So said Obama today, being characteristically understanding in that patronizing way we've seen before. We all remember the "bitter clingers" remark:
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them... And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."Obama understands why you feel those negative emotions. The actual ideas you express don't really matter. They are to be disregarded — they're the things you say when you get mad or depressed, because of all the problems — problems that he aims to solve, in his way, for your sake, because he knows better. Now, if you would please, quiet down, and let him get on with the work of giving you what you need.
ADDED: Funny for Obama of all people to be musing about that "feeling that there's a lot of change that needs to take place." You know, a politician might come along and leverage a presidential campaign on an amorphous emotion like that.
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67 comments:
The question wasn't about ideas. It was about anger.
there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out.
Somebody should ask Obama precisely what periods in American history he is referring to...
I.e., the quote is being taken out of context. Obama didn't say this in a speech, he said this in response to a question about anger. So Althouse's suggestion that he is disregarding his opponents' ideas in a patronizing way is not valid in context.
It's the bullshit pulpit.
and its not that the ideas that are exploited by beck and rush dont matter. its that this country knows that obama disagreed with those ideas, and that he would advocate policy different than those ideas, and that Obama was elected PRESIDENT.
as he said, thats not the vast majority of americans.
elections have consequences.
Obama hates American history, because he is totally an alien force that has no part in it. He also hates the British and he hates the Jews. So his fake expressions of sympathy is like the inquisition's torturer saying that he is sorry if the rack he has sneakily placed you upon hurts as much as he means for it to.
elections have consequences.
Ain't that the truth.
Will the next election have consequences, is the question.
Now, if you would please, quiet down, and let him get on with the work of giving you what you need.
"I do think that everybody has a responsibility — Democrats or Republicans — to tone down some of this rhetoric, some of these comments"
President Obama.
I had hoped that Obama would be good on foreign policy and bringing the country together. In other words I had hoped he would be for peace and good relations with our allies and making new friends and that he would reach out to republicans and listen to their ideas and talk with them.
I was wrong :-)
Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan - snubs our allies - and has been one of the most divisive presidents in a first year.
Our most insular President ever.
Hey! This is just like the Republicans calling anti-war protesters "unpatriotic". In both cases, a label is applied to the dissenter, and his opinion can be ignored because he is not "one of us".
It's an authoritarian play from the shared Democrat-Republican playbook. The Republicans can't really be expected or trusted to stand up for free expression and diversity of opinion because they've bought into New Authoritarian America program too.
"When you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, it's pretty apparent, but keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out."
For instance, the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois (1985-2008).
From Obama's book:
"That’s just how white folks will do you. It wasn’t merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn’t know they were being cruel in the first place. Or at least thought you deserving of their scorn. White folks."
We never have peninsular Presidents.
So could someone please enumerate the great ideas expressed by Beck and Limbaugh, that we should so respectfully listen to?
Today Rush taught me that when Obama says the words "Storefront", "factory", and "worker," those are "Marxist-Leninist terms. Just terribly informative and interesting and lucid.
From Obama's book:
"The submission to Western Civilization and its most outstanding offspring, American civilization, is, in reality, surrender to white supremacy.
The Minority assimilated into the dominant culture, not the other way around.
Only white culture could be neutral and objective. Only white culture could be non-racial, willing to adopt the occasional exotic into its ranks. Only white culture had individuals."
its that this country knows that obama disagreed with those ideas, and that he would advocate policy different than those ideas, and that Obama was elected PRESIDENT.
Yes indeed, the people voted for Obama knowing he was opposed to all sorts of ideas. Mandates to purchase insurance, for example. Tax increases on the middle class. Regulations that would force Americans to give up the insurance they currently have. These were all ideas that Obama firmly and loudly opposed, at least while he needed the votes.
as he said, thats not the vast majority of americans.
Hm. "Vast majority" is a tricky term. Is the 53% support Obama received in the election a vast majority? What about the 55% that currently thinks he's done a lousy job on health care? The 50% who think he's bungling the economy?
Just curious.
