I have read your comment and I have determined. This, you are trying to find common ground like one of those people shouting, "guys they are the same they are all bad" and I am here to tell you. Even with what you are saying above is you can feel how you want but you are just wrong. You don't have to like it but you absolutely are.

Firstly, not all progress is linear. No one here doesn't agree that progress can diverge or go multiple complicated routes but progress absolutely and 100% can be linear. Seeing it the opposite or trying to come up with some reason progress can never be linear is also wrong. I will give you an example a basic one. Amending bills and rights.

Let's look at the Miranda rights these protect you from getting tossed in jail if you don't understand the rights or laws of the U.S. Albeit, it took a guy from another country committing a brutal act for the U.S. to get to a point where it said, "hunh, what if as an American I don't even know my own rights because they change." And so we got the Miranda rights --> this right here is linear it is progress forward. Doesn't matter how many ways you want to sit here and talk about trains and bread and circuses. Now Obama doesn't have anything to do with the Miranda rights. However, as we speak the current administration and President absolutely are trying to undo the Miranda rights. This protects you, me, and came from a legal case that moved the U.S. forward not backwards. This is absolutely linear progress. Which all sound like BS answers to Obama somehow being equal to Bush when Obama's presidency was far more complicated than that trying to clean up Bushe's shit.

So when you talk about progress and you talk about who you would pick.you can absolutely pick people that don't push progress backwards.i would have picked Biden or Obama or even fucking Bush again over Trump if it meant not picking a piece of shit looking at amending or straight up removing a basic right that moved the U.S. forward.

We can talk about something going on in the U.S. that kills Americans every year. Let's talk about progress there and Obama is relevant and you should like this one because it is one of those sliders that doesn't exist. Gun violence.

During Obama's presidency. Obama tried just changing background checks on guns and just looking at providing statistics on gun violence he tried this on multiple occasions just so people were more educated. Each time the NRA filed a cease and desist. Obama was halted every step of the way he even has a really good talk on it.

https://youtu.be/6imFvSua3Kg

This attempt by Obama is a progress and it isn't exactly linear but it could have had some linear progress. Meanwhile the current administration chooses to do nothing because nothing is wrong. Each time someone tries to do nothing this doesn't push your figmental train back but it holds the train in place and prevents it from budging forward or hitting a different track to figure something out. This is holding progress and that is the same as pushing it back every time we do nothing to try and figure out how we manage it. The same administration is also shouting on X to kill it's political competition. This is not the same. The current administration said, "give them more guns" and is now shouting, "kill the political opposition" this is backwards. It's fucking stupid to sit here and tell me Obama was just as bad as the rest of them or shit to set here and tell me Romney or Bush was just as bad and they are all the same. It is just a defeatist point of view in of itself because it isn't acknowledging the whole picture or taking ownership of the shit the current admin is doing.

"Obama was literally the same program as Busy" you can sit here and say this because Obama had principals that didn't move the dial in some direction. But there was 100% linear progress from Busy no matter. How you want to look at it. Progress that things like Obama care absolutely and 100% helped poorer states like I come from but my own state voted against it. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't linear but it was a step in some direction. And now the same administration has changed it because it had a black man's name on it. Obama and Trump not the same. Obama and Bush not the same.

Progress has all sorts of divergent paths. I get your point but it is stupid to think that their isn't some linear progress that comes with some of the change you want. You are always going to pick someone that doesn't have something you want but when it comes to who is in office now and who has been in office I would pick Obama time and time again.

We can look at some of the stuff Obama moved forward.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Signed into law in 2010, this legislation implemented sweeping financial regulatory reforms in response to the subprime mortgage crisis. --> not linear but good for its time. Current admin is fucking with this. Houses are less affordable than they have been for years. Not progress. So yeah I would Pick Obama here because he figured something out.

Tax Policy: Allowed the Bush-era tax cuts to expire for the highest income earners, while cutting taxes for working families and small businesses, which reduced after-tax income inequality. --> every dem does this but lately it has been a dem wanting to make this move. Meanwhile the current admin is doing exactly what you are accusing Obama of. Reinforcing dominance of owners over workers I believe is how you put it? Doesn't really seem like the two are the same so far.

Auto Industry Rescue: The administration provided support to the U.S. automobile industry, which helped prevent its collapse and preserve jobs. Hunh another good thing. That the current admin is fucking up with terriffs.

You can spout Obama being shit at attempts to help foreigners crossing borders. I don't disagree but to think his foreign policies weren't also an improvement would be a lie this would be one of those complicated processes that aren't a slider. While border management may not have been good he made progress I would consider linear elsewhere.

Iran Nuclear Deal: Negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and other world powers to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons.

Paris Climate Agreement: The U.S. adopted this international accord in 2015 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming.

"Cuban Thaw": Eased travel and monetary restrictions and began normalizing relations with Cuba after decades of estrangement.

Intervention in Libya: The U.S. participated in a NATO-led intervention in 2011. 

These all seem like linear progress bars to me while the current admin fucks up foreign relationships. Literally left the fucking Paris Climate Agreement while the world burns. Is siding with Russia. Etc the list goes on. We could get into Obama's take on Gay rights also a movement forward while the current administration and Bush tried to fight them. Not the same app progress the current administration is fucking up also the sake shit Romney didn't want.

Not the same and sure I am open to discussing the bad from Obama and maybe the good from Trump. Trump's take on foreign adversaries like China stealing intellectual property was good his first term. However, he is fucking it up this term. Holding back changes in the automotive industry. Preventing foreigners from going to school where and diversity proves to be beneficial when it comes to progress.

My entire point is this "Obama was no different than the rest" is just bullshit and it always will be. I don't disagree that a man in a suit is going to be a man in a suit. What will absolutely disagree on is what we see as progress. And I understand not all progress is linear in that complications come from it all. But to sit here and tell me Obama is the same as busy with a different name badge is lying to me and honestly to yourself.

To tell me Obama and Romney were the same and we didn't pick Romney because they were absolutely not the same is also bullshit. I don't think you understand politics and why right now more than ever it is important to understand and create a distinction that you pick and choose battles and Obama gets the praise he does because he did make some progress on human rights figured out ways to avoid entire financial crises that Bush created and started for common people. The current administration tears that down more and more each day. Progress isn't always linear but when you look at moving forward making things easier on people less poor and people with less rights. It is very easy to compare and contrast the differences in progress Obama alone did not do what he did alone and he did do great things all while having policies that were not great.

Kamala's take on prisons and foreign immigration wasn't great either but God damn she would have been a 1000% better pick than the shit administration now. And to tell me even she would have been the same would also be shit. Because progress is complicated but Bush wasn't progressing the way I wanted and the current administration is currently dismantling the process that came from people I do want. There is no ideal president that is going to do everything you want.

This is why I think you are just another bystander shouting "they are all corporate greed and the same." When in reality what you are saying is understood on the greed part but absolutely fucking nonsense on the being the same part.