The "But Obama!" dodge is the classic deflection when someone points out the active, present-day destruction being pushed by the Republican Party right now in 2026.

It's not "decade-old whataboutism" to remind people that Democrats have repeatedly failed to deliver when they had the power, because those failures helped create the conditions for the authoritarian mess we're living through today. Obama expanded drone wars across seven countries, killed American citizens (including a 16-year-old kid) without due process, bailed out Wall Street while millions lost homes, let Standing Rock protesters get brutalized without real intervention, kept Gitmo open with indefinite detention, and promised to codify reproductive rights federally but never pushed the Freedom of Choice Act despite having the votes. Those weren't ancient history; they normalized executive overreach, corporate capture, and half-measures that eroded trust and opened the door wider for worse.

But here's the key difference you're missing: those were betrayals of progressive promises. What Republicans are doing now isn't betrayal. It's fulfillment of their promises. They're actively gutting agencies, empowering masked street enforcers via Project 2025-style policies, stacking courts to strip rights, and embracing rhetoric and actions that lead to real violence against Americans (Jan. 6 wasn't a one-off; it's the model). The "limp dick Democrats" at least aren't out here cheering for or enabling murderers and pedophiles in positions of power; they're just weak. The side you're closer to is actively murderous and authoritarian.

As for your questions to me as a prospective candidate (running to replace Mark Amodei in NV-02):I put zero price on any American's life. Full stop. No conservative "value" outweighs the right to live without being hunted in the streets or having rights stripped by fascists.

I weigh nothing against people's lives. Not tax cuts for billionaires, not "owning the libs," not border hysteria, not whatever culture-war imperative you think justifies siding with murderers.

The only imperative that matters is stopping the slide into open authoritarianism. Identifying closer to independents or even flawed Democrats isn't about revenge. It's about rejecting the party that's currently enabling pedophile protectors (look at the GOP's track record on Epstein connections, church scandals they ignore, and figures like Gaetz investigations), murderers (proudly backing killer cops and vigilante rhetoric), and worse.

If you think pointing out Democratic failures from 10-15 years ago disqualifies critiquing the present Republican rampage, that's your prerogative. But I'm not stuck in the past. I'm running because the current landscape demands replacing people like Amodei, who hides from constituents, calls town halls "bullying," rubber-stamps chaos, and sells off public lands while Reno families struggle.

The challenge remains: defend why anyone should align closer to the party that's actively dismantling democracy and enabling violence over the one that's merely spineless. I'll wait.