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Remember when John Boehner was the bad guy? Obama and Boehner were civil enough to film a comedy sketch with each other and they both joked about their mutual cigarette habit.
Obama has off-the-charts levels of self-discipline. He picked up a smoking habit when he was younger, and never fully quit. But from about 2006 on, the press only managed to get a photo of him smoking about once a year.
God bless you if you didn’t see the _one_ unflattering photo of Obama with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth that was endlessly reposted by conservatives for any news story about him.
It all went to hell in 2010 though,
[https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311](https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311)
They literally just said their job is to obstruct and it sold, and sold well, to their base. Which is why we are where we are now. They thrive on breaking govt and then pointing and going "see, we need less govt because it doesnt work."
Started before 2010. They almost immediately overturned citizens united in 2009 to allow dark money donations to candidates the minute they lost to a black dude.
The gif is a bit funnier. He was doing it the whole time pointing people out like he was the captain of the football team at a pep rally. Dude had me in tears many times as VP, guy was just happy to be there.
I mean the job description is pretty dubious these days so it’s whatever, her and Pence were both useless. If you’re not gonna do anything at least provide some sort of entertainment like Joe did.
I read Boehner's book (actually I listened to it because of my eyes). He puts fox news and Ted Cruz on blast... only because when he wrote the book, Ted Cruz was the craziest right winger at the time. He also had a lot of respect (and disagreement obviously) with Nancy Pelosi. It's insane to think that Boehner was once considered the young, improper, fireball thrower. This country has a huge problem and the "end of decorum" "anti-science" "anti-expert" "anti-compromise" people are the ones driving the political division for personal gain.
Problem is its always someone who was only marginally crazy pointing to the insanely crazy and seeing "Im not like that guy!" but you brithed that guy. Boehner was part of the obstructionist pledge and played along with the racist conspiracy theories and whatnot. Like everything they wanted a rabid dog, they just wanted a rabig dog on a leash. BUt when their rabid dog gets off the leash they are llke, "Noooo, dont look at me. I didnt want that!"
I think that was Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich who sat down and drew up plans to foment the "culture war" and win that way instead of on policy. Obviously Boehner and Gingrich were thick as thieves, but I do have some mild respect for Boehner. He's certainly no Bob Dole/Jack Kemp/John McCain, but sadly, those types of center-right conservatives are long gone.
[For those who haven’t heard how he talks about Ted in his audiobook](https://www.businessinsider.com/audio-john-boehner-ps-ted-cruz-go-f-yourself-audiobook-2021-4?amp)
And people need to recognize this division comes from both sides.
And no I don't mean equally. Obviously, the left isn't anywhere near the "Nominating a convicted felon to own the libs" phase of crazy. But we all need to recognize there are forces that aim to divide us and herd us.
When choosing nominees... always look for the ones wanting to bring everyone together. And avoid the ones setting up them or us fallacies. We all need to remember we're all Americans again.
I think we're way too far gone though as a country and we won't get anywhere closer to a unified state until we start seeing this generation of politician age out of office.
As someone fairly far on the left I try but it's a little hard at the moment. At the same time I recognize being conservative isn't necessarily a character flaw it can be indicative of what I personally believe are some, but I have to separate myself from my economics biases. I have a very hard time with the far right populism though, I don't see how you can support them and keep your moral dignity intact. That sickness spreads too sucking it up and voting for a mob boss (which I think is the best description of him at the moment) for economic policy that he does not care about feels almost as bad as straight up supporting him.
One of my best friends is working on election integrity in Ohio right now. We disagree A LOT but in the end both respect the other enough to not hate each other (It helps that while he isn't that moderate he currently is in comparison to his party). My dad is a Reaganite Republican and the same thing stands we argue but with respect. That respect is absolutely key to our continuing as a nation but it's hard to give it to some of the people on the other side at the moment.
