Charlie Pierce posted a plea for President Obama to get off the sidelines and join the Resistance full time. I urge you to go read the whole thing, but here’s an excerpt:
You always have been a voice for reason. Defend it now. Angrily, if you must. You always have been a voice for reconciliation. Demand it now. Harshly, if needs be. You always have been the voice of a vision of the American ideal. Fight for it now, ruthlessly, and realize that it has real enemies within this country with whom we cannot reason, who will not reconcile, and who have every intention of grinding that ideal into the dust in order to appease the unappeasable gods of their hate and their fear.
Long ago, I wrote that your capital error in politics was that you offered this country absolution without demanding penance. Look at where that’s gotten us. If you honestly believe in the America you described in Boston, then goddamn it, fight for it against the people to whom it is anathema. It’s time to join the resistance full-time, if you have the stomach for it. A madman is begetting more madmen and, frankly, I don’t know how much time we have left.
I agree with everything Pierce wrote (except the implication that giving speeches to bankers is unseemly — I don’t give a fuck about that). Pierce acknowledges in so many words that Obama owes us nothing — true! But Obama is a patriot, and most Americans trust him. He’s not a nut. He can’t be dismissed as a sore loser.
The very things that make it so unlikely that Obama would lead the resistance to Trump — his belief in institutions, his circumspection, his trust in processes — would make his open, high-profile opposition incredibly powerful.
Again, President Obama doesn’t owe us jack-shit. But could he make a difference? I believe he could. And when Trump’s own cabinet members are discussing tackling their boss to keep his mitts off the nuclear football, it’s pretty clear we’re reaching “desperate times call for desperate measures” territory.
Baud
Sure he can. America rejected his third term. There, done.
zzyzx
I wrote this on a different thread but my problem with the article is that he doesn’t want Obama to speak up as much as he wants him to say, “You know, I’ve been wrong this whole time and Charlie Pierce is right.”
If you want a partisan fighter, someone who will go in and not try to assume the best motives for people, well then don’t go looking for Obama. That’s not who he is. He actually believes that we can get past where we are now and go back to where we were before echo chambers and gerrymandered districts. Maybe he’s wrong, but that’s who he is.
Elizabelle
I think some of the more cynical and less informed among us might have been woke a bit by how dreadful der Trump and the Republican cretins in Congress are. Not to mention the kleptocratic Cabinet.
So Obama might have a more receptive audience than he did, earlier.
kindness
I kinda think the good Mr Pierce went a tad overboard there. It seemed during the piece he was putting more responsibility on Obama than I think Obama has. And really, we’ve seen this movie before. If Obama were to come out and respond regularly, the press would go Hillary Clinton on him and make it a He Said-He Said thing. Obama is better than that. I like that Barack has chosen his battles wrt Trump. Now it is up to us.
germy
Excellent comment below from Ruemara:
Eric NNY
In an interview on NPR this week, Robert Kuttner essentially said the same thing. His argument was put the eloquence of Obama next to the clueless ramblings of the Cheeto in Chief so people can see what they’ve become accustomed to. I’m sure the 35% will never come around but surely those still in the “moderate” world will notice the difference. Plus, like I said below, now that he’s not President, Obama can land a punch or two when he wants to. Sure, the right will go bugf%*& crazy, but they already are.
Elizabelle
Also: if Trump wants to go after the broadcast licenses of “fake news” purveyors —
welcome to my crusade. I have wanted us to go after Fox News for ages. Their “news programming” and guests are the most provably false out there.
And the sex scandals. They got Harvey Weinstein beat there, too.
sibusisodan
If, as Pierce does, you don’t begrudge Obama time off for rest, relaxation and memoirs, it doesnt make sense to also ask where Obama was during the women’s march.
It rather undercuts the sentiment.
I think I agree with the general idea: if Obama could get involved, that would be great, but the rhetoric is unhelpful.
Bobby Thomson
Yeah, this is a more benign version of Cilizza’s demand that Clinton dance for him.
zhena gogolia
@zzyzx:
Spot on.
rikyrah
uh uh
44 gave us 8 years.
he don’t owe us SHYT.
he LITERALLY said before the election..
DEMOCRACY IS ON THE BALLOT.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Also spot on.
Baud
Who said this? Three guesses.
dogwood
@zzyzx:
Absolutely. CP wants Obama to enter the fray so he can criticize him for not doing it right. I wish white dude leftists like Pierce would require something from the white dudes they endlessly promote.
Betty Cracker
@zzyzx:
That’s a great point. But it’s possible PBO’s perceptions have shifted since the election. The daily, grinding, non-stop horrible shit-show, the spectacle of institutional collapse, etc., has had that effect on a lot of people.
Mnemosyne
@zzyzx:
Yeah, that’s my issue, too. And given that Obama has demonstrably great political instincts while Pierce has demonstrably bad ones, I’m going to let Obama decide when and where he steps in.
My guess is that he’s holding his fire for 2018. Plus the whole never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake thing, of which Obama is the Jedi master.
Elizabelle
I wonder if Obama might do a mea culpa in his memoirs.
He did not mean to, but he left us in a world of danger by not seeing the Russian (and GOP) election tampering for what it is, and for putting in his faith in institutions that have rotted.
I hope we hear from Obama with no fucks left to give.
Brachiator
Join the Resistance and do what?
Obama cannot run for president again. He is not a member of Congress. He is not a Supreme Court Justice. We do not have governments in exile. Any resistance has to have as its chief aim electing people to office who can oppose Trump and, with respect to Congress, turn the Republicans into the minority party.
Obama may be able to provide some guidance or leadership as a member of the Democratic Party, but it is up to the Democrats to not simply oppose Trump but to give the citizens a practical vision of a votable alternative.
@zzyzx:
I respect Pierce and his passion, but I don’t think that he offers anything worth responding to. But then again, he doesn’t have to. He does, however, eloquently describe the political catastrophe that Trump represents.
ET
There is also the bonus that Obama in the news might take airtime from tRump which will piss the cheeto off.
oatler.
Forget Obama, where is Jon Stewart??? Popping his head in on Cobert’s show every few months?
Yutsano
Nah. He warned us. Enough of us either didn’t listen or were too wrapped up in our racist heads to make the change. He’s done. Let him be done.
It’s also telling Pierce is ignoring what Obama is doing with his mentorship programs.
Eric NNY
@sibusisodan: Yeah, that didn’t pass the sniff test. I wonder if maybe he’s waiting until closer to the election so as not to be yesterday’s news when he can provide much bigger impact closer to election day? Or he just might want to work on voter engagement and voting rights like he said when he left office.
CaseyL
Obama fought the good fight for 8 years, with very little help from the likes of Charles Pierce.
I agree that Obama had and has way too much faith in this country’s institutional strength. He may – MAY – have been able to do more, starting early in his Administration, by highlighting the failures of the MSM, and by calling out the GOP for the nest of traitors that it was then and continues to be now.
But he didn’t, and his reasons for not doing so still apply: His words will be dismissed by the GOP as partisan, and the MSM will nod along like dashboard doggies.
I don’t think Obama can save us. The time to save us was during the 2016 election, and the responsibility was ours. Anyone who voted for Trump, Stein, Wilmer, MacMullen, or Johnson allowed the traitors to take power. Anyone who voted for any GOP Senator or Representative allowed the traitors to take power.
