Trump’s loudmouth shenanigans have Democrats longing for Obama. But let’s not forget the fact that Obama’s policies and Trump’s don’t differ much.
Why We Miss Obama
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Who’s the «we», Ted, publishers of thesauri ?… 😉
Henri
I don’t miss Obama. I did vote for him once, because there was no way I was not going to vote for a Black candidate, given the choice. (I also supported Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm, but in their cases I had no fear that they would win.) Having read the small print on the side of the package — Mr. O was the most conservative candidate — I did not expect much and I was not disappointed. But I understand that it would take something like a revolution or at least a coup d’état to get someone not attuned to and subservient to the Deep State / Ruling Class, and then he would have to fight for his life every day. Not Mr. O’s métier at all.
Yeah, I admit it – I’d hoped for a change. Didn’t take all THAT long to figure out it just wasn’t coming.
I review Barack Obama’s record and am amazed by a similarity it possesses to that of Hillary Clinton. Neither really has much to brag about; there isn’t much there there. Even Clinton’s own website, in listing her “major” accomplishments, tended toward a lot of low-hanging fruit.
I forgot to mention that Hillary Clinton is a blood-soaked war criminal who considers Henry Kissinger a mentor. Shame on me for forgetting, even for a moment.
I am proud to say that I never voted for Obama once, not even when he was a candidate for Senator.
I looked into supporting him after Kucinich’s 2004 campaign ended, but I found him to be too slippery to get a grip on what he really wanted to accomplish in the Senate, so I didn’t.
And after his time in the Senate I concluded that he stood for nothing but his own image, that of which I had seen enough of.
Obama was a faithless whore and Hillary’s candidacy was fatally doomed in my estimation when she promised more of the same that Obama delivered. Which was more of the same that George W. Bush delivered.
Thanks to Hillary and the conspiracy of the wealthy Founding Assholes and their democracy defeating Electoral College, we have the rude Satan instead of the usual slick Satan as president today.
So what would you have done instead of the electoral college?
(no argument that it’s outdated today but we’re talking about 1787. No internet, no TV, no radio, no newspapers with a distribution area outside the city proper.)
The first elections had turnouts of only a few percent.
Do the same thing that has to be done when Electoral College votes are counted: count the votes.
And the Constitution should have been written so that the barrier to Amendment is not as difficult as it is to surmount.
Many people recognize that the system instituted by the founding cabal of evil wealthy conspirators is unfair, but it is still to the satisfaction of their modern day asshole counterparts, who still present an effective obstacle to reform.
Why would the openly evil minority of today oppose a system that has served their interests so long and so well, with Bush and Trump presidencies?
People have to get over their hagiography of the Founders. This is just another religion that needs to be overcome.
“Count the votes”
The votes of people who had no idea who they were voting for? That had never heard of any of the candidates, and had no idea of anything that happened more than a day’s ride from where they lived? How would you collect those votes and get them all securely to New York?
At the time a popular vote simply wouldn’t have been workable.
When I conduct design reviews, I often open by pointing out that criticism alone is worthless. It’s easy to point up flaws, but if one cannot suggest a better alternative one should remain silent.
> People have to get over their hagiography of the Founders.
Say what, now? You’re the one who keeps insisting that the Founders must be judged as godlike beings. If they were not saints and angels (based on rigorous criteria that didn’t exist at the time) then they must have been demon-spawned creatures of pure evil. You attribute to them supernatural powers of prognostication which they deliberately used to make life easier for Trump and the Koch brothers (now “brother”!!!) in today’s world.
Me, I think they were human beings born in the eighteenth century and judge them accordingly.
So then you accept Trump because he is a man of his times, which he absolutely is. The time of “now” is the post-progressive-collapse times of post Reagan.
Trump also shares many of his regressive traits with George Washington. The now of Trump is a throwback in the post-progressive-collapse times of the present US.
If you read the Federalist Papers then you would understand how informed elections could have been run in the 1780s by counting votes of the people. The fact that they chose not to count the votes of the people reflects their anti-democratic preferences.
The wealthy to a man Federalists were very adept at propagating views supporting their class interests.
