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.