Current Events > WaPo opinion: Obama came too early

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-brings-on-the-death-throes-of-white-hegemony/2018/06/01/0cf2d636-65c7-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html

Former Obama White House official Ben Rhodes, in his forthcoming memoir, tells of a moment of doubt the first African American president had after the election of Donald Trump on a campaign dominated by white grievance.

Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early, President Barack Obama said in the passage, first reported this week by Peter Baker in the New York Times.

I hate to say it, but I think the former president was correct.

Ten or 20 years from now, America will be much closer to the majority-minority nation it is forecast to become in 2045. A racist backlash to a black president wouldnt matter as much.

But what was naively proclaimed in 2008 as post-racial America was instead kindling for white insecurity, and Trump cunningly exploited and stoked racial grievance with his subtle and overt nods to white nationalism. He is now leading the backlash to the Obama years and is seeking to extend white dominion as long as possible, with attempts to stem immigration, to suppress minority voting and to deter minority census participation.

There's more in the article. It starts listing stuff Trump did (or didn't do) this week.
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Babby's first double entendre.
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stupid.

he came just in time so the voter-base would learn voting in some liberal paragon doesn't solve anything

Obama confirmed to be a two pump chump?
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The ol' Flirt n' Squirt?
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Two pump chump Obama
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lmao.

Still blaming race. *smh*

Coffeebeanz posted...

Babby's first double entendre.

The author is probably clickbaiting to his own title right now.
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Milkman5 posted...

stupid.

he came just in time so the voter-base would learn voting in some liberal paragon doesn't solve anything

In what world is Obama liberal?
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Well maybe we will get our first black president sometime closer to 2040.
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I think he came too early for the healthcare issue.

Iodine posted...

In what world is Obama liberal?

In America where even a slight right of center policy is viewed as trying to turn America into a Socialist state
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You know the country has gone to shit when even Obama is unironically blaming Obama for. Trump
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I think there's some truth to this. I remember even in the mid-'00s, analysts considered potential candidates similar to Obama (in both race and policy) to be far too left for the general American public to accept. Then there's the fact that - in the eyes of the general voting public, at least - Obama practically came out of nowhere during the '06-'07 campaign season to take the nom from Hillary.

I'd say there's some good merit in the notion that the rather sudden ascension of Obama was a jarring enough event to cause a lot of the right to collectively lose their damn minds and push back hard, resulting in things like the Tea Party and Trump's election. Of course it's not like our current partisan chasm was created exclusively in '08; Obama's presidency likely wouldn't have been possible without Bush's.
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Thanks Obama
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itachi15243 posted...

You know the country has gone to shit when even Obama is unironically blaming Obama for. Trump

MFW Obama doesn't have a legacy except for everyone's hatred of cops.

MFW
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Roshon posted...

I think he came too early for the healthcare issue.

They should have handled this when the country had a decent budget (cause Bush 41 had to jack taxes up).
<queue the wikipedia shit about Clinton's bills>
But there were career politicians involved.
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Uncle Choad posted...

itachi15243 posted...

You know the country has gone to shit when even Obama is unironically blaming Obama for. Trump

MFW Obama doesn't have a legacy except for everyone's hatred of cops.

MFW

JahnDixonUSA posted...

Uncle Choad posted...

itachi15243 posted...

You know the country has gone to shit when even Obama is unironically blaming Obama for. Trump

MFW Obama doesn't have a legacy except for everyone's hatred of cops.

MFW

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masterpug53 posted...

I'd say there's some good merit in the notion that the rather sudden ascension of Obama was a jarring enough event to cause a lot of the right to collectively lose their damn minds and push back hard, resulting in things like the Tea Party and Trump's election. Of course it's not like our current partisan chasm was created exclusively in '08; Obama's presidency likely wouldn't have been possible without Bush's.

This is well put
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unDlhRy7jRw" data-time="
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I'd say the biggest problem is the obvious dichotomy between how the media treated Bush and Obama. Literally everything Bush did was deconstructed and ridiculed. It was a non-stop media and Hollywood torrent of hate. Then Obama comes along and gets a free pass on virtually everything. The fringe right was in "fuck the media" mode and Trump was the perfect bombastic imbecile to back.

Hollywood, and to a lesser extent most of mainstream media, developed this air of conceited yet hypocritical morality police. A lot of people didn't vote for Hillary explicitly because she was treated like she had already been elected. This is why, despite the horror of Trump winning, a lot of people thoroughly enjoyed the total meltdown that happened on election night on most news channels and YouTube.
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Coffeebeanz posted...

I'd say the biggest problem is the obvious dichotomy between how the media treated Bush and Obama. Literally everything Bush did was deconstructed and ridiculed. It was a non-stop media and Hollywood torrent of hate. Then Obama comes along and gets a free pass on virtually everything. The fringe right was in "fuck the media" mode and Trump was the perfect bombastic imbecile to back.

Hollywood, and to a lesser extent most of mainstream media, developed this air of conceited yet hypocritical morality police. A lot of people didn't vote for Hillary explicitly because she was treated like she had already been elected.

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy
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wackyteen posted...

Trump cunningly exploited and stoked racial grievance with his subtle and overt nods to white nationalism

Subtle AND overt? Trump playing 9 dimensional chess here
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Bloodychess posted...

wackyteen posted...

Trump cunningly exploited and stoked racial grievance with his subtle and overt nods to white nationalism

Subtle AND overt? Trump playing 9 dimensional chess here

He lives within a logic event horizon, where time and space are flipped.

