Bernie Sanders on Joe Biden (Time Mag 100 Most Influential)

[swag]

https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096002/

BY BERNIE SANDERS
SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 7:15 AM EDT

In the midst of a horrific pandemic, economic collapse, grotesque levels of income and wealth inequality, racial tension, extreme-weather disasters and dangerous attacks on American democracy, President Joe Biden came into office with a willingness to think big, not small.

Joe Biden and I have strong disagreements, but it must be acknowledged that he is the first President in a very long time who is attempting to address the fundamental crises facing our nation. In doing that, Biden is restoring faith among ordinary Americans that their government can work for them, and not just for wealthy campaign contributors.

Biden’s bold American Rescue Plan created a strong vaccine program that will save tens of thousands of lives, alleviate hunger and homelessness, reduce the child poverty rate by more than half and help revitalize the economy. Now, through two unprecedented pieces of legislation—the infrastructure bill and the budget resolution—he is leading the effort to create millions of good-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, address the long unmet needs of working families and tackle the existential threat of climate change. I look forward to working with President Biden on these transformative efforts

[Scrivener7]

1. Did Obama not attempt to address the fundamental crises facing our nation? I thought he did.

[TheRealNorth]

2. Just a thought...

When Snotty Walker was facing a recall election because he gutted public sector unions (except for police and fire), Obama stayed away because his handlers feared Obama might be tarnished by backing a losing cause. I mean, Republicans back bat-shit crazy people in elections all the time and never worry about the "optics" if they lose.

While some may feel that the attack on organized labor as a "crisis", it is important and indeed a crisis to some of us in the progressive wing.

I liked Obama, but that doesn't mean I have complaints or issues with some of the actions (or inactions) he took.

[Scrivener7]

3. So you don't feel Obama addressed the crises facing our nation?

Because he didn't handle one situation the way you wanted him to?

That's how "the progressive wing" sees it?

[Moebym]

4. Yes, that is exactly how the progressive wing sees it

In their mind, Obama was a letdown.

From the moment he won the election, he had to tone down the lofty "hopey-changey" language that appealed so much to his base and behave more like the leader of the entire country. However, his base still expected him to fully live up to the stratospheric expectations his campaign had set. Another fact the progressives overlook is that he had come into the job as a young-ish Black man with limited experience in national politics - giving him virtually no pull with the long-time lawmakers whose support he needed to get his legislative priorities passed. (That's where Biden's 36 years as a Senator came in, of course, but Obama was still the boss.)

He was able to turn the economy around, rescue the flagging auto industry, pass the monumentally important ACA and finally get same-sex marriage legalized nationwide, among other things, but to the progressives, what he failed to achieve mattered more than what he did achieve. The lack of a public option in the final ACA bill and his failure to completely solve the 400-year-long issue of entrenched racism in this country in eight years made him a so-so president at best and an abject failure at worst.

This issue rankles me because someone I used to consider a friend went from a Hillary volunteer in 2016 to a Twitter-radicalized "f**k Obama" and "I'm not voting in 2020" Democratic Socialist in the space of just a few years. (This is a guy who hardly followed politics at all prior to 2016.)

[Scrivener7]

6. All of this.