Time and time again, history has proven our economy to be better under democratic presidents and, thus Keynesian economic policy. It’s no mystery as to why republican Congresses have been responsible for the last four major economic crisis in the: 1930s, 1970s, 2001, and 2008. Supply-side economics simply doesn’t work in non-Stagflation conditions. As it turns out, lower income tax rates for the wealthy and an increased tax burden for the lower classes doesn’t deliver to middle-class Americans – the driving force behind the economy with the largest MPC.
The phrase “trickle-down” is a misnomer which obfuscates the dire effects the economic policy’s implementation has had on our US economy throughout history. From tripling the national debt, skyrocketing income inequality by solely serving as a transfer of wealth to the top 1% while the middle-class is left behind, and causing a deep recession in 1982 with an unemployment rate of 10.8%. To the Bush tax cuts which raised unemployment to 6%, and finally the failing Kansas trickle-down experiment of 2012 which caused job growth and personal income to lag the US economy. Logically, the President Trump thinks ‘lets do it all over again’ and bankrupt the US economy like one of his casinos by reducing corporate tax rates from 35 to 15 percent.
Reaganomics is not effective at growing the economy – just lining the wealthy’s pockets. Yes, Reaganomics pulled the country out of a recession but only because it wasn’t just any recession – it was one marked by high inflation, and unemployment – aka ‘Stagflation.’ This occurs when aggregate supply goes down because there is a shortage of goods due to a supply shock which has caused cost-push inflation. Under such a double-whammy, supply-side economics is the only solution to restoring the economy back to equilibrium. It increases GDP without increasing the price level. However, Reagan’s failure was adding a detrimental twist to supply-side by combining tax cuts for the wealthy with big spending.
But we haven’t experienced such a situation since the ‘70s therefore this economic policy should in way be looked at as precedent or a success story of economic prosperity – it wasn’t and never has been, not for the 99%.
Under our current conditions where aggregate supply exceeds demand, demand-side economics should be enacted to push demand even further to full employment. Although we’re already pretty close, more growth can’t hurt us to the point where we’re needing contractionary policy yet. It’s proven successful with the past three democratic presidents, but it’s important to look back at what doesn’t work and why first.
Although Ronald Reagan did end the left-over Stagflation, it’s by no means proof supply-side is the superior fiscal tool in boosting the US economy. Reaganomics as expansionary fiscal policy simply doesn’t work. As mentioned, it only works during periods of Stagflation to pull the country out of crisis but it does not propel tremendous growth or meet any of Republicans’ promises.
President Reagan’s tax cuts coupled with increased spending in the 1980s turned out to be a disaster. He cut the top tax rate from 70% to 28%, the corporate tax rate from 46-40%, while increase government spending by 2.5% per year, thereby tripling the national debt ($997 billion-$2.85 trillion in 1989.) By not just cutting taxes and lowering spending to run surplus, he created a domino effect of financial crisis. The deficit skyrocketed (because expenditures exceeded revenue by far) which led to inflationary problems such as high interest rates and subsequent low consumer purchasing power. This sparked a recession in 1981 and 1982 with an unemployment rate of 10.8%. High interest rates made the value of a dollar rise and exports decreased.The market eventually balanced itself out, but there’s no shadow of a doubt Reagan’s brand of supply side had dire effects – especially on the middle class.
As the consumerist 80s appeared to be outwardly flourishing as a nation, the middle-class trailed behind as income inequality worsened. This was a natural effect of cutting taxes for the wealthy and not for the majority of Americans who happen to have the highest marginal propensity to consume. Economic prosperity trickled up – as the transfer of wealth tax cut was designed to do – and the top 1% saw their income triple.
Who knew corporate tax cuts didn’t increase demand and therefore a need for more hiring? It’s astounding how Americans have been tricked into ignoring the basic rules of supply and demand to support the biggest scam. Corporations only hire people when increased demand requires it – when consumption by the middle-class increases, not when they receive massive tax cuts. No amount of tax cuts will increase demand for their goods.
Not only aren’t corporate tax cuts stimulating the economy, but top tax bracket ones aren’t either. As Gordon Gekko explained, the wealthiest earners have a low marginal propensity to consume, they spend 5-10% of their earnings, while the middle and lower classes spend 100-110% of theirs because they have the highest velocity of money/MPC.
The real growth-drivers in America should be the ones receiving tax cuts to increase demand, GDP, and actually incentivize (force) businesses to hire more people. By focusing on policies which allow working and middle-class Americans to have more spending money and increasing human capital through a focus on education we can drive economic growth through the roof. And that vision is precisely what Democratic economic policies are centered around – a vision which has proven time and time again to work.
Not only have Keynesian policies been effective at pulling us out of recessions caused by republicans, but by every important measure, our nation’s economic performance after their implementation outpaces that of the early 1980s.
Bill Clinton managed to become the most successful in terms of economics, out of the past six presidents by increasing taxes by about 8% on the top 5% of households in 1993. Following that, our country gained a surplus of $236 million, cut unemployment in half, and experienced 7 years of vast growth. Of course, this was only possible with a decrease in federal spending. Something that worked then because of the existing inflationary gap which he had to combat by decreasing aggregate demand.
Despite all of this, Wall Street savior Trump wants a rehashing of 1982, of the Bush tax cuts which increased unemployment to 6%, and of the Kansas trickle-down failure. An experiment in wealth redistribution to the wealthy which left the state with an unsustainable billion-dollar deficit, withered services, and general lagging growth rates after taxes were slashed tremendously and business income taxes were completely eliminated. The tax-dodging Con-Artist-in-Chief wants Kansas but on $35 billion dollar border-wall steroids. All while “eliminating” the $19 trillion national debt of course. By slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent he’ll cost the government $2.4 trillion over a decade. How’s that for conservative fiscal policy?
It’s clear that Reaganomics does not work as expansionary fiscal policy and is detrimental to the middle class. A scam that has been packaged as nation-wide prosperity which has many believing giving the rich more money to save is going to somehow increase their economic prospects. Because logic. We haven’t experienced Stagflation since the 1970s but let’s give corporations a tax break because somehow that’s supposed to increase aggregate demand, therefore hiring, and GDP growth fueled by consumerism. Oh wait, that’s what Keynesian policy does.We are to ignore history and ignore basic laws of supply and demand, and that the only way to gracefull employment, is by stimulating demand.
Trump offers a defense of white supremacists which injured nineteen and killed Heather Hayes at Charlottesville: “What about the alt-left that came charging at us?”
The events in Charlottesville undeniably solidified what some knew and many denied – racism, moreover, nazi ideology is alive and well in America and President Trump was the awakening force. White supremacists groups rebranded as the virulent “alt-right” misnomer, now emboldened by campaign and White House rhetoric, marched openly without their hoods, sporting nazi paraphernalia and spouting nazi slogans. The economic anxiety was practically oozing out of their angry faces as they terrorized university students at a prayer service over the removal of a treasonous vestige of slavery. This very economic anxiety culminated in the deaths of three people and injuries of 19, as police defended their hate speech.
Coming right after the Trump administration removed white supremacists from the homeland terror watch list, and White House nazi-organization member Gorka, berated the media for criticizing white supremacists. Trump’s initial response to the events was an inadequate dog-whistle that played quite favorably to his base. The golden nail on a series of actions by Trump which emboldened white supremacists (that support him) to drop their figurative hoods and air their imagined grievances much like Dylan Roof did. Since the events, he’s gone past sending racial dog-whistles to white supremacists, practically retracting his condemnation of them by defending those “fine people”, siding with their beliefs, comparing George Washington to Robert E. Lee, and attacking the victims of Charlottesville. As the KKK dropped their hoods, the President of the United States dropped any pretense of a moral authority,, any pretense of not being a nefarious racist.
At one time, revealing the true meaning behind “white lives matter” after a white supremacist shouts back “black lives do not matter.” As if the slogans weren’t dead-on-the-nose nazi enough, they also did nazi salutes, wore nazi t-shirts and waved nazi flags.
Charlottesville’s mayor wasn’t wrong, there is a direct line between Trump’s campaign and the white supremacy rally. The flirtatious relationship between nazis and Trump has been well documented since he was literally badgered to disavow the KKK back during the election when the KKK paper, The Crusader, endorsed Trump for president, and the US Nazi Party endorsed Trump’s decision to hire Bannon.
These demonstrators in particular love him as well. Terrorist Alex Fields for one, is a Trump supporting white supremacist who registered as a republican for the 2016 election, and also happens to be “infatuated with nazis” according to his old high school teacher. Going on to say “It was quite clear he had some really extreme views and maybe a little bit of anger behind them...Feeling, what’s the word I’m looking for, oppressed or persecuted. He really bought into this white supremacist thing. He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler.”
The general sea of disgruntled neckbeards sported MAGA hats, and many dressed as mammoth ass Trump at the golf-course. To top it all off, former grand wizard of the KKK, David Duke talked to reporters about how the hate rally “fulfills the promises of Donald Trump.” They are no longer a fringe group on the socially inept corner of the internet, they clearly feel represented in the White House.
Sadly, these beliefs spread it’s virulent wings past the White House seeped into our institutions. The dissonance between the way sign-wielding Black Lives Matter protestors are treated versus how belligerent assault-rifle carrying nazis are, is disconcerting to say the least.This demonstration was quickly declared an unlawful assembly and a state of emergency. Leading up to the 19 injured and 3 dead, were a series of heinous attacks against counter-protesters like Deandre Harris, who was beat by a white supremacist with a pipe. Moreover, 18 USC §2101(a)(3) makes it a federal crime to travel to another state to commit an act of violence in furtherance of a riot. Assault-rifle wielding militia showed up playing soldier yet strangely, no cops feared for their lives.
Yet, police were nowhere to be found at the sites of violent conflict, they were busy surrounding and protecting the white supremacists’ first amendment right. They sat there inactive as the college town descended into violent chaos, assisting no injured people. No militarized police in riot gear, no National Guard, no rubber bullets, no tear gas, no arrests, nothing. When in Ferguson, militarized police arrested and shot people with rubber bullets for simply shouting “Black Lives Matter.” You see, the torches and assault rifles weren’t cigarillos or a wallet.
Black Lives Matter grew from children getting shot in the streets, this uncivil, deadly rally was about the removal of a traitorous, vestige of slavery. Take that in, self-proclaimed white supremacists rioted, assaulted people, and killed a woman over a statue of slave-owning, traitorous Robert E. Lee. Tell me again how Confederacy symbols are about (revisionist) “Southern pride” when nazis will kill for them. Tell me again how Trump won over a woman with extensive, outlined economic plans because of “economic anxiety,” when these people salute him and a former KKK leader gushes over him.
Their perceived white man plight serves as a means of justification by which to hate minorities. Their ‘civil rights movement’ is not about gaining any rights back, except for the right to strip others of theirs of course. It’s the 1940s all over again except we’re not the ones fighting nazi ideology. It’s not the “swamp” ruining my economic prospects, it’s minorities. It’s not my subpar grades ruining my chances of getting into college, it’s minorities. I didn’t hear these people yelling about tax-breaks or a living wage – they yelled “blood and soil” and “heil Trump.” In this alternative-reality all brown people are threats to the in-group, the Muslim ban which bans zero of the countries that have caused terrorism in the US nor the one that caused 9/11 because Trump has business ties there, is good because screw refugees that have never caused a terrorist attack in the last 30 years in the US. A $35 billion safety-blanket of a wall that is rendered useless by the fact that illegal immigration is net negative, immigrants have a lower crime rate than native-born Americans, and half of illegals fly here and overstay Visas (meaning they’ve already been vetted) is good because it’s a monumental ‘screw you’ to more brown people. As Stephen Hawking once said, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
What is the real threat to them then? Equality. America not being all white. “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality (of opportunity) feels like oppression.” Simply taking the boot off minorities backs was enough to send them on a violent frenzy. Imagine if they faced actual oppression.As a Twitter user succinctly put it:
“Nobody is trying to legislate away their right to marry. Nobody is trying to make them buy insurance to pay for ‘male health care.’The law never enslaved their great-grandparents, robbed their grandparents imprisoned their parents, shot them when unarmed, there is no massive effort at the state and local level to disenfranchise them of the vote. There is no history of centuries of bad science devoted to ‘proving’ their intellectual inferiority. There is no travel ban on them because of their religion. There is no danger for them when they carry dangerous weaponry publicly. Their mothers aren’t being torn away by ICE troopers and sent away forever. They won’t be forced to leave the only country they ever knew.
