Obama Cannot Fly

by Tom Hagy

The hyper and unrelenting criticism of President Obama tends to crawl under my skin and burn. I try to figure out why this is. I don't know the guy. He's not my brother or best friend. So why do I feel defensive? I think I've reached one conclusion: The hyper criticism of President Obama is a huge part of what is holding our country back.

I say this because it means that there are those with considerable power who will do anything to deny him a success, or a so-called legacy, when their legacy, like that of Mitch McConnell, will be that they stopped the country from making progress in a unified way and encouraged us all to hate each other.

I say this because President Obama was expected not only to replace millions of jobs, but add millions of jobs, something I continue to maintain is the job of corporations. That is, unless he wanted to go all FDR and create jobs programs to build bridges, tunnels, subways, roads, dams, etc. How long does anyone think a proposal like that would have survived?  Mitch McConnell would have planted his noggin across a railroad track to stop that train from leaving the station.

I say this because as I now see the GOP talking about how to provide healthcare to all Americans and fix Medicare, it makes me sad that our leaders could not have worked together for these eight years. Instead of Tip O'Neill who worked well with President Reagan, we got Mitch McConnell who vowed to halt President Obama at every turn. People suffer, but the politicians feel nothing.

I say this because President Obama was expected to perform like a super hero or, as Morning Joe Scarborough so crassly put it, like a "Black Jesus." He was expected to govern peaceful Muslims and work with Muslim nations, yet call them all terrorists and followers of an evil cult. His refusal to refer to "radical Islam" made me proud, but people used it, ridiculously, to paint him as a terrorist sympathizer, or, as Trump called him, the founder of ISIS. To me it's like calling rape a "date rape," or slavery "white slavery." These modifiers, well, modify the noun as something more or something less.

Tweet First, Ask Questions Later

I say this because Trump will say the most outrageous things, yet it's Obama's carefully measured words that draw criticism for not tickling us the way Trump can. For example: After Fidel Castro rolled up like a Cohiba and even a butane torch couldn't re-ignite him, Obama preferred to say Castro will be judged by history, but Trump enthusiasts loved his the-evil-dictator-is-dead tweet.

Anything I know about Castro is bad shit. He was a dictator who oppressed his people, aligned with the Soviet Union, and survived for decades despite hundreds of U.S.-backed or coordinated assassination attempts. My knowledge is shallow but 100% negative. I am uninformed on this guy's life and any contributions, other than sending doctors to poorer nations, maybe, he may have made for the good of the world.

Here is my problem with praise for the dictator-is-dead approach and comments about Obama's so-called milk-toast message: People expect POTUS to piss on the grave of one brother, while trying to establish peaceful relations with the other. Try it sometime. Your idiot friends may laugh, but it will not end well.

It's pretty much how he has had to operate for eight years. He was criticized for being divisive, when what his existence did was shine a light on the bigotry that already put a crack in our country. We just threw a rug over it. Obama's biggest crimes where being black and educated. When many in the country should have seen him as a hero raised by a hard-working single mother and grew up to be not just someone without a criminal record, but someone who reached the highest office in the land.

Yeah, Trump's bumper sticker communications style is attractive and funny and sassy, but it's also thoughtless and incendiary and divisive. I like good comedy maybe even more than the next guy. But remember, Trump is the same guy who said President Obama was a Kenyan, that President Obama founded ISIS, that a sitting president should be able to sue the media for libel, that muslims should register, that maybe the Second Amendment people will take care of Hillary, that women should be punished for having an abortion, that if chosen as the GOP candidate he would show his taxes, that the electoral college is anti-democratic, that the voter process is rigged, that Putin should find Hillary's emails -- and then what happened?

Of course, my opinion doesn't matter. In Trump's mind, if the President does it (not the current one, but the next one), it must be legal and if you disagree with him or report on him in a critical way you will be asked to leave the rally in need of extra security (Katy Tur) because of this thuggish followers, and, depending on your faith, the country.

But if you take scissors to Trump's tweets and rearranged all the words I am sure we could write a positive message to all Americans from our PEOTUS. Maybe he just delivered them all out of order.

Trump is a thug. Finding fault in a peaceful, thoughtful message from President Obama while praising Trump's tweet, of all things, is illustrative of the kind of benefit of the doubt Trump gets. President Obama just got doubt. From day one. And it isn't him I feel sorry for. It's us.

Double Your Election Pleasure: Gag Future Demagogues

What is the harm in double-checking the vote count in states where the outcome was so close, and where there is evidence that we should?

If the vote count is accurate, then all we did was perform due diligence, just as any good businessman (ah-hem) would perform.

If the vote count is accurate, then all we did was follow up on the argument from the most powerful man in the world and his adamant followers who claimed voter fraud was rampant.

If the vote count is accurate, maybe the next time some demagogue runs for office in part based on the argument that the system is rigged against him, despite all evidence to the contrary, we will have confidence to tell him and his followers that he is simply wrong.

The Age of Irony in America

The irony is everywhere.

Compare Trump's conduct to the teachings of Christ.

Compare the respect for strong independent people with the constant need to blame someone other than yourself.

Compare the scream-bloody-murder patriotism of Trump followers with their silent approval of Russia's role in the election.

Compare the "love your neighbor" embroidered pillows with the hatred of anyone not like them -- usually people they've never met.

And by "them" I only mean those who decide to close their eyes. Brilliant open minded kind people live in flyover states. Bet they grind their teeth at night.

Despite my best efforts I truly have a difficult time respecting people who voted for Trump, as if he's just another conservative Republican I don't like, not because of my personal concerns, but because of my concerns for others.

Which means if so-called educated liberal elites have a tough time understanding flyover states, they have zero idea what motivates me.

A huge part of what I care about IS them. Like workers in the coal industry. Do you really think anyone is going to bring that back? They have been duped and it pisses me off.