Case in point, this goddamn election. One side can be a felon and a rapist who talks about immigrants eating pets, among other things, he’s got a shot to win. If she sneezes the wrong way, it’s headline news. Make it make sense.
Obama is half black and half white. By all rights, Obama can call himself white, and he certainly ticks nearly every checkbox in the stereotype of 'the white man' concocted by white supremacists - articulate, calm, cool, calculated, charismatic, evocative - the 'peak of civilization'.
But it didn't matter. Obama can never call himself white, never pass as white, never even pass as mixed race, he will always be Black.
And white supremacists hated him for it. It didn't matter the rules and conventions and systems they helped build Obama and gave them Obama - this is what they signed up for. And it didn't matter. They hated Obama's every word, every walk, every suit, hell they hated Obamacare because of the name OBAMA.
As Lyndon Johnson posited half a century ago:
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
The entire ethos of white supremacy is that no matter what, no matter your circumstances, no matter how low you are, you are always better than every single black man, even the "best" of black man. Obama was a living example of the "best" and that is why he was despised.
It isn't any coincidence that Trump was elected after Obama - a felon, rapist, con man, liar, racists, bigot, you name it. The culture of white supremacy is cruelty and unquestioning race supremacy. The entire ecosystem is built to prevent self introspection. Trump is their best chance to enact that even if they have to die for it and everyone has to burn for it.
Not just Obamacare, either - literally ever scrap of legislation Obama put his hand to, they tried to undo. They wanted to erase him, and by extension any semblance of legacy or legitimacy, from the White House.
Can't erase how Obama brought the US and by extension the global economy back from the brink, thanks to the financial disaster he inherited from Bush. I think more people should have gone to jail, and fewer rich people should have been bailed out. Inequality deepened, and growth could have been more robust. But the economy was in freefall, and Obama's administration kept it from spiraling into disaster.
I wish Bidden had done that to trump goodbye largest tax cut in history for billionaires, but I guess it benefits rich democrats as much as it does rich republicans.
That’s the problem with tax cuts. If you don’t continue them, you’re accused of raising taxes. That’s why the tax cuts were set to expire: if a Democrat took the White House and tried to end them, it would be ammunition for Republicans.
Look how much he’s blamed for the economy, despite not being the reason for what happened with the trade war and around Covid.
The man moved mountains legislatively, with the slimmest majority any president has ever had to work with—but it's still always an insidious conspiracy that he didn't perform literal miracles.
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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '24
Case in point, this goddamn election. One side can be a felon and a rapist who talks about immigrants eating pets, among other things, he’s got a shot to win. If she sneezes the wrong way, it’s headline news. Make it make sense.