Add to this repeated claims by Republican leadership and any Democratic Party victory is "illegitimate" and the outcome of some form of fraud, corruption, or promises of loot to the poors and the minorities. Painting the "other side" as illegitimate helped turn refusal to compromise into some form of resistance against the encroachment of illegitimate power. And President Obama repeated stated Republicans had painted themselves into a corner and that some Republicans (probably Boehner and Graham at the least) privately told him this.
Agreed. I had an argument with a co-workers about this just this week that buys into the Trump narrative that the election is rigged. I said "Wait a minute...according to Fox News and Rush and all those guys, voters keep sweeping out the Democrats with these strong mandates. You keep telling me that is the proof that the country wants the Republicans to stop Obama. How is that happening if the Democrats are rigging all of these elections????"
This is all pretty much correct. It's difficult to see in the internet age with the ability of groups to polarize and then wall themselves off from inconvenient/contrary realities how this gets undone really. It's impossible to be a pluralist group wiling to coalition when you've isolated yourself on an island of crazy based on fear. I just saw one of the silly fox news programs on a TV at the gym over lunch, the sound was off so I just saw the visuals - it was frightening- first, a minor mention of Trump and his latest khantroversy without any real graphics of note, then a visual of a story on Obama's "secret deal" with Iran with grainy images of planes being unloaded at midnight and a bad picture of Obama, with the UN flag (not the American flag) behind him, with dollar bills floating around, then an image of a fiery plane crash that has been floating around youtube Then a bunch of shots of California wildfires, of raging conflagaration and burned buildings Everyting of course had giant red "ALERT!" slammers flashing around and "breaking" notations. I felt sympathy for the average Fox News viewer at that point - that is what they are constantly bombarded with, subliminal and not-so subliminal images of supposed betrayal, death, destruction and apocalpyse. No wonder they are angry, and no wonder they get angrier. It must be awfully frustrating and exhausting to have to live that way
Is that inaccurate? They are incredibly far to the left and the very first thing they did when they took over congress in 2008 was double the national debt...something that is dangerous. When Obama got into office, he pushed for fairly far left policies and until the Democrats lost the congress they continued to run more than a trillion dollar deficit every single year which led to doubling the total national debt in only a few years. When Republicans took the congress they cut that deficit back to where it was before they lost the congress and Obama and the Democrats threw an absolute fit about it. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming back to merely irresponsible levels of spending. it's totally fair to point out how irresponsible their policies are for the country and honestly people SHOULD be afraid of what will happen if they are allowed to do what they want for multiple years. Unless the country gets their spending under control and starts to cut the debt, things aren't headed anywhere good. That might be a part of it for some, but it's wildly overstated by those who are being apologists for bad policy or outright lawlessness. The fact that something like border control is viewed as racism just shows how ridiculous some people are. That said, I'm sure there's plenty of racists out there that are just anti-minority, just not anywhere near as many as some would have you think. This is another situation where there is a bit of truth but it's greatly overstated for propaganda purposes. Most of the "war" is between conservatives and special interest groups masquerading as intellectuals. There of course are some that are as you describe, but not everyone who disagrees with the political suggestions of scientists are "anti-intellectual". Take global warming for example, the fact that climate scientists have measured higher temperatures doesn't mean that a politician has to agree to cripple the economy in order to not be "anti-intellectual". Of course, that's exactly what happens and eventually you get ridiculous rhetoric from both sides. Basically the allegations of a "war against intellectualism" is no different than those who claim that there is a "war on Christmas". It's just BS that gets simple minded people worked up.
Really well said. I also think that the Republicans choosing to obstruct Obama right when the economy was in the gutter hurt the average American moreso than it would have at just about any other time and further fanned the flames of the resentment that we see now.
A bigger reason for the anger is how things like this keep happening under Democrat leadership <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">U.S. sent $400M to Iran on same day Iran released 4 U.S. prisoners, implemented nuclear deal <a href="https://t.co/ecfuRN3wSo">https://t.co/ecfuRN3wSo</a> <a href="https://t.co/xH71dMuyOY">pic.twitter.com/xH71dMuyOY</a></p>— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) <a href="https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/760914398714134529">August 3, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> The "anger" really ramped up after Obama won re-election largely due to the Republicans running a really weak candidate (though not weak compared to Trump) in Romney and his binder of women who all but handed the presidency to the Democrats for another 4 years. It was seen as a blunder by the Republican establishment and now 4 years later the people are fed up with them......so they did something stupid.
Yes, it is inaccurate. Take Obamcare for example. It took years after the law was passed to convince people there wasn't a public option in the law. You have no idea how many people here in Texas believed that Obamacare created a federal health plan. Lies about Congress not participating on the Obamacare plan, etc. It was outrageous. Not to mention the bill was largely written historically by Republicans. I do agree with you about spending problems though. That isn't where there argument stopped though. You're minimizing what the right wants with regards to "border control." Heck, even Hillary Clinton talks about "securing the border." The tea party wing has been stoked by talk radio to lambaste anything short of deportation as amnesty. It's a simple as that. Rush talks about it every day. They'll talk about doing it compassionately and not wanting a secret police, but at the end of the day they draw a line in the sand; anything short of all "illegals" going back to Mexico is amnesty. Again, you're wrong. YOU may not have a war on intellectuals, but the tea party wing does. The talk radio hosts, the blogs and Fox News (to a lesser extent) REGULARLY mock scientists, college professors, college degrees, etc. They mock people for going to Ivy League schools, mock statistics, make fun of "effeminate" nerds who use statistical modeling in elections, etc. Your point about making a political argument about not wrecking the global economy over global warming is not the same thing as pushing the narrative that global warming is a myth made up by scientists trying to get grant money.
Recall that the obstructionist strategy was part of McConnell's commitment to make Obama a 1-term president. Republican leadership put party over country and gambled that the economic resentment/the anger that nothing was getting done would lead to Democratic losses. It was very cynical and exacerbated by inflaming passions against and fear of the Affordable Car Act (Obamacare). A lot of people claimed at the time, including the President, that the cynical party leadership were stoking flames they would not be able to control for long.
I think a large part of that problem was caused due to the fact that no one even knew what was in the bill until well after it was signed and even then, they had to change things several times in order to not have the whole thing struck down. On top of that, you had people outright lying about what Obamacare even was, people on both sides. Remember when it wasn't just a tax? Then remember when those same people argued that it was just a tax so that it wouldn't be unconstitutional? In the end Obamacare ended up being pretty bad and will probably end up going away one way or the other in the next few years. A massive waste of political capital that doesn't actually help anyone. And that's part of the problem, all the Democrats really cared about was getting Obamacare passed and they continued to run a MASSIVE deficit year after year without even getting a budget passed. Hopefully they do a better job this time around, but the last time Democrats had control over the presidency and Congress, it was a disaster. I honestly don't think there's an argument to the contrary really. Honestly though, illegals should be deported. Illegally move to any other country and what would happen? Why is it that the US should be any different? That said, I wouldn't be against a one time amnesty for those who come forward and register and anyone without a criminal record could become citizens, but after that, you need to crack down on the border and have zero tolerance deportations after that. Basically they let the problem get so bad, you've gotta do something to cut the number of illegals down before being strict, but you can't do an amnesty and then let the problem get bad again. Either your laws matter, or they don't. The reason for that is how naive some of those who have stayed sheltered in academia their whole lives are. When you have a really naive person that has never experienced life outside of academia trying to tell people how to live their lives out in the real world....well they are going to be mocked. I'm sure there are those who are like you say and just don't like "smart people", but I'm telling you, most of it is due to the differences between academia and real life and the rhetoric that ends up flying between people in real life and in academia when political disagreements arise. Also, something you aren't acknowledging is that some professors and scientists SHOULD be mocked. Being a professor or scientist doesn't make a person right. I had some REALLY foolish professors when I went to college and I fully defend making fun of them. I also know "scientists" who are total idiots outside of their specific area that they studied.
The whole "didn't know what was in it" thing is so played out. I was giving courses on Obamacare before the exchanges ever went online. I knew what was in it. I still give annual seminars on it and I still, TO THIS DAY (as in yesterday) have to explain to people that Obamacare isn't a federal healthcare plan. I have someone in my own company who, despite working here, flat out believes I am lying that Obamacare is still private insurance because Rush Limbaugh says otherwise. You are deflecting the overall argument. I never said all educated people are brilliant, nor did I say that people in academia aren't sheltered. That isn't the point. The right has created this idea that the "elites" consisting of intellectuals, professors, scientists, media members, etc. are all out to...what I don't know destroy America?, are are part of this big group that normal, plain spoken folks need to stand against.
Yup, and then it started to get a bit stable so the US cut bait and abandoned Iraq leading to the massive expansion of ISIS. 2 incompetent presidents share responsibility for that decision. One made the decision, the other supported it, implemented it, campaigned on it being his idea, and took credit for it while it was still considered a good thing. Prety much no matter what happens, it looks like we're set to get more of that foreign policy incompetence from the executive.