Now the traitors are in power, with a SCOTUS primed to cement gerrymandering and disenfranchisement into law. Short of a miracle, I don’t see anything getting them out.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, there is that. Although his opponents and their mouthpieces in the press (Slither Cillizza, the Halberman skank) are the Jedi master of planting false history and fake consensus and fake memories, which then prove very hard to dislodge.
But I agree. Obama will speak up when he decides to, and effectively.
germy
Pierce wants Obama to be Walt Trowbridge to Trump’s Buzz Windrip.
Pierce ain’t no Doremus Jessup, though.
Barbara
@germy: What exactly would Obama do now? He is now a private citizen like us, and while, of course, he has many more tools at his disposal, what is Pierce’s action plan that only Obama can carry out? Wouldn’t we all love a silver bullet, but Obama is not it and Pierce is engaged in magical thinking of the worst kind to think otherwise. This isn’t Napoleon directing his elegant and innovative troop formations. This is urban hand to hand combat that will be fought one neighborhood at a time.
ETA: I don’t trust Pierce. I would put even money on the idea that he simply doesn’t think that women who have been the backbone of the resistance can carry it off and it would make him feel so much more comfortable with a male executive in charge.
sherparick1
I think this is “Obama the magic Negro” thinking. The fact is Trump was as much brought forth by his Base and he encourages. These people hate Obama with a passion that literally is unfathomable. If Obama said eating donuts is good, they would burn down the Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kremes across the country. Him winning the Presidency disturbed a belief in White Supremacy that many of them did not know they have. And its 35% of the country and 50% of the white population (the other 8% vote Republicans because they are plutocrats or wannabe plutocratic sociopaths). And because of gerrymandering, urban cluster, and just the undemocratic nature of the U.S. Constitution we are now ruled by that 35%. So Obama will add his wonderful voice to the Resistance. That and $2.00 will give me a ride on the CTA. No Republicans will listen to him and the White base is about to make Roy “10 Commandants” Moore a Senator.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
I understand the appeal of having Obama come in and save us. God knows I’ve cried many times over the shitshow that we’re being forced to live through right now.
But even in Star Wars, half the point of the movie is that Obi-Wan doesn’t save anything. He mentors Luke until Luke is ready, and then he dies. Because it’s the responsibility of the next generation to fix things, not the old guard.
Now, what could be the lesson there … ??
msdc
@kindness: Yeah, I think Obama recognizes that he has more stature, and his words have more power, if he chooses his battles.
Also, you know, I seem to recall Obama wasn’t sitting on the sidelines in 2016, and he did his best to make the stakes very clear. A significant chunk of the country (including so, so many progressive betters) didn’t listen to him then. If they’re ready now, then they already know whatever he has to say. And if not–well, they never will be.
zzyzx
@Betty Cracker: The main problem is that Obama actually believes in our institutions. People kept suggesting he try quasi-legal approaches to get past gridlock and he never did. Our democracy really does depend a bit on an honor system and while the bring a knife to a gun fight analogy comes to mind, if your goal is to keep a system where we can disagree on issues without everything being pure good vs pure evil, if you think it’s important to listen to opponents in case they’ve figured out something you haven’t, then your tactics are by definition limited.
It sucks but it’s why we’re screwed here. We either fight using everything possible and watch any common ground of a country disintegrate or we let the Republicans abuse the system while we sit back and watch. It’s easier to use scorched earth policies if you don’t really care if the government collapses. It’s harder to do so when you’re trying to actually get us to work together.
Obama’s attempts to appeal to a better nature may not work and may prove to be naive, but at least it’s a potential solution to the dilemma.
Rob in CT
Obama cannot save us (from ourselves, for some value of “ourselves” that is).
Decent, sane people have to show the fuck up and vote in 2018. In 2020. In 2022. Vote like it matters, because it does.
And if/when Dems take power again, then need to act to reverse gerrymandering, vote suppression, and such, while *also* fixing all the other shit the GOP will have broken, and dealing with whatever new events arise. Because of course.
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
Napoleon was a great commander, until he lost his empire. Twice.
Mike H
Nah… The man did a lot of heavy lifting for 8 years and did everything he could to elect HRC. This country has done this to itself and needs to own it.
Betty Cracker
Trump moments on TV moments ago:
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Please help us, Magical Negro, you are our only hope
JMG
Obama need say nothing more than “You mofos are on your own now. I warned ya. Didn’t listen. So try and fix it yourselves before asking me again.”
Which is not to say he’ll be out of politics. I think he will play a traditional ex-President’s role in the midterms, making appearances to boost turnout and raise funds in important races.
But he won’t and can’t be the Resistance. That’s on us.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Actual quote? Dayumn, he really wants that Dictator for Life badge, doesn’t he?
A Ghost To Most
@rikyrah: This. The great man owes us nothing. The country owes him a lot. I like Charlie Pierce, but he is wrong here.
Now, if Big-O chooses to get involved, hooray. I will follow him like I have since 2004. That man is a real leader.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Betty Cracker:
The most unAmerican thing I’ve ever heard a US President say.
zattarra
Obama owes this country nothing. He put up with 8 years of being dumped on by the right and the left while all he was keeping the country out of Depression, rebuilding the economy and getting HealthCare for tens of millions of people. Many of the people whose jobs he saved, homes he saved, lives he saved then proceeded to turn around and vote for a racist who Obama opposed. The country took one final dump on Obama in the 2016 election. If he wants to walk around and just flip off every person who asks for him to step in and give the double FU to guys like Charles Pierce more power to him, he earned it. He iowes this country nothing, we owed him and the country blew it.
jl
@sherparick1:
” I think this is “Obama the magic Negro” thinking. ”
Might be. I think everyone needs to pitch in. HRC is out talking, though I think still too much in the context of her election defeat, but she is moving away from that frame. Biden, what has he been up to? they all have their constituencies.
On the other hand, Obama is about the only major mainstream politician who has really high approval ratings. That consigns BS to not being mainstream, which I think is fair at this point. And it would be fun to have the BS-bots chew me out this time, instead of Hillz-bots.
And on a third hand, Obama, like Big Dawg, and I guess Elizabeth Warren, knows something about how to win hard elections. I imagine, after the GOP has made it very clear that their insane assault on good health care policy will never end, that Obama wants to help put a stop to that nonsense. So, Obama may be waiting until he senses he will have the most electoral impact for 2018 and 2020. He wants to be big news when he comes back and makes judicious comments on the current shit show, not old news that can be dismissed by the media.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Ah, Republican projection at its finest. I love the lies that Fox News tells me — why can’t they all lie like that?
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: Dotard Toddler thought that when it was HIS birthday party he could make EVERYONE like him and do what he wanted and it is so UNFAIR that other people can say mean things about him. Hey, how is that infrastructure plan coming along?
Ksmiami
No offense to you guys but any country that allows a party as craven and evil as the GOP to take over is already lost to a large extent- what we actually need is a complete reset with institutions that work for the ppl not against them. No more gerrymandering,no more electoral college, no more 100 senator bs.
BC in Illinois
It has been rightly noted that Trump is not [alone] the problem that America must solve. The massive racism, misogyny, white supremacy, wealth-worship, ecological destructiveness, and simple malice that exemplifies much of America-as-it-is, is our problem. And even when Trump is gone, that problem will need to be dealt with . . . with education, persuasion, and showing that America, as conceived and dedicated and as we pledge it to be (and pledge ourselves to make it) is a higher ideal than America-as-it-is. The problem is not Trump alone.
