Oh, the irony. As this article reminds us, the Republican plan to make Obama fail in order to win their elections by claiming Obama has failed (see: the common definition of chutzpah) has, rather than giving them a knight in shining armour to march them to the White House, given them Trump. Or, worse, Cruz.
... Take, for example, the administration’s 2011 proposal of a $447 billion package of measures including payroll tax cuts and the creation of an infrastructure bank that would have led to the creation of thousands of construction jobs, as well as other substantial economic benefits.
... Designed to be bipartisan and fully paid for by higher taxes on rich Americans and some corporations, the American Jobs Act was nonetheless dead virtually upon its arrival on Capitol Hill.
That’s not all. During his administration, Mr. Obama put forth proposals for larger tax credits for child care; community college investments; expansion of the earned-income tax credit; changing retirement plans to be portable across employers and available to part-time workers; and tax credits for manufacturing communities.
All these — and many more — were ignored by Congress...
Brilliant strategy, they considered it. Prevent anything that'd improve the lives of working people, make those same people (especially the white, male, minimally educated ones) angry over their plight, sauce it up with constant propagandizing about persecution of whites, make a policy of blaming "others," and they'd waltz to the presidency. Except it seems to have backfired.Turns out (who knew?) that if you foment nameless rage in a bunch of people whom you've deliberately made uninformed, it can lead to nameless rage in uninformed people. And when the politicians who run the game play it for power and not for the good of average people, it can lead to a little more specific naming of that rage: them.
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...and therein lies the reason for my disappointment with President Obama. Not that he didn't accomplish some worthy goals, but that he failed to play hardball not only with the republicans, but with the members of his own party. Had he gone to the people (who overwhelmingly elected him twice) and told them not only what and why he was trying to accomplish parts of his agenda but who (and name names)was blocking his efforts (and why), I believe he would have been far more successful. "But wait" the 'establishment' choruses that's not the way we do things here. You can't impugn the "Honorable gentlemen from Kentucky,Ohio,Virginia,Iowa and Nebraska (among others)." BULLSHIT! The rules are changing: witness the crowds of pissed off folks at Trump and Sanders rallies.
ReplyDeleteAs the smoke clears, I see the r's without much, if any, chance of winning the presidential election. Hillary is a flawed candidate on many levels, and though she could win the election, Mitch and the boys (oops sorry, I meant the Honorable gentlemen of the loyal opposition) will spend the next 4 years tearing her to shreds because even though she's white, she's a woman and should be home having babies not running the world's most powerful country (what would the Saudi's think? What about Putin?). We have a chance to capitalize on the pissed off electorate with Bernie and as many of true progressive candidates for Congress and we can get elected. Our "old guard" has failed us - we need change on practically every level.
I agree, Mike. Obama seems to have believed for far too long that somehow he could get at least a little cooperation from congressional Rs. Only now is he starting to call them out, too late.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, I don't think anything he'd have said would have gotten enough people to open their eyes and vote those obstructionists out of office; nor, since that wouldn't have happened, would there have been any reason for those Rs to yield to pressure. The people who voted them into office loved them for it.
I believe that any first, black, Democratic president would have been greeted with the same level of obstruction, derision, and hate that Obama has received. His "Civil War" ended when he beat Romney in 2008. It was followed by a brief period of "Reconstruction" and then the defeated "South" took steps to see that he would fail. In their minds and lies he has, but history will treat him with respect.
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