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Obama on the Trail: Absent a Clear Future, Democrats Turn to the Past

<p>It&rsquo&semi;s certainly a familiar scene to Americans&comma; and one that brings forth nostalgia of a previous political fervor that seems so long ago&semi; Barrack Obama rallying Democrats of all affinities and affiliations to his banner&period; <strong>The message&quest; Take it back&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s undeniable that former two-term president Obama is still a star among his political party&semi; With his very presence drawing crowds and&comma; the DNC hopes&comma; reinvigorating a Democratic Party that has objectively had a tough time of it in the years following his departure from office&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Considering his popularity&comma; it&rsquo&semi;s an arguably solid strategy&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Obama&rsquo&semi;s star power is hard to ignore&comma; with people traveling across state lines for a chance to see him speak&comma; one of his greatest strengths&period; Recent polling has even found him to be regarded by the public as one of the best Presidents of their lifetimes&comma; ranking with the likes of Clinton and Reagan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With Bill Clinton clearly not at his best&comma; and certainly past his political prime&comma; Obama seems to be the best card the DNC can play&period;<strong> And really that&rsquo&semi;s the problem Democrats have been facing since Donald Trump stunned them<&sol;strong> &lpar;and party star Hillary Clinton&rpar; in an election they&rsquo&semi;d considered all but won&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With Bernie Sanders supporting social democrats like the now nationally recognized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shaking up the party base and supplanting longtime Democrat incumbents the DNC has a serious identity crisis to sort out&period; Compound that with blue collar traditionally unionized labor &lpar;for decades the utter core of the Democrat base&rpar; abandoning a party that they feel has abandoned them for Trump&rsquo&semi;s &lsquo&semi;American First&rsquo&semi; populism&comma; and the Dems seem to be in trouble&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But faced with a Trump Presidency that looks poised to install 2-4 Supreme Court judges&comma; and after collapsing the electoral &lsquo&semi;blue wall&rsquo&semi; in 2016&comma; the Democrats need to win and they need to win now&period; <strong>With nobody in office able to unify the bickering factions Democrats are forced to look to the one man in the past decade who has&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For his part Obama is answering the call&comma; taking to the road to speak across America&comma; albeit not necessarily everywhere&comma; with his legacy far from universally well regarded&period; He&rsquo&semi;s taken a &lsquo&semi;tough love&rsquo&semi; approach to the party that fought for his 2 terms in the Oval Office telling a DNC fundraiser in LA <em>&ldquo&semi;If what you are doing requires no sacrifice at all&comma; then you can do more&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Whether the strategy will work is up for debate&period; Obama is popular&comma; but he widely politicized the 2016 campaign as a &lsquo&semi;referendum on his legacy&rsquo&semi; in speeches meant to inspire support for a race he wasn&rsquo&semi;t running in&comma; and ultimately one his team lost&period; And while Trump and the Republicans are far from as popular as they were in 2016 as the party of change&comma; Democrats aren&rsquo&semi;t doing too hot either&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ultimately&comma;<strong> repeatedly having to turn to Obama&comma; and their past&comma; signals a lack of a cohesive future for the Democrat party<&sol;strong>&period; As the DNC looks to &lsquo&semi;take it back&rsquo&semi; from the GOP hoping to gain the House&comma; and thus a strongpoint to take on Trump from&comma; one has to wonder how much longer they can run on a platform that mainly appears to be &lsquo&semi;not the Republicans&rsquo&semi; pushed by a man not running for any offices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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