Pelosi's drawn a challenger for example. She's 85. She was a hugely successful speaker. I'm not sure she's playing a very helpful role right now.
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This was a very polite thing for you to say, but I don't think she was hugely successful at all. She presided over the right-wing dismantling of the Supreme Court and or abortion rights themselves. I can't think of a single signature accomplishment other than riding Obama's coattails to passing ACA.
aug 23, 2025, 8:01 pm • 3 0 • view
I have a different perspective on Nancy Pelosi. At a time when Reagan Republicans were treating HIV/AIDS as though it were a joke, Pelosi was a strong advocate for the rights, medical care and housing of HIV individuals. She maintained this and her advocacy for women & children.
aug 23, 2025, 9:04 pm • 2 0 • view
Fair enough and those are laudable accomplishments. But they also happened well before her speakership, which is what I thought we were discussing.
aug 23, 2025, 11:24 pm • 0 0 • view
I think she carried those interests into her speakership. Would I like to have seen her do more? Absolutely, but there is no politician from whom I have not wanted more. The ACA was not what i wanted. I wanted universal health care free at point of service for all. I just don't run down Obama for it
aug 24, 2025, 2:27 pm • 0 0 • view
You should! He had two years of full control of Congress and a liberal court and completely squandered all of it. Didn't get anything back for bailing out the banks, didn't get universal health care, didn't get Roe into law, fumbled away two seats on the court. Miserable failure as a president.
aug 24, 2025, 2:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Sorry, I didn't even mention averaging 20 drone strikes a day for 8 years, neoliberal foreign policies that contributed to the collapse of the working class, etc
aug 24, 2025, 2:40 pm • 0 0 • view
I may be wrong since posts are very inadequate to convey emotions, but it seems to me that you hold a lot of bitterness towards those who did not succeed in achieving your goals despite trying, perhaps without realizing just how strong the opposition to those same goals was in our society.
aug 24, 2025, 2:44 pm • 0 0 • view
I do hold a lot of bitterness because I don't believe he made a genuine effort. Obama did not want single-payer; the evidence of this is that he did not force the issue when he could have. And when I say generational, it's *because* the will was there to accomplish meaningful reform, not just ACA.
aug 24, 2025, 2:47 pm • 0 0 • view
I see the "evidence" differently. You say he could have "forced" it. I do not beleive he could have. There was enough opposition from both sides to block him. You seem to make a lot of assumptions about his power, when he actually did not have that much political capitol to spend.
aug 24, 2025, 2:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes it is apparent that you see the evidence differently. Therefore I suggest we end this conversation.
aug 24, 2025, 2:54 pm • 0 0 • view
I am fine with that.
aug 24, 2025, 2:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Major groups in health care opposed any change in the health care for profit system. Not just Republicans. There were many people in my own not for profit group who identified as both moderates and Dems who did not want either single payer or the ACA.
aug 24, 2025, 2:52 pm • 0 0 • view
I was ranting about what I saw as his inadequacy one day, when my partner said, let him get the ACA on the books. It's not what you want, but it will help millions of people. And he was right. I worked another 5 years to help take care of the patients who were being seen for the first time.
aug 24, 2025, 2:42 pm • 0 0 • view
Obama squandered a generational chance to fix healthcare because he was too arrogant to understand that you can't "compromise" with congressional Republicans. That ACA is an improvement on what came before is an indictment of what came before, not a defense of ACA.
aug 24, 2025, 2:44 pm • 0 0 • view
I don't believe it was his "arrogance" that lead him to believe that. I think it was his deep seated sense that people are moral beings. Your last two sentences are correct, but in no way mean millions were not benefitted. I do not need to defend the ACA to the woman who had her 1st screening exam.
aug 24, 2025, 2:47 pm • 0 0 • view
It was arrogance to ignore the many, many people who told him that he was wrong.
aug 24, 2025, 2:53 pm • 0 0 • view
Smile. I agree he listened to the wrong side, as my previous post implied. But that does not mean that he did not have others advising him the ACA was the best he was going to be able to get. He didn't just wake up one day and say "I know, I love the ACA and so will everyone else."
aug 24, 2025, 2:55 pm • 0 0 • view
she definitely didn't ride obama's coattails re the ACA; it was a difficult vote and she was a major force in getting it passed.
aug 24, 2025, 3:57 pm • 0 0 • view
She's like the main character in weekend at Bernies at this point
aug 23, 2025, 9:40 pm • 0 0 • view
85! Fucking retire from Congress. Mentor. Fundraise. Go stand in front of a tank. Garden. embarrassing. Matter how you assess her career, it's embarrassing.
aug 23, 2025, 7:53 pm • 1 0 • view
I think older people can still contribute...she's just been there a very, very long time, and currently she's not in leadership but is still kind of acting like she is. idk. I think I'd vote for the challenger if I was in that district at this point.
aug 23, 2025, 7:55 pm • 4 0 • view
I have known brilliant and sharp 85 year olds who contribute in all kinds of ways. Responsible leaders don't hoard power.
aug 23, 2025, 7:56 pm • 1 0 • view