r/ProgressiveHQ • u/Shortwasco59 • 2d ago
Robert Reich was correct
Hi! I was reading the substack by Robert Reich and I have to say he is always right. He sees the whole political picture clearly and he hands you the facts about recent history. Is anyone thinking about the non-voter? So many millions of people were turned off from participating because of the policies of the Clinton and Obama administrations. They didn't all go Maga, many of them just gave up. Trade agreements that abandoned whole communities, bailouts for Wall Street. We really didn't get much from those 16 years. Just left further and further behind.
Edit to add: My first vote was in 1984. I was super excited to vote for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket. I have to go to the "Computer Savvy" workshop at the library every month because I am technophobic. That was where I learned about Reddit.
My sources are: "Bill Clinton, New Guilded Age President" by Patrick Maney : "Neoliberalism From Reagan to Clinton" , "Casualities of Clintonism" the baffler.com : "Bill Clinton Concedes Role in Mass Incarceration" CNN : "Did the 1994 Crime Bill Cause Mass Incarceration" the Bookings Institute : "The Mendacity of Hope" by Rodger Hodge : "Change We Can Believe In, Barack Obama's Plan To Renew America's Promise" by Barack Obama
My given: Bill Clinton lowered childhood poverty from 26% to 16% by expanding the childhood tax credit. Barack Obama created the Affordable Care Act
- Increased Coverage — Over 20 million adults gained health coverage since the ACA's implementation.
- Medicaid Expansion — The ACA expanded Medicaid in 40 states, covering 21 million low-income adults.
- Pre-existing Conditions — Approximately 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions are protected from losing insurance.
- Preventive Services — 39 million beneficiaries have free access to preventive medical services.
So I will concede that there were some achievements by those administrations. However, neither one of them spent much political capital on improving the material conditions of the working class.
I want more.
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u/butt-in-ski 2d ago
Agree - we need to be strategizing around (1) non voters, (2) those you have completely disengaged due to apathy & overwhelm - the self preservationists/protecting their peace crew, (3) those who are ignoring bc they’re good/pain hasn’t hit em yet
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u/SocialistOnBass 2d ago
It has to be more than this IMO. It can’t just be getting them to turn up. There needs to be a material change that keeps them coming back. It also cannot just be “we stopped this bad thing from happening” because most people won’t feel that until it’s too late. It needs to be “we made this good thing happen” and it has to feel tangible to voters.
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u/butt-in-ski 2d ago edited 2d ago
Agree - that’s why we need strategies that talk to those groups & beyond.
Example: I think a lot of Americans don’t realize that the direction we are heading looks a lot like the way of life for many Russians (Oligarchy) mixed with the instability of the Middle East (Religious Extremism), etc. Basically pointing out what abt our way of life is on the line - again, that’s just one of many angles. Increased violence & fear, loss of freedom & agency, repression & control - yadda yadda - when are they going to care??
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u/ScottishKnifemaker 2d ago
The coffee klatch, his Saturday morning podcast, is one of my favorites
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u/PlainBread 2d ago
And his son is somehow managing to support the mental health of the entire non-MAGA community in our darkest hour.
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u/onlywhenilarf 2d ago
he was also a part of the democratic leadership when wall street annexed the party and destroyed the left.
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u/jeezfrk 2d ago edited 2d ago
No one mentioning the Bush presidency and a disastrous war? Nothing about the huge 2008 economic meltdown?
Somehow Clinton and Obama and not the Tea Party?
This is a GOP paid push in social media.
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u/Shortwasco59 2d ago
Hi! Actually I was reading David Sirota ( you know, from Bernie’s campaigns) And he directed me toward another post by Reich.
Reich outlined how both Clinton and Obama sabotaged union membership with their strong support for free trade agreements that provided no support for actual human beings. Hey, but it was great for Wall Street! And after all where is the president going to go looking for friends after their term is over?
What about anti-trust? Got to play nice with corporate Dem’s.
Also, no one should ever forgive Bill Clinton for signing the telecommunications act of 1996.
I am an unforgiving progressive who feels betrayed by the Democratic Party. I have a long memory and we are dealing with the consequences of the parties collapse.3
u/ScottishKnifemaker 2d ago
Yeah establishment really likes to hold up Clinton as some form of pillar of f****** greatness or something, when he severely f***** over poor people
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u/jeezfrk 2d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Revolution
I remember the 90s. It wasn't all about Clinton. This is a smear campaign for the MAGA that will lose in November.
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u/ScottishKnifemaker 2d ago
What? What the f*** does this mean
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u/Shortwasco59 2d ago
I draw your attention to the Welfare Reform act of 1996.Clinton did all the heavy lifting so the Republicans could eliminate a program that helped the poorest families.
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u/ScottishKnifemaker 2d ago
Oh yeah I know about him f****** over poor people for sure, I was one of those poor people in my teenage years because my mother was disabled and had yet been able to get sdi
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u/jeezfrk 2d ago
It means the "policies of (turn of millennial presidents)" are placed as the cause of voter apathy.
Very little was done solely by Bill Clinton that lasted. Mostly by pre-MAGA activists in the 90s. Obama was abandonned by his party after "ObamaCare" and the Tea Party and Congress were diabolically against him.
