I think he’s always been a progressive at heart, although his murder-by-drone policy wasn’t exactly progressive, or letting Citigroup handpick his cabinet.
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He’s not easy to pigeonhole, for sure
Yeah. His “You Didn’t Build That” speeches were pretty progressive. I think he wanted to be a progressive president, but got caught up in the usual trappings of power.
It was progressive back then. I don’t think it would be progressive now. Progressive now would be something along the lines of the entire system being systemically corrupt and needing to be completely destroyed and then rebuilt from scratch.
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Defund the racist highway system! 
A bit more of the old rhetorical advocacy
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Roads dude. You didn’t build roads. Nothing far left about that unless you’re a libertarian and think the government shouldn’t build roads.
The actual full quote is, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.” 
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Just a guess, does the business use the roads?
Yes, including toll roads.
Here’s the full quote but my guess is you know this and are just interested in point scoring. Anyone listening to the speech can tell he’s talking about infrastructure, but if that and “you can keep your doctor” is the best you can do then clearly Trump was worth it. 
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Holy shit it’s actually a paean to capitalism.
The thrust of the whole speech is that big government is good and businesses should be paying higher taxes. I don’t think anyone misrepresented his message. And hey, that message resonates with a lot of people, which may be part of why he won that election. Of course, a lot of people also don’t like that message.
Don’t like infrastructure? Libertarians maybe. Big government is a silly term since no one can define what is too big or too small.
He’s right we need roads and wouldn’t have innovations like the internet without government. If profit is the only incentive then all we have to look forward to is a new iphone or expensive toll roads. That message resonates with most of the developed world.
Obviously, there needs to be a balance, but Obama’s speech was a paean to big government…with the focus entirely on what the government does for businesses, and not what businesses do for the government…and the country as a whole.
Of course, Obama is also a massive hypocrite, seeing how his administration for the most part kept its lips firmly planted on the posterior of corporate America. Kind of like how he rails on about climate change while ensconced in his seaside mansion.
A speech that is necessary in American politics where the spectrum had swung so far right that people can’t get basic healthcare and the GOP wants to privatize everything from social security to fucking water.
Now the GOP is torn between right wing populism and the old laissez-faire capitalism and doesn’t know what it stands for other than owning libs. At least back then it was clear.
I’m sure you could find hypocrisy in everything and it’s convenient to hold other people to standards that you would never hold yourself to. By that standard, you can’t talk about climate change unless you’re Amish.
He gave that speech at the end of his first four-year term, so I guess it must have been a critique of his own performance in the Oval Office.
He can say whatever he likes about climate change, but he can’t expect to be taken seriously when he lives in a mansion, like, right next to the water.
Playing devil’s advocate here, if his mansion were by some misfortune swamped by the rising sea, he’d probably just shrug and buy another one further up the beach.
Ok just let us know what the standards are since I don’t even know. To be taken seriously:
- No house next to the water
- No mansion, so nothing over 2,500 SQ ft?
- Don’t travel by plane.
Anything else?
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