Nobody disputes that, having won the election, the Democrats have the *power* to do whatever they please. But considering that they gained power by lying to the American people, they probably shouldn't make too many plans for what to do with that power after the 2010 and 2012 elections. :)
Ann: You have his tone perfectly and his intent. A very creepy person if you ask me.
From Obama's book"
"That hate hadn't gone away"...."white people — some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives."
"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out, many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs. . . It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names"
"I found solice in nursing a pervasive sense of grievancee and animosity against my mother's race"
"You're just tired and acting a little hysterical, honey. Are you getting your period?"
Somebody should ask Obama precisely what periods in American history he is referring to...
There's quite a lot, though. The Student Activists. Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht again. Sorry, was that too Godwinesque?
Anyhow, the Tea Party protests are extremely mild, in comparison to most of what we saw back in the 20th century. More seriously, the 1992 riots in LA are, I think, the last real explosion of popular hatred (and indeed, race hatred) that we've seen here in the US. There have been angry protests and so on, since -- the WTO riots in 1999 were probably the most violent -- but for the most part, they have not had a violent character, only an angry character. The isolated violence that we've seen hasn't really been a matter of mobs whipping themselves up into a violent fury, but lone psychos acting on their own.
Montagne, saying "workers" instead of "employees" reminds me of Marxist dogma. Downtrodden workers and all that jazz.
So could someone please enumerate the great ideas expressed by Beck and Limbaugh, that we should so respectfully listen to?
Beck and Limbaugh are the people Obama would like us to talk about INSTEAD of discussing ideas. He'd like this to just be about emotion and invective, rather than about the fact that most Americans think his plans stink.
Beck and Limbaugh didn't drive the public to disapprove of Obama's economic and health care plans; the people who listen to those two disliked the plans from day one. The American people turned against Obama not for emotional reasons, but because they don't like Obama's ideas about how this country ought to work.
Ahhh... You crazy cons! We know how much you hate to like him. And we really don't care all that much anymore.
There's only so many ways to say that some people are just plain full of shit, and you can only be so diplomatic about it.
Open your tiny little hearts to the Obamessiah. Let his goodness envelop you and neutralize your red-hot hatred. Open your tiny minds and let his wise words penetrate the synapses that reside outside your ferocious amygdale. Let your fury and frustration flow out of you like oil from a Saudi Arabian derrick.
You will, I repeat, you will, find other ways to keep yourselves warm at night.
Does Obama remember he won the election, in large part, due to the economic anxiety?
Without the Sept 2008 banking crisis, McCain may have been the president.
Btw- I don't think Bush ever ever singled out or criticized an individual American citizen for lambasting him.
The left is stuck on a presumption that all change they propose must be good change - civil rights-like even - and all resistance to change is born of fear, regression, and stupidity.
They call themselves "progressives."
But that presupposes that they know which direction is progress.
Is resistance to the change of a man burning down your house born of fear, regression, and stupidity?
Is all change good all the time?
This is the curse of evolution in our thinking, that things can only progress to a stronger strain.
But things actually can get worse, and people can stupidly hasten that decline, all the while being convinced that they are actually bring about progress.
Barry Obama and Lester Maddox -- two Uglycrat politicians with keen sensitivities about the American people.
(Tedio Brasileiro is unusually incoherent tonight. The Zyprexa must be wearing off.)
When you read about the era, the vitriol that was being exhibited in the 1850's was close to the same. Of course we have had periods in the 1930's but these were interrupted by war or some other event to distract the mind. I have had patient's in their 80's indicate to me that they would just as soon die fighting against our own government as to dying in bed.
Without the Sept 2008 banking crisis, McCain may have been the president.
Eh, maybe. The banking crisis made it impossible for him (or any other Republican to win), but on balance, McCain would have been more likely to lose than not anyhow.
Beck and Limbaugh are paid to have strong opinions. Strong opinions are like the stong back beat of the music on the old top 40 stations. Limbaugh is opinonated, and rock music is loud....Obama, on the other hand, is paid to be above the fray. In this instance, by singling out Limbaugh and Beck by name, he is being petty while simultaneously trying to sound lofty. If you're not his fan, this inconsistency is grating.
