Audacity audiobook

Wednesday, August 28, 2019Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevailby Jonathan ChaitOh My I miss Obama.In the beginning of this book the author makes the point that several people who voted for him were disappointed in the presidency of Barack Obama. I am afraid I might have been guilty of that. This book argues against that view by explaining much of the quiet accomplishments of the Obama Presidency.This is not an easy read. Chait goes in-depth with a lot of detail in several of these chapters. But there are a lot of interesting observations which make it very worthwhile.He spends a lot of time talking about the Republican party, especially in the last chapter “Obama’s America”. This book may eventually serve as the Epitaph of the Republican Party. He states that the Democratic Party is made of several factions, but the Republicans have withdrawn into a narrow party where everyone must heed to the same ideals or be defeated in their next election.The most interesting chapter for me was the “To Stanch a Bleeding World”. It describes Obama’s “soft power” approach as opposed to the “Action Hero” approach of the previous president. His concessions to some of America’s enemies were seen by Republicans as “apologizing”, but they “failed to acknowledge that Obama combined his concession of America’s inconsistency in applying its ideals with a rousing defense of the ideals themselves”. His work minimizing or preventing disasters was never given any credit nor did he seek the credit.I have no doubt that in time the Obama presidency will be counted as one of the best, and it won’t totally be based on his predecessor and successor.The subtitle of this book “How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Endure” is an accurate description of this material. In the current environment my only prayer is that it Will Endure.

Quick, thoughtful read. This slender volume, which I believe is the first post-Obama look back at all eight years (it is based on reporting Chait did during those eight years, which is how it was able to appear on shelves so quickly and not be an incoherent mess), does not, as the introduction warns, aim to be a complete record of the Obama White House, or a juicy tell-all drama. Instead, Chait takes the stance that (1) Obama accomplished more than we gave him credit for, and (2) his efforts will survive Trump. He makes his argument in clear, concise language, resorting to slight hyperbole only when describing the tone of Obama's critics (Smith "scoffed," Jones "sneered," that sort of thing).In addition to outlining the good Obama did -- usually without much praise or even acknowledgement in the press -- Chait takes a look back at other liberal Presidents who were attacked by their base for not being liberal enough (but who now are held up as paragons of what a perfect liberal President should be), and traces the evolution of the Republican party from the "southern strategy" to the churning cesspool of racism which elevated a moronic demagogue to President, in what, Chait argues, will be seen before too long as the party's death throes.I recommend this book for all. Not just for a greater appreciation of what Obama accomplished -- even with an irrationally hostile House & Senate to contend with -- but also for a small morsel of hope I think we could all use right about now.

The broad strokes of this story won't surprise anybody who has been reading Chait's writing on Obama for the past eight years. However, I appreciated him re-visiting his arguments in the light of Trump's victory. Chait is still broadly optimistic about Obama's legacy, which may not feel right to many people after the recent election; but I think he generally makes a strong case (to which I am admittedly already sympathetic).There are some arguments about the Obama administration that I wish he had engaged with. There is very little here about domestic surveillance or drone warfare, which takes on a different cast given the Trump administration. He does talk about Dodd-Frank, but doesn't engage in the contemporary liberal argument that D-F was too vulnerable to sabotage by a future Republican administration. And there isn't much about Obama and the politics of trade agreements, where he was largely abandoned by both parties.Worth a read, though, particularly given the current political climate.

Remember the Hitler videos that were popular a few years ago? I was like a live-action version of one on November 9, 2016, lamenting that all of the energy poured into passing the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank, and other seminal Obama-era achievements was a waste. If you felt like me, Audacity will help remind you of both the importance and the durability of the legacy Obama left after eight years. In a nutshell: Obama changed the climate of America, altering the terms of the argument about health care from "Why should we fix things for the uninsured?" to "Do you have a better plan for covering everyone?" That change, and others like it, will prove more important decades from now than the current Trump tempest, which is more a reactionary tornado--it will do some damage as it tries to spin things backward, but it will pass--than a sign of a permanent reordering. The next few years will be tough. This book will remind you that things will get better--and inspire you to defend the ways they've already improved.