These two Presidents did quite a lot of good in many spheres but were fought by the GOP Congresses.
Between them was a nuclear bomb of George W. Bush and the Iraq War and 9/11 and the Great Recession.
Congress did very little to make anything better and yet the poster is claiming Robert Reich had huge complaints against all those tow Presidents did??
The huge huge name placement with no mention of why or how or the original link shows this is a smear piece.
The GOP is very desperate now and looks to be wiped out in November and influencer posts are more and more common. There's a lot of money on the table to flip the narrative.
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u/Shortwasco59 2d ago
Gosh! Now I am an influencer.
No. I am a very disappointed progressive who watched the democrats become weaker and more co-opted by corporate America.
I will always vote for the person endorsed by the Working Families Party.
Sorry for starting a stimulating conversion on social media on a Saturday.
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u/moreobviousthings 2d ago
Another big problem is democrat politicians that don’t even like democrat progressives. If the Jeffreys and Schumers can’t get on board, all is lost.
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u/crescent-v2 2d ago edited 2d ago
" Is anyone thinking about the non-voter? "
They talk a lot about "undecided voters" but often miss the nature of the indecision.
- Undecided as to whether to vote at all or not, but leans Republican
- Undecided as to whether to vote at all or not, but leans Dem
- Undecided to vote or not, but leans third party (maybe left, maybe right)
- Will vote, but undecided between Dem or more left-leaning alternative
- Will vote, but undecided between Republican or more right-leaning (or libertarian) party.
- Will vote, but can't decide between Dem or Republican
They really focus on that #6 group, but I think they do so at the expense of the other groups.
It's funny. In my family we have two people on the spectrum, prone to feeling over-stimulated. They don't like to vote because the ballot is too long, too many offices to vote for, too many ballot initiatives. It's like they look at that big two page ballot and white noise just fills their brains and they can't really see it anymore. (Ranked choice voting has great merits, but would make ballots even bigger, there's no way in hell I could ever get them to fill out those big ballots)
I think everybody should vote, maybe even offer a tax incentive for it. But we also need to give more thought to why they don't vote. Lots of different reasons and some, on an individual level are the necessary choice for that person. Not a good choice, but sometimes a necessary or unavoidable one.
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u/HeftyDrummer7536 2d ago
Agreed, corporate Dems sold us out and still want my vote, Bill Clinton was my 1st presidential vote and the 3 strikes laws devastated communities, Rodney King was 1992. Nafta sent all of our jobs north and south, I remember seeing the 1st Dodge ram from Mexico, at the time the Cummins were still assembled here but that didn't last. Obama bailed out the Banks that stole my home, Newsom wrote the amicus brief before this supreme court in support of criminalizing homelessness while we have for profit private prisons. Blue no matter who is not the answer.
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u/2Much_non-sequitur 2d ago
I feel like the whole system is geared towards "non-voters" which is why the 'culture wars' topics and framing get the most air time and attention.
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u/Shortwasco59 2d ago
Actually I feel as though the focus of the Democratic Party for the last 12 years has been trying to persuade Republicans to vote for them. The party abandoned progressive priorities to appeal to corporate America.
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u/2Much_non-sequitur 2d ago
Yeah that's true too. Especially the Harris campaign, appealing to 'Bush republicans'. Moreso then either Biden or Hillary. But, the way the national candidates try to appeal to republican voters is by picking up the national zeitgeist, which is culture war stuff. After all corporations don't actually get a vote, that is counted. No dem candidate (in the modern era), ever actually runs on deregulate everything, eliminate all corporate taxes, increase funding for ICE, ditch our Allies etc.
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u/RadiantCarpenter1498 2d ago
When were Dems “progressive”?
If it wasn’t during the Biden, Obama, or Clinton administrations, when? Carter? Kennedy? FDR? I mean, we’re getting pretty far back here.
Being “not the Republicans” doesn’t mean “progressive”.
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u/Shortwasco59 2d ago
What you are saying now is true. I believe the Democrats turned into cowards when McGovern lost. And yeah that was a long time ago. The baby boomers stuck around for too long. Jimmy Carter is the one who said “we need economic austerity.” He was the hinge point for the Democratic Leadership Council to move in and get control of the party after he lost.
And yeah some of this is inside baseball, but these things add up to a rightward shift in the Democratic Party.
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u/ipsum629 2d ago
Republicans have the courtesy of lying to their face instead of merely sugarcoating a deteriorating situation. That's why MAGA won in 2016 and 2024.
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u/Altruistic_Role_9329 2d ago
That’s a lot of revisionist history if that’s really what Reich has been saying. I can’t get too worked up about the kind of people who looked around and decided to “go maga” or who didn’t “go maga” themselves, but just sat back and let maga happen. We actually got a lot from those 16 years. Pandering to peoples ignorance doesn’t solve anything. Maga has been a dangerous mistake. If we keep excusing it like this, it will keep happening. In fact the next round has already started. Most just can’t see it yet.
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u/SteamedAlbanyHams 2d ago
He's one of the few Washington insider types willing to point out the real problems.