Obama: Black Lives Matter And Other Activists Need To Learn To Compromise

[ConservativeDemocrat]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-blm-compromise-youth-speech

While answering questions from students and young people, Obama praised the Black Lives Matter movement for bringing to light the issues of police brutality and racial discrimination, but he says, their tone can mean that sometimes the message gets lost.

“You can’t just keep on yelling at them and you can’t refuse to meet because that might compromise the purity of your position,” Obama said. “The value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room and then start trying to figure out how is this problem going to be solved. You then have a responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable —that can institutionalize the changes you seek and to engage the other side.”

More obviousness on how to constructively engage, how to actually fix things, from our President.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

/ No wonder so many of the JackpineRadical and Naderite types here hate him

[Scootaloo]

1. I expect total confusion in the ranks of some people here.

[Hydra]

6. Oh, no. I'm sure Brock will roll out approved talking points n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Hmm Washington and the rest of those idiots surely compromised

and so did Lincoln... and MLK also did compromise all the time.

That must be a very different version of Imperial history, and the Queen has been really good to the American colonies

[HooptieWagon]

3. Because 3/5 was a good compromise?

[former9thward]

9. It was the northern states who said slaves should not be counted

at all when determining representation in Congress. It was the southern states who said they should be counted 100%. It was the NORTH who came up with the idea that slaves would be 3/5 of whites . Forget about that part of American history???

[Peregrine Took]

4. Why I'm not a fan of his. N/t

[SheilaT]

5. His willingness to compromise has been his biggest weakness.

But more to the point, he's willing to compromise and he does not seem to get it that others (meaning Republicans) are not. Well, they use the word compromise but to them it means Do it MY way.

[Retrograde]

20. I wouldn't put it quite that way

Compromise works best when all parties agree on a goal but differ on how to get there: it needs rational humans to make it work best. IMHO, Obama's big initial mistake was assuming that the GOP would act like rational adults for the good of the country.

[SheilaT]

34. However, all parties here did not agree on a goal.

Republicans simply wanted their way and as I said above, their definition of "compromise" was "do it totally my way.

The really unfortunate thing about Obama is that he has taken so very long to understand that they totally oppose him and totally refuse to work with him in any capacity. That he didn't recognize that they had no intention of acting like rational adults for the good of the country.

We really aren't in disagreement here, just have a slightly different take.

[MurrayDelph]

21. more-importantly

it means do it MY way, and we'll blame YOU when it doesn't work.

[CharlotteVale]

7. Oops.

[Fumesucker]

8. The only way to know the limits of the possible is to venture past them into the impossible

-Clarke's second law..

[ConservativeDemocrat]

10. Clarke was talking about space travel, not tantrum throwing in the cereal aisle

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Fumesucker]

11. Clarke was talking about a general principle

Remember that gay marriage was "impossible" until suddenly it wasn't, Hillary was saying marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman until about 2013 or so.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

24. A general principle that seems lost on you

The public's attitude towards gay marriage didn't shift due to a bunch of screaming hate-filled morons threatening to get rid of heterosexual marriage, or vowing to destroy all religions (on Wall Street or not) that still don't approve of it.

You sanctimonious hatred-addicts are the worst enemy of the people you imagine that you're trying to help.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Fumesucker]

36. Moving the Overton Window requires having people pushing against the limits of the acceptable

The right has been doing it for decades with marked success, it's telling that if the left starts doing something similar the conservatives would be "concerned" and start mocking it.

This is America, it's all about sanctimonious hatred addicts. I guess I can understand the hatred for Iran by people unaware of the full history but the hatred for Iraq seems to have materialized out of thin air. Or maybe it's just because Iraq sounds enough like Iran to be confused for it.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

37. Moving the Overton window involves PERSUADING people...

...not demonizing them. Not scaring them. Not hating them.

Moving the Overton window is what people like me do, while people like you end up driving people away from the Democratic party and the policies you advocate for, almost as effectively as Trump and Cruz are driving people away from Republicans. Largely because, aside from the ideological inversion, the hate filled childish ranting sounds nearly exactly the same to people who just listen to tone.