They are chanting ‘we will not be replaced.’ Replaced as … what? I’ll tell you.Replaced as the only voice in public discussions.Replaced as the only bodies in the public arena. Replaced as the only life that matters.THIS is ‘oppression’ of white Christians in this country. Christmas used to be the only holiday acknowledged, now it’s not.”
Their imagined oppression and subsequent reactionary politics stem from demanding 1950s superiority for themselves, and second-class citizenry for others. Equality is oppression to them. This is their discrimination. The difference is WWII-era nazis were clear about their motives and didn’t operate under the guise of “oppression.”
Despite all of this, there remain a few sympathizers to these nefarious creatures justifying the violence by detracting to “violent antifa leftists.” Guess who also argued he was standing up to “violent leftists”? Hitler did. Nazis could be beating someone to death, running people over but they’ll feel compelled to say a person resisting nazis are just as bad. Black people demanding equal protection under the law are now likened to white supremacists – who are the actual fascists – self-identifying ones. The Charlottesville terrorist was a member of Vanguard, a literal fascist alt-right group. These are the same people who proclaimed the Black Panthers and resisting Civil Rights activists to be “violent thugs” in the segregation era. Times have changed but attitudes haven’t. It can be labeled an act of terrorism by the Justice Department but they’ll continue pivoting with false equivalencies as they always do. These un-American detractors should come as no surprise as they’ve been slandering the Charlottesville victim, threatened to attack during a vigil, and are planning to send nazis to Heather Heyer’s funeral. Thus a movement seeking for law-enforcement to stop murdering black people is compared to one advocating an ethnic cleansing.
None of this would be happening if they didn’t feel accepted by those in power, if they didn’t feel like “PC” barriers of common decency have been eradicated. The heinous proliferation of these groups of people can only be attributed to Trump. To this day, he continues to embolden them after botched condemnations established on racial dog-whistles from a man with a well-document racist history.
After much pressure from politicians to denounce, the first unscripted time he condemned “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” It’s enough to note that white supremacists felt vindicated saying, “We are now at war” & “Trump comments were good…no condemnation at all” and “He said he loves us all.” Then came the criticisms from many GOP politicians for his refusal to denounce it by name. This goes past the fact that he refused to denounce it by name when he’s very specific and quick when he wants to criticize someone – Mika for a “facelift”, Meryl Streep, Hamilton, Nordstrom for not selling his daughter’s China-made bags, gold-star dad Khizir Khan, “housekeeper” Alicia Machado, Mcconnell, The Apprentice ratings, a Mexican judge, the “nazi” CIA, etc. This hypocrite’s refusal to utter the words “domestic radical white terrorism”, much less denounce the perpetrators of the attacks was chilling to watch. Imagine if Obama said there was many sides to the whole ISIS thing. He was quick to attack London’s mayor for terrorist attacks and attack Islam when terrorists ran vehicles into crowds in Europe. How was this any different? They wore MAGA hats and sieged “heil Trump.” It’s odd that the only two groups he would not condemn are the Kremlin and white supremacists.
What’s more, his “both-siding,” propagated alt-right false-equivalencies that victim blame and equate those resisting hate and violence to those perpetrating it. A WH official and aide double down: “The President was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides.” And that groups “on both sides” showed up looking for trouble in Charlottesville.”
Did civil rights protestors show up looking for trouble for daring to stand up to white supremacy? Were the Little Rock Nine bigots for standing up against bigotry? Was there violence on “both sides” during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising? Both sides did not kill people & injure nineteen, both sides don’t call for an ethnic cleansing, both sides don’t hate millions of Americans for their skin color. Only one side brought weapons and improvised with a vehicle as killing device that day. The ‘other side’ brought signs. It is an insult to tell sign-wielding non-hateful Americans to “unite” and “love” evil. He told us to hold hands with nazis and accept it.
After being called out by many GOP lawmakers for not making a clear condemnation and normalizing such vile hatred with vague statements cheered by nazis, he went on to make a second condemnation (with a teleprompter.) A belated condemnation that although “clear,” rang empty due the environmental pressure he made it under and of course the fact that he’s a white supremacist himself
A condemnation that was practically completely retracted after going on a KKK-esque tirade at a press conference where he literally defended white supremacists, calling them “very fine people” and attacked protesters. And for a third time he was praised by nazis, this time David Duke said” Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.” Leaving no question on whether he sided with nazis. There was no dog whistles this time. Trump verbally unleashed his fury on the made up “alt-left” that “came charging” with “clubs” defending the nazi-slogan-chanting nazis, which injured nineteen and killed a Heather Heyer, claiming they were “protesting very quietly, the taking down of the statue.” As if those videos of torch-wielding, assault-rifle carrying nazis chanting “blood and soil,” “heil Trump” and “Jews will not replace us were not plastered all over the internet. He went on to say the “alt-left” bared “some responsibility” for violence in Charlottesville.
So the first “many sides,” nazi-sentiment-carrying statement still stands. Nonchalantly adding, “you can call it terrorism..you can call it whatever.” Imagine if Obama had said there were “many sides to the whole ISIS thing, you can call it terrorism, you can call it whatever.” Then, lamented the taking down of the Confederacy Robert E. Lee statue saying, “This week it’s Robert E. Lee…is it George Washington next week?” This craven, racist lunatic is completely off his meds and has openly sided with Confederacy-loving nazis using their false-equivalency “b-bbut the violent left” defense. There are no words. Today the President of the United States blamed both sides,for violent nazis which left many injured and three dead and defended their ideology. He said it was Heather Heyer’s fault for standing in front of that terrorist’s car.
We’ve never seen such an unambiguous racist tirade from Trump, but it should come as no surprise given his history. He was pressured into issuing a second phony statement after a history of not responding to Portland train stabbings, Kansas engineer shootings, and murder of 2nd Lt Collins. As if the dog-whistles in his statement weren’t loud enough, he’s now “seriously” considering pardoning notorious racist criminal Joe Arpario, retweeted two alt-right accounts one a friend of richard spencer’s, another an alt-right activist who spread Pizzagate, and denounced the CEO of Merck, an African American man, before he forcefully denounced neo-nazis by name.
To America, we warned you, all 63 million of us. The white supremacists have dropped their hoods and so has Trump. This was not a new display of his character, he’s 71 years old. When you elect a notorious racist you get one. He’s a birther that’s obsessed with Obama and erasing his legacy. He had to be shamed into denouncing the KKK. He refused to condemn alt-right racism because according to Bannon they, “Polled the race stuff and it doesn’t matter.” He believes in gene superiority and has spouted eugenics bullcrap for decades as nazis do. His father was arrested at KKK rally in the 20s. He kept a Hitler book by his bedside. Called all Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug traffickers. He was sued twice by the Justice Department for housing discrimination.He wants to pardon Joe Arpario, a former Arizona sheriff with criminal charges for his racist behavior. He called Alicia Machado a “housekeeper” for being Hispanic. His legal immigration bill is nativist legislation that echos “white genocide” narratives from The Daily Stormer circles and “One people, one nation, end immigration,” and “blood and soil.” Has retweeted neo-nazi false crime statistic reports saying that white victims are murdered by black people 81% of the time and accuses blacks on twitter 3 times more of racism than whites.
He removed white supremacists from the homeland terror watch list, defunded groups protecting against white supremacists, and shuttered the State Department’s anti-semitism monitoring office. He’s accused “millions” of voting illegally (and pointlessly?) in blue states and when cited for proof pointed to the fact that Latino Americans were voting. He’s rolling out a voter suppression commission with plans to purge voters. Has dog-whistled plenty against Jews when he deliberately took out the word “jew” from planned holocaust remarks on Holocaust Remembrance day and used the phrase “America First,” a WWII era antisemetic, xenophobic mantra which was used to enforce quote laws against Jews during their ongoing persecution in Germany. (Anne Frank and her family were denied entry in the US as refugees.)
And of course there’s his evil cabinet with the most deplorable, alt-right people carefully selected from every corner of the US. Gorka is a member of nazi organization in Hungary called Vitézi Rend. Miller is a white supremacist, friend of Richard Spencer, who wrote regularly for the Duke Chronicle, where he denied systemic racism, called multiculturalism “segregation,” and railed against paid family leave, which he believed resulted in men being laid off. At DCU meetings, Miller denounced multiculturalism and raved against immigrants from non-European countries “not assimilating.” In high school he complained about the school’s celebration of Cinco De Mayo, and criticized a visit by a Muslim leader, and tormented Spanish speakers, telling them to go back to their countries. Then there’s Leninist Bannon, the ex-CEO of Breitbart, a white supremacist website which largely founded the “alt-right” movement and also wants to “destroy the state.’ Together they’re the three horsemen of the apocalypse.
Trump showed us who he was clearly, and America accepted it. He isn’t racist by association, he isn’t just playing to his base, he genuinely holds these beliefs. Is America finally waking up? More GOP politicians are denouncing his comments, five CEOs have resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council, and three Confederate statues will be taken down. When election hacking, violent nazi rallies, mosques being bombed don’t worry Trump, but Americans voting do there must be a bipartisan resistance against such an ‘unpresidented’ display of evil and incompetence.
The politics of fear and hate has manipulated many Americans into feeling like the discriminated class because of perceived systemic ” reverse racism” — an ideology which has coincidentally proliferated since the civil-rights movement. White-Americans began feeling oppressed when African-Americans gained equal rights with the Brown v. Board ruling, Kennedy’s 1961 Executive Order, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order. Since minorities were granted equal opportunity and began attending schools and working alongside them. Thus, equality of opportunity (not outcome) – taking the boot off minorities’ backs – became a form of systemic oppression for whites. Minorities in the workplace and higher education became “unqualified” for the sake of being minorities, and the misconception that Affirmative Action operates on a quota system grew through factoids. Why the rise in this social attitude?
This zealous, warped view of reality, built on a foundation of “alternative facts” and unadulterated racial spite, has infiltrated the White house, and it’s airing its perceived grievances. It’s time for the white establishment to regain power lost in systemic disenfranchisement, the Trump administration has proclaimed. As the DOJ plans to curtail Affirmative Action policies in universities, (sexual predator) Bill O’reilly’s revealing words about protecting the “white establishment” become reality.
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality (of opportunity) feels like oppression.”
An important distinction detractors can’t seem to make is that Affirmative Action makes equality of outcome (literal equality) illegal. Therefore, simply removing the chains, lifting the boot of oppression which kept children from getting quality educations and blacks from even being in the same establishment as whites, was enough to send many white-Americans into an angry frenzy of victimhood.
So what exactly is Affirmative Action and do these narratives hold any truth? First, I’d like to clarify that I’m a proponent for substituting current Affirmative Action policies with ones based on socioeconomic status, which is a more accurate and objective equalizer. As the law stands today, it attempts to counteract pre-collegiate educational discrepancies between races, but it’s a band-aid solution that doesn’t address the root cause of the problem –poverty. Poor students across the board underperform on standardized tests due to our property-based tax educational system which leaves many with a subpar education. Students across America don’t start off the race to college at the same starting line. The temporary solution to account for this, while we work on fixing our educational achievement ranking, is to account for economic background.
It was a product of its time period – when segregation existed and employers and admissions officers were part of the opposition – but like any ineffective relic of an antiquated time, it must be phased out. Not that racism isn’t rampant anymore, but economic status is a better equalizer which doesn’t condescendingly contend minorities are too incompetent to get in on their own merit. So that instead, it becomes, “we see you already started out from a disadvantaged place but have the potential to excel, you just need the opportunity to.” This would give grant many the equality of opportunity the public education system robbed them of.
Yet there remains something even more condescending and insulting, deep-seated in white supremacist ideas is the idea that minorities in college are unqualified for the simple fact that they’re minorities.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>In grad school, I had grown ass white folks saying they wish they had a "diversity scholarship" like me WHILE I WAS TUTORING THEM</p>— Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) <a href=”https://twitter.com/fivefifths/status/892727675089027074″>August 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Do you know how many white people truly and genuinely believe that black people get to go to college for free?</p>— Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) <a href=”https://twitter.com/iSmashFizzle/status/892557827675480064″>August 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
Much like the “25% unemployment rate,” and a myriad of other outlandish Trump conspiracies, the myth of the “unqualified minority” being awarded spots while whites are discriminated or at a disadvantage in the college admissions process is quickly dismantled with statistics and facts. Not Facebook fake-news factoids with a racist frog as a background.
