just forget that that all happened?

[RAMROD 117,023]

He warns against y'all, Little Bernsters. Hope y'all know it.

[Mistress Dita 331]

20 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

So now we're attacking Obama?  Good luck in 2020

For real. A ****ing mess