I don’t get this at all. I mean, I do, but also, it’s a retread of a different time. It no longer applies, but being that Barack Obama is the most popular Democrat around, he’s being seen as some oracle in combating the new era of Trump Republicanism.
It misses something significant, which we’ll get to in a second. For now, the former president, the last charismatic Democratic candidate, gathered among dozens of Democrats to give tips on how his party can beat the GOP, and come out of the wilderness. Also, he’s trying to stabilize a party he ironically wrecked during his time in the White House (via Politico):
Former President Barack Obama is embracing his role as mentor-in-chief, huddling with nearly three dozen freshman House Democrats at the Capitol Hill home of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) at a Wednesday night event hosted by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The event — moderated by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) — saw Obama buck up Democrats and offer insights on surviving Republican majorities.
“I get feeling discouraged sometimes,” Obama told the room over soda, water, crackers and crudite, according to excerpts provided by his office to POLITICO. “I get feeling worn out, tired, and embattled. But in our second term, Denis McDonough, my chief of staff, used to pass out stickers based on a conversation that he and I had had that talked about, ‘we do not succumb to cynicism — cynicism is our enemy.’ And it’s pervasive in this town.”
He added that McDonough had stickers printed that read: “fight cynicism.”
“And that, I think, is our most important battle, right?” Obama said. “We don’t give into that, and then we’re going to be able to figure out the same stuff.”
Obama emphasized to attendees that he had “been in your shoes. Because when I was — everybody remembers the Democratic National Convention in 2004 — when you were. …well, you were in elementary school” — a line that drew laughter.
[…]
This is only the second time in his post-presidency that Obama has met with freshman Democrats: He also did so in 2019. Obama spoke on the last episode of the Marc Maron podcast recently of his “move from player to coach” in the Democratic Party.
“His goal,” a person close to the former president said, “is to build a sustainable Democratic Party that can survive without him.”
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The irony is thick here: The man who was seen as the grim reaper for conservatism hollowed out his party. The man whom Republicans couldn’t beat set them up for years of misery in the Trump era. It’s no secret that under Obama, state party apparatuses, especially in rural America, atrophied to the point where they were useless. It led to the party becoming more coastal, elitist, and predominantly controlled by wealthy, white, college-educated snobs on messaging.
Also, the line of his trying to build a sustainable Democratic Party after he’s gone is funny. The party can’t survive. He tried twice to drag the top of the ticket across the finish line with Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton; they both lost. Harris got clobbered top to bottom, losing all the swing states, the popular vote, and the Electoral College to Donald J. Trump. Barry, the party of your day cannot win against Republicans today. Why? Your coalition has become the backbone of the MAGA movement. The 2024 elections showed how the GOP had transformed into a multi-racial, working-class party.
What I get is that even Barack Obama knows that his party is on life support.
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