Affirmative Action Myths Debunked
Quotas Do Not Exist
Foremost, Affirmative Action as it stands, does not, nor has it ever allowed quotas which have been ruled unconstitutional since 1978 (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.) The Supreme Court & federal courts have repeatedly doubled-down, ruling in favor of Affirmative Action and against racial quotas or race-based point systems (2001 Johnson v. University of Georgia and 2003 Gratz v. Bollinger.) Claiming that in order to have a diverse student body “race can be used as a factor among many in a ‘holistic’ evaluation.” So no, schools are not filling themselves up with hoards of unqualified minorities to fill a “quota.” Much less are they snubbing white applicants in favor the mystical “unqualified minority,” as college population and scholarship recipient data (which I’ll get into later) shows.
Affirmative Action is a program designed to increase diversity within organizations by considering their underrepresented status. A piece of legislation whose creation was imperative at a time when half of America was physically blocking the desegregation of schools, and other public organizations would not accept minorities no matter their qualifications. In President Kennedy’s words it “ensure[s] that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This executive order’s intent was to create equal opportunities for all qualified people at a time when equal rights didn’t even exist. It was later amended by Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 which prevented discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin by organizations which received federal contracts and subcontracts.
Whites Are Not Discriminated, They Are Overrepresented in College Population and Scholarship Recipient Data
Not only are there no quotas, nor was it created with the idea of accepting unqualified minorities rather as a response to employers and admissions officers in a freshly desegregated time, but whites are not being discriminated nor are they at a disadvantage in the application process.
In admissions, whites are “overrepresented,” making up 62.3% of college students while 15-24-year-old Caucasians are only 59.7% of the population. For minorities the same age-group, it follows: Hispanic 12.5% and 18.3%, Black 14.3% and 15.6% other. Where is that systemic discrimination right-wing circles consistently and loudly decry?
The white victimhood narrative becomes even more facepalm-worthy upon a quick look at scholarship recipients. White students “make up three-quarters of all private external scholarship recipients in four-year bachelor’s programs, almost two-thirds of all institutional grants and scholarship recipients, and over three-quarters of all merit-based grants and scholarships.” Despite making up 62% of the college student population. There’s zero evidence of white students being snubbed by unqualified minorities, nor minorities at all. Just like there’s zero evidence Trump’s voter fraud conspiracy, JFK conspiracy, and inauguration crowd size.
What’s left after all the rhetoric crumbles is a foundation of vitriolic resentment built by rejected applicants – with subpar grades and numbers. It speaks to a culture of entitlement when numbers in the 25th percentile don’t get you in and you blame minorities. This victim complex was best exemplified by Farmer v. Ramsay where Farmer “held that his grades and test scores were higher than those grades and test scores of accepted black students.” The case was later dismissed by a federal judge who stated that Farmer’s rejection was not based on race, but on his academic ability.
This faux victimhood complex is further corroborated by the infamous Fisher v. UT case where an low-performing white applicant thought Affirmative Action was to blame. Her grades and test scores were mediocre compared to those of the incoming class. Moreover, there were 42 white students with poorer performance who were accepted.
There clearly is no institutional discrimination against white Americans in the college applications process yet “57 percent of all white people believe that discrimination against white people is as big a problem in America as discrimination against black people.” (Many citing Affirmative Action to support their grievances which I already debunked.) The mere fact that the belief in reverse racism began during the civil-rights movement truly proves that “when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” Trump is playing the race card to his base finely and they’re hearing the segregation-era-originating-dog-whistle loud and clear. The war on Affirmative Action is nothing more than a diversion away from the never-ending White House chaos; one based on nothing but politics of fear and more faux perceived threats no different than the $35 billion safety blanket or any other of his empty proposals.
The democratic party has been completely decimated. Democrats have moved too far right and suffered tremendous losses because of it. Sixty-nine, House seats gone, 13 Senate seats gone, and a White House gone. Nine-hundred-and-ten seats total gone under 8 years of a Democrat-controlled White House, handing over complete legislative power to the Tsar in chief. To any rational being, it’s evident that being a center-left corporatist politics no longer work, to mainstream media hacks, the solution is to move further right or ”center.” Because to gain back your disenchanted voting base you have to further alienate them by fully and openly embracing neo-conservatism just to pander to right-wingers who would never vote blue in a million years. The solution to a low-voter turnout epidemic in the 2016 election is to adopt more of the things that made them stay home, as part of your campaign. How is it possible that the party of Medicare cuts won the largest majority in Congress and state legislatures since 1928 when the majority of Americans support progressive policies?
It’s simple, Democrats have abandoned the illusion of being the party of progress in favor of big corporate interests. They’re ignored where the numbers are at. Ignored the last saving grace and future of the democratic party. By doing so, gave way to a pseudo-fascist who secured the election via a populist facade and a party they’re united through by donor money.
It’s impossible to talk about what works, without mentioning Bernie Sanders and the well-substantiated theory that he would’ve won the 2016 general election. Detractors obtusely point to the inane fact that he lost the primaries without considering the fact it was one, rigged, and two, general elections are a completely different ball-game. The electorate is another game, but I digress.
The independent senator from Vermont with zero campaign money, name recognition, and a self-proclaimed (democratic) socialist label not only ran the most progressive campaign in US history but ran the most successful independent, grassroots campaigns in modern history.Against the brand-name Clinton machine at that. The crowds upwards of 20,000 were a sign of the changing political climate and rising populist revolt. His immense, insurgent success despite the political establishment’s relentless smear campaign was a physical manifestation of polls showing tremendous favorability towards progressive policies and a growing independent base. All of this ultimately forcing the DNC to to deliver the most progressive party platform in history.
If democrats want to continue on an enlightened path and ditch their corporatist ways – which lead them to vote against legislation to make bankruptcy-inducing prescription drugs cheaper – they have to get with the winning team. The 2016 election showed people wanted populism and a platform for the working class, not career politicians grappling with being in the pockets of big money interests and trying to get reelected. Populism won no matter how much of a lie it turned out to be.
Evidence that moving further left, or back left I should say, wins elections, vests in the unequivocal idea that Bernie would have won.
Starting off with the obvious, let’s examine polling. Polls during the primary season consistently showed Sanders handily defeating Trump by 10 points or more, while Clinton led him by only a few points. This is easy to fathom considering Trump secured the nomination when Hillary lost the three historically blue states that Bernie did well in during the primaries. Sanders beat Clinton in Wisconsin and Michigan. And the DNC chosen candidate lost Pennsylvania. Narrow margins of eight-tenths, three-tenths, and 1.2% in these three Rust Belt states respectively, where Sanders’ message resonated, handed the election to Trump.
What happened? These states usually swing blue. Well, working-class whites who previously voted for Obama were fed up with establishment politics and an unresponsive plutocracy in general so they voted for the only general election candidate who wasn’t bought by Wall Street and promised to remedy working-class struggles. Who else had an populist, working-class message and wasn’t absolutely lying about it? Sanders who made economic inequality the platform of his campaign would have obliterated policy-outline-free and economically illiterate Trump. But he won, and the country lost thanks to democrat hubris.
Left-wing policies are were the numbers are at. And analyzing the historical loss is key to avoiding the same mistakes. Unfortunately, most pundits and strategists are tone-deaf and incapable of any self-reflection. So not only did Hillary fail to draw Obama voters, but she also experienced the downfalls of low-voter turnout that come with a centrist, No-Hope, purely opposition campaign. She won 55% of the vote, Obama 69% in 2012, seeing a decrease in support from black, Latino, young voters and white women. The first female to win the nomination for president couldn’t even garner 50% support from white women against the most heinous sexual assaulter and unabashed misogynist. Garnering 88% of the black vote vs Obama’s 93% over Romney against a candidate who was sued twice by the DOJ for not renting to African Americans. And 65% Latinos vs 71% for Obama against a candidate who called them rapists. Most damaging, 54% millennial support, compared to obama’s 60%. Guess who draws millennials? Bernie Sanders and his progressive policies. In fact, more young people voted for Sanders than Clinton and Trump combined. Not to mention there wouldn’t have been a spoiler effect in Florida from disgruntled Bernie bros voting for kook Jill Stein if he would’ve been the nominee.
An unspoken of conundrum is the astounding number of left-wingers which crossed over, when Bill Clinton-voting republicans were expected to per a NYT exit poll. Funnily enough, not only would Bernie have not suffered this problem from progressive loyalists, but he would’ve made a robust number of republicans cross party lines.
Sanders has also proven to be an effective, mediating, bipartisan voice, reaching across the aisle in CNN townhalls and making Trump voters ‘feel the bern.’ Time and time again, his centered economic message has reached coal country effectively with none of the ‘liberal east coast elite’ condescension. Recall the West-Virginia townhall where a county of Trump voters thanked Bernie and clapped for raising taxes, Medicare for all, and free college. His working-class message would’ve obviously resonated with disgruntled Trump voters on it’s own, but his ability to effectively communicate across the aisle would’ve done numbers.
There is a reason Sanders, who proudly calls himself a socialist, remains the –most popular politician in America per a Fox Newspoll. There’s a reason he has a higher approval rating than any democrats or republicans on the hill. It’s not just his unwavering earnestness, pseudonym as the “amendment king,” or clean corporate-interest free record. It’s media obfuscated fact that the majority of the country supports progressive policies and the majority of the electorate identifies as independents.
What’s so radical about ideas the majority of Americans support? Fifty-eight percent of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social security, voters in red states want medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58% support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.
Sanders put it best back in May, “They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.” The reason Democrats don’t mind losing political clout by ostracizing him as a fringe socialist with “pie-in-the-sky” ideas, is because they’re gate-keeping for their wealthy interests. Reformers in the progressive era did get called loonies by party bosses & robber barons too for daring to dream big against corruption. Except now it happens within their own party.
If Democrats want to win in 2018 they must reject centrism which doesn’t win anymore as evidenced by the 2016 election. (Did Trump win by pivoting?) They must wholly embrace progressive policies (which is is where the numbers are at), policies with majority support that will even court the most deep-red trump counties. Democrats must embrace the fact that the parties have been moving apart for the last 40 years, and few and fewer moderates get elected. Centrism failed democrats for the past 8 years, and Bernie’s platform is the dying party’s last hope.
It’s time to stop putting political ideology over the welfare of the country. In the world-power that is the United States, medical expenses have long been the number one cause of bankruptcy, with 78% of filers already having health-insurance. It should be considered a serious issue when inhabitants of the wealthiest country have to choose between death or bankruptcy, food or medicine. The healthcare industry has turned into a for-profit business, which despite having skyrocketing costs, leave us at 33rd place in life expectancy and outcomes that are not notably superior. To put it simply, Americans are paying more tax money per capita and getting less. Whether one thinks healthcare is a right or not, you should favor the most fiscally responsible choice, a choice which happens to save millions of Americans lives. And that is the core of a single-payer system. People must wake up and smell the ‘red-scare’ the GOP has been harping on us, they’re beholden to their corporate donors – not fiscal conservatism or what’s best for the country. Healthcare is a basic human need that’s been served as a privilege and run as a business, a business profiting off the very ill it’s meant to help.
The hasty, botch-job Congress tried to pass as an Affordable Care Act replacement failed for a reason. That reason being that the culmination of 7 years of GOP temper-tantrums was a plan to uninsure 24 million, provide a $300 billion tax break for their swamp monsters, cut Medicaid, cut coverage,& raise premiums to a point where 64-year-old making $26,000 a year, would see a staggering $13,000 increase. Promoted by “policy wonks” who just literally have no idea how healthcare works. Per Satan himself, Sean Spicer: “I think if you’re an older man you can generally say that you’re not going to need maternity care.” And the party’s collective intellect/brain, Paul Ryan: “The whole idea of Obamacare is…the people who are healthy pay for the…sick. It’s not working, & that’s why it’s in a death spiral.” (It’s not.) A man who’s been dreaming about medicaid cuts since he was “drinking out of kegs.” A plan so villainous and nonsensical it made emergency services, maternity care, pediatric care, and even hospitalization optional for health insurance companies. Whenever you’re wondering why the government is doing something incredibly heinous, just follow the money. Ryan’s second largest campaign donation contributor is Blue Cross/Blue Shield. And he’s owned by billionaires in general, of course he’s pushing for their tax cuts, but I digress.
