Oh, the Anguish and Despair

I was quite amused when reading Michelle Goldberg's Op-Ed in today's New York Times. Her piece, "Entertainment for the Resistance," discusses how difficult it is to find "pop storytelling" that helps people deal with their sense of despair under Trump. Having watched a number of mainstream TV shows I disagree with her premise. There are quite a few shows constantly attacking Trump. However, the one show that Goldberg lauds is "The Good Fight," which is a spinoff of "The Good Wife," and is only available on CBS All Access. Goldberg: "'The Good Fight' (is) the only TV show that reflects what life under Trump feels like for many of us who abhor him." After all, Trump does not speak nicely, as did Obama. He is coarse, and they are easily offended. Trump cozies up to dictators. He does not follow the law. He does not support our allies. He attacks the press. But, Obama...oh, if they could just get Obama back for a third term and more.

In 2009 Obama gave his much vaunted speech to the Muslim world from Cairo. He invited the terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, a real slap in the face to our ally Mubarek. He referred to Israeli "occupation" of the West Bank, insulting our ally Israel. He referred to "Palestine" as if it was a country, another slap to Israel. In 2009 Obama and his top people attacked the media - Fox - by saying it was not a real news organization, because it has a "perspective." So, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times and rest of the mainstream media do not have a perspective? Please. This blog has numerous posts on the bias in the mainstream media. But Trump took away Jim Acosta's White House press pass (not CNN's, just Acosta's) and that was the end of Western Civilization.

Obama stood by our allies? England may be our greatest ally. Yet, when the Falklands issue flared up again in 2010, Obama said his administration would remain neutral between England and Argentina - unlike Reagan who gave full support to Thatcher and the Brits in 1982. But Trump cozies up to dictators. Not Obama - who sent $150 billion to the Ayatollahs. Not Obama, who demanded nothing of Hamas or Hezbollah, and had nothing to say when Abbas said that not a single Jew may live in a future state of Palestine. In 2010 Obama had a nice photo-op with Hugo Chavez. And he told Medvedev to tell Putin that he would have more "flexibility" after his reelection. Nice. Then again, Obama mocked Romney in their 2012 debate when Romney called Russia the greatest geopolitical threat to the US. Obama: "Not Al Qaeda?...The Cold War's been over for 20 years." Russian collusion?

Domestically, Obama was an extremely divisive President. Black vs. White. The millionaires and billionaires vs. everyone else. Obama supported the violent and disorderly Occupy Wall Street movement, while mocking the peaceful and very orderly Tea Party. He told entrepreneurs that their success was unrelated to their own hard work: "if you've got a business, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen." And: "I actually believe in redistribution (of wealth)."

But we know that Obama always followed the law and the Constitution. Except, Obama told Congress that if they failed to do what he wanted, that he had a pen and a phone, and would take action accordingly. So much for separation of powers. Speaking of which, after the passage of the ACA, Obama decided that certain provisions needed to be tweaked. Therefore he took it upon himself to decide which provisions of the law his Administration would enforce, and which they would ignore. When asked why he simply did not ask the then Republican Speaker of the House to draft some fixes (clean-up legislation), he replied "in a a normal political environment..." he would have done that. Where is that exception to the separation of powers in the Constitution that says "a president may disregard any law passed by Congress when he deems the political environment to not be normal?" Didn't Reagan deal with Tip O'Neill and Clinton work with Newt Gingrich? Obama had no such propensity.

Obama was certainly no John Kennedy, inspiring people by asking what they could do for their country. Rather, Obama complained that the Constitution, and particularly the Bill of Rights, only said what government could not do to people - it "doesn't say what the Federal government must do on your behalf."

Obama stood by our allies? After a Muslim terrorist shot up a kosher market in Paris, 44 world leaders marched with 1.5 million French citizens to show support for France, and the Jewish community, which was the target of the attack. But not Obama. And we must never forget Obama's final "screw you" to Israel and the Jewish people in his last full month in office, December, 2016. Obama allowed passage, without a US veto, of a UN Security Council resolution declaring the existence of a Palestinian state on the so-called 1967 borders, which had the effect of turning over the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, to the Arabs. And the resolution encouraged the BDS movement against Israel.

My leftist friends can bemoan the Trump Administration all you want. You tell me that I should be ashamed of having voted for Trump, when I never heard one peep out of you about the outrageous comments and actions of Obama. You abhor Trump. My conservative friends and I abhorred Obama. You want me to renounce Trump, and say I will not vote for him again. Too bad, you never renounced Obama. I, for one, will vote for Trump again.