• AppleTea@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    Well, that’s clearly not the electoral environment we live in.

    If you want to win office, you do actually have to communicate a positive idea of the future. Obama didn’t win by saying, “I’m gonna continue basically all of George W. Bush’s policies”. Even though that’s what he actually did, he still had to campaign on something a little more marketable than, “I’m not the other guy”.

    • finitebanjo@piefed.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      Obama was way more effective at diplomacy than Bush, he managed to recover us from the 2008 financial crises, he introduced the 72 hour holding limitations for the ICE, and he effectively led the 58 DNC and 2 IND to pass Medicaid Expansion for tens of millions of Americans in the breif 60-ish day timeframe before the Republicans gained a 41st seat in special election.

      To say Obama was a continuation of Bush is akin to brain damage which prevents you from remembering what sort of president Bush was.

      • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        And he renewed the PATRIOT act, continued to use GITMO for illegal detention, and posthumously decided any male civilians killed by his drone strikes were actually combatants for reasons of because we want them to be.

        The real brain damage is pretending that a few differences completely negate the absolute mass of similarities and continuity between the two administrations.

        • finitebanjo@piefed.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          14 hours ago

          “A few differences” to the admin that fucking manufactured evidence to justify a full scale invasion of Iraq to the benefit of Exxon fucking Mobil.

          • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 hours ago

            And Obama could have tried to prosecute Bush for that! He chose not to. He chose to double down in Afghanistan. His administration gave a shiny liberal seal of approval to all the authoritarian advances made by Bush, rather than dismantle it. And now we have Trump taking advantage of those very same policies!

            • finitebanjo@piefed.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 hours ago

              There is no end to the number of people who could have tried to prosecute Bush, but placing the responsibility on their direct political rivals is just idiocy. No politician should be pursuing the imprisonment or trial of their competitors, even if you agree that the competitor did commit horrible crimes, it should be somebody else’s responsibility.

              Obama did not pardon the Bush Admin.

              • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                3 hours ago

                The DOJ falls under the remit of the executive. If a former president were to be charged for their crimes, the sitting president would necessarily be involved.

                I suppose a charge could come from UN court of justice and ha lol like our leaders would ever allow that precedent to get set