Here’s where the numbers come in. Our healthcare spending crowns us with the title of the most expensive and ineffective system in the world. We currently spend $20 trillion a year; $15 trillion through insurance premiums and $5 trillion through co-pays. With the government spending an amount per capita far more than any other nations at $3.2 trillion a year, 17% of our GDP, $10,000 per person. That’s double what the United Kingdom spends, and more than Germany and Canada, for a whole lot of medically induced bankruptcy here.
Contrary to popular American-exceptionalist-belief, this does not give us better healthcare:
“Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall among 11 industrialized countries on measures of health system quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and healthy lives, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report.”
In a study, 68% of adults 65+ were found to have at least two chronic conditions compared to 33% in the United Kingdom and 56% in Canada. We are also 33rd in life expectancy and our healthcare outcomes are “not notably superior.”
At this point, you should be asking yourself, who’s to blame for this cost-ineffective system bringing us subpar care? The answer is – the for-profit industry sustained by insurance companies. We’ve created a broken system where the goal is maximizing profit. This inevitably leads to over-treatment, inflated prescription drug prices, and 30 million drastically uninsured. We’re quite literally profiting off illness. It’s a system where the same procedure is charged different amounts depending on your insurance. For many, this industry pushes them into a house foreclosure or death. We’ve twisted the definition of ‘care’ into a greedy, bureaucratic one, antithetical to the reason why people become healthcare providers in the first place. Why are we okay with all of this? Why are we okay with investors and CEO’s making billions of off the most vulnerable in our society while they suffer then inevitably die?
It’s not cost-effective, it’s not outcome effective. The only people this crony system benefits is insurance and pharmaceutical industry CEO’s. Not the people providing healthcare, not the people receiving it. The only reason it stays, is because money has corrupted the democratic process and congressmen are paid to gatekeep for this absolute failure of a system. Done in part by fear mongering about “socialism” to people who can’t even define socialism. It’s an endless circle of misinformation and corruption that’s ruining systems designed to better society.
There’s also no “trickle-down” healthcare. Giving a $300 billion tax break to billionaires and hiking premiums is not the solution to such a disaster. Single-payer is. People dying, foreclosing their houses, and going bankrupt do have jobs (given that 78% of filers had health insurance.) We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee healthcare to its people because we’re too busy running it like a business. Yes, other countries have higher taxes but that’s nothing more than a soundbite excuse considering a larger amount of ours go towards healthcare for inferior returns. Recall we spend more per capita for this failed system. And the majority of that goes straight to the insurance industry CEO’s pockets. Other countries cut out the middleman, and don’t spend more on healthcare but simply spend their money efficiently. Since when is that socialism? The United States must enact healthcare reform in this model, saving billions while doing it.
Under single-payer, not only are millions no longer dying because they can’t afford cancer medication, but the citizenry reaps a myriad of economic benefits any fiscal conservative should get behind. We’d all be at townhalls demanding medicare for all already if it hadn’t been smeared by gate keeping corporate shills and their propaganda machines. Single payer saves us trillions, stimulates the economy by helping small businesses and causes salaries to increase – all through a small tax hike. Math is free from passion, so here it goes.
As mentioned, we currently spend $20 trillion in healthcare costs – $6 trillion of that stemming from insurance costs, and $3.1 trillion in tax subsidies to employers. By eliminating the useless middleman insurance companies are through single-payer, we save $9 trillion total from that annual $20 trillion budget. There’s $11 trillion of costs left to take up that can then be covered by a 6.2% income-based premium from employers, and 2.2% income surtax from households. If we look to Bernie Sander’s plan, families of four making under $28,800 would see no such increase. So yes, taxes would increase for everyone else, but by paying a relatively small amount more in taxes for full-coverage healthcare, we’re all saving the enormous amount of $20 trillion we would otherwise pay. By enacting such a tax increase and eliminating the nonsensical insurance industry from the picture, Americans would save $9 trillion a year they would otherwise spend for premiums that don’t cover a papercut.
The economic benefits are endless. An average middle-class family of four, making $50,000 a year, would go from paying $5,600 a year for healthcare to $466 under a 2.2% tax hike. Does that sound like socialism? Moreover, those who would normally be covered by employer-sponsored healthcare would see a salary increase because they’d no longer have it deducted from their paycheck. Small businesses wouldn’t be forced to spend time and money negotiating coverage with insurance companies thus increasing productivity. It’s preventative – saving people from having to go through extended hospital visits and chronic illness treatments. Single payer would also slash costs imposed on hospitals by the industry, to the tune of $400 billion a year. Which is already “enough to cover all the uninsured.”
Furthermore, all the problems under our current system, the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act, bureaucratic nightmares, disappear. All medically necessary services are covered: doctor, hospital, preventive, emergency, long care, psychological, dental, vision, prescription drugs. People can choose their own provider. Priorities are no longer distorted and better quality of healthcare is provided no matter how much money you make. People would no longer be overtreated because they can pay more.
In addition, single payer would reduce incentives to over treat and lower drug prices according to the PNHP.
Healthcare is a human need, not a luxury. It’s utterly despicable and nonsensical for Americans to pay more per capita than any other nation for people to be led to medically induced bankruptcy, 27 million to be uninsured, 30 million underinsured, and to rank 33rd in life expectancy. To pay more and get less because the health insurance industry must butt in the middle of it so billionaires can line their pockets.
It’s a sad state of affairs when math is a partisan issue, and ideology is more important than what’s best for the country. When in Canada single payer surpasses party lines and conservative prime ministers have made no effort to move in our disastrous direction, yet we can’t have an honest conversation about single payer. When $4 trillion wars aren’t pie in the sky, but properly using our tax system to reduce costs and improve care is. And most of all when the most expensive and cost-ineffective healthcare system in the world is kept around for the benefit of a few multi-billion dollar insurance companies. Healthcare doesn’t trickle down. Single payer is our only saving grace. We must join the rest of the developed world by guaranteeing people healthcare and stop profiting off the sick.
A number of 670 worldwide protests is not normal the day after a United States President takes office. It’s not normal for over 3 million people – many women – to feel an impending threat looming over their civil rights, looming over their democracy, that they’re compelled to go organize in crowds of hundreds of thousands. It’s not normal for protests to outnumber inauguration attendees either – but this is no normal “Republican” president. The threat does not stem from his political affiliation, but rather from his pathological dishonesty, cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons, exploitation of those most vulnerable in our society, complete disregard for our democratic institutions and the Constitution, temperament of a chihuahua, political illiteracy, complete disregard for science, and well-documented vitriol he’s shown for minority groups and women. So here we are, standing at roads end the day after the largest, peaceful one-day protest in U.S. took place, vowing to resist the demagogue and his historically inexperienced, swamp monsters who strive to destroy the agencies and principles that brought this country to its greatness.
The President Electoral said it best, it’s simply “unpresidented,” He came in with a the lowest approval rating in recent history of 32%. To put things into perspective George W. Bush left office with an approval rating of 62% after leaving the country to die in two wars and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Obama, even after fervent obstruction from the conspiracy-nut right, managed a 60% rating. And the rating was reflected in his pathetic side-show of an inauguration with an estimated attendance of 250,000 people, compared to Obama’s 1.8 million in 2009 and 1 million in 2012. He also had ratings lower than Obama’s and Reagan’s. Instead of quieting fears, the narcissist-in-chief threw a classic tantrum over a non-issue. First taking to Twitter, then he had his rabid mouthpiece attack the media for accurately reporting crowd size and declare it the “biggest inauguration”, shut down the Interior Department’s Twitter for retweeting crowd difference photos, had his other spin-artist call it an “alternative-fact” on live television, and then in classic Trump fashion attacked the protestors that outnumbered his crowd (before an intern snatched his phone.)
Conservatives, feeling a bit shaken-up, drew every excuse from the book for the giant two-day flop – liberals don’t have jobs (blue states are the economic engines of the country?), conservatives are regular people that can’t afford “$1000/night DC hotels, it was cold, D.C. is blue. That’s cute, the inauguration is a D.C. holiday, they sure could take days off to attend 20 Trump rallies, and the protests were on a Saturday. And we know who brought us the weekend, whiny protesters who dared feel entitled to a two-day weekend. Furthermore, Obama was inaugurated on a Tuesday in 28-degree weather but had a turnout of 1.8 million. And Republicans like George W. Bush managed to get bigger crowds. Also, I thought they didn’t have jobs that’s why they voted Trump?
Favorability aside, 74 million people voted against him and he lost the popular vote by 3 million votes. This march was a reminder that he has no mandate, and the people will not lay idly-by as he undoes 50 years of progress.
The president Electoral continues to be a stain on American society with no sign of doing the – much speculated by Trump apologists – 180 into a new person. Because it wasn’t for show and people are starting to realize that and unite. He has delivered on one thing -r he managed to unite us, unite us against him. As Bernie Sanders said, “By trying to divide us up by race, religion, gender and nationality you actually brought us closer.”
The fact is, he hasn’t magically become more “presidential.” His use of the American nazi slogan “America first” in his inauguration speech is proof of that. It’s a vile throwback to the WWII isolationist, anti-semitic movement.
The true majority has spoken, and it needs to maintain the momentum for however long this administration lasts. It must remember that the “power of the people is stronger than the people in power.” People must remember that citizens rose up from not just coast to coast, but everywhere in between. (There goes the coastal elite narrative.) And that politics doesn’t end once somebody gets elected.
Political protest made the United States the world power it is today, it is one of the greatest facets of our democracy that has held those in power accountable in order to progress forward. Without it religious persecution would exist, we’d still be an english colony, debtor’s prisons would exist, people would be allowed to own & exploit other human beings, workers wouldn’t have any rights, children would die in factories, women would be second-class citizens, and segregation and hate crimes would be de jure. The Women’s March formally outlines their vision here but it was about visibility. It was about sending a message of resistance, because there is no compromise on with hate, no compromise with a side that rejects science, with a side that chooses to see the world through revisionist history, no compromise with a cabinet that wants to let Wall Street ruin the economy again, that wants to defund public education, that wants to strike down voting rights, that wants to add humans to a nazi-Germany like registry or go back to the age of Japanese internment camps. These are just some of our fears. Conservatives fears’ when they protested – because they did protest – were conspiracy dreams of FEMA camps, sharia law, and socialism – all on the basis of Obama’s skin color. Silence is consent; standing still in the face of impending injustice is siding with the oppressor.
To belittle, and dilute the message down to “reproductive rights” is dismissive and reflective of the echo-chamber detractors live in. I personally am not a third-wave feminist and morally (not religiously) disagree with abortion, yet I stand for these peaceful demonstrations because I’m not tone-deaf.
Time after time, he’s shown us who he is. What are we giving a chance? As President his administration and he have already put forth the first move of any authoritarian regime – “his own security and intelligence community,” casually desired another war and a war crime ““We should have kept the oil. Maybe we’ll have another chance,” sided with Putin over our 17 intelligence agencies, lied to us about releasing his tax returns, waged a war against the first amendment because the media dared report his own verbatim, offered us “alternative-facts” for frivolous issues. Are we supposed to wait around and see what happens because the President’s words “don’t mean anything”? Are we supposed to let people die from a lack of healthcare? Encroach on our civil liberties? Allow creeping authoritarianism to rise under the guise of “making America great again when it’s already great? Let him and his cabinet of deplorables dismantle the founding values on which this country was founded on?
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
It was the perfect end to a surreal, phenomenal 8 years. Maybe one of the greatest speeches delivered in the last few thirty years. Embodying the values he carried so fervently behind every decision, Obama delivered the very message which he never strayed from; genuine, passionate, moving and most importantly hopeful. Hopeful in the face of such a tumultuous political climate. Managing to both reflect on the past and offer relevant advice for the uncertainty to come. With this he came full circle with his title as orator-in-chief, he was able to be substantive, candid, yet inspiring, something that is tough to come in a world of empty rhetoric. Remarking on the rising dangers of political confirmation bias, threats to democratic ideals, civility in a transition of power, and progress to be made.The 44th President of the United States made us believe that we could and we can.
Here are some of the most impactful, notable quotes:
-He warned against the dangers of the citizenry not serving against the ‘fourth’ branch of government by checking on our democratic institutions. After all, the Constitution is just a piece of paper unless enforced.
“After eight years as your President, I still believe that. And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea — our bold experiment in self-government. It’s the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s the insistence that these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executing; that We, the People, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union.”
-“For 240 years, our nation’s call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. It’s what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. It’s what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande. (Applause.) It’s what pushed women to reach for the ballot. It’s what powered workers to organize. It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima, Iraq and Afghanistan. And why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs, as well.”
