this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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I've been wondering for a bit why during the time the Democrats controlled the legislature, executive, and judicial branches during Obama's first term in 2008 more wasn't accomplished. Shouldn't that have been the opportunity to make Row V Way law and fix the electoral college? I understand the recession was going on but outside of Obamacare getting passed which didnt go far enough it seems like they didn't really do much with all that power. Are there other important accomplishments from this time that didn't get the news they deserved? It seems like the voters have done their job in the past to elect people to fix things and yet we are still here begging people to vote to fix issues like abortion rights.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Mitch "Disassociating is my hobby" McConnel

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Too many people think the world can turn on a dime. It can't. Things take time.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago

Longer than four months anyway, which is how long dems had full control

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Also a very important point here was how much more non-political the supreme court was then. No one would ever consider Roe vs Wade could be overturned or even want it. There were generally agreed upon rules that the supreme courts and courts in general were populated with the most qualified people. Judge appointments were scrapped by gentleman agreements if the Senator from the state where the judge was from didn't support the nomination. Same if any of the non-partisan law associations said the person wasn't qualified enough. So most judges were well qualified and if they were more conservative or liberal wasn't as big of a consideration. There were plenty of "conservative" judges appointed judges nominated by democratic and vice versa. This all change with Mitch McConnell blocking Merrick Garland appointment to the supreme court who was suggested as the more moderate alternative. This lead to the hyper partisanship of the supreme court we see now with the trump appointees. This is why trust in the organization has eroded so fast. Since it all happened so fast and judges are acting much more politically instead of following law and precedent

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

To me, making political appointments for the judiciary always made this a possibility. It happened in the old days, and it might happen again. And it did.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Looks at the current SCOTUS roster, notices both Alito was appointed to the court in 2006, and Thomas was appointed in 1995 (after a huge sexual harassment fiasco no one seems to ever bring up any more). Finds their records are even worse than the Trump appointments.

Nope, sorry doesn't line up...

The gross politics of the GOP started with Nixon, and was driven to overtime after they lost power when Clinton took office by Rush Limbaugh, Murdock, and the like. That was the real turning point. Where we are is a progression to the GOP going more and more radical, but the seeds were always there. Honestly, I think Roe stood for so long because they weren't stupid enough to actually appeal it back then.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 months ago

Because in a two party system both parties are just sides of the same coin.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Because back then the democratic party didn't really tow the party line as well as republicans. They've gotten better at it, but still behind. When the R voted NO in unison on most things championed by Obama, D couldn't be relied upon to counter with enough YES votes. The party was too fractured, and while they still kind of are, they at least present a somewhat unified front nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I disagree with your premise. The 111th Congress got a lot done. Here's a list of major legislation.

  • Lily Ledbetter Act made it easier to recover for employment discrimination, and explicitly overruled a Supreme Court case making it harder to recover back pay.
  • The ARRA was a huge relief bill for the financial crisis, one of the largest bills of all time.
  • The Credit CARD Act changed a bunch of consumer protection for credit card borrowers.
  • Dodd Frank was groundbreaking, the biggest financial reform bill since probably the Great Depression, and created the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, probably one of the most important pro-consumer agencies in the federal government today.
  • School lunch reforms (why the right now hates Michelle Obama)
  • Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP or SCHIP): healthcare coverage, independent of Obamacare, for all children under 18.
  • Obamacare itself, which also includes comprehensive student loan reform too.

That's a big accomplishment list for 2 years, plus some smaller accomplishments like some tobacco reform, some other reforms relating to different agencies and programs.

Plus that doesn't include the administrative regulations and decisions the administrative agencies passed (things like Net Neutrality), even though those generally only last as long as the next president would want to keep them (see, again, Net Neutrality).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Thanks for this info. I always kinda felt like I must be missing something. That is a significant amount of stuff to get done especially in the face of the insane amount of filibustering the Republicans did during this time that others pointed out. I mean I still wish more was done but it gives me hope that if we can somehow weather the storm of fascists that some good legislation can be passed in the future even in the face of opposition.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not to mention this was the first 2 years, the years an administration is typically least effective.

If Biden gets years 4-6 with a democrat majority in the house and senate it will be a big deal.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not to mention he got that all done with a majority that was actually "guaranteed" to be able to do stuff for all of a few weeks, during which his senate majority actively sabotaged Obamacare from being a public option healthcare act, because fuckin Manchincrats just have to be the singularly most determined to be killjoy assholes on the face of the entire fucking planet

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Joe Lieberman was his name, while he did not act alone, I'll always remember he took the public option from us.

Also he founded No Labels, the "Unity" party that does not have a platform, but does have billionaire donors

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Because "control" doesn't mean much in the Senate unless you have 60 votes to break a filibuster.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

And that they'll actually follow through with breaking that filibuster,

Fuckin' Manchin and Sinema, the fuckin' bootlicking little tagnuts.

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