The Politics Thread

[GMac]

 

IA, Jane.  Honestly, he and his family are inspirational.  He's really been an amazing leader and I'm proud to have cast my vote for him.  

 

 

 

Hmmm I wonder if the MSM will make this the headline / top of the broadcast at 6.30 this evening like they did when he rolled his big orange azz up there the first time.  Something tells me they won't.  Grrr

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

After watching that news conference, I had a lump in my throat and a feeling in the pit of my stomach. On one hand, I feel relief that Obama made it through the Presidency with a highly respectable list of achievements and that he will not be subjected to hateful ire from various corners of the country (and world). Many people have prayed for the safety of him and his family because we know all too well the hate that is out there. That anxious feeling that I sometimes have can have some time to subside thankfully.

 

On the other hand, Quo Vadis, America?  So much uncertainy right now. Had the country been handed over to and administration that seemed competent, perhaps I would feel better about what is to come post inauguration day. 

I guess we'll have to look to the people who lived through the Nixon years for some advice on how to cope. 

 

 

ETA. Some people on Twitter are complaining that Trump's twitter account is running ads on their Twitter feed about the free inauguration tickets. These people are definitely NOT Trump supporters and are pretty irritated that this is popping up on their timelines. I haven't seen it myself but I know at least 2 people who did. They both think it's pathetic and weird.

Edited January 18, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[MissLlanviewPA]

 

I'm still a hopeless Bill Clinton fan girl. My family is from Arkansas, and he was my childhood president. Those roots run deep for me. 

[DRW50]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/01/18/daily-202-lamar-alexander-is-dragging-betsy-devos-across-the-finish-line-to-become-secretary-of-education/587e5785e9b69b36fcfeafd7/?tid=pm_politics_pop&utm_term=.87e3833768da

 

By Fix standards that's actually a good article. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by DRW50

[marceline]

 

This thing is going to be a glorious trainwreck topped off by what will no doubt by an inaugural address that will rival Hitler or Mussolini in its petty ugliness and yet be incoherent enough to somehow give comedians material for years.

[Vee]

I haven't been able to watch Obama much since November. Not in real time, anyway. It's too hard. He did so much for people like me, and more for everyone than people often realize or respect. That segment of Kimmel with idiots on the street not knowing that Obamacare and the ACA are one and the same drove me mad.

[marceline]

 

Same here. He gave this country everything and we spit in his face. Look at what his biggest "mistake" was: trying to make sure everyone in America had access to health care. But the one I still can't stand to look at because of the shame it makes me feel is Michelle. She deserved so much better than she got. Obama said it best: she took a job she didn't ask for and did it with style, grace and kindness and in return she and her children were called monkeys.

[Vee]

Well, we didn't spit in his face, but I definitely feel like the country should be ashamed and embarrassed, as I am.

 

I know the Obamas wouldn't want you to feel that way, though.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Vee

[marceline]

 

You're right and that's part of the reason it hurts so much. How's that for irony?

[Juliajms]

Same here, but then I remind myself that there are a lot of uneducated people in this country.  It's easy to forget that once everyone you know has a college degree (I'm talking about myself here, not you). Then I think back to the people I grew up with and it all makes sense again.  Not only are some of these people tragically uneducated, but there are a lot of people who simply aren't that smart. Half the population has an IQ under 100. Add that to the fact that many of them are struggling to put food on the table and it's no wonder they have no idea what's going on.

[Khan]

 

Miss M...being divine as always.

 

I get that feeling, too, dragonflies.  Primarily because, the GOP has offered nothing concrete in the way of alternatives.  

 

Congress will switch around some of the language, shave off a little here-and-there from the provisions in order to put their own stink on it.  But, as I said, either on here or on FB, if and when they DO premiere Trump's Insurance for Everybody (tm), take a good, hard look at the bill and then tell me it isn't Obamacare or the ACA under a different name.

 

It's been my contention that their long-term goal is to eradicate Obama as much as possible from our history.  Think about all the actual history (often involving minorities) that gets whitewashed (pun intended) or left out entirely in elementary, middle and high school history books; or all the misinformation that is passed down from one generation to the next (like Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves) until it becomes fact in the court of public opinion.  IMO, that's what we're seeing the GOP do now to the outgoing president.

