The view from the back row + The Real Obama

[rainbows_]

Journalist and photographer Chris Arnade discusses a country divided by meaning, morality, education, and economics.

In 2016, pundits speculated endlessly on that mysterious place called Trump Country. To many in the Beltway, much of America was a foreign country, to be analyzed statistically rather than in person. Chris Arnade, on the other hand

Comments

[lovedforaday]

Now I'm supposed to care what Obama did on vacation. I guess this is supposed to be more outreach to white voters.

[meadowphoenix]

Christopher Hitchens once pointed out that while everyone considered Obama a powerful and memorable speaker, nobody could ever seem to remember a single specific line from any of his orations, a good sign he’d in fact said nothing at all.No....omg. OMG. Why are supposed ~progressives quoting trash like Hitchens? There are better atheists out there, jfc. Do you guys understand why no one actually following what you're saying trusts that you're aren't shucking bullshit? Because you always seem to come back to quoting bullshit people who are ideologically opposed to your ~progressive philosophy AND YOU DON'T EVEN SEEM TO REALIZE IT. For fuck's sake

[rainbows_]

I also can't quite imagine being this passive-aggressive, getting called on it, and then deciding that you should simply lower the passive-aggression into fake cheerful bitterness, but I guess I understand the impulse if you can't actually defend on a high level the things you might decide to post when challenged.

is this about me lol. I like these articles, however I'm fine with people disagreeing with them, as you have done, as this community has lots of different political opinions. Obviously some people on ONTD didn't like the things I posted, however no one challenged them on a substantive way (which you have done, not only on this post, but on a lot of my other posts, which I really appreciate!), they would rather personally attack me. If someone is calling me a bitch for the things I post, it's probably not wise in engage with them in good faith, or to really engage at all + escalate the situation.

[meadowphoenix]

Here's the thing: people can write whatever they want in their OP notes. But how useful is "I hope you read the articles" bb? You posted them. We assume that wasn't frivolously. We already know you want us to read the articles. No one who isn't reading them is simply mistaking your primary motivation, even if they want to comment on a presumed other motivation. So, I have to assume this is passive-aggressive. Let the mods do their jobs, don't engage with people who aren't being substantive with you at all, even obliquely.

[rainbows_]

It genuinely wasn't meant to be passive aggressive! I wasn't feeling any type of way when posting these articles, my only motivation was that these articles are kinda long, so I wanted to give extra motivation if people wanted to read them (however if people aren't interested in the content, this is completely up to them!).

Let the mods do their jobs, don't engage with people who aren't being substantive with you at all, even obliquely.

i would completely agree with this!

[moonshaz]

The first article was a very interesting read. Very depressing at the end, but fascinating overall.

The Obama bashing one....well, sorry, but I'm nhft. I'm just not. I'm not saying he is or was perfect, but there's quite a bit of territory between "He's not perfect" and "He's all kinds of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things." Articles like that one veer farther into the latter category rhan I personally think is warranted.  If that makes me a neoliberal or something, there's not much I can do about that, lol.

[rainbows_]

I don't consider it Obama bashing! I personally don't dislike Obama, he is and was very charismatic, very genuinely likable and I think he is great father to his two daughters. But I do get people being sensitive and defensive when he is criticized, especially with all the horrible racist attacks from the right wing he had to go through.

However my politics changed during the election, I am now more critical of politicians, even the ones I like. In the face of Trump, we need to be. It may be uncomfortable, painful to criticize the politicians we liked + believed in but the alternative of not doing a brutal post mortem of what went wrong (because things went horribly wrong for the democrats) is worse.

In terms of moving forward:

"Perhaps the things the Democrats need at the moment can be summed up as follows:

Vision

Authenticity

StrategyIn other words: What do you care about? Are you the sort of person people should trust to do something about it? And do you have a plan for how to do it

[rainbows_]

Continuing from the article I linked to

[moonshaz]

If these quotes are from the same article you already posted, I don’t see the point of reposting them. Tbqh, I didn't read the whole thing. After the first two or three paragraphs, I knew I wasn't interested in going down the path where the article was heading and I'm still not. Sorry, but that's just how it is.

I'm really not interested in arguing about this, "defending my position," etc. It’s fine with me that you don't agree with my description of the article as "Obama bashing." That's a very subjective judgment, for one thing, snd for another, the fact that you chose to post this (and some of the other things you've posted) tells me we're poles apart on lots  of things. C'est la vie. I'm quite sure I can't change your mind and vice versa.

My energy thse days is invested in fighting the horror that’s currently squatting in the White House like an ugly, bloated, orange toad. Taking Obama’s inventory is not something that interests me greatly at the present time. Maybe at some future point, but that’s just not where my head is right

[tilmon]

This is a great pairing of articles. My family is working class, my dad white, Southern, and unskilled. In 2008, he was so excited about Obama. He was expecting great change, a real shake-up of the powerful interests that had brought the economy to its knees. That never happened. Dad still has some good feelings about Obama, but no excitement. He had gotten involved in the local campaign back in 2007. This time, he sat things out

[blackjedii]

(I'm college-educated, multi-degreed, and stuck in a dead-end job because the economy was shit when I finished college. I had no connections to trade on. I'm neither back-row nor front-row, but in the middle seats. I've taught as an adjunct, and I can tell you, adjuncts are a lot closer to truck drivers than this guy thinks. Sometimes, they even are truck drivers.)

R u my twin

I live in SWVA and in general for the area, my family is bourgeoisie (aka not below the poverty line and have retirement plans and don't rely on food stamps or live paycheck to paycheck). But all that means now is that I'm not buried in college debt. In retrospect starting a job while in college just to help pay basic bills hurt me big time, even as I bought into the idea that working jobs and being responsible "looks great on resumes." What they really meant is suck it up, abandon all your college years to your corporate master, and your grades and networking opportunities can suck it.

[dulyoncourt]

No offence but I'd take Obama over 45 anyday... Not a helpful comment but ehhh..