7 ms·

Every time I hear one of these Bernie supporters talk, I want to remind them of Obama in '08. We thought Obama would be the guy to save the country this. But re

Every time I hear one of these Bernie supporters talk, I want to remind them of Obama in '08. We thought Obama would be the guy to save the country this. But reality is a lot more complicated than ideals. It's actually a bit like startups in that sense. You can have all the ideals you want but it doesn't matter a whit without execution.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
rdl 11y ago
This was mostly on GWB's watch.
- ZoF 11y ago
  What was mostly on GWB's watch? The parent doesn't imply that Obama was president when events in the article took place. Also; Trump 2016. Make America Great Again.
  - mikeyouse 11y ago
    I can't tell if that's a sarcastic Trump endorsement since he's one of the few candidates pledging to expand the surveillance state.. Trump said his position in favor of the NSA data collection had been the same since before last month's terrorist attacks in Paris, which stoked fears of international terrorism and revived debate over government surveillance measures. "I assume when I pick up my telephone people are listening to my conversations anyway, if you want to know the truth," Trump told Hewitt. "It's a pretty sad commentary." [..] Trump said Tuesday that he would be "fine" with restoring provisions of the Patriot Act to allow for the bulk data collection, something candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have also called for that was banned with the passage of the USA Freedom Act, which Cruz supported. "As far as I'm concerned, that would be fine," Trump said. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/261673-trump-sides-with-rubio-over-cruz-in-nsa-surveillance http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/26167...
x0x0 11y ago
The structure of the US government has an unusually high number of veto points. Presidents have, as opposed to similar positions in other countries, much less power to push their agenda. People who don't understand that change comes slowly in the US, and requires serious organization to push through the house and senate, are being silly and simultaneously sabotaging their ostensible goals. viz Obama supporters not voting in off-presidential year elections and hence crippling his ability to push legislation.
- lambdasquirrel 11y ago
  Well go ahead. All of you mod me down. But you cannot explain the executive Branch's response to Snowden. Did the Republicans in legislature do that? No. That was purely the administration's choice.
  - dang 11y ago
    > Well go ahead. All of you mod me down The HN guidelines ask you not to comment like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - bigufufhug 11y ago
      Lol, yet another example of selective moderation. Keep up the good work of harassing the pov you disagree with.
      - peterwwillis 11y ago
        Moderation is supposed to be selective. And a downvote is not harassment.
  - x0x0 11y ago
    The national security state has a lot of inertia. There's a long discussion to be had about what Obama's choices realistically were (and never forget I'd say there's at least a 50% chance the cia assisted in assassinating a sitting US president), but you seem more interested in the green lantern theory of the presidency. fyi I didn't mod you down
chippy 11y ago
> We thought Obama would be the guy to save the country this. But reality is a lot more complicated than ideals. People generally don't like being reminded that they have been duped into believing the hype, even when believing it was actually the best thing. It's also a human psychological trick that we cannot easily imagine what would have happened if we did not believe or did not have "hope". So there is fact that things didn't get rectified as much as promised, the fact that many people believed that would happen, and the probable actuality that things got much better than if they didn't believe.
sitkack 11y ago
It was pretty apparent in '08 that Obama wasn't going to _save_ anything. Obama, is, was and will always be a Statist. Everyone was exuberant for the removal of Bush and nothing more, the fact that he is considered black was just a bonus. In '12, it was literally the lesser of two evils.
flurpitude 11y ago
To his credit, Sanders has explicitly said that a president can't change the country singlehandedly and a grassroots political movement is needed to achieve any meaningful change. Any supporter who thinks electing him is the end of it isn't listening to his message.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

rdl 11y ago

This was mostly on GWB's watch.

ZoF 11y ago
What was mostly on GWB's watch? The parent doesn't imply that Obama was president when events in the article took place. Also; Trump 2016. Make America Great Again.
- mikeyouse 11y ago
  I can't tell if that's a sarcastic Trump endorsement since he's one of the few candidates pledging to expand the surveillance state.. Trump said his position in favor of the NSA data collection had been the same since before last month's terrorist attacks in Paris, which stoked fears of international terrorism and revived debate over government surveillance measures. "I assume when I pick up my telephone people are listening to my conversations anyway, if you want to know the truth," Trump told Hewitt. "It's a pretty sad commentary." [..] Trump said Tuesday that he would be "fine" with restoring provisions of the Patriot Act to allow for the bulk data collection, something candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have also called for that was banned with the passage of the USA Freedom Act, which Cruz supported. "As far as I'm concerned, that would be fine," Trump said. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/261673-trump-sides-with-rubio-over-cruz-in-nsa-surveillance http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/26167...

x0x0 11y ago

The structure of the US government has an unusually high number of veto points. Presidents have, as opposed to similar positions in other countries, much less power to push their agenda. People who don't understand that change comes slowly in the US, and requires serious organization to push through the house and senate, are being silly and simultaneously sabotaging their ostensible goals. viz Obama supporters not voting in off-presidential year elections and hence crippling his ability to push legislation.

lambdasquirrel 11y ago
Well go ahead. All of you mod me down. But you cannot explain the executive Branch's response to Snowden. Did the Republicans in legislature do that? No. That was purely the administration's choice.
- dang 11y ago
  > Well go ahead. All of you mod me down The HN guidelines ask you not to comment like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - bigufufhug 11y ago
    Lol, yet another example of selective moderation. Keep up the good work of harassing the pov you disagree with.
    - peterwwillis 11y ago
      Moderation is supposed to be selective. And a downvote is not harassment.
- x0x0 11y ago
  The national security state has a lot of inertia. There's a long discussion to be had about what Obama's choices realistically were (and never forget I'd say there's at least a 50% chance the cia assisted in assassinating a sitting US president), but you seem more interested in the green lantern theory of the presidency. fyi I didn't mod you down

chippy 11y ago

> We thought Obama would be the guy to save the country this. But reality is a lot more complicated than ideals. People generally don't like being reminded that they have been duped into believing the hype, even when believing it was actually the best thing. It's also a human psychological trick that we cannot easily imagine what would have happened if we did not believe or did not have "hope". So there is fact that things didn't get rectified as much as promised, the fact that many people believed that would happen, and the probable actuality that things got much better than if they didn't believe.

sitkack 11y ago

It was pretty apparent in '08 that Obama wasn't going to _save_ anything. Obama, is, was and will always be a Statist. Everyone was exuberant for the removal of Bush and nothing more, the fact that he is considered black was just a bonus. In '12, it was literally the lesser of two evils.

flurpitude 11y ago

To his credit, Sanders has explicitly said that a president can't change the country singlehandedly and a grassroots political movement is needed to achieve any meaningful change. Any supporter who thinks electing him is the end of it isn't listening to his message.