Likewise, our solution is not and cannot be “Where have you gone, Barack Obama? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” The solution is bigger. It is all of the people who have shown up for the Women’s March on the first day of the current presidency, and for the thousands of marches since then. And meetings, and phone calls, and candidacies. You know: free speech, free assembly, free consciences, and free press [including blogs –I don’t know why the Founders left that out].
We have OUR job to do. When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and the Bushes find the right time for them to speak out, I leave that up to them. I don’t think that it is easy call.
I do know that the solution is not only Obama. Sola Barack, Semper Barack is not our way forward.
debit
Jesus fucking christ. He spent 8 years being spit on and having every decision picked apart. He was the best president of my lifetime and he got piss for it. Further, just to add insult, the worst possible person was elected after him, because if a black guy can be president, obviously this morally bankrupt walking pustule should be just fine! Let him do whatever the fuck he wants and leave him the fuck alone. Yes, those are a lot of fucks; I have many to give and I WILL FIGHT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU ABOUT THIS using the word fuck in a variety of combinations. COME AT ME.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
A reporter or someone should have asked him at the end, “Yeah, wouldn’t it be great if we could just shut down any news organization we didn’t like?” I would love to hear his response.
MD Rackham
If only we white men could make a black man do whatever whatever we want. Wouldn’t that be something.
/s
mai naem mobile
I put nothing beyond asshole Dolt45 and for Obamas sake he should stay on the sidelines . I think Obama going after Dolt would put hl Obamas security under jeopardy. I want OBama to live a long fucking time and watch his adversaries one by one die of hatred and bitterness.
Eric NNY
@debit: You are the filter master. I am considerably impressed!
Elizabelle
@debit: Hello debit! Great to see you here. How are the pups? (Do you still have two? I know sweet Walter is gone.)
Ksmiami
@mai naem mobile: yes he was great- America didn’t deserve him.
msdc
See, this is why I think Obama is wise to ignore the pleas of figures like Pierce. Because if he was out there opposing Trump, they’d be the first to tell him he was doing it wrong.
I remember in the early days of the Trump presidency – you know, three or four hundred years ago – when a lot of my Berner acquaintances were demanding that HRC come out and oppose Trump (as if they hadn’t shat on her when she was doing exactly that the year before). Needless to say, when she did go public she was once again doing it wrong. There is no point in trying to accommodate someone who is just going to second-guess everything you do.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi should shut up and go away so that we can develop a strong bench of bright young things
Barack Obama owes it to us to come back and tell white people they fucked up and need to knock off being stupid. They’ll listen this time!
(a lot of you are tougher on Pierce than I am, and I thought I was outlier in finding him firebaggery when it came to Obama– such terrible politics, and such small portions!)
cokane
frankly, obama should just run for prez in 2020. it’d be considered “unseemly” at first, but just blow past the initial objections and it will become normalized, like so much in our politics has now become. he’d be the most formidable candidate dems could run.
of course, asking the man to sacrifice and go through the bullshit of our campaigns all over again… that’s a lot to ask
Mnemosyne
Also, in before people come in to chatter about how Obama should have known that there were traitors inside our government who were selling us out to Russia:
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to point out the mistakes afterwards, not so easy to see them at the time. God knows that I misunderestimated The Republicans’ capacity for outright fucking treason given that I grew up in the Reagan era. The more fool me.
Baud
Obama should say something like this.
rikyrah
Republicans Irked at Corker’s Myopic Obsession With Preventing Catastrophe
By
Jonathan Chait
Senator Bob Corker is so concerned that Donald Trump’s erratic behavior could lead to a war causing millions of deaths that he has spoken out about the issue publicly. Corker’s fellow Republican are extremely upset. At Corker, not Trump.
………………………………………………
Indeed, the entire Politico story reads almost like an Onion article, treating the issue of Trump’s unfitness for office as a gossipy spat devoid of substance. It is an “increasingly ugly feud,” a “tit-for-tat,” that is “threatening to further hobble the party’s flagging agenda.” I am guessing that blustering into World War III, or even a smaller regional conflict, might also have some deleterious effects on the Republican legislative agenda.
But the article merely reflects the broader, world-weary attitude the party has adopted. Democracy scholars are legitimately concerned about Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric, while national security experts are absolutely terrified that his attempts to out-crazy North Korea might create a deadly misunderstanding. The Republican Party, rationalizing its own indifference, has acted as though Corker is insulting the president out of nothing more than pique. “Senator Risch knows both Senator Corker and President Trump very well,” said Kaylin Minton, communications director for one Republican in the upper chamber. “He works with both of them. Senator Corker and the president obviously have differences they need to resolve, but Senator Risch has no intention of getting involved in this matter.”
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: How are generals going to protect us from this one.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
Democracy turned out to be less popular than we thought.
rikyrah
Frank Rich: Bob Corker and the Disgrace of Republican Silence
By
Frank Rich
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: RE: the Star Wars reference: I trusted readers to not take it literally — not the first time I’ve made that mistake here! Maybe someday I’ll learn.
But the bottom line for me is, President Obama remains incredibly popular in this country. A lot of people hate him, but many more like, trust and respect him. He doesn’t OWE us anything. But he could make a difference. I hope he joins the fray in a high-profile way, and soon.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@cokane:
Not just unseemly but also ineligible. That pesky 21st amendment and all. Plus norm breaking is only okay when Republicans do it.
rikyrah
JUST IN: Former president Obama to campaign for #VAGov @RalphNortham next week. Thurs night 10/19 rally in Richmond
— Doug Adams (@DougNBC) October 11, 2017
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker:
“They should only be able to write whatever I want them to write,” he continued.
Elie
@kindness:
I agree. This jes don feel right, to me. Saving the republic is up to us, now. In fact it is essential that we make new leaders for this and that we do it ourselves. We may make errors, or have set backs, but this is OUR country and OUR job to save it. I love Obama but this is not his fight. We must show ourselves — and the world — that we deserve to have a republic.
debit
@Elizabelle: Hey you! Pups are all good. Julian continues to like Kelpie better than anyone else. Kelpie’s cancer continues to be in remission, so I can’t ask for anything else.
jl
@BC in Illinois:
” We have OUR job to do. When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and the Bushes find the right time for them to speak out, I leave that up to them. I don’t think that it is easy call. ”
Not an easy call for us. For people who understand elections and how to win them, they know when and how they can make the most effective encore appearances.
Interesting you mention the Bushes. They have their own reasons to hate Trump, In addition, Dub may be grateful that Trump has knocked him up out of the ranks of the most dismal presidents. If they decide to intervene, that might not be very public or direct.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: He could lead voter registration efforts that would be non partisan and ex Presidential and helps Ds flip the House and the Senate. I don’t think he should dignify T’s daily Twitter tantrums.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: Uh oh: when Obama fills a bigger arena than Trump, Kelly’s gonna have to hide the football in a different building.
rikyrah
The White House’s immigration proposals are terrible. Together, they would greatly damage to the character of our country. #ProtectDREAMers https://t.co/kpM5KTrndV
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) October 11, 2017
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@rikyrah: They’re pissed that Corner is pointing out the emperor has no clothes.