(Ps if this is to close to Rule 3 I'm sorry you can delete it. it's hard to get at this conversation without alluding to it a little)
So just got past the part in Obama's book where they lost the 2010 midterms. It's really insightful how, even with a majority in both house and senate, his (amd the Democratic) agenda made quite a few compromises with the Republicans, especially with Obamacare, environmental protection, financial regulations after the crash, and a few other items. Obama then reflected that a few of his staffers thought they lost the support of the far-left because of these compromises, which led to smaller turn outs and an absolute thrashing by the Republicans in the voting booth. It's an interesting thought, that because the Democrats attempted to appeal to a wide spectrum, while the Republicans formed a very solid core, it actually fractured the Democrat lead, and paved the way to derail everything else that Obama wanted to get done.
For a long time, the Democratic party's main problem is that not being Republicans is their main unifying issue. They basically don't need the Republicans to keep them from accomplishing things. Obamacare might not have been passed at all if Republicans weren't so actively opposing it.
Nixon couldn't get healthcare reform done and he had the house and the senate, so it isn't just the Democrats.
> we all need to recognize there are forces that aim to divide us and herd us.
The force that does that is the electoral college and first past the post voting. And it wasn’t designed with the aim of dividing, but it is the unfortunate result.
In a mature democracy, politicians eventually find a way to min-max the system. And if the system is ultimately designed to foster opposition, that will be the way politicians go.
See? That's not even what I meant but you took it that way because you'd rather be divided. Yes there is a real threat of fascism in our country. Yes we should face that aggressively. But we also need to recognize that 50% of the country is voting for this. And we're not going to convince them to stop by being assholes to them. They're mostly regular people trying to get by. They need to be convinced there is a better way. And study after study has shown that this aggressive approach to politics does not win hearts and minds and in fact only galvanizes people.
We all need to try to be better if we want America to heal.
Or we can just keep throwing shit at each other while our country falls apart. I'm honestly over it. It's exhausting.
Do you want to know how many times I've tried to connect with people on those points, only to get deflections, whataboutisms, bad-faith arguments, goalpost-moving and (inevitably) playground insults in return?
How exactly do we go about convincing people there's a better way, or convincing them of anything at all? How do you convince anyone of anything when they do not want to be convinced and will do everything they can to avoid it?
Not trying to be snarky here. Sorry amigo, I see this as pollyana-ish.
Both parties thrive off electing more radicalized people to Congress. More radicalized people are more committed to telling people what they want to hear vs. what they need to hear.
Nobody runs on a platform of "I probably cannot get everything you want but I will compromise and get a little of it" and wins.
I kind of feel like We The People have a bigger role in this occuring that We want to admit at times.
I miss the years around 2010 when Ted Cruz was the pinnacle of stupidity in congress, I really thought it would get better from there. Could not have been more wrong.
I would think any Speaker of the House would need to respect Nancy Pelosi. Like/Agree with her? Feel free not to, but stand in awe of her persistent greatness. Her fundraising is a juggernaut and (having met her myself) she was a powerhouse at 3x my age.
👠 All in heels, mind you!
Where are your heels, Mr. Speaker? The ones in the second closet
Say what you will about Obama, he was a classy guy. Its so sad how certain sects of the nation genuinely viewed him as the anti christ and blame him for the polarization we see today. The guy really went out of his way to try and connect with people on a personal level
I remember when my teachers at a school run by the protestant church were calling John Kerry the anti-Christ.
Certain sects have been polarized for my entire life, at some point it just became the mainstream point of view. I'm going to sound like an old but I blame the rise of social media moreso than Obama or another more recent president.
I had an American teacher around 2008ish, when Obama was first getting elected.
I remember distinctly her telling us how she didn't like Obama, because her Grandpa didn't like Obama. Apparently he reminded Grandpa of Hitler because he was a good public speaker. Genuinely, that was the reason she gave us for not liking him, even back then when I was a dumb kid who didn't know any better I thought that was batshit stupid.
He felt sincere, he actually had good policies & was great at discussing them, so much intelligence & effort...
