Just one small correction: although the 2008 bank bailout did happen during Obama’s presidency, it was the Bush administration who created it and signed it into law. This is usually framed as Bush being a class act and doing it to spare Obama the blowback of having to do the same (back in the days when presidential class was still a thing), but it seems not to have worked, as everybody still blames Obama entirely.

I agree with almost all of this and even the parts I disagree with I agree in principle. There will never be someone who can reach level or power needed to actually do what you’re describing without being a very, very good liar. Because they are never reaching that position on merit and message alone. It’s not just republicans outnumbering us. It’s people who are indifferent outnumber republicans and democrats and progressives combined. And not performatively indifferent. I mean people who genuinely do not care and do not vote and never will vote no matter how bad their circumstances get. A rock bottom low enough to engage that many people can not exist in a world with drive thrus, cell phones, and air conditioning. There’s no way to make that many people uncomfortable enough to care without it already being too late.

Obama as the farthest left option when he was centrist at best.

I remember the arguments I had in 2008 with my lefty friends when they kept saying Obama was the most liberal candidate. I’d go over each of their positions and showed my reasoning and they wouldn’t even consider what I said but instead would get emotional and insist he was more liberal.

Hell, in his own book Obama talks about how Reagan was a huge role model for him.

Obama is a great example of how charisma can put you over the top. And I love the guy, I just wish he had been a progressive and realized early on that the Republicans would never compromise on anything and that they were always working in bad faith.