-He guarded against cynicism with the very message that made a patriot out of me. Which is no easy feat; after a rocky, stained history founded on the bodies of natives, built up on the backs of slaves, decades of discrimination, and interventionist wars, many Americans are prone to cynicism. Trust in government has rapidly declined, from 74% in 1964 to 19% in 2015. Yet would one really want to live anywhere else? Patriotism isn’t blind love for your country it’s wanting to hold it responsible. Obama best conveyed this message throughout his presidency.
“So that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional — not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change and make life better for those who follow. Yes, our progress has been uneven. The work of democracy has always been hard. It’s always been contentious. Sometimes it’s been bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all and not just some.”
-Pleaded for unity during these divided times:
“That’s what I want to focus on tonight: The state of our democracy. Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders argued. They quarreled. Eventually, they compromised. They expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity — the idea that for all our outward differences, we’re all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.”
-Relayed some of his great economic achievements:
“To begin with, our democracy won’t work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. And the good news is that today the economy is growing again. Wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are all rising again. Poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a 10-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower. Healthcare costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years. And I’ve said and I mean it — if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our health care system and that covers as many people at less cost, I will publicly support it.”
-Touched on the threat that wealth inequality is to the American ideal of advancement stating the accepted idea that the economy grows when the middle-class does (because of their greater MPC.) Arguing that being unresponsive to the American people’s needs dampers political participation amid growing cynicism.
”Our economy doesn’t work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class and ladders for folks who want to get into the middle class. That’s the economic argument. But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic ideal. While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and in rural counties, have been left behind — the laid-off factory worker; the waitress or health care worker who’s just barely getting by and struggling to pay the bills — convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful — that’s a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.”
-He candidly touched on the controversial and unspoken of reality that manufacturing jobs aren’t the future and that the solution to a changing workforce isn’t failing attempts to stop outsourcing, but education. Those manufacturing jobs are obsolete and the second industrial revolution is inevitable.
“But there are no quick fixes to this long-term trend. I agree, our trade should be fair and not just free. But the next wave of economic dislocations won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good, middle-class jobs obsolete. And so we’re going to have to forge a new social compact to guarantee all our kids the education they need…”
-Brilliantly and succinctly warned against the detriment sharp divisions has on the American people as a whole:
“If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves.”
–“If we’re unwilling to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we will diminish the prospects of our own children — because those brown kids will represent a larger and larger share of America’s workforce.”
-Acknowledged the ugly strain of racism that still exists in our social atmosphere and how we must combat it:
“ But if our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, then each one of us need to try to heed the advice of a great character in American fiction — Atticus Finch — who said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
-Struck down the idiotic phenomenon of “race baiting” which is used to invalidate millions of minorities’ experiences and false notion that we live in a post-racial society.
“For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the ’60s — that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness. When they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment but the equal treatment that our Founders promised.”
-On the dangers of fake-news and the confirmation bias that drives political echo-chambers:
“For too many of us, it’s become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or on college campuses, or places of worship, or especially our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions. The rise of naked partisanship, and increasing economic and regional stratification, the splintering of our media into a channel for every taste — all this makes this great sorting seem natural, even inevitable. And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there.”
-Progress is impossible without a foundation of facts, if we’re arguing on scientific consensus instead of solutions we’ll never get anywhere:
“In the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter — then we’re going to keep talking past each other, and we’ll make common ground and compromise impossible.”
-Touched on the GOP’s hypocrisy and corporate welfare:
“And isn’t that part of what so often makes politics dispiriting? How can elected officials rage about deficits when we propose to spend money on preschool for kids, but not when we’re cutting taxes for corporations?”
-Warned against the politics of fear:
”That order is now being challenged — first by violent fanatics who claim to speak for Islam; more recently by autocrats in foreign capitals who see free markets and open democracies and and civil society itself as a threat to their power. The peril each poses to our democracy is more far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile. It represents the fear of change; the fear of people who look or speak or pray differently; a contempt for the rule of law that holds leaders accountable; an intolerance of dissent and free thought; a belief that the sword or the gun or the bomb or the propaganda machine is the ultimate arbiter of what’s true and what’s right.”
–”Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear. So, just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are.”
-Called for America to hold its high democratic ideals in fight against threats to democracy:
“So let’s be vigilant, but not afraid. ISIL will try to kill innocent people. But they cannot defeat America unless we betray our Constitution and our principles in the fight. Rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence around the world — unless we give up what we stand for — and turn ourselves into just another big country that bullies smaller neighbors.”
-Once again pushed that a democracy isn’t self-regulating and the citizenry must do its part to uphold it:
“Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted. All of us, regardless of party, should be throwing ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions. When voting rates in America are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should be making it easier, not harder, to vote. When trust in our institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics, and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service. When Congress is dysfunctional, we should draw our congressional districts to encourage politicians to cater to common sense and not rigid extremes.”
“Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power. (Applause.) We, the people, give it meaning. With our participation, and with the choices that we make, and the alliances that we forge. (Applause.) Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms. Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law. That’s up to us. America is no fragile thing. But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured.”
-Called for citizens to spring into action instead of sitting complacently:
“We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others; when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and when we sit back and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them.”
“So, you see, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try talking with one of them in real life. If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Stay at it.”
To Malia and Sasha:
“Of all that I’ve done in my life, I am most proud to be your dad.”
To Joe Biden:
“..You were the first decision I made as a nominee, and it was the best. Not just because you have been a great Vice President, but because in the bargain, I gained a brother. And we love you and Jill like family, and your friendship has been one of the great joys of our lives.
-”And to all of you out there — every organizer who moved to an unfamiliar town, every kind family who welcomed them in, every volunteer who knocked on doors, every young person who cast a ballot for the first time, every American who lived and breathed the hard work of change — you are the best supporters and organizers anybody could ever hope for, and I will be forever grateful.Because you did change the world. You did.”
Left off with the optimistic message he started with, the one that made people truly feel inspired by a politician for the first time in their lives
-“And that’s why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than when we started. Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans, it has inspired so many Americans — especially so many young people out there — to believe that you can make a difference — to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves.”
“Let me tell you, this generation coming up — unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic — I’ve seen you in every corner of the country. You believe in a fair, and just, and inclusive America.) You know that constant change has been America’s hallmark; that it’s not something to fear but something to embrace. You are willing to carry this hard work of democracy forward. You’ll soon outnumber all of us, and I believe as a result the future is in good hands.”
“I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written
Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Yes, we can.”
History will be much kinder to him, farewell to one of the greatest presidents in United States history.
The unknown senator from Illinois, a young black political outsider with a Muslim middle name, a passionate community leader that no one estimated would come to carry the weight of the collapsing global economy, largest amount of threats to American soil, and pivotal geopolitical challenges on his shoulders, managed to not only rectify these problems by salvaging our sinking nation, but enact unimaginable progress. Propelling through unprecedented Congressional obstruction, and vitriolic media attacks, he managed to navigate the country out of the worst recession since The Great Depression into a 4.7% unemployment rate, end the war in Afghanistan, kill Osama Bin Laden, prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capability, provided healthcare to 30 million who were uninsured – allowing people to be treated for illnesses without going bankrupt, imposed the toughest climate regulations in history and checked off numerous civil rights feats such as legalizing gay marriage.
The senator from Illinois, with his captivating intelligence and poise, managed to make his idealistic vision of “Yes We Can” resonate in the withered and cynical spirits of Americans – energizing them with a little hope during the turbulent thunderstorm. It’s no wonder our orator-in-chief won the hearts and minds over the spouse of one of the greatest Presidents of the 20th century in the form of Hillary Clinton – he’s carried the presidency scandal free with great class, charm, kindness, family values and even humor. For many, it was the first time they felt their voices mattered – felt included in the political process as he opened up the White House to all cultures, ages, nations, and ethnicities, making little black boys grow up believing they too, could be president. I and many millions of others will deeply miss this phenomenal president, but look forward to having him stand alongside us as a citizen. History will no doubt smile on Obama for his graceful and consequential presidency.
Sitting on an approval rating of 57%, I believe it’s worth it to look back on the tremendous gains he made to fully appreciate his impact. But what we may see as a time for reminiscing the closing chapter of a remarkable presidency, conservatives see as Obama having 10 days left to put them all in FEMA camps, take away their guns, and instill sharia law. They’ve apparently elected a successor to save us from what – a booming economy? A strong border with record deportations? Not going bankrupt for getting needed medical attention? Equal rights? The truth is that when one is accustomed to white male supremacy, equality feels like oppression. Healthcare for all feels like oppression. An economy working for the middle class feels like oppression. But farewell to that, Wall Street, Exxon, and all the swamp monsters are directly in charge now.
Obama inherited the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, 10% unemployment rate, low consumer confidence, increase in foreclosures – you name it – and salvaged it. We now stand at a 9-year low unemployment rate of 4.6%, with increased consumer confidence, a booming auto industry, and a deficit shrunk my three-fourths. Doing all of this with a stimulus package consisting of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment act. Since, economy has added 15.5 million new jobs since 2010 and had 75 consecutive months of private-sector job growth – the longest period on record. This past December adding 156,000 new jobs. On top of that his auto industry bailout has added over 100,000 jobs; in 2011 the Big Three automakers gaining market share for the first time in two decades.
“Food stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did,” Obama declared in his 2016 State of the Union address, and do match his sentiments. In 2010, he imposed the most far-reaching Wall Street reform in history with the signing of the Dodd-Frank Act – a pivotal move after their very recklessness caused the disastrous financial crisis. It creating a consumer watchdog to prevent mortgage companies from exploiting Americans, prevent reckless risk-taking, and overall building a safer foundation for economic growth.
And of course, Trump in his narcissistic fashion, credits himself for the consumer confidence rise from 25 in ‘09 to 113.7 – the highest its been since December 2013, as reported by The Conference Board. But of course the despot with delusions of grandeur will steal a man’s 7 years of hard work, it’s not like the economy and stock market have been breaking records these past two years or anything.
Critics often derail his economic success by pointing to the doubling of the national debt, but actually a frivolous criticism from people who have no clue how it even works. For one, Congress approves all spending so perhaps their unjustified anger should be directed to them considering the president isn’t a dictator. Secondly, Obama increased the debt by 68 %, adding $7.917 trillion, Reagan on the other hand, increased it by 186% but you don’t see anyone talking about that. Our GDP is certainly a lot bigger than it was in the 80s so there’s no sense in looking at the actual dollar amount, percentages provide a clearer more comprehensive view. Thirdly, like Reagan, Obama was navigating the country out of a recession, and doing so requires deficit spending to push the market back up to equilibrium. So either you increase the debt or leave everyone on the street to die in a horrible depression-turned-recession. There are no “balancing budgets” during inequilibrium, it’s just basic economics. Also, it’s estimated that under Trump debt will increase $34 trillion over the next 20 years by giving $7 trillion tax cuts to millionaires and $5 trillion of tax cuts to corporations, not to mention infrastructure spending, military expansion, and $35 billion border wall.
Under the Obama administration, the U.S. improved its image on the world stage with his peaceful diplomacy and rhetoric, managing to reverse the sharp decline in world opinion towards the U.S. of the Bush years. In his first term, favorable opinion rose an average of 26% in 10/15 countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
He largely achieved this by getting us out of war, lessening our image as war-hawks, opening up foreign relations with other countries, spreading democracy, killing Osama Bin Laden, and arriving at diplomatic negotiations with our adversaries over nukes.
Killing Osama Bin Laden – the leading perpetrator behind the 9/11 attacks didn’t quiet his detractors heinous slander about him being “un-American” or a Muslim. According to them, “He didn’t pull the trigger.” Well you see, there’s this Constitutional clause about the president being the commander in chief of the armed forces. Lincoln gets credit for navigating through the civil war, Wilson gets credit for WWI, and so on and so forth. People don’t get to cherry-pick the successes and failures that are attributed to presidents.
He also reached a peaceful settlement with the historic Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) which curbed the Islamic Republic’s ability to obtain a nuclear weapon. The success was no easy feat and excellently displayed Obama’s skillful and adept diplomatic abilities. A common misconception his name should be cleared of is that we paid Iran $400 million of ransom money. In reality, it’s just a fake-news story attempting to once again discredit him for the exceptional accomplishment. It was really a reimbursement for funds owed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Not to mention that he also got us out of a senseless disastrous war where thousands of Americans were sent to die in. When he came into office 180,000 troops were deployed and onDecember 18, 2011 the last troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan and Iraq.
