There is a truth that is not allowed to be spoken among MSNBC-watching liberals, but as you can see in my new piece in The Guardian, it remains the truth: when Barack Obama was elected, many liberal voters, activists and advocacy groups disengaged and deferred to the new president, and then Obama’s capitulations and surrenders to his big donors created a presidency that propped up corporate power, rather than fundamentally changing the economy. That series of events ended up creating the backlash conditions for the rise of Donald Trump.

There is another truth that also needs to be spoken: If liberals once again go back to brunch right now and let Joe Biden similarly sell out to his donors, then we should expect an even worse, more reckless Trump to win the White House in the next election.

One way to think about it is this: if 2021 becomes 2009, then we should expect 2024 to become 2016. Another way to put it: a third Obama term could create a first term for President Cotton — and that would be a disaster.

In today’s edition of The Guardian, I review the history of what happened in the Obama years, and how liberal groups and Democratic lawmakers repeatedly backed down and went to sleep, as Obama’s administration at times bullied them into silence.

But there’s some good news — as the piece recounts, the progressive movement is in a stronger position than it was in 2009. There is not only hindsight from what happened more than a decade ago, there has been more organizing and there is more legislative representation willing to try to force a new Biden administration to deliver on its promises, rather than pulling an Obama and immediately abandoning them.

Can the party return be forced kicking and screaming to return to its New Deal roots that delivered real gains for the working class, warded off fascism and created an era of Democratic supremacy? That is the big question right now.

Click here to read the article in The Guardian, and then post your thoughts below.


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