re: #191 Shimshon

The only other option is to stay more left wing and totally paralyze Congress so nothing at all gets done. The Democrats learned from the Carter and Dukakis losses that if the majority of voters in midterms keep giving Republicans some power, that means you have to appease them sometimes. That is what compromise is. Obama and Clinton both got some of their policies through by compromising with Congress on some of what they wanted.

I agree that Clinton struck some deals with the Republicans, and I don’t recall the details well enough to argue the pros and cons of this deals.

However, I can’t think of any such deals that Obama made with the Republicans. Many attempts were made on taxes and spending, but these all came to nothing (good in my view since Obama was putting too much on the table).

The ACA passed with 0 Republican votes, despite countless attempts at compromise with the GOP.