A good book in defense of Obama and what he did during his time as President. As Mr. Chait points out in the chapter on the environment, Presidents have the unfortunate responsibility of working to fix and strengthen long term goals that may not be the immediate needs of the country today. He points to several things Obama did right in the face of unanimous Republican opposition and has stood (mostly) the test of time (This book was published in 2017, Trump did undo some things Obama did, but either Trump failed to do so, or Biden put them back in place). Overall, it was a nice and easy read despite most of the chapters being about 40 or so pages each. (Notably, Foreign Policy, Obamas weakest area, only gets 20). This could have been a series of Articles that Chait could have written, but it was nice to put this in a book instead.

After the 2016 presidential election, I told myself that's it: I'm going to stop reading political prediction analysis. (“Donald Trump's chances of winning are approaching zero” was an article the Washington Post published two weeks before the election.) However, it was a couple of weeks into the Donald Trump presidency and I was feeling bummed. Trump and his team seemingly set fire to everything Barack Obama spent the last eight years accomplishing. I needed comfort. So enter moderate liberal journalist Jonathan Chait and his book Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail. Chait makes a pretty direct and somewhat surprising proclamation: Barack Obama is one of the most accomplished presidents of all time. And despite the madness of the last month, I think he's right. Chait's book is persuasive, even though it's apparent that he wrote a majority of it thinking Hillary Clinton was going to win. Within each chapter, Chait breaks down one of Obama's accomplishments, from passing the stimulus to transitioning the country into using clean energy. He then describes how, for the most part, these accomplishments are safe from being overturned. Some of the policies seem safer than others. (Despite what Paul Ryan is saying, the Affordable Care Act isn't going anywhere.) What Chait does a particularly good job doing is providing historical context. One of the subjects he tackles is the disappointment that liberals have had with Obama, who was more of a moderate than they expected. He argues that, historically, liberals tend to be disappointed with their president when they are governing and that they grow to appreciate them more as time goes on. This could be seen with almost every single democratic president over the last 100 years. Chait also uses history to explain Trump: progress doesn't always go in a straight line. Chait makes the argument that Trump is the last hateful breath of an America that's completely on the fringes. He does this by comparing him to ex-California governor Pete Wilson who was anti-immigration. Ultimately, his policies, which were unpopular, led to latinos and younger voters in the state abandoning the republican party. California is now a reliably blue state. Behind all of Chait's arguments is the idea that we're living in a more inclusive, accepting and liberal America. Obama overwhelmingly brought out a younger, more diverse voter and this voter is not interested in the radicalized and antiquated ideas of the right. To me, this argument holds up. Trump is a historically disliked president and we’re seeing resist trump movements pop up all over the country. A couple of weeks ago Trump signed off on an executive order initiating a Muslim ban. Thousands of people around the country were protesting within hours.

An in-depth vision of the Obama presidency and its long-term effect on America's future Mr. Chait considers each of Obama's successes; prevention of a second Great Depression, health care, the environment, careful foreign policy, and financial reform, one by one, and shows how his well thought out policies will continue into the future despite the Republicans' desperate attempts to destroy them. I felt reassured that, despite the electoral college victory of Donald Trump, the reforms of the Obama era will inevitably prevail. Even though liberals were disappointed that Obama was not able to deliver on many of their cherished goals such as single payer health care, sweeping revolution in climate science, etc., he did move the country in the right direction. The demographics of America absolutely insure that his vision will continue. The Trump administration is the last gasp of the old, failed conservatism. The shaky alliance between him and the Ryan and McConnell Congress is destined to crumble. Evolution in politics is incremental, not sudden or sweeping. Obama's legacy is assured. He will be recognized as one of our greatest presidents.

This book is a great tribute to Obama and at the same time a devastating critique of the Republican party. It really opened my eyes to the pervasive racism that manifested itself in the efforts to try and undermine Obama, but that in spite of it, made the case that his legacy, saving the economy from depression, delivering health care reform, and the investments in technologies and signing of agreements to fight climate change will stand the test of time.