"Hey! This is just like the Republicans calling anti-war protesters "unpatriotic". In both cases, a label is applied to the dissenter, and his opinion can be ignored because he is not "one of us"."
Bush never said the protesters were unpatriotic to my knowledge. And he certainly didn't call anyone out by name like Barry does all the time.
Remember Althouse - you voted for this totalitarian creep. I want you to own up and mea culpa.
You must remember, Obama never studied American history. He studied revisionist history. The history of America as the revisionists would liked it to have been.
People are angry because the only thing the government is doing is spending trillions, passing legislation they do not want, and not doing commonsense things to help private industry to create jobs. They are hindering wealth and job creation.
Things will only get worse and better is not around the corner.
Really libs - what is American history? Reading the likes of Howard Zinn, it's just one long "Trail of Tears" for Indians and blacks. There is nothing else to talk about.
Ritmo,
You are full of shit. That is the only way to say it. You are so full of shit you leave a putrid odor in your wake.
Mea culpa is not a verb, retard.
I'm glad your sense of smell is so acute*, Petey, because your mind is too dull to make up for your sharp senses.
*I live over a thousand miles away from the dipshit.
Fairness Doctine is next up on Obama's agenda, just you watch.
"You must remember, Obama never studied American history. He studied revisionist history."
The only history that is not revisionist history is the original documentary record, dumbass. Every interpretation thereof - and therefore, every historian's say on it (whether professional or insanely amateur like Bella) - is, by definition, revisionist.
It is part of a large and well orchestrated process, one that had its beginnings before Obamacare was signed. The process is on a tight time schedule, so it was necessary to pass Obamacare and absorb the hits before the campaign season. It includes the springtime announcement of fake off-shore oil drilling, to take the wind out of the sails of RW talk radio and enough time for the lefties to realize that he was just wink-wink-nod-nod about that drilling and they will come back to him by summer. It includes vilifying the tea party and conservative bloggers as racist by setting up fake confrontations. But mostly it includes the timely release of billions in stimulus money, hoarded until early summer and then poured into favored districts and Democrat campaign coffers.
The mostly-clueless Repubs will be getting clobbered from all sides by November.
As I said Ritmo, you are full of shit.
"Fairness Doctine is next up on Obama's agenda, just you watch."
Oh, I dunno about that. I think Barack Obama is smart enough to know when to keep his head down.
He's pissed off a lot of people - most of them on his side. I think a lot of them would like to see him gone and won't be voting for him again.
He's expanded spying on Americans - pissing off the civil liberterians.
He's now got everyone doing abortions - which threatens Planned Parenthood's baby-killing monopoly.
He's murdered more Afghans and Paki's with drones than Bush ever thought about harshly interrogating.
He's not closed Gitmo and he's opening a second Gitmo in Baghram to torture people there with the heat.
He fucked over Democrats on the public option.
He's fucking over his Sierra Club supporters by opening up offshore drilling.
He's fucking over his own environmental supporters on mountaintop removal for coal.
I mean, I expect him to personally harpoon a whale next on live television just to prove he's not a total fucking libtard. I mean, he's got to boost his numbers somehow, right?
Barack Obama is making a lot of enemies on the left. Some of them are militia types, who belong to his Democrat Party and who own a lot of guns and train to limit government.
So, it wouldn't surprise me if Barack Obama maybe wants to adopt a lower profile until after the mid-terms.
Probably safer.
You know ... for Democrat seats.
According to what standard, Bella? The dumbass standard?
In Bella's world, knowledge forms according to an Orwellian or Lord of the Flies scenario.
I'm willing to bet a paycheck from my job, to which I'm clinging to like a westren Pennsylvanian to his A-47that President Obama does not listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck.
I remind you Ann that you bought what he was selling.
Eh. All through 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, every time Bush screwed up or did something appalling, I had to listen to people sarcastically say "oh, but Kerry would have been worse". Well, yes, he would have been. Just because Bush was an awful President doesn't mean we'd have been better off with Gore or Kerry.