Frankensteinbeck
As I said in the last political thread, we have no right to demand anything of Obama. None. You can’t acknowledge that and then go back to telling him what he should do. If he disappears into retirement and we never hear from him again, we should just shut up and be grateful for the amazing service he gave us.
rikyrah
Colin Kaepernick: From one man kneeling to a movement dividing a country.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/american-football/41530732
Starfish
Obama has already helped us by developing the careers of many people who became the leaders of the resistance including people like Andy Slavitt and Jon Favreau. He gave us the Organize for America and many of the tools that go along with that. He has done a lot.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
That should be Corker. Damn autocorrect.
Baud
Obama needs to peel me a grape.
JCJ
How could he help? If President Obama were to speak on a subject it would simply make Drumpf stronger with his supporters, which includes essentially the entire Republican party. 2010 was basically a vote to “take our country back” as they said. Back where? Whiteness. What has changed? OK, President Obama was re-elected in 2012, but hasn’t every other election gone the wrong way? If people did not listen to him during the 2016 campaign why would they listen now?
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Fabulous! Bring it, PBO!
different-church-lady
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: As I always say: everyone complains about autocorrect, but nobody ever turns it off.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It helped get him elected.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Bravo!
BC in Illinois
@jl:
But think (or dream) of what an impact it would make if the two of them, together, made a public and direct statement. Yes, it would blow up the Republican Party. But what if they determined that – – for the sake of their nation and for their standing in history and for whatever it is that that deep-down believe in – – what if they determined that it was time to speak up. And simply speak the truth.
[We can dream.]
ByRookorbyCrook
President Obama can do what he wants. His speech and insight are always welcome, but he is not going to save us from ourselves. There is no ‘chosen one’. Everybody needs to get up and pitch in. This is a fight for the soul of our nation. We must fight, not others. This Cheeto Nation will not be fixed with a few donations to campaigns and clapping along to Late Night monologues or twitter bon mots. Get people registered to vote. Get them to the polls. Inform the ignorant. Engage the apathetic. Fight the fascists.
Hobbes83
@rikyrah: co-sign.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Vichy Republicans.
I love that Rich said that.
We need to stop letting people talk about “Congress”, because it includes Democrats that have stood firm in opposition to Trump and his garbagetastic ideas.
Need to call them Vichy Republicans. It’s not Congress that’s the problem. It’s one party that has gone radical and against the middle class.
different-church-lady
@JCJ: The country did not change. Obama’s opponents were not shameless and evil enough to motivate racists into the voting booths. Trump popped the lid off the hard-core crazy that other politicians would recognize as something to keep in the box.
eemom
@debit:
Completely agree and second every last fuck. This is bullshit.
Also, Pierce is way overrated in general.
jl
@rikyrah: The title makes me angry. Hope it is just clumsy. I’ll read it later to find out.
Trump display of racist bigotry is really something we haven’t seen for decades. Not since Nixon or Reagan. And different, since Nixon and Reagan were very knowing and skillfully calculating about it. And oddly, I find Reagan more culpable because he was an expert dog whistler who always new how to put it under deep cover, and I don’t think he was a bigot in terms of personal relationship, so he gets big demerits for contemptible cynicism and hypocrisy Nixon was as close to a universal bigot as any person can be.
With Trump it is out of control, the unconscious bigotry just seeps out of him, in addition to his clumsy childish intentional stunts.
Chyron HR
PIERCE: All in favor of reinstating the neoliberal corporatist drone murderer?
FIREPUPS: YAAAAY!
OBAMA: My fellow Americans, it’s so gratifying to leave you wallowing in the mess you’ve made. You’re screwed, bye.
different-church-lady
@ByRookorbyCrook: HELLO!
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: Its not enough for his fans to like him, we have to like him too. I doubt that Justin Beiber’s teen fans are this needy.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
RE: DEMOCRACY IS ON THE BALLOT.
As soon as Obama said that he liked democracy, Trump came out against it.
Betty Cracker
@JCJ: If you believe the Republicans won fair and square, then all bets are off, I guess. I don’t believe that.
Chris
@debit:
So much this.
Elie
I also think that if Obama entered the fray without running for a formal role, it would just energize the monsters further AND it would suppress the evolution of other, very necessary leaders for our side… He is wonderful, but he would take up all the attention and energy.
We need to wander in the wilderness until we figure out what we need to do and develop the leaders to get us there. Pierce is uncomfortable and inpatient (as we all are), but some things should not be rushed or forced. There will be another one to lead us. She/he and probably more than one, are/ is probably already in progress.
Waynski
@sherparick1:
Well, and you just KNOW Mr. Uppity would be putting Grey Poupon on his Murican glazed donuts.
JCJ
@different-church-lady:
Right. I remember hearing the complaint from Republicans that McCain wasn’t “conservative enough.” I interpret that to mean that he wasn’t a flat out white supremacist.
JMG
@rikyrah: See. Completely traditional role for an ex-President to appear on behalf of their party’s candidates in other elections. We haven’t seen it much in my lifetime because only Clinton and Reagan left office popular enough to do it, and Reagan couldn’t do it very often as his health declined.
Baud
@Elie: Yes, I/it am/is.
catclub
@Brachiator:
I thought Obama said he and AG holder were going to work on voting access, and voting rights. Where is that?
Unfortunately I am reminded of the Obama for America brigades, or whatever it was called in 2009 that disappeared all Democratic grassroots activism.
Chris
@Baud:
I honestly don’t know if I can say that, though the Trump era has certainly lowered our standards of “serving honorably” drastically.
SatanicPanic
This is why I don’t like Pierce very much.
Shinobi
The only person that Republicans hate with anything close to the fervor that they reserve for Hillary Clinton is President Obama.
Like it or not, we are currently at the mercy of Republican politicians. The very last thing we need right now are more liberal wind bags standing up and telling them what to do so that they double down on their support for Trump.
What we need right now are Republicans with consciences, if there are any left, to stand up and lead the way to oppose Trump. The GOP will never ally with the Dems, the only thing that their people hate more than immigrants are whiny snowflake liberals.
Evan McMullin is an amazing twitter follow, and if he could get more Rs to back his point of view and start a coalition within their party to oppose Trump, well, I think that’s our only hope.
Obama, thank goodness, is smart enough to know that he would only do more harm than good. Charlie Peirce has apparently already forgot that the R’s hate literally every move that Obama makes, and that R’s are the ones currently with the power to actually fix this fucking national nightmare.
JCJ
@Betty Cracker: You don’t believe the Republicans swept into the House in 2010 fair and square? I get that voter suppression is a huge problem (and I thank Kay and rikyrah among others for educating me on this subject), but that is not why the wave election of 2010 happened.
jl
@BC in Illinois: I’ve watched some youtubes of Dub and Big Dawg doing some joint appearances for charity and public affairs stuff. It is clear that Dub despises Trump, but he expresses it with very indirect snot and sarcasm (deeply buried underneath the garb of impartial and judicious pronouncements of an ex-president), with his peculiar shrewdness he has in manipulating voter psychology. Question is what will he be willing to do? If he decides to do something, I think it will be effective.
Ajabu
@rikyrah:
Preach It, Girl!
Obama doesn’t owe this country a motherfucking thing.
He gave it his all & they’re hell bent on trying to undo his entire legacy.
