Sorry, no one loves Obama more than us, even if he was too centrist, but where the hell has he been? He is about three to four months too late on some things. We suppose we’re not being entirely fair. Nothing could persuade about 35-40% of the country. It doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have tried.
Well, at least he’s making up for lost time. It appears that Obama is sick of Trump and his MAGAs still dividing America, still hating, and most of all, remaining a threat to everything this country stands for. Anderson Cooper had some questions and Obama had some answers. The questions are irrelevant because the answers speak for themselves:
I thought that there were guard rails, institutionally, that even after Trump was elected that you would have the so-called Republican establishment who would say, “Ok, you know, it’s a problem if the White House doesn’t seem to be concerned about Russian meddling,” or, “It’s a problem if we have a president who’s saying that neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, “‘There are good people on both sides.’” That’s a little bit beyond the pale.
Actually, there were, in the very beginning. When Trump went to lift the Russian sanctions in the first two weeks of his term, Congress took over and the Senate vote was in the high 90s to make it law, taking the decision out of Trump’s hands. One by one, especially after McCain died, they all started falling in line. As 2018 approached, everyone up for election feared the almighty tweet. That was when it all came crashing down.
And the degree to which we did not see that Republican establishment say, “Hold on, time-out. That’s not acceptable. That’s not who we are,” but rather be cowed into accepting it, and then finally culminating in January 6th where what originally was, “Oh don’t worry, this isn’t going anywhere. We’re just letting Trump and others vent,” and then suddenly you now have large portions of an elected Congress going along with the falsehood that there were problems with the election.
Yeah, well, no doubt there.
Cooper then mentioned that there was a ray of hope after January 6th, that the Republicans would finally have had enough, what with McCarthy and Pence’s lives threatened and McConnell talking law enforcement. But then Obama cut him off with a “poof!”
Suddenly, everybody was back in line. Now, the reason for that is because the base believed it. The base believed it because this had been told to them not just by the president, but by the media that they watch and nobody stood up and said, “Stop. This is enough. This is not true.” I won’t say nobody. Let me correct it. There were some very brave people who did their jobs, like the secretary of state in Georgia, who was then viciously attacked for it. And all those congressmen started looking around and they said, “You know what? I’ll lose my job. I’ll get voted out of office.” Another way of saying this is, I didn’t expect that there would be so few people who would say, “Well, I don’t mind losing my office because this is too important. America’s too important.”
The only doubts now are how Obama could have remained such a centrist in all of this. The moment Cruz and Hawley decided to object and the moment that Trump tweeted out that everyone best come to the protest, “it’ll be wild,” anyone who had the time to really pay attention knew. And anyone who had watched the MAGAs much should have known. So long as they believed that they won the election – and they still do – they’re not going away. It is going to get worse.
But he’s Barack Obama and we’re not. So perhaps we are still wrong in some respects. But we know this, Obama’s effort my not change much but that damn well doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be making that effort. Thank you, President Obama. For everything, actually.
Fmr Pres. Obama to @AndersonCooper [1] on the GOP: “I thought that there were enough guardrails institutionally that even after Trump was elected that you would have the so-called Republican establishment [step in]…we did not see that Republican establishment say hold on, time out” pic.twitter.com/o9ZYGOoa0J [2]
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 8, 2021 [3]
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak