[johnnyanmac]

I was just too young and things exploded by the time I really could start to understand what was gonig on.

I was very early Elementasry for 9/11, Middle school for the GFC. I was early 20's focusing on college in 2016, which would have been the 2nd nationals I could vote in. Then I was only a few years into my career when COVID hit.

The Obama era gave me hopes, but I didn't realize how easily it could be relinquished in the name of corporate interest. I just figured all the checks and balances would keep things from really going backwards. Obviously Trump winning was the first huge red flag, but things seemed fine. But the real red flag I (personally) saw was Ruth Bader Ginsburg not stepping down and instead dying during the Trump administration. Having 3 judges appointed by Trump (plus 3 from W. Bush beforehand) was a death knell for decades to come, even if Trump never got elected.

[soraminazuki]

I guess we grew up in the same era, but I couldn't disagree more about any administration giving hopes. While Obama mostly didn't make things dramatically worse, he did keep the status quo and all the troubling policies that came with it. Refusing to prosecute Bush-era crimes? Check. Keeping Guantanamo? Check. Expanding illegal mass-surveillance systems? Check. Expanding military drone programs and extrajudicially killing civilians outside of war zones? Check. Breaking the record on whistleblower prosecutions? Check. That's in stark contrast to the leniency given to those who caused the financial crisis. On the positive side, I guess he tried to fix healthcare, but it's still broken as ever.

It was so bad that it's unbelievable that subsequent administrations managed to make matters even more astronomically worse.

[antisthenes]

> I guess he tried to fix healthcare

Yeah, he tried, but anyone with working brain cells could tell you that ACA was just going to end up in a bigger payout to the healthcare industry. It was a status quo pro-corporate bill just like the rest of his centrist policies.

The actual solution has and always will be to reduce costs, which means people losing jobs and hospital admins not owning 3 vacation homes.

[MSFT_Edging]

Obama very much helped deliver us to this point, similar to how the current opposition party doesn't seem to be doing that much opposition. The old george carlin bit, it's a big club and you ain't in it.

[pxc]

I'm in the same age cohort. Obama's candidacy and election gave me hope. Obama's presidency disgusted me and disillusioned me.