I’m at a point where I don’t give a fuck anymore. My wife is complaining round the clock that I insisted on moving to the states when Obama became President. We just have to wait it out now – because of the recent unpleasantness in the Caribbean – before going home. If we survive Dolt 45.
You are all welcome to the states…
(Nothing personal & I’ll do what I can while I’m here but, Goddamn…)
Lyrebird
@kindness:
> I like that Barack has chosen his battles wrt Trump.
I think that the Obamas’ comments on the movie-mogul sexual abuser were beautiful and powerful.
different-church-lady
@eemom:
It irritates the ever-lovin’ eff out of me the way “the left” puts one pundit after another on a pedestal. I remember becoming initially suspicious of Greenwald when his every utterance started showing up at Kos, simply because he was starting to take a swing at GWB. Cenk was a God until people started to realized he was just a stunt. Krugman’s nickname as “The only economist that matters” was like a self-effacing joke.
Pierce is unquestionably one hell of an entertaining writer, but that and $4.95 will get you a soy mocha latte.
Eric NNY
@Shinobi:
“What we need right now are Republicans with consciences, if there are any left, to stand up and lead the way to oppose Trump.”
This is a joke, no?
different-church-lady
@JCJ: There’s a ton that’s wrong about McCain, but when he took that mic away from the woman complaining that Obama was a Muslim I had respect for him.
MomSense
@germy:
co signed.
Betty Cracker
@JCJ: I’m talking about the most recent election, in which a hostile foreign power almost certainly colluded with the campaign of the demented idiot in the White House, who has kissed Putin’s ass every since.
Yutsano
@Eric NNY: This is why I want the tax cut bill to go down in flames hard. If they can’t even manage to get THAT done what good is having them there?
Also: remember the budget and the debt ceiling? We only have two more months left there…
Elie
@Baud:
YAY!!! Of course!
rikyrah
UMMMMMM
WHY is Wilmer debating Rafael Cruz about TAX REFORM on CNN?
What DA PHUQ does he know about tax reform?
So tired of this shyt!!
debit
@different-church-lady: Hmm. I remember that, because that crazy old lady was a fellow Minnesotan. McCain’s response was pretty weak sauce. “No, he’s a good man,” IIRC. It was literally the least he could do. If he had said, “Hey, we need to stop this sort of talk” I would have respected him, but if I also recall correctly, his running mate was running her mouth all over the country about Obama palling around with terrorists. So, you know. His hands were tied. /s
jl
@different-church-lady: McCain, Romney and Dub have some sense of boundaries and understanding of dangers of unleashing certain demons. No way any of them are the kind of raging bigot that Trump is. Even if in other ways, they are total disasters in terms of policy and goody beliefs, particularly McCain and Dub. Not saying any of them are admirable. Romney’s willingness to crap on mass of not-rich behind closed doors at GOP fundraisers is an example. But there are places that they just won’t go.
I think one thing that saved us from worst effects of Dub’s disastrous policies on Muslim profiling and domestic surveillance and round-ups after 9/11, was his innate political sense that he had to demonstrate good faith public gestures of good will towards US Muslim community. Not much, but something we should never expect from Trump.
matt
That’s asking Obama to love the American people back a lot harder than they love him.
Citizen_X
@Chyron HR:
When we lift our eyes up and cry, “Save us!” Black Rorschach should look down and whisper, “No.”
Elie
@catclub:
You are wrong about that… there are a lot of young leaders down here in the hustings that got their start with Obama for America. One of them that I know, is helping to run our coordinated campaign for local and state offices in WA state. She is smart and talented and burns with intensity. There are others as well. Remember, just because you don’t see it when you examine your navel, does not mean that there aren’t other body parts.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@rikyrah:
As long as he makes Cruz look like an idiot/asshole I don’t care.
Chris
@Shinobi:
The problem with “Republicans with consciences” is that they have no constituency. They used to – Northeastern pragmatic capitalists who understood the value of big government and could even tolerate unions sometimes, and middle to upper middle class professionals who might be put off by the rabble of poor/nonwhite people in the liberal Democratic base, but were equally put off by the rabid racists and social darwinists on the hard right. That constituency is gone. Nowadays, either they vote Democrat, or they’ve made their peace with the racists and social darwinists and decided that fuck it, if we have to reinstitute slavery to get our tax cuts, then that’s what we gotta do.
I had the same reaction eight years ago when people were watching the rise of the teabaggers in horror and going “is there going to be a civil war in the GOP?” Of course not. It takes two sides to make a civil war and the other side just isn’t there. There might be a purge of designated scapegoats, but anybody who wants to have a future in the party is going to follow the teabaggers. There’s no counter-teabagger constituency to lean on – even in moderate East Coast states, Republican primary voters still insisted on nominating people like the “I am not a witch” loon instead of someone who could actually win.
Mnemosyne
@JCJ:
Yep. We kept hearing about this mass of white working-class voters that didn’t show up at the ballot box. It turns out that they weren’t showing up because the Republicans weren’t racist enough for them to show up, but once the neo-Nazi of their dreams was on the ballot, they showed up in droves. It was yet another of the dozen or so things that managed to tilt the election just enough for Trump to steal it.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Yes its a fucking disgrace. Its good to know who your friends are I guess. T’s run for President and his time in office has been clarifying for me. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. BJ before T was President was a much more fun place to hang out. Now I find myself locking horns with many commenters. I probably should just take some time off from this toxicity and not comment on politics at all.
Eric NNY
@Yutsano: My bet is the tax bill goes down because of the fractured Republican Party. Budget and debt ceiling is going to require help from Chuck & Nancy. They’ve painted themselves into a corner and I’m going to thoroughly enjoy watching the paint dry.
jl
“I HATE EVERYONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE!”: TRUMP SEETHES AS ADVISERS FEAR THE PRESIDENT IS “UNRAVELING”
” Several months ago, according to two sources with knowledge of the conversation, former chief strategist Steve Bannon told Trump that the risk to his presidency wasn’t impeachment, but the 25th Amendment—the provision by which a majority of the Cabinet can vote to remove the president. When Bannon mentioned the 25th Amendment, Trump said, “What’s that?” According to a source, Bannon has told people he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term. ”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers
Emphasis added.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I has replied, cat wrangler!
Mike in DC
I thought Obama’s post-presidential agenda was clear:
1. Write a book
2. Work on reforming or getting upper hand in redistricting process.
Heywood J.
I like Pierce, and I see where he’s coming from, but there’s no real specificity to his plea, nor any real chance that it would change much of anything right now. All of the living ex-presidents, say, signing a statement declaiming the daily antics of HRH Emperor Joffrey Snowflake, that might carry some weight. But Obama weighing in, right here, right now? Pointless and ineffective.
Obama owes us nothing. He tried to warn us, and too many of us didn’t listen. Not just the chumps who jumped over to Snowflake, or the third-party windmill-tilters, but the actual Democratic voters who stayed home and held the couch down, because they believed she had it in a slam-dunk, whatever. Obama realized what too many people did not — that you don’t really appreciate the fragility of what you have until you lose it.
As long as Obama makes good on his promise to thwart voter-suppression efforts in the usual states, and maybe helps out a few Doug Jones-type candidates right before the midterms, that would be wonderful, and far more effective than any brilliantly-worded jeremiad he might extemporize from the podium.