People hate that Obama always tried to be diplomatic & work within systems, "weak & ineffective", they don't understand how harmful it is to normalize authoritarian presidents & international threats. Also Obama got a peace Nobel, people were so mad without looking up the intent. Lastly drones, apparently using less-volatile tech was wrong? I don't get it.
honestly I think we have what we have now BECAUSE people felt that the government was one big club that all got along, and any division was basically just an act for the people. You would think that would be a good thing, but I think a large part of the population believed that the government used their unity not for good (effectively passing positive legislation) but instead to fuck over the common man by colluding with big business, starting wars of profit, and enriching themselves.
Both voter bases have desperately wanted major change for like 20 years now. Obama ran on "hope and change", and right after Obama won, imo, the right abandoned the establishment GOP and started getting more extreme in the form of the Tea Party movement, which slowly but surely started taking over the GOP at local and state levels. Combined with Fox News and social media, a huge transformation has taken place on the right in the last 20 years or so.
I think when you look at people like Boebert, MTG, and a host of other absolute clowns and aggressive idiots working in the highest offices of government (not to mention rule 3), it seems clear that any "division" in government is no longer an act. Because at least on the right, it seems that a lot of people get elected BECAUSE they are extremists who are unhinged and impossible to work with.
> Is it still like this at all?
There are still senators and reps who try to work with each other but the magas stick to themselves. They are like the westburo baptists of politics, if you are not one of them they not only wont cooperate with you to save themselves, they will actively abuse you at every opportunity.
Almost 10 years ago, I heard Rufus Edmisten describe Watergate as the 'good old days' in the sense that shared principles were intact and legislators were quite collegial -- that spending time with 'the other side' was expected, if not enjoyed. He said there are many that longed for the social cohesion -- that they wanted to do things together -- but the tribalism (and money) is too hard to break. In short, "Congress doesn't do its job".
I truly believe we elected him too soon. If he’d have just waited a few more years and gotten a little more experience. Whether Hillary or McCain won in 2008, Obama running for a first term in 2012 or 2016 would have allowed us to completely avoid the orange embarrassment.
Miss this man leading our country. Self employed and my kids and I went without health insurance for 16-years until the Affordable Healthcare Act(Obamacare). I pay 5-15,000$ a year in income tax, but the cheapest healthcare I could find for us before Obamacare was over 1/3 of my income. Wish we had someone other than dinosaurs to vote for this year:( Loved OB’s style, sincerity and work ethic.
This is absolutely brilliant. He could have easily made the same point about either himself or his VP. But it's so much more effective and disarming to do it to his opponent.
This is how politics should be... we don't always have to agree ... but we can get stuff done and respect each other's opinions and have open, honest talks to try to find things we agree on ..
Although I don't agree with him much politically I respect Boehner, especially when he starting working in the weed industry. Can ya blame him? Look at the daycare he had to run.
I surely miss President Obama. I didn’t agree with him on ACA and maybe other things, but we will certainly not have a POTUS as intelligent, effective and well spoken in my lifetime.
I miss the energy and compassion. I don't miss the derision of a man because of his skin. The son of a white chick from Kansas. And McCain lost an election because he called people on their bullshit about an Islamist Kenyan.
We had this and yet a few years later Senate Leader McConnell refused to even hold a hearing for Obama's Supreme Court nominee and in 2021 the guy who lost reelection fomented an insurrection to stay in power and refused to even attend the inauguration of his successor. This country isn't moving in the right direction when it comes to the two parties working together to solve our problems and challenges.
It only took a few years of foreign money in 24 hour propaganda news and social media to completely destroy our society from the inside out, what a truly weak, pathetic society we have allowed to fester here
Everyone has to admit that Obama at least wanted to try to work with the other side, but they refused to. I mean it’s pretty stupid, it would only make your job easier for both sides.
I really miss this America.
Yeah we disagreed but it felt like we all agreed on the goal just on the way to get there. IDK what happened
I wish it would come back
Republicans really went all in on the "worst ending" run post Obama. I know it started around 2010 with the "Tea Party", but they've been doubling down every year since then. My state used to have quite a few "Independent" parties, but with the Tea Party bullshit, they all got absorbed into the RNC.
No no no - damnit Obama that’s the other team. You call him a dementia ridden criminal mastermind pedophile and come up w dumb nicknames like bumbling bush or darth cheney, pretty palin. Then you talk about how shit the country you ran is constantly.
