The 2016 Election's Obama Problem
________________________________________
By davidswanson - Posted on 26 February 2016
I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Searching your eyes, looking for traces
Of what I'm dreaming of --Waylon Jennings
Why do the Republican presidential debates resemble world wrestling matches
without all the formality and politeness?
Why do the Democratic presidential debates always end up with the two
candidates deeply respecting the other's admirable efforts to destroy
everything decent in the world?
Because the Republicans are going after voters who are thoroughly disgusted
with the U.S. government, including the man running it, Barack Obama, while
the Democrats are going after voters who are thoroughly disgusted with the
U.S. government but in love with the man running it.
Senator Bernie Sanders explains that we need the opposite of what Obama's
been doing, then claims to agree with Obama. Why? Because he wants to win
over voters who think exactly that, who believe that Obama has done
everything wrong but who love Obama despite, or even because, of his
disastrous conduct. Sanders knows that many of the same voters feel (that's
the key word) the same way about Hillary Clinton.
Pick up a book called I [Heart] Obama by Erin Aubry Kaplan. In it, she
explains that she and others she's asked love Obama for his looks, his
voice, his poise, his attitude, his facial expressions, and his skin color.
She and others she quotes fell in love with him before they'd learned
anything about his political performance. And whatever they later learned
entirely confirmed their sentiments. If he did something terrible, they
imagined he'd tried to do something good. If he failed, they loved his
failure and blamed it on his racist opponents. Because racists hate him, one
must love him, they feel.
Kaplan hoped for change, but when Obama didn't meet her expectations she
condemned anyone so misguided as to complain. Then she blamed the public for
not rising up and complaining, without which Obama couldn't very well be
expected to do anything, could he? But even when Obama didn't do the right
thing, you could be sure he knew what the right thing to do would have been.
And that was good enough. Hell, that was better. And if he lied about it,
that was better than truth. Even his bullshit smelled sweet. Kaplan writes:
"Does the fact that his 'Hope/Change' campaign was more a matter of
brilliant branding than anything else diminish the fact that hope and change
are exactly what black folks need?"
Perish the thought!
Racists would even object to Obama murdering people. Not the Obamaphiles
Kaplan quotes: "'I know it's hard for people to look at the drones, to look
at why he doesn't do this thing or that thing,' says Ward. 'But the
tightrope is one that he has to walk. I have a friend in the South who says
she's seen bars with calendars on the walls that count down the days to when
Obama gets assassinated.'"
Get it? Racists want to murder Obama, so he should go on murdering all those
dark-skinned foreigners, and you should shut up about it and love him even
if you hate what he's doing.
Do the old people and black people backing Hillary Clinton in primaries
associate her with Obama and his lovable odiousness? Or do they associate
her with the Democratic Party and identify with that party as they might
with a racial group? Or do they want to feel the warm tingles of watching a
woman, instead of a man, pilot the empire over the cliff? Are good people
going to double down on tokenism while the fascists prepare to play their
trump card?
The answer is, of course, not to elect all white guys. The answer is to end
the election obsession, and build a movement. And when we must have an
election, elect the best person. Democrats need to stop loving the people
who have created everything Sanders wants to fix. Obama and Hillary do not
love you back, my friends. They're using you. They have nothing but contempt
for you. And if the morning ever comes, you'll hate yourself in it.
Republicans, of course, need to stop bowing down before a fascist clown who
openly tells them that he only loves himself and they should love him too.
For him, you are beneath contempt, unworthy even of notice. You'd better
hope the Democrats don't run the woman you hate against him, because then
he'll be president, you'll be the woman scorned, you'll hate yourselves more
than the Democrats hate you, and most people will give up hope for the
electoral system -- which will of course turn out to be even worse than
falling for false hope with a nice smile.
&&&&
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You are hereBlogs / davidswanson's blog / The 2016 Election's Obama Problem
The 2016 Election's Obama Problem
By davidswanson - Posted on 26 February 2016
I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Searching your eyes, looking for traces
Of what I'm dreaming of --Waylon Jennings
Why do the Republican presidential debates resemble world wrestling matches
without all the formality and politeness?
Why do the Democratic presidential debates always end up with the two
candidates deeply respecting the other's admirable efforts to destroy
everything decent in the world?
Because the Republicans are going after voters who are thoroughly disgusted
with the U.S. government, including the man running it, Barack Obama, while
the Democrats are going after voters who are thoroughly disgusted with the
U.S. government but in love with the man running it.
Senator Bernie Sanders explains that we need the opposite of what Obama's
been doing, then claims to agree with Obama. Why? Because he wants to win
over voters who think exactly that, who believe that Obama has done
everything wrong but who love Obama despite, or even because, of his
disastrous conduct. Sanders knows that many of the same voters feel (that's
the key word) the same way about Hillary Clinton.
Pick up a book called I [Heart] Obama by Erin Aubry Kaplan. In it, she
explains that she and others she's asked love Obama for his looks, his
voice, his poise, his attitude, his facial expressions, and his skin color.
She and others she quotes fell in love with him before they'd learned
anything about his political performance. And whatever they later learned
entirely confirmed their sentiments. If he did something terrible, they
imagined he'd tried to do something good. If he failed, they loved his
failure and blamed it on his racist opponents. Because racists hate him, one
must love him, they feel.
Kaplan hoped for change, but when Obama didn't meet her expectations she
condemned anyone so misguided as to complain. Then she blamed the public for
not rising up and complaining, without which Obama couldn't very well be
expected to do anything, could he? But even when Obama didn't do the right
thing, you could be sure he knew what the right thing to do would have been.
And that was good enough. Hell, that was better. And if he lied about it,
that was better than truth. Even his bullshit smelled sweet. Kaplan writes:
"Does the fact that his 'Hope/Change' campaign was more a matter of
brilliant branding than anything else diminish the fact that hope and change
are exactly what black folks need?"
Perish the thought!
Racists would even object to Obama murdering people. Not the Obamaphiles
Kaplan quotes: "'I know it's hard for people to look at the drones, to look
at why he doesn't do this thing or that thing,' says Ward. 'But the
tightrope is one that he has to walk. I have a friend in the South who says
she's seen bars with calendars on the walls that count down the days to when
Obama gets assassinated.'"
Get it? Racists want to murder Obama, so he should go on murdering all those
dark-skinned foreigners, and you should shut up about it and love him even
if you hate what he's doing.
Do the old people and black people backing Hillary Clinton in primaries
associate her with Obama and his lovable odiousness? Or do they associate
her with the Democratic Party and identify with that party as they might
with a racial group? Or do they want to feel the warm tingles of watching a
woman, instead of a man, pilot the empire over the cliff? Are good people
going to double down on tokenism while the fascists prepare to play their
trump card?
The answer is, of course, not to elect all white guys. The answer is to end
the election obsession, and build a movement. And when we must have an
election, elect the best person. Democrats need to stop loving the people
who have created everything Sanders wants to fix. Obama and Hillary do not
love you back, my friends. They're using you. They have nothing but contempt
for you. And if the morning ever comes, you'll hate yourself in it.
Republicans, of course, need to stop bowing down before a fascist clown who
openly tells them that he only loves himself and they should love him too.
For him, you are beneath contempt, unworthy even of notice. You'd better
hope the Democrats don't run the woman you hate against him, because then
he'll be president, you'll be the woman scorned, you'll hate yourselves more
than the Democrats hate you, and most people will give up hope for the
electoral system -- which will of course turn out to be even worse than
falling for false hope with a nice smile.