His foreign policy moves haven’t always been perfect, but we’re definately alot better than we were 8 years ago – not as big of war-hawks. Those who criticize him for not going “far enough” turn a blind eye to the fact that he never had a real super majority in Congress. Take Guantanamo bay, on Jan. 22, 2009 he issued an executive order calling for the closure of the prison facility within one year, but like what would become a tiring precedent, Congress – both Republicans and Democrats – refused. Back in February of 2016 he made a final attempt to no surprising avail. What is largely unspoken of, is the reduction of the number of detainees by 76% – tremendous progress against the ugly stain the facility is on American democracy and due process. His administration also oversaw the removal of Bush torture policies which allowed prisoners to be detained in tortured under scanty evidence that would not allow prosecution. Furthering these reversals by dismantling the de-jure remnant of racial profiling that was the post- 9/11 registry. Obama throughout his administration sought to uphold democratic principles and not have our image tainted with calls of hypocrisy.
He also toppled the Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan civilians, ending his forty-two-year dictatorship. On Feb. 1, 2011, he took the right side of the Arab Spring, by ending Egyptian president Mubarak’s thirty-year rule.
Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Hiroshima – the site of one of two nuclear bombs that together killed almost 300,000 civilians – during the 71st Memorial to call for a “world without nuclear weapons” and meet survivors.
Overall, he greatly improved relations with the world, upholding the idea that America represents a country for all. Another myth that’s worth debunking, is that he deported more people than “all other presidents combined.” For low-info individuals, the statistics at face seem like easy bait for some good ol’ Obama-bashing, but the reality is that metrics changed. Thus, the definition of deportation changed to include those who were turned away at the border crossing, artificially inflating numbers. It’s much different than ripping tax-paying families apart with established homes, jobs, and friends apart. Deportations of people apprehended in the interior of the U.S. dropped from 237,941 in Obama’s first year to 133,551 in 2013, according to immigration data. So where is this “weak border” conservatives speak of? Record numbers of illegal immigrants are being turned away. Shouldn’t both sides be pleased?
On domestic and social issues Barack Obama has made unparalleled strides. Becoming a champion for the LGBTQ community by appointing two pro-gay-marriage judges to the Supreme Court that would later legalize it and repealing the stigmatizing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” 1990s-era restriction, allowing gays to openly serve in the military. Acting like a true constitutionalist because in our secular society, with a privileges and immunities clause, and the Ninth Amendment, outlawing marriage in between two people has no place.
For a century, Democratic presidents such as Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Johnson, Carter, and Clinton have been trying to implement universal health care – Barack Obama finally achieved it. Thirty-million previously-uninsured Americans were finally able to get the healthcare they needed without going tens of thousands of dollars into debt. There have been countless stories of cancer-ridden patients, or others with debilitating illnesses getting the needed treatment without having to lose an arm and a leg. Sure it’s not perfect ( single-payer would be better) but it’s a giant step in the right direction that has certainly laid a foundation. don’t know what’s so radical about ensuring Americans don’t have to decide between going into bankruptcy and getting treatment or dying. The United States has moved towards a more modern society such as the UK’s, Canada’s, and France’s.
“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” “It is indeed one of the biggest threats facing our planet today.” Our planet, silly conservative detractors. Terrorism won’t end civilization as we know it; we could all thrive if we stopped twisting each other’s words. Barack Obama imposed the toughest climate change regulations in history being the first president to acknowledge the existential threat global warming is on our world through the Paris Agreement, Clean Power Plan, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and EPA emissions rules
He even killed the construction of the Keystone Pipeline to not undercut efforts against climate change.
Protections were even extended to our environment through the signing of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), designating more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of rivers. Also creating the largest ecologically protected area on the planet in Hawaii encompassing over half a million square miles.
Obama truly was a president for all the people, making progress with veteran affairs by increasing the 2010 department budget by 16% and 2011 budget by 10%. Going on to sign a Gi bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, then giving tax credits to businesses to encourage the hiring of veterans.
He was a champion for civil rights and equal opportunity. Signing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), expanding existing hate crime protections to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, color, religion, or national origin.
He undid decades of harm the racist criminal justice system disproportionately imposed on African Americans, by pardoning a historically groundbreaking number of convicted felons who had been given heavy sentences for minor drug offences.
By appointing two female Supreme Court justices – one the first Latina to ever serve – he inadvertently declared that our government should move towards representing all of its constituencies because America is far different than it was in the 1800s, and brilliance should be recognized no matter what.
Obama also opened up the White House to everyone – all cultures, musicians, nations, the youth of the nation. Held science and technology fairs and challenges in the White House – made it a priority to spark an interest with our youth. All of this serving to include people in the political process and reassure them that America belongs to everyone.
All of these foreign, domestic, and social feats become much more remarkable when one realizes he did all of it with unprecedented Congressional obstruction, heinous media attacks, and a hostile party relentlessly attacking him and his family’s every move. Few presidents have been treated so poorly as he has – specially when most attacks are not policy related – they surpass the racist label. Calling him the “anti-christ,” a terrorist, denying his Christianity, starting birther conspiracies, saying he hates America and many more flagrant lies. And as for the GOP, their well-known anti-Obama campaign started the night of inauguration. Take a look at these quotes from top conservatives:
-“Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny Barack Obama a second term.” – Mitch McConnell
–They’ve suggested things like not inviting him to deliver the SOTU, or depriving him of the use of Air Force One.
-“I do not believe that the president loves America,” said Rudy Giuliani, “He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up.”
-“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan,anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Newt Gingrich asked. “Obama’s more African in his roots than he is American.”
And the latest from Trump ally Carl Paladino, “Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.” On Michelle Obama:“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”
These aren’t unique incidents, there could be a book filled with disgusting, racist comments republicans have made about the Obama’s – peppered with Obama effigies, and the n-word. They still have the nerve to claim he was “divisive.”
You see he was divisive for being black, for rising above his “proper station in life.” Republicans are experts at mental gymnastics and blaming the other side that which they are guilty of. The numbers however show he succeeded despite constant roadblocking and the ignorant masses which rallied against him based on the color of his skin. How convenient to blame political divisions -aka racists vs non-racists- on the first black president. What’s the logic behind that? “Since he’s black he forced us to unleash our racist drivel which in turn caused the non-racist half of America to oppose us?” They don’t regard Bush as the worst president – not Carter, but Obama, all for being the first black president. When you’re accustomed to white supremacy, equality feels like oppression. An intelligent black man taking the place of a stupid, disastrous white one, feels like oppression – that’s the “divisiveness.” Despite all the vitriol he rose above the human vermin’s hisses, carrying the entire country with grace and dignity.
The election of Barack Hussein Obama was a blast against 400 years of slavery, 60 years of segregation, and the institutional racism that still remains. It shattered the legacy of white supremacism, breaking barriers, and gave people hope for the first time in their lives that true progress was being made and that their voices mattered. His election embodied American ideals of “you can make it here if you try,” that all men truly were “created equal.” The significance of the election was best captured by none other than Michelle Obama’s 2016 DNC speech: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn..” It gave little black boys everywhere the idea that they too could be president and brought a smile on the faces of those who lived through segregation.
On a lighter note, here’s something both parties can agree on – he was the coolest president ever. Topping the top three’s in terms of charm and definitely number one in humor. With his many appearances on talk show television, we’ve gotten to know him what feels like more personally – and our President has some quick wit.
Obama has been just the epitome of “presidential” – without all the contrived sliminess that usually comes with it. Charming, fiercely intelligent, kind, great with kids, well-read, diplomatic, able to provide thoughtful, nuanced responses to complex problems – basically the opposite of his successor.
What I most admired about him is that when he said he would change the world, he honestly believed he could. I remember him mentioning in a documentary that in order to be a politician there should be, “that romantic notion that what you can do can change things for the better.”
He never wavered from that sense of idealism which many tend to lose during dreary times, doing the best he could with the hand he was dealt. Idealism creates resilience, and we should all hold onto it -without it there’s no propelling forward. Half-hearted efforts have never won anything. Half-hearted efforts didn’t make this country the world power it is now.
I want to thank Obama for making me both an idealist and a patriot. For showing me that the America where hope, liberty, and equality for all applies, still exists and is worth fighting for. That being self-made and self-assured will get you places. I and millions will deeply miss his sound judgment on matters affecting people at home and around the world.
He will also no doubt go down as one of the greatest orators in history – sincere, hopeful, realistic, and direct. When was the last time a politician ever inspired anyone? With that I will leave you with some of my favorite excerpts from his speeches…
“We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we’ve been told we’re not ready or that we shouldn’t try or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.
It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land: Yes, we can, to justice and equality.
Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.”
“Now, the folks at the very top in this country, they don’t need another champion in Washington. They’ll always have a seat at the table. They’ll always have access. They’ll always have influence. That’s the nature of things.
The people who need a champion are the Americans whose letters I read late at night after a long day in the office, the men and women I meet on the campaign trail every day. The laid-off worker who’s going back to community college to retrain at the age of 55 for a new career, she needs a champion. The restaurant owner who’s got great food, but needs a loan to expand after the bank turned him down, he needs a champion. The cooks and the waiters and the cleaning staff at a Madison hotel, trying to save enough to buy a first home or send their kid to college, they need a champion.”
“They don’t have lobbyists. The future never has as many lobbyists as the status quo. But it is the dreams of those children that will be our saving grace. That’s what will propel us forward. That’s what will make America continue to be this shining light on a hill.”
“We’ve come too far to let our hearts grow faint. Now is the time to keep pushing forward: to educate all our kids and train all our workers, create new jobs, bring our troops home, care for our veterans, broaden opportunity, grow our middle class, restore our democracy, and make sure that—no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter how you started out, no matter what your last name is—you can make it here in America if you try.”
“We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more people. And because we did – because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril – we emerged stronger and better than before.”
“And most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some special interest.
“America is not the project of any one person. Because the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes, We Can.’”
“The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” – Donald J. Trump. Truer words have never been spoken by Trump. If you thought the 2000 Al Gore loss was unfair, well wait ‘till you hear how much our losing 2016 candidate won the popular by – 2.9 million votes. In fact, with our current electoral system, a candidate can win the presidency with just 22% of the popular vote when 78% of the country voted against them. The electoral college is an archaic system that focuses on winning states not people, corrupts the electoral process, contributes to the apathetic culture of low-political efficacy, and most of all suppresses the will of the majority – a concept this country was founded on. A system with a failure rate of 9% established by wealthy, elite, land-owning white men to protect their interests from the will of the people, shouldn’t be kept around. Women weren’t allowed to vote, slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person – but we somehow managed to overturn that, so why can’t we move towards proportional representation in electing the most important office in the United States? This is a bipartisan issue that we should all be fighting for once facts are established and common myths dispelled.
I’ll explain, according to the founder’s own words, why it was actually established and. First of all, remember who these founders were, they were wealthy, white, property-owning white men wanting to protect their own interests. Remember that the top 1% even back then owned 99% of the wealth? Remember Bacon’s Rebellion. They didn’t want a “tyranny of a majority,” to the antithesis of democratic values because they deemed too stupid to elect a leader. Alexander Hamilton spells this sentiment out in The Federalist Papers, saying it was designed to ensure a president is chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”
Gatekeeping Elite Interests From Democracy
Things haven’t changed much (at the expense of everyone’s loss), even back then the elite were trying to prevent power from seeping out their inner-circle into the hands of those rebellious colonists who asked for too much – who asked not to be indentured servants. You see “tyranny of the majority” is simply a democracy, they ironically gave it the epithet ‘tyranny’ because a true democracy was detrimental to property-owning, white male interests. What we currently have now is true tyranny – power is disproportionately concentrated in low-populated states dubbed “swing states,” but more on that later. Just as they feared “tyranny of majority” they also feared black people and women voting, but we managed to overcome that.
A Vestige of Slavery
Not only was it established to protect elite interests and suppress the “stupid” masses, but it is a vestige of slavery. The father of the Constitution, James Madison, at the Constitutional Convention, expressed that with a popular vote, the Southern states, “could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes.” This is how slave-owning Jefferson beat out John Adams in the election of 1800. With this and the three-fifths compromise, slaveholding states were able to increase their representation in Congress and also in the Electoral College. With slavery being abolished and the three-fifths compromise done away with, there was no reason to keep the electoral college. It’s simply indefensible. It was clearly designed to override the will of the people and preserve the power of the “white establishment” as Bill O’Reilly inadvertently argued against his cause. Thanks for confirming the de jure system of white supremacy that permeates our country Bill!
