I would do a better job standing up to social conservatism than Obama has, I think. I frequently think that the GOP is running rings around him, complaining about the "liberal government" while putting more and more restrictions on women's bodies and trying ever harder to throw the middle class into the shitter (and we won't even get into how much harder it has become for people who are working class and poor in the US).
The problem is that while I have plenty of unbending spine, I have zero patience and interest in compromise. I don't have an ounce of his tact, and I don't have his oratorical skill.
I also was active in political volunteering long enough to have fair amount of appreciation and understanding of exactly how unspeakably hard his job is, so even if I wish he wasn't governing center-right, I'm not sure how plausible it is to govern more as a populist or progressive, especially if you're black (he has to be Mr. Super-Reasonable and Super-Calm to counter the heinous stereotype of The Angry Black Man, he has way less latitude when it comes to righteous anger than a white president does).
The problem is that while I have plenty of unbending spine, I have zero patience and interest in compromise. I don't have an ounce of his tact, and I don't have his oratorical skill.
I also was active in political volunteering long enough to have fair amount of appreciation and understanding of exactly how unspeakably hard his job is, so even if I wish he wasn't governing center-right, I'm not sure how plausible it is to govern more as a populist or progressive, especially if you're black (he has to be Mr. Super-Reasonable and Super-Calm to counter the heinous stereotype of The Angry Black Man, he has way less latitude when it comes to righteous anger than a white president does).