> So then you accept Trump because he is a man of his times, which he absolutely is.
Nice try, but fail.
Trump is a man of his times, yes. But he is a bad man of his times, he probably would have been a liar and a crook no matter when he was born.
y’see – it’s the ‘liar and crook’ part that matters.
But if we use your broad brush, then Bernie Sanders is also a bad man because he was born in these times. He is solely responsible for global warming ‘cuz he drives a car, and flies on airplanes, and eats food delivered by diesel trucks. It’s obviously all his fault. He’s no different than Trump.
Let’s say Bernie’s elected, and actually manages to create some sort of socialism in this country. Then, two hundred years from now we get our own Stalin and it gets turned into a brutal dictatorship. That would also be his fault … right?
Why would you read the Federalist Papers? Hamilton turned a blind eye to slavery whenever his own capitalistic interests were in conflict. Madison was the primary author of the evil constitution. And Jay was a SLAVER himself!
If we again apply your own broad brush, then obviously those papers are also evil, wicked, mean, and nasty; written by evil, wicked, mean, and nasty people.
If anyone actually DOES miss Obumma, I’ve posted my “legacy” list for the most annoyingly fraudulent political snake to come down the pike in quite some time. It’s not necessarily comprehensive but I’ve included reference to an article that nicely fills in the holes. I’ve not bothered to include existing links to many of the points. Ask if interested.
OBUMMA LEGACY
(See also Counterpunch dot org, Pete Dolak, 02 May 2014)
Primarily: killed perhaps more US persons than those lost, in all US wars, combined, (including Civil War) by instituting “economic austerity” for the general population, while simultaneously showering $$$Trillions on those whose avaricious bungling almost destroyed the global economy in 2007-8.
1) Most legal deportations.
2) Most whistleblower prosecutions, most prosecutions under the Espionage Act than ALL
previous presidents, combined.
3) Constant support charter schools.
4) Expanded the powers and scope of the intelligence agencies.
5) Did nothing useful regarding illegal foreclosures and insulted Americans, yet again,
by saying that it was too complex an issue — even for a 13-D chess master, apparently.
6) Installed Att Gen who did not perform criminal investigations of “too big to fail”
bankers but essentially institutionalized the notion of legal untouchability of
“too favored to prosecute” banks.
7) Allowed BP to drill in Gulf of Mexico again after massive drilling disaster.
8) Two words: “clean coal.”
9) Did not veto (NDAA2012) that gave him, and following presidents, the power to
indefinitely detain US citizens for “acts” on US soil.
10) Abrogated the right to assassinate US citizens outside the US w/o judicial review.
11) Gave states the “right” to determine how to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
12) Justified Iraq invasion.
13) Endless sacrificial firings to respond to endless, proven-false scandals concocted by
the Reich wing media.
14) Defends CIA which finally admits to spying on congress.
15) James Risen called Oumma the greatest threat to press freedom in a generation.
16) Merged Homeland Security with local law enforcement as new “tool” to quash rights of
1st amendment, as asserted by the Occupy movement.
17) Pressured unions to allow congress right to “fast-track” new “free-trade” treaties.
18) Says the Bush family is “good people.”
19) Proposes East-coast offshore drilling.
20) Killed Quadaffi, who got rid of his nukes at US insistence.
21) Sells drones to foreign countries.
22) Officially declared Venezuela a threat to the US.
23 Promised “Most transparent administration” but in actuality set FOIA censorship
record well before end of tenure.
24) Approves Arctic oil drilling.
25) Seeks cell phone “kill switch.”
26) Opens public land to coal mining.
27) In 2015 SOTU address, boasted about having ruined Russian economy with his
sanctions (ie war crimes, in a sane world).
28) Semi-hysterically calls for reinstatement of Patriot Act (paragraph 215).
29) Gyrates acrobatically to avoid stopping NSA spying.
30) Pushes TTP and other sovereignty destroying “trade agreements” that would make NAFTA look like 200% protective tariffs.
31) In conjunction with#27, above, allowed neo-con Nuland and crank McCain to engineer
neo-fascist putsch in Ukraine thereby making “global” nuclear holocaust a real threat
once again.
