Originally published at: The Gift Barack Obama Gave to Donald Trump - TPM – Talking Points Memo
This excerpt is running in TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. The optimism and euphoria that was so widespread when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 has long ago soured. Both in international relations and in the virulent politics that has erupted since 2016 in almost all the older democracies and many of…
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I agree with some, but not all, of the observations/conclusions drawn here. One in particular, which I think is worth noting:
“FDR is instructive here as well. In his first term, he was frequently frustrated by a Supreme Court that struck down major pieces of New Deal legislation as unconstitutional, including minimum wage legislation, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act that gave relief to struggling workers and farmers. Following Democratic gains in the 1934 midterms and his landslide reelection two years later, FDR proposed expanding the Court to defang it. The plan was eventually rejected by Congress, but in the interim the Court backed down, upholding legislation that previously had been in doubt such as the Wagner Act and the Social Security Act, and reversing its previous rejection of state minimum wage laws. American politics always involve mixes of cooperation and conflict, but if you keep cooperating when your adversary does not, you are asking to be played for a sucker.”
[Emphasis added]
Sometimes, a mere threat is enough–especially to bullies and cowards. Perhaps we’ve stopped making use of threats unless we’re sure we can carry through on them; history suggests we might want to rethink that. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary boldness.
Just MNSHO.
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If Obama was more aggressive, he would have had to fight not only Republicans and Fox propaganda but the Clinton Democrats. Clinton finished his term as an effective and efficient Republican administrator, cutting welfare and balancing the budget, getting small government bills passed that a Republican President might not. Obama would also have to acknowledge that Clinton probusiness, antiregulation of Financial Services and Silicon Valley boosterism were the cause of the 2008 crash, when combined with the Bush II antipathy to financial oversight and ignoring financial danger signs for two terms.
Obama did not have the confidence that FDR’s wealth and social status provided. Perhaps only a rich and powerful man could have done the New Deal. If a poor man tried it, it would be seen as a socialist revolution. FDR had no illusions about big Capital and he clearly understood that if left to their own devices they would run the country into the ground: plantations and wage slaves. Sounds like a good book.
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Reforming the Court is definitely a worthy goal, but legal historians know from the work of William Leuchtenberg that the Supreme Court’s “switch in time that saved nine” actually preceded FDR’s Court-packing plan. It’s in his book The Supreme Court Reborn. (Unless somebody can point to a subsequent revision.)
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The House of Lords - er - senate - traps every Senator into believing comity and decorum are both necessary and good. As we have seen over the last 10 years, that mindset is no longer valid, if it ever was.
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Signaling willingness to cooperate with adversaries who have no intention of cooperating with you is bound to be seen as weakness. Sensing blood in the water, they will go after you
A lesson that still hasn’t been internalized…
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lol, believe this at your own peril, its been along time since i have heard so much bare-faced lying..i had no idea REPUBLICANS could lie so easily…the last time i heard such ‘off the wall’ lies was when my kids were very young and i caught then with the peanut butter smeared on their hands…however,they never expectd me to bleive them..now, the trumpf lies are hurting real people… desantis has curtailled the info in FLORIDA, but the local web sites has people begging for food or a place to live…i don’t know if they are scammers or not,FLORIDA i scammer heaven…
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oh well, as they used to say.! in that picture, the background looks like the AMERICAN WHITE HOUSE.. ivy on the mantel..etc…now’ it looks like a russian whore house’ read this on Blue Sky..lol., an apt description?
He could have at least tried, right?
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And no mention of the role Obama’s raced played. Shackles do not make for easy maneuvering. Especially with this generation of Republicans. That said, if a Democrat wins in 2028, they’d be well advised to consider this history.
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Would also add here that Obama also capitulated on his SCOTUS nomination. Not that Garland would have been much of a step up from the goons we ended up with, but the point was just reinforced. Capitulation only leads to more brazen acts from one’s adversaries. Particularly, the cretins that comprise the Republican party.
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