CUT THE CRAP! Your Month in Review from the most "progressive" administration ever.

[merrily]

381. He's not a king! But....which US Presidents were kings? Yet, they got big things done.

I have to laugh when I hear about the huge majorities FDR and LBJ had. The party was incredibly divided then, both regionally and over issues, much more than the New Democrats of today. And Republicans were not as cooperative with Democrats then as we now pretend they were.


Additionally, FDR was fighting all of US history regarding what the feds could and could not do, as well as a conservative Supreme Court that did not want to budge on the commerce clause, even though the country was circling the tank. And LBJ was dealing with the race issue, matter of great contention within the party and not exactly universally accepted by parts of the country other than the South, either. It wasn't as though Democrats and Republicans outside the South were dying to pass the Civil Rights Act and all LBJ had to do was put it before them. (And, yes, Presidents do get bills written and send them to Congress. In what alternative universe do they not?)

LBJ twisted arms, inside his own party and outside, struck deals and built a coalition. That's what all politicians are supposed to do. Or, they do it by Executive Order, which is how Lincoln freed the slaves, another first in US and colonial history; and Truman integrated the military, another first in US history.

The idea that Obama had a harder row to hoe than his predecessors, with more division within his own party and from Republicans than FDR or LBJ faced is silly.