This was a good book - and it was a good time to read it, here in the early days of the (ugh) Trump administration. Chait argues that Obama's legacy: 1) is far greater than people give him credit for, and 2) will be a lot more difficult to undo that people suspect. Chait makes good points to back up these ideas, though he can overlook some aspects that explain Obama's current reputation.Chait begins by noting how ambitious Obama's original stated goals were - and even his critics noted that. Eventually, though, people came to see his legacy as much more muted, both on the left and right. Chait ain't having that. Chait argues that Obama made major changes to help bail out the economy, to engage in financial reform, health care reform, education reform (which was actually largely buried in Obamacare as an afterthought, but in there nonetheless), environmental reform, and foreign policy. Oh, and his political coalition will endure long after Trump's time, Chait maintains. Chait argues that people don't give Obama credit because the left tends to be excessively disappointed by any compromise, and because the daily mucky-muck of the legislative process makes any/all victories impure. Chait notes that if you look back at the actual goings-on of previous Democratic heroes, their legislation was also the product of bastard child compromises. Was LBJ the best at wrangling arms to get votes? Well, funny how he lost that ability when he lost seats in the 1966 midterms. OK, that's all true - especially the part about how the legislative process sullies and muddies everything. But one thought I had: it's also true that Obama did a bad job selling his damn programs to the people. He had a nice inside game (working Washington DC to get his shit passed), but lacked a strong outside game (selling his vision to the American people). Bill Clinton made a rousing defense of Obamacare at the '12 DNC, but Obama himself fizzled at that, oddly enough. Also, Chait's own points in the book show why Obama's legacy is easy to underrate currently. A lot of the stuff was done silently and slowly under the surface, such as funding for green energy in the stimulus bill. It's already made green energy far more efficient, but unless you're really paying attention, you'd never know that, let alone link it to anything Obama ever did. Similarly, the Obamacare act had a clause allowing for direct lending for college students and undoing a lot of the worst predatory college loan practices - but how many people knew about that at all? A lot of what Obama did is buried deep in the background, and has never been well sold/explained to the people, so it's understandable if people underrate Obama's legacy.As to why Obama's legacy will be hard to undo, Chait clearly had to do some late re-writing of this book after Trump's shocking election, but even still based on the points Chait makes, undoing Obama's legacy will still be easier to do in theory than in practice (something we're seeing a hint of with the current efforts to repeal Obamacare). Among other things: a lot of the legacy has already been accomplished. Green energy has been made more efficient. I believe he noted that in some of the sunnier spots of the world, solar power already works about as efficiently as fossil fuels. The economy was bailed out of its rut. Obamacare has given insurance to millions who previously lacked it - and any attempt to undo that will raise all manner of hell (which is exactly what's going on right now. The GOP might hate Obamacare, but the principle of using the government to help people get insurance clearly has caught on). Chait notes that Obama's environmental legacy is most at risk, because it's heavily predicated on executive orders that can be undone by other executive orders, but even there Chait holds out hope because a lot of the biggest executive orders, like his Clean Power Plan, has pushed the nation to more renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. (The Supreme Court could also kill it, but the point Chait makes is that the push is on).Chait does note that Obama has a mixed legacy at best in foreign policy, as his efforts at dealing with Syria have been halting and at times counter-productive. But he also adds that it's an improvement over Bush. For me, that's not a great counterpoint. Also, as Chait notes there was a lack of a clear sweeping vision for Obama's foreign policy moves (or, for that matter, many of his domestic policy ones) that hurt him. Oddity: Chait never notes the more recent success at boxing in ISIS, which I've read others claim is a result of Obama's overall plan at dealing with them. That's the sort of point that would be right up Chait's alley in this book.One main problem I had with the book overall is that it does tend to overstate Obama's effectiveness. Yes, we have pulled out of the worst of the recession, but I think it's pretty clear that it mauled a lot of small towns in ways that they haven't recovered from. As I've seen some people point out, if we're all doing so well and great right now, that why have huge swaths of small town & rural America shifted from supporting Democrats to supporting Trump? Chait looks at the aggregate whole, but often the micro-level reality is more turbulent. Oh, and I almost forgot one other thing: Chait is also bullish on Obama's future because he wants people to take the long view. He doesn't see Trump's narrow electoral mandate as a great sign moving forward. It's focusing on declining chunks of the population: older whites and those without college educations. In the short term, this is great for the GOP. Those guys vote most often. They are far better at turning out at midterm elections. And the GOP has harnassed the white-hot anger at Democrats to some impressive victories. But it's not a path to governing, and at some point you have to do that as well. (And without Obama to kick around up top, that's going to expose their own limitations more). More than that, Chait breaks it down generationally. The Obama coalition was a profoundly young one, as he smoked McCain and Romney with younger votes, and even Hillary Clinton - a person hardly in touch with the youth of America - won big with young voters. Chait notes there's an old logic about how people start out liberal but then turn conservative, but Chait says that's a thought not backed up by much in the way of traditional voting. People are more likely to be consistent in their voting. In fact, he notes that from 1976-2000, there really was no sizable young/old voting divide. You had one in 1972, but even there McGoven lost with the young (but not nearly as badly as he did with the old). Chait doesn't mention it, but that's also during the damn Vietnam War, which would heighten generational issues. Anyhow, Chait notes that the Trump base is based on a highly racially inflamed populace. The younger are more racially liberal. More than that, the younger are more racially diverse. What Trump was able to to do is get a couple heavily white states to flip by razor-thin margins before states like North Carolina or Arizona flipped the other way. Chait says the nature of the current GOP base makes it difficult to reach out to the next generation - and it's going to keep growing as a size of the electorate. Polling shows that they like a bigger government. They aren't animated by the same issues firing up the GOP. That's the final reason Chait is bullish on Obama's legacy: he created a new generation of voters who lean liberal far more than they lean conservative. Shortly after the election I remember telling someone to wake up me up in 20 years time, because I think the next decade or two is going to be rough, but as Chait notes at the end, I think it'll eventually turn a liberal direction. This isn't a perfect book, but it is a good one.