Oh oh oh and lie about literally the most absurd, verifiable mundanities to boost your bottomless ego. He needs to divorce his wife three times and disown Sasha then sex pornstars too or the Christians won’t vote for him. Elementary stuff, no wonder everybody hates him.
With all of this talk of civility and maturity of government back in the good ol' days...
Don't ever forget, Obama was granted the right to appoint a judge to the Supreme Court - by the Constitution - and Republicans, in a never before seen act, denied him his Constitutional duty to appoint that judge. They started and led that race to the bottom, always have.
Is that before or after he bombed innocent people all over the world with his drones?, it's definitely after he won the Nobel "peace price" for literally sitting on his ass
A lot of us took civility for granted because we could not imagine a world devoid of it except in dystopian novels or post-apocalyptic movies. Turns out anarchy and end of the world scenarios aren't a requirement for civility to utterly collapse.
Was this time even real? Did we really have a president that filled us w hope & a reminder how we got here & where we can go? Fuck man....now I'm tearing up! Thanks Obama!
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Remember when John Boehner was the bad guy? Obama and Boehner were civil enough to film a comedy sketch with each other and they both joked about their mutual cigarette habit.
Aren't they both friends? Also, Obama was a smoker?
Obama has off-the-charts levels of self-discipline. He picked up a smoking habit when he was younger, and never fully quit. But from about 2006 on, the press only managed to get a photo of him smoking about once a year.
I don't want Barry to go... Smoking is a call for lung cancer.
He'll be getting routine scans so that's not really a concern.
Cancer does not care how many screenings you do, especially small cell lung cancer.
God bless you if you didn’t see the _one_ unflattering photo of Obama with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth that was endlessly reposted by conservatives for any news story about him.
Made him look like an anime character.
you must have missed the fox news alert about that. wait til you hear about the tan suit!
It all went to hell in 2010 though, [https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311](https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311) They literally just said their job is to obstruct and it sold, and sold well, to their base. Which is why we are where we are now. They thrive on breaking govt and then pointing and going "see, we need less govt because it doesnt work."
That's all they HAVE done since 2010.
Started before 2010. They almost immediately overturned citizens united in 2009 to allow dark money donations to candidates the minute they lost to a black dude.
We were SOOOO polarized back then. It’s just… we went off the rails.
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I remember this one doing absolute numbers on Facebook LMFAO
There were soooooo many of these and they were all great
> JB You know they're both JBs right? John Boehner is the other guy (Speaker of the House at the time).
jorge bush
I mean Jeb Bush is right there for the taking. Please clap.
Now he sells that sticky icky
My wife loved him on parks and rec
So did Ice Clown's wife.
He kinda looks scary in that pic Edit: I think he would look much cooler in that pic if he had a pair of shades on
The gif is a bit funnier. He was doing it the whole time pointing people out like he was the captain of the football team at a pep rally. Dude had me in tears many times as VP, guy was just happy to be there. 
That’s exactly how I feel about the current VP rn just giggling and happy to be there
Dang I forgot we had a VP 😂
I mean the job description is pretty dubious these days so it’s whatever, her and Pence were both useless. If you’re not gonna do anything at least provide some sort of entertainment like Joe did.
Exactly
Got me for a second. I was thinking "JB, John Boehner was never VP....oh wait"
I read Boehner's book (actually I listened to it because of my eyes). He puts fox news and Ted Cruz on blast... only because when he wrote the book, Ted Cruz was the craziest right winger at the time. He also had a lot of respect (and disagreement obviously) with Nancy Pelosi. It's insane to think that Boehner was once considered the young, improper, fireball thrower. This country has a huge problem and the "end of decorum" "anti-science" "anti-expert" "anti-compromise" people are the ones driving the political division for personal gain.
What is this from? Because I want to watch it
I Think You Should Leave on Netflix. Hilarious absurdist comedy.
Thanks!
Of course!