However, if Obama is only holding back because of the usual “decorum,” that would fall under the usual spork-to-a-gunfight problem for Dems. Because there is not a vertebrate alive who thinks that Snowflake, whether he is deposed early or [shakes head] serves two full terms, will keep his gaping piehole shut after he’s out of office. We will never stop hearing jabbering nonsense from that braying jackass until he’s finally in hell. Just another way he’s continuing to destroy the very office he occupies; whoever succeeds him will either be totally unconstrained or completely boxed in, depending on what parties are remaining. “Norms” and “rules” are only useful when all sides abide by them.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
We all need a break from time to time. I haven’t been sticking to my pledge to stop reading about politics at 8 pm every night — I need to get back to that so I don’t lose my mind.
schrodingers_cat
@Eric NNY: Old Hindi saying, ghee and sugar in your mouth!
( may what you are saying come true)
The Moar You Know
Oh God, no, no, no, no, NO!
Obama’s done enough. He really has. This is our fuckup, as a party, as voters, as a country. Obama has sacrificed enough. Don’t ask him to do this too. It’s neither fair nor reasonable.
We own this and we have to fix it. Not him. Leave the man in peace, for God’s sake.
cursorial
@Shinobi: This. I don’t know how Pierce, or anyone else observing the political scene, thinks Obama injecting himself into the public debate helps more than it hurts. Right now, without a high profile Democrat – a candidate Hillary, an ex-President Obama, a Speaker Pelosi – to focus their hate on, Republicans are a circular firing squad. Trump vs. Congress. The base vs. McConnell. Populists vs corporatists. And all those wars get covered on Fox and talk radio, where it hurts their standing with Republicans.
The moment Obama steps in, all those fights become secondary, and the right hardens in opposition to Obama. And Trump’s popularity will jump with supporters who might otherwise lose faith in him. If there’s anyone on the left that can prove they’re better at the long game than Obama, I’ll listen to their advice. Otherwise they can shut up.
Shinobi
@Chris: Right.
So we are fucked.
Democratic leaders speaking out against trump is about as useful as an umbrella in a hurricane at this point. The only people who can actually DO anything are Republicans.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Obama to Pierce: “Honky, please…”
Chris
@cursorial:
Yep, agree completely with this.
jl
@Eric NNY: Odd thing about the current GOP tax slash proposal is that there is only group that actually comes out worse, with tax hikes for upper middle class and affluent near-rich. Everyone else gets huge (rich) and dinky (poor and working/middle class) tax cuts. The GOP really wants it whole wish list with this tax cut, and finding it very hard to fit everything in.
I think some GOP Congresscritters and Senators will worry about one of their key constituencies actually getting a tax hike. Will be interesting to see if they can adjust it without falling into intractable intraparty squabbling like they did on health care. I wonder if the reactionaries, or their big donors, have learned anything from the health care fiasco, that no compromise at all will mean nothing at all gets passed.
Shinobi
@cursorial: Thank you! We have to wait this out, or someone needs to manipulate the right into opposing Trump. But blatant opposition from the left will only make him more powerful.
Betty Cracker
Shinobi & cursorial: Great points from both of you.
Gravenstone
While I agree that Obama would be a strong voice and excellent person to rally around – he would also serve to galvanize the forces of evil – primarily in the personification of Trump. We all recognize that Trump’s primary motivation (outside of his eternal grift) is to “get back” at Obama for the indignities heaped upon him at the WHCD. If Obama became an active voice of the resistance, Trump would likely become even more unhinged and unpredictable.
sharl
@jl:
Trump is a golem fashioned into a living manifestation of Cleek’s Law. This golem is unable to see beyond doing the next deal, by any means necessary. That’s not working out. The golem has a sad.
Eric NNY
@Betty Cracker: I believe Shinobi and cursorial have brought me around to their thinking.
Major Major Major Major
And this is why I generally don’t read him. What sort of person would include that in a piece like this? (The sort of person who I have better things to do than read.)
jl
@Heywood J.: Obama is an superlative politician. And he will ask himself about what the likely, and rather specific, net payoff will be in terms of what he wants to accomplish. I don’t think he will do much until he calculates that out to his satisfaction. So, no grand statements and general noise making, but maybe giving very targeted help for VA gub race, as commenter above noted.
Frankensteinbeck
@Chris:
After the last eight years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the vast, more-than-nine-tenths majority of Republicans are single-issue racism voters. If they can choose between two racists, they might pick someone more polite and moderate, or decide based on other issues like taxes. However, if it’s a choice between racism and equality, they will drop every other concern and vote for racism.
rikyrah
@jl:
I know that I drone on about this, but there are enough GOPers in the states where they want to take away the local deductions to flip the House. And, these, for the most part, represent suburban White folks. I continue to insist that they WILL KNOW who voted to raise their taxes. These aren’t the Bible Thumpers – these are the IGMFY people, and they WILL KNOW who raised their taxes and took away that deduction, and their way of life.
Shinobi
@Eric NNY: Why thank you.
If there is one thing I know it is how rabid republicans react to things, considering my father recently wrote me out of the will for “Being a democrat”
A Ghost To Most
I just can’t even with these assholes.
trollhattan
In response to Trump and Pruitt’s War on Clean Air, Bloomberg renews the War on Coal.
Emma
@debit: I would like to repeat this comment ad-infinitum until people get the point.
Yutsano
@ Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) :
To be fair, this doesn’t take much. Although I don’t expect Wilmer to crown himself with glory here. He’s never been a tax wonk.
Or any other kind of wonk really.
Major Major Major Major
@Yutsano: his skill isn’t so much “knowing stuff” as “shouting”
different-church-lady
@jl:
And the really terrible thing is Bannon probably knew this before he got into Trump’s campaign.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: He has to prove his bro cred in every post, that’s why. I too don’t read him, except for the snippets I read here.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Wilmer’s schtick has run impossibly thin for me, gold-leaf thin and I’d like him to go help the good citizens of New Mainester or wherever and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
Ruckus
When a ship is taking on water, it’s all hands on deck, not damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I like how President Obama respects the institions of our government but those instutions are taking on water at an alarming rate and need all the help possible.
Elie
@Shinobi:
Again, don’t be hampered thinking about only what you know… All kinds of things are happening out of your immediate knowledge or eyesight. It takes a while for things to set up and sometimes we have to have periods of reordering that look like nothing is happening. You have heard of the book Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. When things are changing, they don’t always look like they are for sometimes quite a while — until they do. Believe me, I am very anxious and uncomfortable with where we are, but I know that the process for changing it will not require a magic wand. Do we even know clearly what outcome we want? Removing Trump alone will not fix all that is wrong, looking at the horrible cabinet and the congress filled with Republican crazies. The fix will necessarily be more complex and take a longer time. Our leaders may emerge from unexpected places and be very unexpected people. I know this: I am ready to do my part wherever I see it…
father pussbucket
I’m imagining a kickoff speech:
“First of all, I want to apologize to President Trump for making fun of him at the 2011 Correspondents’ Club dinner. I don’t believe in kicking people when they’re down, and it’s cruel to go after someone with no sense of humor. I forgive him for demanding my birth certificate, and I promise not to harass him about his tax returns, no matter how suspicious this looks. I’d love to join him for golf, but I’m pretty busy these days.”
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yarp. I think that’s basically correct.
