1. I worked for a House member in 2009-2010 elected on opposition to war. Early in his term my boss spoke up for getting out of Afghanistan. We got a lot of hostile email from Democrats saying "I used to agree with you but I trust Obama and he wants to surge into Afghanistan.'
https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1330530787033292807
2. The problem was systemic. I worked on the Financial Services Committee from 2009-2010, and while Geithner et al. were horrific, Barney Frank, the progressive nonprofit apparatus, and Dem voters were in lock step on bailing out the banks.
3. In 2008, before he was elected, Obama lobbied on behalf of the bailouts. He promised then-Rep. Donna Edwards that if she voted for it, he would work to write off mortgage debt by changing bankruptcy laws. He was lying, his policy team had already dismissed that option.
4. The Obama administration orchestrated a foreclosure crisis, and lied about their policy choice. To this day they will not admit it. Tim Geithner is the only honest one who did so, when he obliquely said their foreclosure mitigation programs were done to help banks.
5. In many ways, Obama himself isn't totally at fault. There was an intellectual choice going back decades in progressive politics to ignore private power. The Congressional Progressive Caucus, for instance, was the most supportive caucus in Congress for bailouts. 
6. In virtually every area, with a few exceptions, policy shifted wealth and power upwards. To pick one at random, Cass Sunstein blocked this rule to help miners, because Sunstein is a sociopath. prospect.org/day-one-agenda…
7. But the point of focusing on Obama is not what he did or didn't do, but about what Democratic voters and progressives allowed him to do in their name. He is beloved. If he hadn't been, there would be no way for him to shift wealth and power upwards.
8. I wrote a book to describe this shift in our minds, in our conception of what liberty and America means. It's a pretty gruesome change, but I had to find an explanation for why we cheered offshoring and corporate crime. And by 'we' I mean progressives. simonandschuster.com/books/Goliath/…
9. Ultimately, defenses of the Obama era come down to 'well all Presidents are bad' or 'he did the best he could.' But the real defense is 'Well he was just doing what he was taught to do and what we were taught to let our leaders do in our names.' That's grim.
10. Obama represents an entire system by which Democrats and progressives give themselves social meaning, a secular saint. It's why it's so hard to recognize our own role, and why even critics look for answers in supposed revolutionary ideologies. bostonreview.net/forum/finding-…
11. It's why California, land of Democrats, is badly run and voted for Prop 22. It's why Buttigieg is going to be in the cabinet and Kamala is VP. It's Obama's Democratic Party. That may change. But first it's up to us to admit the reality of what we did. And it's not pretty.
12. Reed Hundt, an ultimate Dem insider who was FCC Chair under Clinton and helped broker key cabinet choices, wrote the definite book on how the Obama administration operated. He did a true service in writing it, but he is now persona non grata. simonandschuster.com/books/A-Crisis…
13. We don't however need the policy analysis to believe our lying eyes. Despite endless bromides on the wonder of Obamacare, we are all familiar with the Gofundme medical begging that is now a routine part of American life. That's the real legacy, not of Obama, but of all of us.
14. Trump campaigned on the closure of the Carrier plant after this video went viral. Obama's comment on Carrier was some jobs 'are just not going to come back.'
15. The distrust of Biden comes from the hangover from the Obama era, but until we fully admit that Obama harmed people systemically and we cheered him on, we as a political faction will remain trapped in a fantasyland of moral vanity.
16. Last point. Obama and Democrats weren't cautious, or conservative, nor did they leave the status quo in place. They pursued radical, unthinkable change through policy passivity during a crisis. America is a much weaker nation today, as those radicals shifted power upwards.
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