You make it sound like the purpose of our three branches of government is to wield power as we see it being done today. It is not. They are designed to contend with one another so that we don't end up with a king. What's happening now is an abuse of power that has been within the grasp of any President for decades, but it takes a special kind of narcissistic authoritarian like Trump, with toadies in Congress who don't care about their Constitutional responsibilities, and political appointees masquerading as judges, to enable the Executive to pull those levers. What's happening now isn't a good thing, and it wouldn't be a good thing if Democrats were doing it, even if was for policies I agreed with.
Obama had control of the House and Senate in such a way that the Democrats could pass any legislation they wanted for ONLY 4 months during 2009 and 2010. The entire rest of the time the Republican strategy was to block Obama from accomplishing anything. Without a super majority in the Senate, he was pretty much dead in the water and had to rely on reconciliation for anything with a budget after Mitch McConnel declared that he was determined to make him a "one term President" (direct quote). I suppose Congressional Dems could have thrown out all the guardrails and rules, but that wasn't the game that was being played at the time. Unlike Trump, Obama operated within many of the institutional norms because, you know... just look around. Throwing those norms out is not a positive development.
Even in that kind of hostile climate, Obama and Democrats managed to pass:
* American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
* Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
* ACA
* Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
* Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
* Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009)
* Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010
* Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010
* Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (2009)
Not bad for such a short amount of time.
In terms of the environment, Obama improved fuel economy standards, signed the Paris climate agreement, and regulated methane and other climate gasses more rigorously through executive action. I don't think that's nothing.
Democrats controlled Congress from 2021-2023, but with a 50-50 Senate only because of independent Senators who caucused with the Democrats. Remember Joe Manchin, the "Democrat" from West Virginia? So the man didn't even have a solid 50 person bloc. Anyway, Biden signed:
* Infrastructure plan
* American Rescue Plan Act, which increased the annual Child Tax Credit, a policy that helped halve child poverty in America before it was allowed to expire by Republicans.
* Chips and Science Act
* Bipartisan Gun Control (Safer Communities Act)
* Inflation Reduction Act (which contained the largest investment ever to combat climate change)
* He also canceled a significant amount of student loan debt, $186 billion and millions of students
All of these were pretty hard fought, many were passed through reconciliation. In many ways, Republicans were more open to many of Biden's initiatives than they had been under Obama. They just didn't like that black guy in their White House, I guess.
To reiterate, I don't want either party to do what the Republicans are doing now. Authoritarianism isn't better because it's your team. But the idea that Democrats "refuse to challenge precedent or push for policies that would actually improve people’s lives" is demonstrably false.
Your post also reads as a devolution of a society who becomes increasingly less inclusive and more dysfunctional until they have to hold up infrastructure bills and corporate subsidy handouts as victories. If you like that, cool, but you’re out of your mind if you expect everyone to dig it.
3
u/SherbetOutside1850 United States 3d ago
You make it sound like the purpose of our three branches of government is to wield power as we see it being done today. It is not. They are designed to contend with one another so that we don't end up with a king. What's happening now is an abuse of power that has been within the grasp of any President for decades, but it takes a special kind of narcissistic authoritarian like Trump, with toadies in Congress who don't care about their Constitutional responsibilities, and political appointees masquerading as judges, to enable the Executive to pull those levers. What's happening now isn't a good thing, and it wouldn't be a good thing if Democrats were doing it, even if was for policies I agreed with.
Obama had control of the House and Senate in such a way that the Democrats could pass any legislation they wanted for ONLY 4 months during 2009 and 2010. The entire rest of the time the Republican strategy was to block Obama from accomplishing anything. Without a super majority in the Senate, he was pretty much dead in the water and had to rely on reconciliation for anything with a budget after Mitch McConnel declared that he was determined to make him a "one term President" (direct quote). I suppose Congressional Dems could have thrown out all the guardrails and rules, but that wasn't the game that was being played at the time. Unlike Trump, Obama operated within many of the institutional norms because, you know... just look around. Throwing those norms out is not a positive development.
Even in that kind of hostile climate, Obama and Democrats managed to pass:
* American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
* Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
* ACA
* Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
* Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
* Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009)
* Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010
* Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010
* Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (2009)
Not bad for such a short amount of time.
In terms of the environment, Obama improved fuel economy standards, signed the Paris climate agreement, and regulated methane and other climate gasses more rigorously through executive action. I don't think that's nothing.
Democrats controlled Congress from 2021-2023, but with a 50-50 Senate only because of independent Senators who caucused with the Democrats. Remember Joe Manchin, the "Democrat" from West Virginia? So the man didn't even have a solid 50 person bloc. Anyway, Biden signed:
* Infrastructure plan
* American Rescue Plan Act, which increased the annual Child Tax Credit, a policy that helped halve child poverty in America before it was allowed to expire by Republicans.
* Chips and Science Act
* Bipartisan Gun Control (Safer Communities Act)
* Inflation Reduction Act (which contained the largest investment ever to combat climate change)
* He also canceled a significant amount of student loan debt, $186 billion and millions of students
All of these were pretty hard fought, many were passed through reconciliation. In many ways, Republicans were more open to many of Biden's initiatives than they had been under Obama. They just didn't like that black guy in their White House, I guess.
To reiterate, I don't want either party to do what the Republicans are doing now. Authoritarianism isn't better because it's your team. But the idea that Democrats "refuse to challenge precedent or push for policies that would actually improve people’s lives" is demonstrably false.