Although I think part of this is also down to the Fox Machine and its political equivalents (think the Gingrich Revolution in Washington) uniformizing the party in all fifty states. My fundiegelical, Appalachian, middle-class Republican cousins and my atheist, Jerseyite, one-percenter Republican friend from undergrad largely grew up watching, hearing, and being taught by the same sources, which probably wouldn’t have been true as late as thirty years ago. They all live in the same alternate reality, which makes any meaningful departure from that reality for a politician a nonstarter.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Ruemara has got it right. President Obama worked his backside off for 8 years during which he was attacked viciously and insulted in myriad ways. Let him take his rest and enjoy his time away from public office. I’m sure the 300 million of us can resist Trump without President Obama leading the way. By the way, Pierce needs to write a similar article begging Democrats in Congress to be more aggressive and passionate about opposing Trump’s agenda. That would be a much better course of action than demanding that President Obama subject himself to more foolishness in the political arena.
Mnemosyne
@cursorial:
@Shinobi:
I agree with all of these points. I understand the emotional reason why many of us (including me!) want Obama to come back, but right now it would actually make things worse. Obama knows better than to interrupt his enemies while they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
And I’ll bet that Pelosi and Schumer have Obama on speed-dial behind the scenes. Just because he isn’t making public appearances, that doesn’t mean he’s sitting on the beach in Rio drinking champagne (though he should do some of that, too).
jl
@rikyrah: I agree. There are still GOPer voters in California. And the people hit by the GOP tax bill are mostly relatively prosperous whites in purplish Central Valley (though not still deep red Kern Basin) and Southern California, where some GOPer CA Congresscritters will face close elections. The GOP Housefinks in CA don’t want them switching or staying home.
different-church-lady
@sharl:
DING DING DING DING DING DING WINNER WE HAVE A WINNER!
The republicans will NEVER understand that there’s no way to get the monster back onto the laboratory table.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I quit reading him years ago because his wailing, teeth gnashing hand wringing about all of Obama’s Purity Fails got on my last nerve. That plus his Snowden worship (Snowden was targeting Obama with his psy op) and Wilmer love told me he has no unique insights to offer. Plus what fellow BJers have said about this latest piece.
PFFFT, Charlie.
Aleta
It’s be more helpful if Pierce mentioned extra actions he has decided to take to step up his opposition right now.
I so much love Pres Obama for always including children, coming generations, in how he defines his work. No matter what dire situation is/was going on at the time, he has never put them aside because ‘something else matters more right now.’ Politically, he is so right about dedicating time to that choice.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I was still at work when I read this thread. Pissed me off so badly that I had to wait to post a response. Haven’t seen all of the comments, but here goes:
He owes us NOTHING (except to show up at the polls like the rest of us) . He spent eight years trying to hold together what turned out to be a disjointed, deluded, dysfunctional, and largely racist as fuck-all electorate. With the entire GOP, the tumbrel-ready Villagers, most of the rest of the “newz” media, AND a sizeable number of his “allies” on his ass? It’s a miracle he got as much done as he did. Charlie, Chinchilla, Chuckles Todd and the rest of the Moving Them Goalposts Squad need to SIT. THE FUCK. DOWN.
Ruckus
@debit:
You are absolutely right about President Obama. He’d lose not one ounce of respect from me if he stood up and told all of us to go fuck ourselves. Fortunately he’s a better person than I am.
Elie
@Ruckus:
What? Do you think he can speed in with his cape flapping and pull the ship out of the water and bring it gently down on dry land? Ah for Pete’s sake. The people that need to be on deck and bailing is us… all of us.
Cacti
Charlie wants a magic negro to save white people from themselves.
Nah guh happen.
Patricia Kayden
@Frankensteinbeck:
When Republicans had the choice to choose between several racists, they picked the least polite, least moderate one. Hence Trump.
FlipYrWhig
I’m still upset that Obama wouldn’t mint the trillion dollar coin! :/
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: I hear your concern but Alexander Haig ran the govt during Nixon’s unhinged final days. It was not a “coup” necessarily but he called the shots. I invision Kelly functioning like Haig if needed.
Ruckus
@Elie:
He’s one of us. And unlike you and I he’s an actual leader.
Also see my response to debt.
Patricia Kayden
@Cacti: Perfect way to put it. I love looking at Tumblr posts of the Obamas relaxing, traveling and living it up now that they are no longer in the White House. They deserve every second of peace they’re now enjoying. I miss them, of course, but don’t want President Obama to come out fighting against the Pig currently dirtying up the White House. Let Democrats in Congress get into that fight.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Gotta say, I let a lot of threads go by without comment. Just don’t want to put in the time to learn and discuss new aspects of how we are getting screwed. Am not interested in watching or listening to politics in the age of Trump, except around the periphery.
Outrage is exhausting and debilitating. There is still beauty to be found. Elsewhere.
brendancalling
I am not Obama (obviously) and so my reaction to such pleas would be “you let Trump win. GFY, America.”
And then I would go back to surfing or whatever. Seriously.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: @Elizabelle: I think I may have to follow your example.
Elie
@Patricia Kayden:
I don’t think that the Democrats are at all lacking aggression. I think that they are in the position to see way more than we do and their first order of business has been to stick together — which they have admirably. By keeping relatively quiet, they also leave the attention on the Republicans and their mis-governance on all sides of the ball. They are quietly building a lot of capital. Why interfere with the Republicans who are literally tearing themselves up? I am sure they have modeled the points where they will intervene and fuck up shit… but there is no need for them to be in the center of the storm when the Republicans are doing so much damage to themselves. When your dangerous enemies are falling on each other, stay out of it, keep your powder dry and sneak around and set shit up. I would not be surprised if they aren’t working with a few Republican subversives, under the table. I don’t think that its lost on them or many others that we are in a crisis that is going to just get worse and demand God knows what from all of them and us. There are no easy shots or clean outcomes. They know it and we know it…
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: But don’t stop getting after the surrender monkeys when they appear. They deserve every smack upside the head that is delivered!
Elie
@Ruckus:
Yeah, saw that but after I wrote what I wrote. Thanks for clarifying…
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: I can understand the need to step back. I would miss you and your comments however!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If I thought Obama speaking out would do any good, I’d be all for it. I assume he’ll be campaigning and fund-raising for House and Senate candidates next year, where it will help. I can’t imagine anything Obama could do to influence this Congress, or persuade the trump cabinet to remove him.
BC in Illinois
@Elie:
Not a small accomplishment. Pelosi and Schumer have done well with the cards they have been dealt. We need this unity in the days ahead – – CHIP, DACA, Budget, etc.
Mnemosyne
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
FWIW, you can read the thread in safety — most of us agree with you. ?
Aleta
@Aleta: to clarify, I mean
“more helpful if Pierce mentioned extra actions he himself has decided to take to step up his (Pierce’s) opposition.”
Pierce’s article turned out dishonest; because he ignores the things President Obama is doing right now in opposition. By the end of a second read, all I can say is that he is using Obama to avoid attending to Pierce’s own mistakes and to avoid his personal responsibility to do more right now than write criticism.
eta And using Pres Obama of all people in this way is pretty despicable.
Mnemosyne
@Elie:
Also, too, can we please highlight people like Elie and Felix O. Culpa and Betty and Suzanne and many others who have heard the call to get involved and are trying to herd the cats in their local districts. Elie, your efforts are GREATLY appreciated even if the locals aren’t telling you so often enough.