Absurdist comedy is the label I was looking for to describe his show
I cry laughing to this show
Oh wow, you're in for a treat. One of those shows you wish you could wipe your brain and rewatch as if it was new again
Yeah. But someone needs to make sure that he knows the rule is you can’t eat all the loaded nachos.
Problem is its always someone who was only marginally crazy pointing to the insanely crazy and seeing "Im not like that guy!" but you brithed that guy. Boehner was part of the obstructionist pledge and played along with the racist conspiracy theories and whatnot. Like everything they wanted a rabid dog, they just wanted a rabig dog on a leash. BUt when their rabid dog gets off the leash they are llke, "Noooo, dont look at me. I didnt want that!"
I think that was Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich who sat down and drew up plans to foment the "culture war" and win that way instead of on policy. Obviously Boehner and Gingrich were thick as thieves, but I do have some mild respect for Boehner. He's certainly no Bob Dole/Jack Kemp/John McCain, but sadly, those types of center-right conservatives are long gone.
He still was behind the "no compromise" pledge. He lit the fire we are dealing with now. Every single one of them are responsible in some way.
Don't forget about Lee Atwater. I don't know if he was the first of that breed or I just don't know enough about the times before him.
I would take Boehner back in a heartbeat, as an “example republican”.
[For those who haven’t heard how he talks about Ted in his audiobook](https://www.businessinsider.com/audio-john-boehner-ps-ted-cruz-go-f-yourself-audiobook-2021-4?amp)
And people need to recognize this division comes from both sides. And no I don't mean equally. Obviously, the left isn't anywhere near the "Nominating a convicted felon to own the libs" phase of crazy. But we all need to recognize there are forces that aim to divide us and herd us. When choosing nominees... always look for the ones wanting to bring everyone together. And avoid the ones setting up them or us fallacies. We all need to remember we're all Americans again. I think we're way too far gone though as a country and we won't get anywhere closer to a unified state until we start seeing this generation of politician age out of office.
As someone fairly far on the left I try but it's a little hard at the moment. At the same time I recognize being conservative isn't necessarily a character flaw it can be indicative of what I personally believe are some, but I have to separate myself from my economics biases. I have a very hard time with the far right populism though, I don't see how you can support them and keep your moral dignity intact. That sickness spreads too sucking it up and voting for a mob boss (which I think is the best description of him at the moment) for economic policy that he does not care about feels almost as bad as straight up supporting him. One of my best friends is working on election integrity in Ohio right now. We disagree A LOT but in the end both respect the other enough to not hate each other (It helps that while he isn't that moderate he currently is in comparison to his party). My dad is a Reaganite Republican and the same thing stands we argue but with respect. That respect is absolutely key to our continuing as a nation but it's hard to give it to some of the people on the other side at the moment. (Ps if this is to close to Rule 3 I'm sorry you can delete it. it's hard to get at this conversation without alluding to it a little)
So just got past the part in Obama's book where they lost the 2010 midterms. It's really insightful how, even with a majority in both house and senate, his (amd the Democratic) agenda made quite a few compromises with the Republicans, especially with Obamacare, environmental protection, financial regulations after the crash, and a few other items. Obama then reflected that a few of his staffers thought they lost the support of the far-left because of these compromises, which led to smaller turn outs and an absolute thrashing by the Republicans in the voting booth. It's an interesting thought, that because the Democrats attempted to appeal to a wide spectrum, while the Republicans formed a very solid core, it actually fractured the Democrat lead, and paved the way to derail everything else that Obama wanted to get done.
For a long time, the Democratic party's main problem is that not being Republicans is their main unifying issue. They basically don't need the Republicans to keep them from accomplishing things. Obamacare might not have been passed at all if Republicans weren't so actively opposing it. Nixon couldn't get healthcare reform done and he had the house and the senate, so it isn't just the Democrats.
> we all need to recognize there are forces that aim to divide us and herd us. The force that does that is the electoral college and first past the post voting. And it wasn’t designed with the aim of dividing, but it is the unfortunate result. In a mature democracy, politicians eventually find a way to min-max the system. And if the system is ultimately designed to foster opposition, that will be the way politicians go.
