Obama’s Neglected Legacy: The Worst Down-Ballot Collapse since 1932

[Hardkill]

By the end of Obama’s two terms, Democrats had lost nearly 1,000 state-legislative seats, along with dozens of congressional seats and a dozen governorships—the party’s worst down-ballot wipeout since Herbert Hoover’s time.

Even Democratic and Black commentators like Roland Martin have argued that Obama’s team prioritized his personal brand/OFA over rebuilding the DNC and state parties—contributing to those losses.

 

Honestly, what makes this even harder to swallow is seeing how deeply the effects of that down-ballot collapse are still shaping the country today.
Democrats haven’t held a majority of state power — not in legislatures, governorships, or trifectas — since 2010. That’s fifteen straight years of structural disadvantage.

Republicans used that power to redraw maps, pass voter restrictions, reshape courts, and ultimately lock in control of the Supreme Court for an entire generation. The result is a political imbalance so entrenched that even a popular Democratic president can’t easily undo it.

And now, with Trump’s movement still alive, the GOP controlling most of the states, and a conservative supermajority on the Court, it’s hard not to feel like democracy itself is hanging by a thread.

Sometimes it feels like we’re watching the slow undoing of everything people fought for in the 20th century — civil rights, voting rights, environmental protection, women’s autonomy — all of it eroding in slow motion. It’s honestly depressing.
Because it’s not just about Obama, or even the Democratic Party — it’s about the long-term failure to build durable power that can defend truth, fairness, and the rule of law.

[Apparition of Jack]

The Dems under Obama were always going to have an uphill battle because having a black man for president broke too many people’s brains who then became utterly committed to having something like that never happen again, decency be damned.

I honestly believe what we’re witnessing is the slow, chaotic, pathetic death of white supremacy in America, and that all the absolute insanity from people on the right is coming from their psychological inability to accept that white =/= superior anymore. 
 

The more people get put off by the obvious sadism and corruption of this administration and the more people realise having black (and brown, and Asian, etc) people run the country won’t lead to literal armageddon (as what every idiot conservative in 2008 was predicting), the more sanity will be restored and the more the world will be able to build an actual decent society, only this time all races will be included.

Edited October 18 by Apparition of Jack

[Joshe]

We have to accept damage has been done and we don’t know if, when, or how we’ll recover. Accept the possibility of the worst-case scenario. Don’t let Trumpism and conservatives rob all your energy. That’s actually a big part of what keeps it alive.