Similarly, the fact that Obama's been awful doesn't prove that McCain would have been better. I mean, *I* think he would have been better, but I'm open to the idea that he might have been even worse.
Just to give you an idea of how boring Bella is:
Happy Friday! Today's Friday, da last day of da week for oll you workin' folks out there. Thank Gad it's Friday. The weekend's coming up. (Really? No shit. - ed.) It looks like it could be a nice, sunny and somewhat warm weekend in the 40s and 50s in the United Soviet Socialist City of Chicago. (Clears throat. Swallows). My name's Pete Bella. I'm the middle class guy at blagtalk radio. I blog at www.boring...blah blah blah. I have a little frog in my throat. I'm trying to get rid of it.
Proceeds to pontificate on news items with a bunch of pauses and brainfarts interspersed throughout. Also makes use of phrases such as "boner". Also, likes "C" words and feels smart when saying things like "recalcitrant".
B-b-but Lurch and The Zero told us that dissent was the highest form of patriotism. Or is that just if you're one of THEM?
Montagne Montaigne said...
...
Today Rush taught me that when Obama says the words "Storefront", "factory", and "worker," those are "Marxist-Leninist terms. Just terribly informative and interesting and lucid.
Anything like Jerry Brown's exoneration of ACORN?
New "Hussein" Ham said...
"Fairness Doctine is next up on Obama's agenda, just you watch."
Oh, I dunno about that. I think Barack Obama is smart enough to know when to keep his head down.
He's pissed off a lot of people - most of them on his side. I think a lot of them would like to see him gone and won't be voting for him again
He liked the way ZeroCare was rammed through against the will of the people, so he wants to try the same with immigration and cap & trade. Never forget that this is the vainest human being on the planet.
Of course, this time, it'll be bi-partisan. Arlen Specter's replacement, Lindsey Graham, will see to that.
He liked the way ZeroCare was rammed through against the will of the people, so he wants to try the same with immigration and cap & trade.
I love how "the will of people" is.....Republicans. And a few stragglers. If you want to talk strictly polls, more people say they wanted a public option available to them, when asked, going back almost two years. Shouldn't that larger majority of people been serviced first before anyone? If you don't believe me on polling and the public option, I will crush you with facts.
(just kidding, and giving you shit.
garage mahal said...
He liked the way ZeroCare was rammed through against the will of the people, so he wants to try the same with immigration and cap & trade.
I love how "the will of people" is.....Republicans. And a few stragglers. If you want to talk strictly polls, more people say they wanted a public option available to them, when asked, going back almost two years. Shouldn't that larger majority of people been serviced first before anyone? If you don't believe me on polling and the public option, I will crush you with facts.
60+% of the people don't want it, with another 12 or so doing a little fence-straddling. If you want 100% approval, maybe we should rerun the '08 election.
As to wanting the public option, is that like the one that said people were for ZeroCare 49 to 40?
Again, breakdown of the sample is always good to know.
PS When you talk about people being serviced, you do realize that's what the bull does to the cow.
Back at you. :)
" . . . there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitrol comes out."
Yeah, like 2001-2008.
Obama does not know American history very well. Political Science at Columbia does not teach history, not does law at Harvard. Reagan would kick his ass in any discussion that required a knowledge of American history.
And Reagan has been dead nearly 15 years.
"You're just tired and acting a little hysterical, honey. Are you getting your period?"
This was my exact thought when I saw the quote! It's just about as likely to make you want gouge someone's eyes out as what obama said. I think it's said on purpose to make you madder, so you look irrational. It's a trap.
Remember Althouse - you voted for this totalitarian creep. I want you to own up and mea culpa.
Won't happen. Faculty are programmed to reconcile themselves to the failings of diversity hires.
Its why the federal government is so screwed up. You cant fire incompetent people if they are black. You cant even reprimand them without getting an EEO complaint [they know the game]. You get more than three of those complaints and you can forget about ever getting promoted, even if they are found to be without merit.
"You know, a politician might come along and leverage a presidential campaign on an amorphous emotion like that."