 

They will make it seem as if Obama did absolutely little while in office except be the first African-American president -- and even then, I suspect, history books will come to say that 1) his birth certificate was suspect, and 2) he wasn't REALLY Black since, after all, his mother was Scots-Irish, thus taking away even the significance of his election in the first place.  In the end, and if the GOP has their way, Obama's will be regarded by future generations either as an illegitimate presidency or one as ineffectual as, say, Franklin Pierce's, or Martin Van Buren's.  

 

We don't THINK this kind of historical revision can happen, especially in this day and age, but if the history of witnessing, recording, sharing and passing down, teaching and analyzing history has taught me anything (particularly where it concerns African-Americans), it's that it CAN happen.  It always HAS happened, and it always WILL happen, so help us God.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Khan

[Vee]

 

Not going to happen, IMO. Time and age are against that generation. I do believe this is a last gasp of a dying old America, provided we fight against it and stay alive.

[DramatistDreamer]

So there is a deeper investigation than what was initially hinted at--specifically regarding the possibility of money having changed hands between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

 

FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump

[Khan]

 

For the past several days, I have found myself imagining how I would feel if I were Barack Obama, preparing to leave office after eight of the most tumultuous years in any young leader's life.

 

I would feel proud, of course, knowing that, if nothing else, I helped open a door that my brothers and sisters in the Black community believed never would be opened.  Even if I had discovered that there was just so much I could do as president, and even if it seemed for the moment that we, as a nation, had taken a step backward, my intellectual side would believe, as Obama told us, that history does not always progress in a straight line; that it zigs and zags and often retreats before moving onto the next step.

 

And yet...

 

I keep returning to those images of Obama and Trump meeting for the first time after the election, and I can't help but wonder what must have run through his mind in those moments.  

 

I think that if I were in Obama's position, part of me would feel almost as if I had been sucker-punched by the very people I did my damnedest to help.  I mean, you could have had Obama stand in the middle of Washington, D.C. as every dissatisfied citizen lined up and, one by one, kicked him in the nards; and I'll bet you that it wouldn't have hurt even half as much as Fat Orange Bastard being elected his successor.

 

I know that I would leave the presidency knowing, as Obama must, that I did my utmost to uphold the Constitution and protect the people whose lives and livelihoods had been placed in my care.  At the same time, however, I'd be lying if I said no part of me felt as if I had failed, somehow, to deliver the hope and change I had promised and bring this country closer together.

 

I mean, I'd have to have my doubts.  Otherwise, I'm Donald Trump.

 

Yeah, I criticized Obama's leadership skills in the past, starting with the Wall Street bailouts.  Even when I praised Obama for his character, I still held reservations about his ability to govern.  A couple of bestselling books, a few appearances with Oprah and one term as a U.S. Senator was not enough experience, I said, for someone charged with the task of leading a nation of millions.

 

I said that and much more over the past eight years.  But I'm here to tell you now, and for the record, that I was wrong.  Not because we've had our glimpse of the future and it's terrifying, but because I finally realize that I was so caught up in all the petty b.s. that both sides and the media threw at us and I failed to realize one very important fact: He tried.

 

Did Obama expect to accomplish everything he wanted to as president even if he had had a more agreeable Congress to work with?  Probably not.  But I believe now that he genuinely wanted to lead us toward something better; and despite whatever flaws he actually possessed (and not that most projected onto him), he was still willing to roll up his sleeves and do the work.  In the end, that, more than even the results, is what counts.

 

I'll miss his leadership, too.  In fact, I think I'll miss it more, simply because I didn't appreciate it soon enough.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Khan

[DRW50]

I imagine Obama was surprised and also hurt when Trump won, and frightened, as most people are, but I wonder if deep down he expected it, or at least had an inkling. I think the real betrayal must have come during his first term when his genuine attempts to help were met not with the debate or disagreement he may have expected, but instead open racism, myriad assaults against his family (living and dead), and by people who acknowledged they would do nothing but try to bring him down - people who were rewarded for this by voters. 

I think a lot of the President Obama wanted to be left by 2011 and 2012, which is one of the reasons he was able to win reelection. He woke up to a reality that most Democrats still can't quite understand. 

 

I also wonder if he regrets reportedly encouraging Biden not to run so that Hillary would have a clearer path. Biden probably would have beaten Trump.