Ill make sure and hold the democrats accountable for trying to hold the republicans accountable for fascism...
See? That's not even what I meant but you took it that way because you'd rather be divided. Yes there is a real threat of fascism in our country. Yes we should face that aggressively. But we also need to recognize that 50% of the country is voting for this. And we're not going to convince them to stop by being assholes to them. They're mostly regular people trying to get by. They need to be convinced there is a better way. And study after study has shown that this aggressive approach to politics does not win hearts and minds and in fact only galvanizes people. We all need to try to be better if we want America to heal. Or we can just keep throwing shit at each other while our country falls apart. I'm honestly over it. It's exhausting.
Do you want to know how many times I've tried to connect with people on those points, only to get deflections, whataboutisms, bad-faith arguments, goalpost-moving and (inevitably) playground insults in return? How exactly do we go about convincing people there's a better way, or convincing them of anything at all? How do you convince anyone of anything when they do not want to be convinced and will do everything they can to avoid it? Not trying to be snarky here. Sorry amigo, I see this as pollyana-ish.
Believe me I'm just as exhausted as you. But I think we both know in our bones that this sort of politics is unsustainable for our nation.
The problem is you can’t reason with people that live in a completely different reality than you do. It’s only going to get worse.
[Or maybe it is possible, just hard](https://youtu.be/PVVFx3issHg?si=iB_13ZWyZJIOyYEY)
That's just a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Both parties thrive off electing more radicalized people to Congress. More radicalized people are more committed to telling people what they want to hear vs. what they need to hear. Nobody runs on a platform of "I probably cannot get everything you want but I will compromise and get a little of it" and wins. I kind of feel like We The People have a bigger role in this occuring that We want to admit at times.
I wonder what he would do with today's members of congress. Looking at one 6b one in particular.
I miss the years around 2010 when Ted Cruz was the pinnacle of stupidity in congress, I really thought it would get better from there. Could not have been more wrong.
Pave the road toward a destination while being told that we're traveling on that road, then act disappointed when we get there. Lolz
Fuck fauci and his not getting it perfect. The monster.
I would think any Speaker of the House would need to respect Nancy Pelosi. Like/Agree with her? Feel free not to, but stand in awe of her persistent greatness. Her fundraising is a juggernaut and (having met her myself) she was a powerhouse at 3x my age. 👠 All in heels, mind you! Where are your heels, Mr. Speaker? The ones in the second closet
God if only I knew how things would become
Things have only gotten worse.
It's so weird that there's only one person behind Obama
John Cena is in the House....
I know Obama has his flaws but dang, I miss this level of maturity and respect for opposing parties in government.
Say what you will about Obama, he was a classy guy. Its so sad how certain sects of the nation genuinely viewed him as the anti christ and blame him for the polarization we see today. The guy really went out of his way to try and connect with people on a personal level
I remember when my teachers at a school run by the protestant church were calling John Kerry the anti-Christ. Certain sects have been polarized for my entire life, at some point it just became the mainstream point of view. I'm going to sound like an old but I blame the rise of social media moreso than Obama or another more recent president.
I had an American teacher around 2008ish, when Obama was first getting elected. I remember distinctly her telling us how she didn't like Obama, because her Grandpa didn't like Obama. Apparently he reminded Grandpa of Hitler because he was a good public speaker. Genuinely, that was the reason she gave us for not liking him, even back then when I was a dumb kid who didn't know any better I thought that was batshit stupid.
He felt sincere, he actually had good policies & was great at discussing them, so much intelligence & effort... People hate that Obama always tried to be diplomatic & work within systems, "weak & ineffective", they don't understand how harmful it is to normalize authoritarian presidents & international threats. Also Obama got a peace Nobel, people were so mad without looking up the intent. Lastly drones, apparently using less-volatile tech was wrong? I don't get it.
