emptywheel

I'm boggling at the ideas that Obama a) would have endorsed regulating speech even if he hadn't benefitted, given his Constitutional bent, and b) ever "had the chance" to do so.

How about enforcing antitrust?

How about making campaign finance more resilient while he had a supermajority in the Senate?

You can identify what's wrong with this as easily as I can. Start by adding quotes to "supermajority," mix in some Citizens United, and acknowledge that political capital is finite/spent on healthcare/his small-dollar fundraising suggested CF wasn't all-powerful.

I mean, I'm mostly with you on the nature and scope of the problems. It's just that when I read "but of COURSE it's largely Obama's fault!" on matters that AREN'T his fault, I always hear it in a snide, condescending Wm. F. Buckley voice and generally stop reading.

Last I checked, antitrust enforcement didn't take Congress. There are things neither party has chosen to prioritize that have gotten us in this mess.

Sure, true dat. Most important in my mind being, making federal election aid $ contingent on paper ballots and secure voting systems. Russia 2020 will be GOP/Diebold etc. 2000/2004 on steroids.

Also VRA reauthorization, so as to prevent GOP from doing what they did in NC and WI, which had an even more demonstrable effect.