32) Failed to seek immediate resignation of previous administration’s Federal states’
attorneys, a well established tradition. (Did he finally manage to put in “Dem”
attorneys, after 8-years?)
33) Meekly stood aside as EPA & USDA approve Agent Orange GMOs.
34) Finds New Way to Coddle Criminal Banks.
35) Intimidated by teabaggers to make permanent the Bush tax cuts for the < 1%, then immediately vowed “to fight” to reverse that action two years later — reminiscent of OJ Simpson vowing to find his wife’s murderer – with equivalent intent and expectation of success.
36) Self-deceit at UN (Sep 2015) or implying the entire world is the stupidest, collective, dumb fuck in human history. See Counterpunch, Joe Luria, 29Sept 2015.
37) Greater arms dealer than Dick & Chimpy.
38) Embraced and extended the Dick & Chimpy era of rampant corporate crime.
39) Urges No Bankruptcy Relief for Student Debt.
40) Highest “Defense” Dept budget in history.
41) Proclaims it is “not true” that Wall Street regulation is too lax.
42) Hypocrisy, cynicism & treachery of a Nobel Peace Prize winner:
See: A World War Has Begun: Break the Silence by John Pilger
43) Ten times as many domestic oil pipelines were silently approved/constructed during the protracted XL saga.
44) "My policies are those of a moderate 1985 Reagan Republican" Self-description to Univision in December of 2012 when such openness couldn't hurt his election prospects.
45) After Orlando massacre visited the city with Rubio. Refused to let Grayson appear in his own home town. Rubio magically decided to run to keep his senate seat he had renounced to run for president?!?
46) Quietly announces rules that substantially weaken the endangered species act.
47) Obumma tells His Hairness that he hopes HH administration succeeds!
48) Six-year DoJ investigation of Wikileaks.
49) Senate Torture Report to Be Kept From Public for 12 Years After Obama Decision.
50) Tried to Re-Interpret the Fourth Amendment to Allow More Domestic Spying.
51) Says Sanders’ supporters helped undermine Obamacare.
52) Presided over "The Greatest Disintegration of Black Wealth in Recent
Memory"
53) Became the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to bomb another (Doctors Without Borders,
Kundar, Afghanistan.)
54) Endowed us with “the Obumma Doctrine”: any and all persons all killed by US bombs are, by definition, terrorists.
First New nuclear power plant in 3 decades funded by Obama.
https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/obama-announces-plans-for-first-nuclear-power-plant-in-3-decades.html
“Safe clean nuclear power plant” @4:00 in
“Though not mentioned in his speech, Forbes reports that an $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee has been awarded to Southern Co. to build twin nuclear reactors in Georgia. They will be the first new nuclear reactors built in the US since the Watts Bar plant was completed in 1990.”
https://fortune.com/2018/09/27/vogtle-nuclear-power-plant-construction-deal/
“A Scana Corp. project to add two reactors to the a nuclear station in South Carolina was abandoned last year because of high costs and due to complications related to Westinghouse’s bankruptcy. In 2012, Southern and Scana became the first companies to gain approval to build U.S. reactors in more than 30 years. But the predicted U.S. nuclear renaissance has wilted in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident.”
Sandwiched between Shrub (The Lesser Bush, Molly Ivins) and the Insane Clown President (Matt Taibbi), Obama’s comportment certainly appears civil. His administrations’ actual policies do not differ so much as shown in the cartoon and some of the more heroic documentation in the comments.
I think there is one clear difference, though: cognitive dissonance creates jobs.
During a “centrist” Democrat administration, there are additional openings for pundits and analysts to pontificate about all this beautiful progress. Those jobs are professional in that one has to overcome the cognitive dissonance – only retaining a few troubling traces of it. Those traces allow the hand-wringing that define the superiority of the liberal soul over the conservatives and rednecks. Likely a liberal at least knows someone’s niece who is gainfully employed as an intern in such a project.
Such jobs are simply cut by Republicans who’d rather have people look the other way or just flatly state out they like war and destruction to keep people in line. During such an interregnum the liberal is simply shocked, but that hardly requires a professional background.