Obama Continues to Lecture His Fellow Democrats Instead of Battling the Trump Agenda

Okay, Ace. Here’s the thing. This kind of tough-love, pep-rally bullshit really has pole-vaulted over its sell-by date. From CNN:

“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser, according to excerpts of his remarks exclusively obtained by CNN.

It may have escaped former President Look Forward, Not Back’s notice, but there are quite a number of Democrats who are fighting pretty damned hard against the encroaching darkness. In the House, there are Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost, and AOC, with whom the Democratic establishment still doesn’t know what to do. Chris Murphy, Sheldon Whitehouse, Elizabeth Warren, Angus King, and, yes, Bernie Sanders have kicked back against impossible odds, and King and Sanders aren’t even Democrats. Governors like Andy Beshear and Tim Walz are trying to hold the line against the excesses of the administration, and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois had been a rock in the national debate. And mayors like Karen Bass and Michelle Wu have done noble work against the ICE rampages in their cities. In fact, at the moment, most of the Democratic navel-gazing and whining concerns the horrible possibility of Zohran Mamdani’s being elected mayor of New York, and a lot of that is coming from politicians and activists loyal to Obama.

Obama spoke at a private fundraiser hosted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, at their home in Red Bank, New Jersey. The intimate dinner drew in $2.5 million through in-person and online donations for the Democratic National Committee, a source familiar with the event said. A portion of the haul will be allocated to Democratic efforts in the governor’s race in New Jersey. The Democratic nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and and DNC Chair Ken Martin were on hand for the event. Obama described Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, as “powerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, commonsense desire to help people and who both have remarkable track records of service.

I have nothing against either Sherrill or her former colleague Spanberger, although I rather wish she’d have stayed in the House to complicate Speaker Moses’ life for him. I hope they both win. I also hope Mamdani wins. I don’t think any of their victories will signify anything beyond their talent as politicians. However, the former president seems to differ with me. Obama also argued that Democrats need to focus on how to “deliver for people,” acknowledging the different views within the party about how best to do that.

“There’s been, I gather, some argument between the left of the party and people who are promoting the quote-unquote abundance agenda. Listen, those things are not contradictory. You want to deliver for people and make their lives better? You got to figure out how to do it,” he said. “I don’t care how much you love working people. They can’t afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY,” he said, referring to “not in my backyard” views. “I don’t want to know your ideology, because you can’t build anything. It does not matter.”

The “abundance agenda” is the latest style in sheep’s clothing cut to fit what’s left of the old Democratic Leadership Conference philosophy. The donor class of the Democratic party loves the hell out of this thing because it promises ... wait for it ... deregulation, especially in the housing sector. (I might suggest a chat soon with the people who bought the houses on the overbuilt banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas.) It’s hard not to look at the political potential of the abundance agenda as a weapon to blunt the genuine populism bubbling up beneath the surface. And while it’s all the rage with the cocktail-party set among the Democrats, there probably aren’t 25 people outside the Beltway who ever have heard of it.

I never will understand Obama’s long periods of being hors de combat while the vandals took over the government. Imagine if Obama had been out there, hammering away with all his undoubted political skill. Imagine if he’d aimed it all at Republicans.