But I also know how seductive hatred is. I certainly see it among people, even in my liberal state. There's a lot of frustration in the rural regions, and justifiable blame towards illegal immigrants for low wages. That's why Trump is winning, despite his clownishness. I'm actually relatively pleased with our new minimum wage law, though it's going to make some projects just not pencil out. But everyone will be competing at the higher rates, which evens the playing field, at least.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Marr]

12. So... Black Lives Sort of Matter? Or maybe Some Black Lives Matter?

I'm not sure how you 'compromise' on black and white issues.

[TipTok]

16. A few legitimate issues...

... Do not equal carte blanche to make every ridiculous demand you can think of and then claim persecution when they aren't immediately met.


The president is right.

[KG]

17. can't have black folk getting all uppity about getting shot down in the streets

hasn't this been white-splained to you before?

[Igel]

19. And here we have Obama white-splaining to people?

Really?

Not a good inference, but, I think, a valid one.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

25. You're white, right?

So why are you "splaining" anything to our black president?



- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[romanic]

13. From what I get from his statement

specifically this statement:

“The value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room and then start trying to figure out how is this problem going to be solved. You then have a responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable —that can institutionalize the changes you seek and to engage the other side.”

is that you have to actually engage and speak with politicians and be prepared with an agenda that can be implemented into law. BLM tactics have brought the issue of police brutality at the forefront, but those same tactics haven't evolved beyond protesting/disruption to get their demands looked over by those that can actually put those changes into law. Time and time again, it seems like the BLM activists have failed to engage lawmakers due to their inability to stop yelling and actually listen.

[linuxman]

14. Too bad the message is in entirely lost on the people who need to understand it the most.

[KG]

15. I lulz'd

[Bohemianwriter]

18. He should have ran...

"YES WE CAN...COMPROMISE" ticket in 2012.

[JEB]

22. I'd prefer a spine.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

23. He forgot to add, "I'll meet with you and help you prepare an agenda that can promote institutional

change."

He doesn't seem to have an appetite for that. So much for giving zero fucks.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

26. It never occurs to you that he is already promoting institutional change

And that he doesn't need to reward counterproductive extremists with a presidential meeting to know what it is like to be automatically considered suspect simply due to the color of one's skin.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

28. You might want to consider the "Bernie Bro" effect. People tend to generalize when there's an

"obnoxious" group, regardless of its size. Bernie Bros and BLM are catching all the headlines and people are making broad generalizations. Maybe the President is as shortsighted as you.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

29. BLM has tried to begin a conversation with the likely next POTUS. Here's how they were treated

Just another lecture.

[Rex]

31. The OP always intends to disrupt and divide DU.

I guess DI is slow today, usually they're are over there concern trolling.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

33. So quoting the Democratic POTUS is "disrupting and divide" the DU?

Way to go to show how much hate filled anti-Democrats have taken to trolling the DU.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[ConservativeDemocrat]

32. This is about you bashing Obama...

...over his supposed "racist" dismissal of BLM extremists.

Not your failed attempt to misrepresent a constructive discussion between these BLM activists and Secretary Clinton by taking a handful of photographs. Here's the actual video, in case you'd like to actually watch it.

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2015/8/19/watch_full_video_of_hillary_clintons

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. Obama lecturing black people, is something that he is allowed to do

the rest of us, not so much. we don't face the same existential threats, so we don't get to be sanctimonious.

[Rex]

30. OH look it is that username that is a proud member of something they made up!

You are such an entertaining 'poster', I'll give you that much.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

35. I can certainly tell reality isn't something you're interested in

Or curiosity for that matter.

How do I know? You didn't even bother to google the phrase before you accused me of making it up.

Come back when you educate yourself.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Lucinda]

38. The young lady at Hillary's fundraiser missed an excellent opportunity

But I think her agenda was just to grab some "gotcha" video and disrupt. Hopefully she learned something in the process.