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I hear you on voting but we had Obama in place for eight years and we did next to nothing as a country on climate change. At best, we took some incremental step
by edgefield0 7y ago
I hear you on voting but we had Obama in place for eight years and we did next to nothing as a country on climate change. At best, we took some incremental steps that were totally insufficient.
- blacksqr 7y agoI agree with you on Obama, but every time voting is brought up on HN, there is an immediate responsive implicit assumption that voting for president is the only kind of voting that exists. Americans have opportunities to vote on many levels of government. All those votes have a potential effect on policy. One woke vote for president is not going to counteract all the other bad votes or non-votes. Obama would have done a lot more if his feet had been held to the fire by a more progressive Congress. But climate action opponents took control of the House in the very next election, effectively ending Obama's chance to take significant action.
- smt88 7y agoObama may have done more than you think, but it's true we didn't do nearly enough. My comment was about voting for your local, state, and congressional legislators, though. A president doesn't (and shouldn't) have unilateral power to mobilize the country against climate change. Congress controls the money and the laws, and it was never that liberal under Obama.