He said the cop acted stupidly with Henry Louis Gates instead of saying Gates acted stupidly by forgetting his keys to his house and trying to barge in? He said the cop shouldn’t have arrested someone when shown id and they’re in front of their own home. That may have been true but Gates wasn’t arrested for breaking and entering. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Cops can arrest you in your own home even in your living room or pajamas even if your conduct is seen as disorderly and just saying Get the f off my property is disorderly enough This was early on in the administration and the comment offended so many people that Obama had to invite the cop and Gates over for a beer summit |
+10000000 |
Obama was not a corrupt idiot and did not appoint unqualified lunatics, so no, it isn’t the same as when ignorant Republican lunatics lost their minds because a black man had been elected. |
When Obama said, “Clinging to their bibles” he went from jackass to enemy of America. He needed from office and all who supported him. That is why I voted for Trump 2016. |
This is correct. I don’t vote for Obama but after his first election I felt good about it because I thought we had turned a corner as a nation. But he turned out to be more divisive than I expected. So I felt pretty down about him by the time he got re-elected and felt like he aggressively disliked half of the country. Fwiw, I felt this way again very shortly after Biden was elected. I believed he would unite and calm things but he turned sharply left and turned out to be a pretty nasty person. So yeah, those of you feeling like Trump doesn’t represent you, I get it and I understand it but you will make it through. |
+1 I voted McCain in 2008, but I wasn’t fearful or distraught when Obama was elected. I could even appreciate the historical importance of the moment in having a Black president and was happy for my friends who felt like they were finally represented in the White House. I didn’t think he was a horrible person who was going to harm our country for his own ego. I am a fed and was ok with hiring freezes under his administration because I knew we were in a recession and it felt like part of my civic duty to continue to provide public service without a raise. I even ended up voting for him in 2012. Trump is a whole different beast. I can’t even get into caring about “policy” stuff between him and Harris because he hasn’t even surpassed the threshold of being a legitimate public servant who cares about our country. This came down to an election with one candidate who may not be perfect but respects the Constitution and has empathy toward Americans, and a candidate who is running a revenge campaign ready to burn it all down. And as a fed, I think he will happily harm people like me and take away my family’s livelihood just for sport and to win some conservative headlines. |
From a comment he made in 2008 about the plight of people struggling in rust belt towns? |
Obama was not my favorite president but compared to Biden he was way better.
It is not that big a deal to me that Trump is our president- more surprised democrats have zero power. Ideally one party has the house and senate different than the president. In the old days they would be forced to work together but that ended around the second bush term. |
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+1. Even if the tone of, say, Biden's presidency wasn't that divisive, his policies were. It was as if he wasn't remotely interested in compromising. You can say that's what he should have been, and that's fine. But he ran on a platform of uniting and then ignored a whole bunch of people saying things like "The Afghanistan withdrawal plan isn't going to work out well" and other policy positions. He became incredibly insular, could get very crabby, was never seen (because he was old and tired), and definitely didn't do any uniting. So he failed to follow through on a promise. Same with Obamacare feeling divisive. Obviously it wasn't meant to be, but the way it was handled ignored the perspectives of anyone who disagreed. Also - and this has nothing to do with the former president himself - I feel like memes as politics started rising as a thing during the Obama presidency, and that made things feel more divided. And any time people are unhappy with politics, it's hard NOT to pin it on the president. lol.neocons type memes, even if deserved, weren't exactly a good way to make people feel united. Is it a perfect analogue to Trump? No, because these men had at least more integrity, or more appearance of integrity (I don't personally believe Biden is a good guy and I think a lot of stink of corruption is at least around him if not on him), than Trump. Obviously Trump is a total slimeball. But I wouldn't say these presidents were great uniters or anything. |
This is unfortunately true. The long term ramifications of the Clinton administration were bad for America. Deregulation of banks directly led to the financial crisis in 2008. And allowing China ascension into the WTO without any concessions has led to China becoming an existential threat to American hegemony. |
I remember that. I think Obama handled it well with his "beer summit." The thing is when you're the first whatever--minority president, woman president, gay president, etc.--you're going to get even more scrutiny than a straight white male president. And when you straddle both races (remember he had a white mother and was raised by her and white grandparents), it's an even more fraught position to be in. He was damned if he did, damned if he didn't. The reason I think Republicans found him "divisive" is because deep down they found it a shock to the system to see a black man and his black family in the WH. I'm not saying they were racists--it just wasn't what they were used to their whole lives. |
No, this really wasn't it for most of us. Obviously a handful. It was the policy decisions. Really. We still don't like some of them, even if you can't get that. |
No, we're not over-emotional freaks. We accepted it and moved on with our lives. You people are nuts. |
+1 OK, we're no longer "woke." How did that actually improve your life? It won't. Not even a little bit. Keep dreaming if you think that's why you've been "held back." |