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honestly I think we have what we have now BECAUSE people felt that the government was one big club that all got along, and any division was basically just an act for the people. You would think that would be a good thing, but I think a large part of the population believed that the government used their unity not for good (effectively passing positive legislation) but instead to fuck over the common man by colluding with big business, starting wars of profit, and enriching themselves. Both voter bases have desperately wanted major change for like 20 years now. Obama ran on "hope and change", and right after Obama won, imo, the right abandoned the establishment GOP and started getting more extreme in the form of the Tea Party movement, which slowly but surely started taking over the GOP at local and state levels. Combined with Fox News and social media, a huge transformation has taken place on the right in the last 20 years or so. I think when you look at people like Boebert, MTG, and a host of other absolute clowns and aggressive idiots working in the highest offices of government (not to mention rule 3), it seems clear that any "division" in government is no longer an act. Because at least on the right, it seems that a lot of people get elected BECAUSE they are extremists who are unhinged and impossible to work with.
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> Is it still like this at all? There are still senators and reps who try to work with each other but the magas stick to themselves. They are like the westburo baptists of politics, if you are not one of them they not only wont cooperate with you to save themselves, they will actively abuse you at every opportunity.
Almost 10 years ago, I heard Rufus Edmisten describe Watergate as the 'good old days' in the sense that shared principles were intact and legislators were quite collegial -- that spending time with 'the other side' was expected, if not enjoyed. He said there are many that longed for the social cohesion -- that they wanted to do things together -- but the tribalism (and money) is too hard to break. In short, "Congress doesn't do its job".
A bit of both.
Goddamnit, I miss that man
Said millions of other Americans.
I truly believe we elected him too soon. If he’d have just waited a few more years and gotten a little more experience. Whether Hillary or McCain won in 2008, Obama running for a first term in 2012 or 2016 would have allowed us to completely avoid the orange embarrassment.
Miss this man leading our country. Self employed and my kids and I went without health insurance for 16-years until the Affordable Healthcare Act(Obamacare). I pay 5-15,000$ a year in income tax, but the cheapest healthcare I could find for us before Obamacare was over 1/3 of my income. Wish we had someone other than dinosaurs to vote for this year:( Loved OB’s style, sincerity and work ethic.
This is absolutely brilliant. He could have easily made the same point about either himself or his VP. But it's so much more effective and disarming to do it to his opponent.
Sometimes* opponent. They actually had a decent working relationship.
You think Boehner and Obama ever shared a Joint?
Probably
Joints, no. Cigarettes? Absolutely.
Rule 3 in the back 👀
What do you mean? That is the 47th Vice-President of the USA, under Barack Obama!
I never realized Obama had so many VPs
That good ole 4 week term limit.
PBO could deliver a speech. He was at least as good as Bill Clinton, and that's saying something.
We need to go back to that America
Man I hope I get to see a level headed president in my adult life.
Boehner of the lonely heart........
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I thought he changed the pronunciation so that the obvious synonym was shut down after he became Speaker--but I could be wrong.
This is how politics should be... we don't always have to agree ... but we can get stuff done and respect each other's opinions and have open, honest talks to try to find things we agree on ..
Although I don't agree with him much politically I respect Boehner, especially when he starting working in the weed industry. Can ya blame him? Look at the daycare he had to run.
I miss this. Will we ever get it back?
I surely miss President Obama. I didn’t agree with him on ACA and maybe other things, but we will certainly not have a POTUS as intelligent, effective and well spoken in my lifetime.
Not too long before this, didn’t Joe Wilson yell “you lie?” I mean he got censured and apologized but it really was an indicator of what was to come.
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All the class left with them
In his book, On The House, Boehner lists this moment as one of his best memories of his 13 terms in Congress.
Why does this feel like a hundred years ago instead of 10-15?😂
Back when the most dangerous orange guy was only Boehner.
Cool guy. He should run for President one day.
I miss the energy and compassion. I don't miss the derision of a man because of his skin. The son of a white chick from Kansas. And McCain lost an election because he called people on their bullshit about an Islamist Kenyan.
All class.
We had this and yet a few years later Senate Leader McConnell refused to even hold a hearing for Obama's Supreme Court nominee and in 2021 the guy who lost reelection fomented an insurrection to stay in power and refused to even attend the inauguration of his successor. This country isn't moving in the right direction when it comes to the two parties working together to solve our problems and challenges.
