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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObamas America Rises Again
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/obamas-america-rises-again.htmlLong-term pessimism about the liberal project has come roaring back in style since the election. Barack Obamas pet line, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice, has been hauled out for a great deal of public mockery on all sides. The liberal coastal elite has wallowed in self-flagellation about their failure to understand the great country, a sentiment Donald Trumps henchmen have exploited to cast the news media as an alien appendage from the real America and its deep, mystical bond with the new president. (They dont understand this country, claims Steve Bannon, They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.)
But the events of the last two weeks, both of which have seen massive nationwide protests against the new presidency, suggest a different conclusion. It is Trump who does not understand this country. And it is Obamas vision of the country that will ultimately win out.
The election has provided ample reasons for alarm. But it is important to have some clarity about what we ought to fear. The federal government is in the hands of an extremist claque. It will probably carry out enormous amounts of terrible policy, and the tail risks of permanent disasters arising from misgovernance new Katrinas, new Iraq Wars, or worse are terrifyingly high.
On the other hand, there is no reason to believe Trump is actually good at politics. He has the largest popular-vote deficit of any president ever elected and comes into office with historically low approval ratings. The only things he has done well are to gauge correctly the fecklessness of his Republican rivals, who he understood would fall in line behind him even after he smeared and bullied them mercilessly, and to beat up on Hillary Clinton while James Comey, Vladimir Putin, and the national media pinned her arms behind her.
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IADEMO2004
(5,559 posts)Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)damn right
AJT
(5,240 posts)know that. They keep winning. I don't know where we go from here.
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)Just 2 different worlds.
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)It's on all of us to change the State dynamics.
AJT
(5,240 posts)form something around "Blue Jean Nation", led by Mike McCabe. It is non partisan, but progressive, and is trying to find a way of working in rural areas to get rural progressives elected.
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)State Innovation Exchange developes State and Local level policy initiatives that candidates and electeds can build campaigns around.
JudyM
(29,274 posts)elmac
(4,642 posts)a little too late now.
HenryWallace
(332 posts)Hopefully the author realizes that:
"Barack Obamas pet line, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice, has been hauled out for a great deal of public mockery on all sides."
Is more popularly attributed to MLK.
6000eliot
(5,643 posts)Everybody I know was and is fucking furious, especially at the racist morons who put this deranged halfwit into the Oval Office.
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)For a while the dems were having a circular firing squad.
Not now of course.
And I too am fucking furious.