An excellent, well written account of the successes and failures of the Obama presidency. Chait's conclusion is that numerous successes went virtually unnoticed even by liberals, who felt that Obama had disappointed them. Through facts, figures, and good writing, Chait shows how Obama was able to correct the economy, make progressive strides, and bring dignity to the office. He also shows how Obama's presidency had the unfortunate downside of leading directly to the rise of Trump. There's so much in this book about race, politics, and critiques of both liberals and conservatives, that I will have to read it again.

A little bittersweet given the current occupant of the White House...but still excellent. I firmly believe that history will judge Barack Obama's presidency far more kindly than not only Republicans, but also the media and the "disappointed left" did while he was in office. In 20 years he will be remembered as the Democrats' Reagan (and far more deservedly so than Reagan was). His accomplishments have been remarkable.

Jonathan Chait, in this brilliant account of Obama's presidency, makes a case contradicting against the conventional wisdom -- held by a surprising number of liberals -- that Obama delivered nothing but eight years of disappointment full of broken promises.Chait makes a compelling case on how Obama's doctrine reshaped the economy, healthcare, energy, finance, and education in quantifiable ways with a comprehensive account of the president's legislative achievements.However, Audacity talks less about progress made by LGBT community during the administration that includes the appointment of 11 openly gay federal judges and marriage equality.Chait also reminds us of the extreme and relentless attacks on Obama -- at times racially influenced by the likes of New Gingrich -- since the beginning of his administration and the extinction of moderate wing of the Republican party.

I had already forgotten so much about Pres. Obama's fights for his legislative agenda. This book reminds us in nail-chewing detail. I liked how the author pointed out that liberals tend to cry doom-and-gloom any time a Democratic president doesn't achieve perfect enactment of his legislative agenda. He also pointed out that Americans blame whatever president for legislative failures, not the sitting Congress that does nothing. This explains how do-nothing Congresspeople get re-elected! "Audacity" was worth reading, just heavy on policy-wonk stuff, much like Obama himself--heavy on policy, light on "feeling our pain."

If you think President Obama was too cautious and centrist and didn't get enough done.... this is an eye-opening corrective. It's also a slightly embarrassing reminder that the glass is always half-empty when you're a progressive.