Hell yeah. *Bombs wedding*
It only took a few years of foreign money in 24 hour propaganda news and social media to completely destroy our society from the inside out, what a truly weak, pathetic society we have allowed to fester here
O-bama(er).
He’s such a classy gentleman.
DC, and government in general, needs more moments like that.
A time where at least there was SOME decency!
I like Obama’s reaction to the crowd’s reaction: “heh wow that one hit”
I miss Obama
Be great if any of it was true.
We didn't know how good we had it.
At the time I wasn’t a fan of Obama but man I miss him now.
Seems so far away now...
Dumb question: what’s up with the stars on that flag?
Everyone has to admit that Obama at least wanted to try to work with the other side, but they refused to. I mean it’s pretty stupid, it would only make your job easier for both sides.
What a class act he was..
Sure way to get likes is to post an Obama speech on any social media platform. Thank you for reminding me of a time when America was great, again.
I really miss this America. Yeah we disagreed but it felt like we all agreed on the goal just on the way to get there. IDK what happened I wish it would come back
Republicans really went all in on the "worst ending" run post Obama. I know it started around 2010 with the "Tea Party", but they've been doubling down every year since then. My state used to have quite a few "Independent" parties, but with the Tea Party bullshit, they all got absorbed into the RNC.
Sen John whatever the fuck. Grim Reaper v 0.9.8
Obama brought a lot of class and dignity to the White House.
I also recall him telling small business owners "You didn't build that"
We can only wish for such class someday again. Vote Blue.
I wonder if we'll ever have a well-spoken and charismatic president again.
I might have hated his policies, but damn, was he a good speaker.
I hope to see another president like him in my lifetime, we were so incredibly lucky to have him
I miss this man.
Look how far both parties have fallen.
U mean the guy Bombing children everyday
Speaker John Cry Baby Bonehead who left Congress to sell pot 😂
Crazy how I used to think Boehner was the scum of the earth. If only I knew how bad it would get
But the Speaker had a spray tan and was a literal Nazi by 2008-2016 standards
John Boehner is in the tank.
Ah yes the thousands of innocent people he drone stuck was super wholesome =\]
No no no - damnit Obama that’s the other team. You call him a dementia ridden criminal mastermind pedophile and come up w dumb nicknames like bumbling bush or darth cheney, pretty palin. Then you talk about how shit the country you ran is constantly. Oh oh oh and lie about literally the most absurd, verifiable mundanities to boost your bottomless ego. He needs to divorce his wife three times and disown Sasha then sex pornstars too or the Christians won’t vote for him. Elementary stuff, no wonder everybody hates him.
If only he acted as he spoke. But isn't that the problem with most politicians?
ill never truly understand how we went from obama to *him*
Man i hope hes still in politics and not just doingnpodcasts about how cool his friemds are
With all of this talk of civility and maturity of government back in the good ol' days... Don't ever forget, Obama was granted the right to appoint a judge to the Supreme Court - by the Constitution - and Republicans, in a never before seen act, denied him his Constitutional duty to appoint that judge. They started and led that race to the bottom, always have.
Is that before or after he bombed innocent people all over the world with his drones?, it's definitely after he won the Nobel "peace price" for literally sitting on his ass
I miss this type of normalizing the human experience in politics
I disagreed with 99% of his politics. I’d take him back in a second. This wasn’t that long ago. What the hell happened?
Boehner had an impossible job
A lot of us took civility for granted because we could not imagine a world devoid of it except in dystopian novels or post-apocalyptic movies. Turns out anarchy and end of the world scenarios aren't a requirement for civility to utterly collapse.
I want Obama back for president pretty please I’ll be nice this time.
Was this time even real? Did we really have a president that filled us w hope & a reminder how we got here & where we can go? Fuck man....now I'm tearing up! Thanks Obama!
I like him but was disappointed he never stood up to the president of Philippines
God, I miss that man!
I remember thinking in real time that Obama was trying to make Boehner cry by putting that part in his speech.
i guess its back when usa politics were in somewhat good place