In the middle is a logic singularity, a point of infinitely dense logic for which no logic can escape.
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Dems just needed a better candidate than Hillary or the guy who promised everything would be literally free.

Why wasnt there a racist backlash after Obamas first term?
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shockthemonkey posted...

Nomadic View posted...

Why wasnt there a racist backlash after Obamas first term?

Did you even read the article?

Only the excerpt from the OP.

Why wasnt there a racist backlash after Obamas first term?
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Racism is an easy excuse to avoid having to recognize that not everyone in the US buys into the Democrats' bullshit.
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FortuneCookie posted...

Dems just needed a better candidate than Hillary

masterpug53 posted...

I'd say there's some good merit in the notion that the rather sudden ascension of Obama was a jarring enough event to cause a lot of the right to collectively lose their damn minds and push back hard, resulting in things like the Tea Party and Trump's election. Of course it's not like our current partisan chasm was created exclusively in '08; Obama's presidency likely wouldn't have been possible without Bush's.

these can both be true
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garbage race baiting article is garbage
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Trump was a racist backlash for sure. I don't think he was in response to Obama so much as the growing racial tension in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin.

News media used lightened images of George Zimmerman to give him a whiter complexion, audio was selectively omitted to make it sound like he was offering the information that Trayvon was black, and he was constantly referred to as white or a "white Latino." A lot of people saw in Zimmerman a victim of news media or a shift in the racial power dynamic. And they responded to fears of white victimization by electing a perceived champion of whiteness.

If the news media hadn't sensationalized that case and stirred up the controversy that they had, I don't think there would've been enough "white fear" to get Trump elected.

Coffeebeanz posted...

Racism is an easy excuse to avoid having to recognize that not everyone in the US buys into the Democrats' bullshit.

It's all they have. Every complaint about Obama's policies is handwaved as racism. You don't like Obama appeasing terrorist organizations? You're only thinking that because he's black, and you're racist. You don't like that he called a terrorist attack a 'peaceful protest' and blamed it on a YouTube video, and promised legal action against the creator of it? You're only thinking that because he's black, and you're racist. You don't like that he gave billions of taxpayer dollars to failed renewable energy startups, then sold them to China for pennies on the dollar? You're only thinking that because he's black, and you're racist. You don't like that he blamed cops for thugs killing cops at the funeral for dead cops? You're only thinking that because he's black, and you're racist.

They literally cannot defend their positions rationally.
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Skye Reynolds posted...

Trump was a racist backlash for sure. I don't think he was in response to Obama so much as the growing racial tension in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin.

News media used lightened images of George Zimmerman to give him a whiter complexion, audio was selectively omitted to make it sound like he was offering the information that Trayvon was black, and he was constantly referred to as white or a "white Latino." A lot of people saw in Zimmerman a victim of news media or a shift in the racial power dynamic. And they responded to fears of white victimization by electing a perceived champion of whiteness.

If the news media hadn't sensationalized that case and stirred up the controversy that they had, I don't think there would've been enough "white fear" to get Trump elected.

Martin literally wasn't murdered.
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darkjedilink posted...

Martin literally wasn't murdered.

What do you call it when you stalk someone for miles, confront them, and shoot them?

Even if Trayvon had thrown the first punch, it would've still been self-defense by virtue of the fact that he was stalked at length by someone who had no authorization to do so.

>Trump
>cunning
>subtle

LOL
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Skye Reynolds posted...

darkjedilink posted...

Martin literally wasn't murdered.

What do you call it when you stalk someone for miles, confront them, and shoot them?

Even if Trayvon had thrown the first punch, it would've still been self-defense by virtue of the fact that he was stalked at length by someone who had no authorization to do so.

He wasn't 'stalked,' and he jumped Zimmerman from behind.

Never mind that you can't claim self-defense for someone following you.
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darkjedilink posted...

Never mind that you can't claim self-defense for someone following you.

If someone is following you at length, and they're not announcing why, you have to assume bad intentions on their part.

But hey, maybe Trayvon should've stopped what he was doing, walked up to the gentleman stalking him from the car, and asked "Good Sir, have I done something to offend you? You seem to be following me for some reason."

I'd have assumed the man had a gun and likely had intentions to use it. Stalking is an act of aggression.

Skye Reynolds posted...

darkjedilink posted...

Never mind that you can't claim self-defense for someone following you.

If someone is following you at length, and they're not announcing why, you have to assume bad intentions on their part.

But hey, maybe Trayvon should've stopped what he was doing, walked up to the gentleman stalking him from the car, and asked "Good Sir, have I done something to offend you? You seem to be following me for some reason."

I'd have assumed the man had a gun and likely had intentions to use it. Stalking is an act of aggression.

Or maybe he should have actually gotten into his home when he reached his yard, instead of telling his girlfriend he's going to teach that 'crazy-assed cracker' a lesson.

You know, since he had no clue Zimmerman was armed.
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darkjedilink posted...

'crazy-assed cracker'

oh so you admit he was white
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FlatulentFox posted...

darkjedilink posted...

'crazy-assed cracker'

oh so you admit he was white

He's just as white as Obama.

I was quoting Martin.
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Okay, there's an argument. If he's so innocent, why didn't he just run away?

Oh, and he used a bad word too.

darkjedilink posted...

I was quoting Martin.

Martin Sheen? What has he got to do with anything
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