Furthermore, “minority rights” (that are not ensured by the electoral college at all) will always be protected considering that we have proportional representation in the legislative branch. That’s where one decides individual policy. When it comes to choosing president why shouldn’t everyone have one equal vote?
Even the positive, protective aspects of the system have failed us, proving there is no need for it. The electoral college was created precisely to stop unqualified demagogues, pawns of foreign powers, and an “ill administration”:
“… of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.” — Alexander Hamilton, (Federalist No. 1)
“the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration,” and for that reason, he said, the electors should be “able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration.” (Federalist No. 68.)
” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
In Federalist No. 68, Hamilton wrote that one major purpose of the Electoral College was to stop the “desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.” Saying the college should “Guard against all danger of this sort … with the most provident and judicious attention” from the electors.
It’s clearly failed considering we now have a historically unqualified, politically illiterate demagogue that also happens to be a pawn to a foreign power.
Myth: Big Cities Will Be Overrepresented
Let’s move on to debunking common myths that are sensible concerns. One person one vote, actually makes each vote count, there’s no such thing as big cities being “overrepresented,” a bigger population should account for a bigger portion of the vote, arbitrary ideological lines shouldn’t be decisive in a democracy. No, they also won’t be disproportionately pandered to – campaigning in cities only is a losing strategy. Our current system forces candidates to pander to “swing states” while ignoring the rest of the country’s interests. Having a popular vote decide the presidency means each person – not empty, overrepresented land – gets to have an equal say in deciding the most important position in the United States.
The benefits are inarguable, voter turnout increases because the cynical attitude of “my vote doesn’t count” is eradicated. Republicans will want to vote in California and Democrats can vote in Texas. The voice of the minority shouldn’t be more impactful than the voice of the majority just because you disagree with them; maybe candidates should just work harder to earn the unpopular party’s vote. Let’s back all of this up.
Small states actually have overwhelming power and their inhabitants’ disproportionately loud voices. In a proportional system, 574,000 people would be represented by one vote but our current system does the opposite. For instance, Georgia, Virginia, Michigan, and New Jersey are missing one vote. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinous are missing two, Florida is missing four, New York 5, and California 10. So no big states aren’t “tyrannical” – they’re actually underrepresented. One Virginia vote is worth 3 Texas votes, and one Wyoming vote is worth 4 Californian votes. Tell me, how this is in any way fair? When the electoral college was created, less than 5% of Americans lived in cities; today, it’s 80%. We’ve tripled the power of rural Americans, even though every American vote should be equal. Why wouldn’t we change laws in a changing world? Why are some individual’s votes worth less than others’ due to geography? The electoral college pretends fewer people live where they do and more people live where they don’t. To me that sounds like tyranny, true tyranny – tyranny of the minority.
A switch to proportional representation wouldn’t actually hurt small states. As aforementioned, campaigning in cities only is a losing strategy; candidates will not ignore 287 million other people. Such a notion ignores the mathematical reality of population distribution. The top 10 cities are 7.9% of popular vote and even the next 90 biggest cities are 19.4% of popular vote. To believe otherwise is ludicrous and an intellectually dishonest endeavour used to further one’s own agenda. It’s absurd that with our current system 80% of the vote cast in the country has no impact on the outcome of the election.
In fact, our current system already panders to few states: campaigns, with no need to win the popular vote focus on Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia and a few others. Furthermore, they don’t care about small states. Remember they can theoretically win with just 21% of the popular vote. This graph shows the states candidates most visited:
Supporters of the outdated system erroneously believe low-populated, rural states would be overlooked but with the current focus on a few “swing” states – the other 37 and their interests are ignored by candidates. A direct election ensures that candidates represent the interests of all the people, not just the people in the swing states. Every state would become a battleground for voters, forcing candidates to run better campaigns in order to appeal to a broader swathe of the electorate. Currently they have no reason to do so – their focus is only on the six or so states that will determine the outcome.
Increased Voter Turnout
Our indirect electoral process suppresses voter turnout. Changing it would cause the true silent majority in states like Texas and California to vote, because there would be no wasted votes. The past 2012 election results point to this, even with our “wasted vote” system 3 million Democrats voted in Texas and 5 million Republicans voted in California. If electoral votes were awarded proportionately, 16 Texan votes should have gone to Obama, and 20 to Romney. But to everyone’s detriment, with the winner-take-all system, those who vote for losing party might as well stay home.
Undemocratic Faithless Electors
To add final blow to the system with 9% failure rate, there’s also the concept of faithless electors. Which we know for certain where created to willy-nilly vote against anyone who disagreed with elite interests since they truly didn’t protect us from a foreign influence, demagogue, or unqualified candidate this election. Faithless electors, exemplify the fragility of our democracy, at any instance, they can easily go against the people’s wishes with just a fine. They capture the real essence of why the college was founded – as a blockade between the American people’s interests and elite interests.
The hypocrisy of Electoral College loyalists is amusing, they sure rallied against it back in 2012, didn’t they? But all of the sudden their candidate loses the popular vote by a historical number and they defend it. Once again proving them to be spineless, self-serving, hypocritical
You can’t really blame them, their own savior is a guy known to flip-flop on abortion, health care, etc. A poll of more than 40% of Trump voters even said California’s vote shouldn’t count. That’s right, the most populated state in the country shouldn’t count. Why? Well because I don’t like “them.”
The Electoral College Crowns Popular Vote Losers
I’ve already explained why yes, the most popular party with the most votes should win, and no big cities won’t decide elections since it’s a losing strategy and they only account for 20% of the population, but I want to be clear that abolishing it won’t ensure democrat dynasty for the rest of time. The five electoral failures throughout history where a candidate has lost the popular but won the presidency have gone to republicans. It happened in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and now, 2016.
The electoral college often helps Republicans in close races. Abolishing is not in any way ‘unfair,’ nor does it give coastal states disproportionately loud voices; currently, small states have that not the other way around. One person, one vote is true “popular sovereignty” and a “government for the people by the people.” Would it matter if those 8 million New Yorkers were geographically dispersed all around mid-western rural states? You see, this isn’t about a concentration of power, this is about ‘your side’ losing. With a popular vote, no state will be overrepresented because it’ll just be about the people and for the people not empty, overrepresented land as it is now. Even then, why should the minority rule if one party is more popular than the other? Because again, this isn’t about so-called “tyranny” it’s blatant fear of your side losing.
Forget the arbitrary construct of “red states” or “blue states,” if California voted 60% democrat, and 40% Republican, 32 votes out of their 54 be cast for the Democratic candidate and the remaining 22 be cast for the Republican candidate. Lower populated areas simply shouldn’t get an equal shot to higher populated areas because their viewpoints are not as popular. That’s just popular sovereignty.
To put it in layman’s terms, a farmer from Ohio can still vote for his concerns and his voice won’t be overrepresented as it is now, or underrepresented. The farmer’s voice will weigh just as much as each American individual, whether there are enough individuals that lean his way is a different story. One that is the responsibility of the candidates running for the presidency. This is where yet another benefit comes in, since every vote is weighted equally, candidates will be more responsive to the concerns of the entire citizenry not just swing states, and therefore will try to win their vote. Which is precisely why abolishing it does not guarantee purely democrat presidents. Not only will voter turnout increase, therefore upping the number of republicans voting in traditionally blue states, but republican candidates that would usually lose the popular vote won’t always because they’d have reason to campaign in former “blue states.” It’s up to the candidates to do a better job with resonating with the entire country, because they’re not just governing Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, they’re leading the entire country.
Abolishing is no simple process that will happen in the foreseeable future, which is why we should fight for proportional representation in the electoral college.That way, a narrow 1.2% win in Florida will not yield a 29 electorate gain for one candidate. So that a candidate doesn’t just need a fifth of the popular vote to win, so that voter turnout increases, so that 80% of the vote cast in the country isn’t inconsequential to the outcome, and so that 37 states aren’t ignored. Most of all so that the highest office in the United States makes an effort to represent all the people regardless of what state they come from.
America you’ve been conned. Not just by any con-man, a con-man-in-chief. Not only won’t he deliver on his promises but the blueprint he’s laid out, shows that he’ll actively work against you. Did a cheeto-toned face come to mind? Sadly, your working class hero is an unhinged fraud, but you will be an architect of your own misery. Donald J. Trump has taken all the things he criticized Hillary Clinton for and amped them up by one thousand percent. Her “corruption” doesn’t hold a candle to the hurricane of danger he’s dragging in. The swamp is overflowing, his conflict of interests are impeachable, he’s using the power of the presidency for his own financial gain, damaging foreign relationships, his university has been proven fraudulent, Saudi ties are more apparent than ever, and he helped a foreign country subjugate our democracy by hacking the election. All while appointing a cabinet of historically inexperienced deplorables who actively oppose their own agencies. Tremendous. This isn’t simply about party lines, I’ll accept a conservative, but the man is completely unfit to serve. Let’s further explore why Hamilton electors must rise up to protect our democracy.
If you thought billionaires buying the government was bad, well now they are the government. So if you didn’t vote for the lesser of two evils, and aren’t regretting that choice, you’re not listening. The most imminent reality is that he’s completely flip-flopped on the one pivotal issue that conservatives overlooked his racism, xenophobia, and misogyny for – standing up to Wall Street and prioritizing the middle class. Trump voters should’ve seen this coming. I mean how are Bush tax cuts on steroids, which raise taxes for 8.5 million families supposed to help the economy? Eleven million households of single parents will also see increases. It’s a fact that the middle-class has the largest MPC, so the economy grows when it does.
But suddenly “we told you so” doesn’t feel so good when we’ll all be slaves to Exxon, Goldman, and Russia. Trump’s even taken one step further to openly mock the empty rhetoric that got him elected at a victory tour rally when after a chant of “lock her up!” from the crowd, Trump replied: “That plays great before the election – now we don’t care.” Oh, but I thought Hillary was the one who would “say anything to get elected.”
Let’s start by carefully looking in his cabinet. He almost specifically appoints people to undermine the positions, people who don’t ‘believe’ in their agencies. SNL put it best, his appointments are like making Walter White the head of the DEA. Or, putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department.
-Michael Flynn as his National Security Adviser:
An islamophobic general who’s pushed fake news 16 times since August and indirectly put American’s lives in danger at a Washington pizzeria by pushing the ludicrous Pizzagate fabrication. Yes, Trump’s adviser is taking notes from Alex Jones the alt-right conspiracist who believes Sandy-Hook was a hoax, Obama is a demon, and 9/11 was an inside job. If that doesn’t scare you then I don’t know what will. Most of all, he mishandled classified information! Oh, and let’s not forget – he’s also a Russian puppet! The hypocrisy of the Trump campaign is almost tangible, so much for sticking it to “crooked Hillary.”
-Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist:
The ex-CEO of Breitbart, a white supremacist website which largely founded the “alt-right” movement. Of course, alt-right just being a euphemism for neo-nazi and there’s no question about it considering they’re self-proclaimed white supremacists. Just take a look at their conferences in Washington where they “heiled” Trump while doing a Nazi salute, and talked about the “superiority” of white men. They’ve got it all – anti-Semitism, unadulterated misogyny, and most of all fake news. So Donald Trump’s wild conspiracy theories about “paid protestors”, “millions of fake votes,” etc., make sense when you consider who advises him. That’s right the future president of the United States propagates fake news stories from an unabashed white supremacist website. How long until he starts a war with North Korea over a fake piece from another “brilliant alt-right provocateur?” Again, I respect right-wing websites like the National Review. What I don’t respect is propagating conspiracy theories that put Americans’ lives in danger or white supremacism.
–Jeff Sessions as Attorney General:
The man who couldn’t even pass a Reagan-era confirmation hearing in the south because he was deemed too racist to be a judge, has been appointed to one of the highest ranked positions in the law. It’s as if Trump is purposely seeking out the most notorious bigots in our country. Jeff Sessions was denied judgeship in Alabama in 1989 for his anti-civil-rights positions and racist comments such as saying the NAACP and Civil Liberties Union are “un-American, Communist-inspired organizations,” accusing them of trying to “force civil rights down the throats of people,” and calling a white civil-rights attorney a “disgrace to his race” for representing black clients, and going after black leaders with false “voter fraud” charges in order to suppress the black vote. To make matters worse in the hearing he called the NAACP a “possible threat to national security.” He was openly against civil rights, he thought blacks were second class citizens who had risen above their “proper station” in life. Yes, it was over 30 years ago, but his record speaks louder than any pseudo-apology he’s offered. He’s continued voting anti-voting rights, anti-civil rights, and anti-immigrant. Jeff Sessions will wad up the Constitution and destroy the founding pillars of the beacon of hope that is American democracy.
–Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State:
Tillerson is not just a pal of Russia’s authoritarian leader, but he is the head of one of the largest oil companies in the world. Thus, the stranglehold big oil has on democracy will continue, in a more direct way. His Russian ties are scarier than ever considering the recent Russian election hacking. Russia is not our friend, but they are to Tillerson, as he personally received the ‘Order of Friendship’ medal from the dictator himself. Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave. These ties explain why he would be offered the job or even take it. You see the man has no diplomatic experience; he simply stepped in to cut out the middleman. His appointment is all part of an obvious plan to lift the sanctions imposed on Russia, which had blocked his $500 billion oil deal.
–Gary Cohn as Director of National Economic Council: Goldman Sachs will be running our economy. You know, the one’s that caused the massive 2008 financial crisis, the worst recession in recent history? Again, Trump cut out the middleman. If you thought billionaires buying the government was bad, well now they are the government. Didn’t Trump criticize Ted Cruz in the primaries for Goldman Sachs ties and Hillary in the general? Well, now Goldman Sachs is his right-hand man.
–Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA:
Trump nominated a climate change denialist and fossil fuel shill to head the Environmental Protection Agency, or should I say dismantle it. The fact is that there is a scientific consensus on climate change and no “snowball” argument will derail the overwhelming evidence. These people will keep disputing facts once our major coastal states such as Florida are under water. Goodbye to the Paris Climate Change Agreement and any effort to combat (or really ‘ease’) the effects of climate change. The biggest threat facing our planet is global warming but our president thinks it’s a “hoax created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” In fact, the Trump team is even going on a witch hunt against EPA civil servants, but more on that later. Just remember, all it takes is a 3-4 degree temperature change in Earth’s climate for the Arctic ice to melt and make certain major population centers uninhabitable. Tell me conservatives, even if the 97% of the scientific community was wrong, what are you gonna get? A healthier, more efficient environment? Who cares about that let’s take oil money and shut up!
–Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary:
A fast-food CEO, who is a critic of the minimum wage, worker protections, whose company has broken worker safety laws, wants to replace workers with machines to head…the labor department. No one better than to fight for the “silent working class majority” than an out of touch billionaire whose record actually fights against your wishes.
-Gary Cohn as Economic Council Director:
He’s the President of Goldman Sachs who was a key architect of the 2008 financial crisis. It doesn’t get any more hypocritical than this. This cabinet couldn’t possibly get any more slimy worse if it tried. Now who’s being controlled by financial interests?
-Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary:
Another Goldman Sachs employee with no known qualifications. Oh and he also used to work for the alt-right’s conspiracy fueler – George Soros. Poetic justice.
-Rick Perry as head of the Department of Energy:
Ex-governor of Texas is set to run the agency he forgot he wanted to eliminate. There’s literally nothing else to say, the ridiculousness and disrespect towards our American executive branch speaks for itself.
A billionaire GOP donor, anti-union activist who helps gut public education by funneling money into “vouchers” for private education. Without the money, public schools fail, and get then get shut down. What an excellent person to help the future that is children, thrive.
–Elaine Chao as head of Transportation Department:
Chao made $1.2 million while overseeing Wells Fargo as a director during the period the bank has admitted to created millions of fake accounts.
As you can see he’s truly outdone himself and appointed a cabinet of deplorables who won’t represent American interests, only those of the billionaire class and Russia. Appointed inexperienced people who actively oppose their agencies work. Look at it like this, Obama’s Secretary of Energy appointments were MIT physicist, Steven Chu, with a Nobel Prize. Rick Perry miserably failed chemistry courses during college and couldn’t even name the agency. Is it not a total disregard for American lives to put complete buffoons to lead the most important agencies? Big oil running the state, Goldman running the economy, and an Alex Jones follower at our national security, somehow this is how we win. Or maybe that’s how he wins, that’s all his campaigns ever really been about, he just never thought he’d make it this far.
If you thought billionaires buying the government was bad, well now they are the government. Get ready for a 2008-like recession on steroids, endless destruction of our environment, and unresponsiveness to the American interests. This is official an oligarchy. Is this what working class whites meant by feeling “represented?” Are you all secret billionaire Putin fanboys? Well, maybe the latter is correct. Basically, conservatives complained about big business being in the pocket of the government, so they made them the government instead! You played yourself.
The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Recently his Saudi Arabia ties, have been confirmed after he closed down companies linked to the country. But I thought he wasn’t corrupt like “crooked Hillary?”
Furthermore, the fraudulent Trump University, which stole millions from the most vulnerable of our society looking to get ahead, has settled for $25 million. But Donald, I thought you weren’t guilty? He even went on to brag about settling the lawsuit for a “small fraction of the potential award,” thus admitting that regardless he walked away from the con-job stealing from single mothers and students.
His unfitness to serve as the President, doesn’t stop there. He’s set a dangerous precedent of his term by suppressing & publicly flouting those that disagree with him like a petulant child.
This time, Donald attacked the president of United Steel Workers Union after he questioned his phony ‘Carrier deal.’ The deal gave Carrier a $7 million tax cut in exchange for not moving a plant to Mexico. In the end, Carrier kept 730 jobs in the US, and 1,233 will be moved anyway. Trump made a corporatist bribe and we lost over 1,000 American jobs. He set a precedent for corporations to threaten to outsource jobs, get a tax cut, and then outsource them anyway. What happened to “You’re gonna pay a damn tax when you leave this country?” Instead of penalizing as promised, he’s rewarding them for moving jobs away. Where is the art in this deal?
Trump gets praised for keeping 770 jobs while Obama is a failure for adding 178,000 jobs a month.
But I digress. Equally, if not more heinous is how Trump responded. Going on one of his classic Twitter rampages, he launched baseless attacks against the union president, which caused his goons to send him death threats. This is how our future president treats political dissent, by brazenly attacking them. It’s almost tantamount to third-world style leadership. Attacking unions is reminiscent of the Gilded Age, and that’s exactly what his term will be with big oil and other modern day ‘robber barons’ in charge.
In the latest tantrum, he “canceled” a new Air Force One, via Twitter (again), citing false concerns over the price of the plane. This interestingly came soon after Boeing expressed concerns over trade policies.
The man has the temperament of a Chihuahua. He’s even gotten a teenage girl sent death threats after she asked a question at a political forum. If you can’t even take a question without lashing out like a maniac on Twitter for all your rabid followers to go after, then maybe you’re not qualified for the job at any level.
Not only that, but he won’t attend intelligence briefings (because he’s “too smart”) yet has time to watch and whine about a comedy sketch show endlessly. He has time to get triggered on the behalf of his vice president by a broadway musical who politely asked him to protect civil rights, throw a tantrum over Twitter not making a “crooked Hillary” emoji, attack Vanity Fair via Twitter for giving him a negative restaurant review and has time to whine about people expressing their First Amendment right by peacefully protesting his win. He even had time to push a fake news conspiracy about “million of illegal votes,” possibly signaling that (with the help of Sessions) he will attempt to suppress the minority vote in the future. Going on to later thank African Americans for not voting: “The African-American community was great to us…they didn’t vote, & that was almost as good for me”
In fact, he shows more fervor and conviction when attacking said magazine for criticizing his restaurant, then when telling white supremacists to stop hate crimes after practically being forced to. And instead of getting even a basic civics lesson or learning anything about governing considering he has no political history, he’s just basking in his own pride on a divisive victory tour. What a class act, what a leader. I hope no country decides to attack us during an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Our President-elect hates the Constitution, even going as far to say flag burners should lose citizenship or go to jail. Even though it was decided by the Supreme Court that it’s a form of symbolic protest in Texas v. Johnson – even uber-conservative Justice Scalia agreed. What makes this country great are the principles it was founded on, including being able to freely criticize the government without fear of persecution in order to prevent tyranny and have an actual democracy, and yes that includes flag burning. Subjugating free speech and lashing out like he has against dissent is synonymous to that of dictatorships like North Korea.
Not only does he hate the Constitution but he’ll be in violation of it from day one if he doesn’t divest from all business interests. He’s shown no signs of doing that as of yet because he fundamentally thinks that the president “can’t have a conflict of interest.” The Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution begs to differ, Trump:
“..no person holding any office of profit or trust” shall “accept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state” unless requested by Congress.
Now saying he will hand his businesses over to his children, who sit in on his presidential meetings including those with foreign countries. What a step up. Ivanka Trump for one has sat in on a meeting with the Japanese prime minister and a phone call with the Argentine president. And all three children sat in on a meeting with tech companies yesterday. To fully establish the denigration of our democracy into a dictatorship controlled by a dynasty, it’s now been announced that Ivanka will take the office reserved to the First Lady, meanwhile Melania and her son stay in New York. The nepotism couldn’t be anymore brazen. And he hasn’t resolved to do anything about his conflicts of interests, even skipping out on a press conference a few days ago where he was supposed to address his plans for his businesses in order to parade around with Kanye West and distract the news. I mean for goodness sake, Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest! Trump is utterly the most unqualified, unfit, and most dangerous President-elect we’ve ever had.
Moving on to a flash of his foreign policy style, Trump managed to single-handedly unravel decades of American foreign diplomacy put in place by Nixon with one unabashed phone call he lied about making.
It’s been established since 1979 that the US government would not have any official contact with Taiwan, in order to recognize the People’s Republic of China. The moron called the President of Taiwan lunging into the most sensitive of China’s interests – the “One China” policy. It’s always been U.S. policy towards China not to recognize Taiwan. Erratic, major pivots in foreign is how wars start, and the orange buffoon managed to unravel the most sensitive piece of diplomacy established with a country who we owe billions to and that has nukes. Hello World War III.
To top of the Idiocracy that is American politics right now, 17 nonpartisan U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia tampered with the US election to help Trump win and Putin was directly involved. Kremlin hacked the DNC and RNC, but only leaked DNC files to help him win. Trump won decisive states by less than one percentage point, so their influence could’ve been much more extensive than we know so far.. What’s more, FBI director Comey and majority leader McConel deliberately withheld information on Russia meddling with the election, thereby violating the Hatch Act. Not a first time for Comey who reopened last minute election-costing witch hunt against Hillary. The GOP literally aided foreign aggression against American democracy and the Trump team may be complicit
This is bigger than Watergate. It isn’t about party lines, and our treasonous President-elect has defended U.S. foreign attackers and attacked our intelligence community. It’s no wonder why he hasn’t attended any intelligence briefings, and said he’s getting intel talking to foreign leaders. He did deliberately call for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton at his last press briefing. And even his cabinet is heavily immersed with Russian connections from Rex Tillerson and Michael Flynn, his National Security Adviser.
We had 33 Congressional Hearings on Benghazi, countless investigations on her damn emails but none on Russian efforts to influence our election even when they had a suspicion. This has gone on far too long and our national security and democratic principles are being subjugated, with the help of the President-elect himself seeing as he’s attacking the CIA. But he sure doesn’t have a hard time believing debunked Infowars conspiracies about “millions of illegal votes.”
The electoral college was created precisely to stop unqualified demagogues, pawns of foreign powers, and an “ill administration”:
“… of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.” — Alexander Hamilton, (Federalist No. 1)
“the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration,” and for that reason, he said, the electors should be “able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration.” (Federalist No. 68.)
And in Federalist No. 68, Hamilton wrote that one major purpose of the Electoral College was to stop the “desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.” Saying the college should “Guard against all danger of this sort … with the most provident and judicious attention” from the electors.
Donald J. Trump has shown utter disrespect for our founding values, no interest in learning how to govern, wadded up the Constitution into toilet paper, and could be a treasonous pawn to a dictator. He’s proven to us how easily he can start a war or a depression through his actions and has shown complete contempt for upholding the law; bragging about not paying taxes exemplifies it. Russia and the KKK got the president they wanted but the majority of Americans didn’t, with Hillary Clinton currently leading Trump by 2.8 million votes. Now is the time to respectfully ask our electors to honor America’s founding fathers. And urge our Congressmen to postpone to vote until all our electors have been provided an intelligence briefing.
