“ It did not start with Donald Trump,” former President Barack Obama said last week in his melodramatic speech on the current divisions in American politics. “He is a symptom, not the cause.”
If Obama had stopped there, he might have been right. He was trying to describe American politics as suffering a crisis of “division and resentment and paranoia.” Indeed, it is, and indeed it didn’t start with Trump.
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Obama’s snubbing of GOP lawmakers began with his stimulus package, on which he brushed off their suggestions with a simple rejoinder about the election: “ I won.” Obama then rejected the advice of his chief of staff to chart a more moderate and sustainable course on healthcare reform (a simple Medicaid expansion) that might have drawn Republican votes across the aisle — and which probably would have averted the Democratic defenestration that followed.
In 2011, having lost control of Congress, Obama began a campaign of governing unilaterally wherever possible — and often where not possible — with executive actions, many of them illegal. As he did this, the power-hungry president demonized Congress for failing to enact the very policies that voters had elected them to oppose, arguing that “ we can’t wait” ... apparently for democracy and the constitutional order required for new laws to be passed.
Where Trump merely talks a big game against the media, Obama took action. He barred administration officials at one point from even appearing on Fox News because it failed to meet ideological standards. He spoke publicly to delegitimize it as a news gatherer. Probably not coincidentally, his Justice Department later labeled one of its reporters an "unindicted co-conspirator" in an indictment for merely doing his job.
Obama, the Great Divider when in office, lacks the credibility to lecture America
If Obama had stopped there, he might have been right. He was trying to describe American politics as suffering a crisis of “division and resentment and paranoia.” Indeed, it is, and indeed it didn’t start with Trump.
[clip]
Obama’s snubbing of GOP lawmakers began with his stimulus package, on which he brushed off their suggestions with a simple rejoinder about the election: “ I won.” Obama then rejected the advice of his chief of staff to chart a more moderate and sustainable course on healthcare reform (a simple Medicaid expansion) that might have drawn Republican votes across the aisle — and which probably would have averted the Democratic defenestration that followed.
In 2011, having lost control of Congress, Obama began a campaign of governing unilaterally wherever possible — and often where not possible — with executive actions, many of them illegal. As he did this, the power-hungry president demonized Congress for failing to enact the very policies that voters had elected them to oppose, arguing that “ we can’t wait” ... apparently for democracy and the constitutional order required for new laws to be passed.
Where Trump merely talks a big game against the media, Obama took action. He barred administration officials at one point from even appearing on Fox News because it failed to meet ideological standards. He spoke publicly to delegitimize it as a news gatherer. Probably not coincidentally, his Justice Department later labeled one of its reporters an "unindicted co-conspirator" in an indictment for merely doing his job.
Obama, the Great Divider when in office, lacks the credibility to lecture America
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TRUMP!!! TRUMP!!! TRUMP!!! TRUMP!!! TRUMP!!! 
TRUMP!!! TRUMP!!! 
TRUMP!!! :spittle: 
TRUMP!!! TRUMP!!! 
it is NOT the JOB of the Gov. to stimulate the Economy - but Regulate with minimal intrusion, moderate taxes and a light touch [protecting consumers from bad stuff]