Yea, and someone would have to be pretty dense, politically speaking, to fall for that one, right?
Right?
Urp, both Limbaugh and Beck make me want to gag.
I think they both revel in their anger and nastiness.
Vicki from Pasadena
So could someone please enumerate the great ideas expressed by Beck and Limbaugh, that we should so respectfully listen to?
Holy chili mac, Monty. Are you stupid?.. Both guys have multiple books out and are on the radio three hours a day, and Beck's on TV on top of that.
Why can't you do it yourself?
Remember Althouse - you voted for this totalitarian creep. I want you to own up and mea culpa. Won't happen. Faculty are programmed to reconcile themselves to the failings of diversity hires.
Now, now, Fen. Didn't you vote for Obama in the primary? Just think, if all those pro-Obama Republicans (I ran into a couple at my precinct convention) and Republicans trying to do a little anti-Hillary mischief hadn't voted for him, there's a good chance we'd be talking about President Hillary Clinton today. Ah, what might have been...
And some rubes may even fall for a campaign slogan like that. Dear Lord, Ann.
"Hey! This is just like the Republicans calling anti-war protesters "unpatriotic"."
Hey! outside of some democrats complaining about this non existent event and then calling THEIR opponents unpatriotic this happened only in those protesters wet dreams. Just repeat and repeat and repeat until it sounds true.
BHO "There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out, many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs. . . It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names"
"I found solice in nursing a pervasive sense of grievancee and animosity against my mother's race"
Geez looeeze.
This guy grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, goes to OCCIDENTAL and wrote c**p like this.
And some of us noticed (thanks for reminding us AllenS).
The guy has some serious issues here. For all you who voted for him, thanks a lot.
Read it again. Our president is a head case.
It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses.
the black masses????
When are the "black masses" going to figure out he's been playing them along with the rest of the yokels?
And yes, his Marxism training per Frank Marshall Davis comes through loud and clear when he refers to "the workers."
Yeecchh.
And he can stop the preaching. He's the one who had some vitriol for the Cambridge police department.
Maybe that's the mark of a Marxist / socialist? No class.
I notice that Obama checked the box for "black" when filling out his census questionnaire. What does he think--his mom was a fair-skinned Mulatto?
Someone should have told him he's allowed to check more than one box. Of course, he probably already knew that. He probably also knew Michelle would kick his butt if checked anything but black.
Just think, if all those [Republicans] hadn't voted for him, there's a good chance we'd be talking about President Hillary Clinton today.
I have to wonder -- just exactly how out of touch does one have to be before "ha ha, don't you wish Hillary was President instead" actually sounds like an effective way to taunt Republicans?
I'm trying to think what would be different if Hillary was President. So far all I've come up with is "the tea party movement would be accused of sexism instead of racism".
"Julius 'Ray-the-Raghead' Hoffman said...
Hey! This is just like the Republicans calling anti-war protesters 'unpatriotic'."
If they were patriotic, and not just politically motivated, where did they all disappear to once Obama won?
I have to wonder -- just exactly how out of touch does one have to be before "ha ha, don't you wish Hillary was President instead" actually sounds like an effective way to taunt Republicans?
Well, I've seen more than a few Republicans comment here and elsewhere about how Hillary would be better, because she (according to them) is more pragmatic and isn't a Frankfurt School Marxist (or whatever the daily insult is) radical like Obama is, etc., etc. Now, they may just be blowing smoke, but it's worth mentioning the other possibilities.
Eh, I heard some Republicans make the same claims about Obama -- that he was a pragmatist, that he was really a moderate, etc etc. In both cases it is just a matter of seeing what they want to see.
Mr. Obama is clinical.
Not in a good way.
The second worst quality a leader can have (right after indecision, which The Won has in spades) is the inability to see things as they are, vice how the viewer would wish them to be.
Our president is hell bent on imposing a system by increments and unicorn farts that in reality relies on midnight visits by men in trench coats and reeducation camps to exist.
Yes, elections are important.
Thanks, Althouse.
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