Kathleen
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): A Fucking Men
Chyron HR
He knows President Superman is a fictional character, right?
bemused
@msdc:
This is pretty much where I am at too. Obama isn’t going change minds, at least not now, not yet.
If Obama did come out blazing with reason and sanity, Demented would lose whatever tiny capacity he has to function he has left. Whether that would be good or bad for us and the country is a crapshoot.
Frankensteinbeck
@Patricia Kayden:
I believe you are correct on the base, which I would put as over half the Republican voters. I just think even the supposed moderates are really voting based on racism first, and everything else second.
monobrand
@debit: Got your back on this.
aimai
@sherparick1: This. As well as everything Rikyrah said. Not only is this enraging in a STFU stupid white liberal guy way but its incredibly stupid–the people who supported Obama love him but the ones who voted for Trump/Koch/Mercer/GOP pillage think that the existence of Obama justifies their choice of Trump.
bemused
@Shinobi:
Seriously? Your dad is in deep. Republicans are basically right wing moonies and majority of them are impervious to deprogramming.
Although if one of my kids had turned out to be an hopeless Trump clone, I could totally understand disowning the kid.
different-church-lady
@Elizabelle:
QFW. (Quoted for wisdom.)
Mnemosyne
Heh. This apropos quote just showed up at the top:
no comment
Could a front-pager please write a post with the registration deadlines for the upcoming elections in Virginia and New Jersey? A brief explanation of why these elections are important would be appreciated too.
The deadline for registration in VA is Monday, October 16th.
The deadline for registration in NJ is Tuesday, October 17th.
The long-time readers and commenters at this blog are likely already registered, but there may be lurkers & people new to politics that have not registered yet. It also wouldn’t hurt to make sure that you haven’t been kicked off the voter rolls if you live in one of these states.
j
I generally like Pierce, but this latest idea of his is pure, unadulterated bullshit. One of Mark Levin’s favorite talking points is that Obama has been trying to undermine Trump since he took office, so it would be idiotic for him to now publicly join the opposition.
The Thin Black Duke
Like it or not, too many white people let us know what they thought of Barack Obama on November 2016. Fuck you, Mr. Pierce. White America deserves President Trump.
JR
Is Pierce suggesting that Obama be a modern-day Cromwell?
Turgidson
@Rob in CT:
As the Obama years demonstrated, Democrats will only get two years with which to fix everything, and when they inevitably are too “neoliberal” about it for the Berniebro left and too socialist about it for everyone to the right of Mark Warner, they’ll get voted right the fuck back out into the wilderness. This country is so boned.
schrodingers_cat
@JR: Which Cromwell, Oliver or Thomas?
RinaX
I say no, no, and fuck no. Pierce and his ilk just want someone to blame and do what they did for the past eight years, which was fuck all when it came to trying to promote and push President Obama’s agenda items. Too many of them wanted to prove how independent they were by turning their fire on other Democrats. As I’ve said before, the “left” had eight years to start to build a coalition similar to what the right has. They failed miserably, and just want to go back to the days when they could join the right in trashing everything President Obama did.
I’ve held my fire on that brigade due to the overwhelming dumpster fire that is the Trump administration, and because I know who the real enemy is. But I’ll take a minute or to say, fuck all of them.
StringOnAStick
@Shinobi: Hey, we’re in the same club! The “written out of the parents will because being a liberal/democrat is an unforgivable sin”. And yet they still pressure my younger sister to try to get me to visit, I guess so they can have yet another chance to yell at me in the hopes I will finally change even though this same tactic for over 50 years has had zero success. I’m done with their manipulative BS, and I feel fine about that decision.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@schrodingers_cat: You are entitled to take whatever steps are necessary to secure your peace of mind, short of assault and murder*. Stepping back is an entirely reasonable one, and there are books you haven’t read (or re-read) and movies you haven’t watched (or re-watched), and you probably still have a few boxes left from the move you need to sort out.
*Allowing for necessary self-defense, of course!
Elie
@Mnemosyne:
Well thank you very much! I am hoping that we have a good result from our upcoming local elections for County Council and some city councils. We are out here in the red/purple land and we can’t take anything for granted. These folks have lots of money and use their churches and Chambers of Commerce to organize. They are fewer in number but highly motivated and don’t have to self fund their printing, etc (Dem funds don’t make it as far down as us)
Thanks for your encouragement!
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@The Thin Black Duke: Yes we do.
Zelma
@Shinobi:
Gee, I’m sorry about that. But then, I wrote my step-daughters out of my will for being Trumpistas.
bluefoot
@The Thin Black Duke: Ayup. And I gave up on Pierce after HRC won the primary – he was all “serious reservations” about HRC, and damning with faint praise, and unsure he could support her for president, knowing full well what the alternative was. Well here you are Mr. Pierce, and now you want the black man to save you? Or is it you want the black man to excuse your culpability in the outcome of the election and your current inaction?
J R in WV
@ Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) :
I know you are young, so this isn’t criticism. But Nixon and Reagan both have said things as unAmerican as Trump. They mostly said those vile things in private, though, so Trump may be the most vile public speaker to hold the Oval Office in our lifetimes.
He surely doesn’t understand American democracy at all, though, does he?
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
Is it possible that one could make a list of of the things he does understand, just for laughs. It would of course be a short list, most likely microscopic. At best.
J R in WV
@debit:
Hi Debit, welcome back!! Sorry you need to worry about Kelsie, so glad she’s in remission. Fuq cancer!!! Too many good people, furry or not, suffer from that SOB.
Keep in touch, take care.
J R in WV
@catclub:
You need to get the fuck out of here and go back to the Republican KKK party you wandered off from lost in the woods. Organizing for America is busy working to save this nation from the fascists, and you are bitching about it?
Fuck you and the cactus you should ride out on.
From now on all I’ll hear from your dumb ass is pie jokes, which are more intelligent than anything you could say!
J R in WV
@Shinobi:
Well said, from me too. And I don’t know what to think about you dad. Sorry you have had to put up with that, glad it seems to be over. “Because you’re a Democrat?” Just strange.
Hang in there, and remember you are better off not being tethered to hate by an expectation of money. My parents spent a lot of theirs, which we were all in favor of, they earned it and deserved to enjoy it.
Keith G
I don’t like the way of thinking that formulates itself along the lines of what Obama owes us or doesn’t know us. Of his own choosing, he is a leader in this society and it’s not out of the ordinary to expect leaders to step into the fray when the going gets tough.
But the thing about Barack Obama is that politically speaking he is more of a specialist and a policy wonk than a generalist who excels at horse trading and retail politics. He could be very helpful or somewhat unhelpful depending on the job he is given to do, or that he accepts to engage.
Personally, I would like to see him continue to be at the point of defending the Affordable Care Act. Other than that, I would like to see him step away from retail politics and let space develop for the next generation of democratic leaders to be able to test out their wings and hone their effectiveness.
I want him to contribute to the part of this battle that is the most necessary in the long-term. I would like to see him totally sell out and become a high-dollar speaker raising funds for state democratic parties.
One of the reasons the Democrats are in such a fucked-up mess is that beginning in the 80s, Republicans found ways to put money into local races and get their people into city and state governments. This gave them both a bench to select candidates for higher office from and also an outsized voice in some of the most important levels of governance to the American people.
Way back in 2008, I had figured that this would end up being an important focus of the Obama-led Democratic Party. Didn’t happen.