The Trump Presidency

The White House is acknowledging for the first time that officials did direct the Ukraine call transcript be filed in a separate classified system.

In a statement provided to CNN, a senior White House official says it was under the direction of National Security Council attorneys: "NSC lawyers directed that the classified document be handled appropriately."

The admission lends further credibility to the whistleblower complaint description of how the transcript with the Ukrainian president, among others, were kept out of wider circulation by using a system for highly sensitive documents.

But the statement does not explain whether anyone else in the White House was part of the decision to put the the Ukraine transcript in the more restrictive system.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-white-house/index.html
 
I have a theory that Obama is why we have Trump. For 8 years you had rural conservatives essentially be told they were backward, evil, and on the wrong side of history. They got largely left out of the economic recovery. Instead of feeling represented, they felt the government was actively working against them.

Enter Trump the demagouge. Like and demagouge, he needs a group of marginalized people to form his core support. He steps in, tells these people they're not evil, they're not backward, and that they matter and these people flock to his banner.

This is an object lesson in why we need presidents who strive to represent every American and try to make every American's life better. The more people feel marginalized (whether legitimately or not) the better the climate for demagouges.
 
I have a theory that Obama is why we have Trump. For 8 years you had rural conservatives essentially be told they were backward, evil, and on the wrong side of history. They got largely left out of the economic recovery. Instead of feeling represented, they felt the government was actively working against them.

Enter Trump the demagouge. Like and demagouge, he needs a group of marginalized people to form his core support. He steps in, tells these people they're not evil, they're not backward, and that they matter and these people flock to his banner.

This is an object lesson in why we need presidents who strive to represent every American and try to make every American's life better. The more people feel marginalized (whether legitimately or not) the better the climate for demagouges.

I partially agree. But who was telling rural conservatives they were backward? It wasn't Obama and it wasn't the media. Perhaps it was their own conscience.
 
I think that bit—while fundamentally correct, I say as a South Carolinian—was supposed to be empathetic, it definitely comes off as ham-handed and condescending. However, it’s also a valuable part of the larger point, which is that that statement was quite purposefully amplified and magnified, because it was essential to the political fortunes of Republicans that those folks feel that they were objects of contempt and derision. Nobody remembers any of the inclusive stuff Obama said and did.

Also worth mentioning as part of this conversation that Trump’s base is not necessarily poor, hardscrabble white folks.

As an aside, though I appreciate striker’s thoughtfulness generally, blaming Obama for Trump is pretty week. People bought Trump’s **** because they wanted it. That grievance wasn’t born and raised to maturity in 8 years.
 
I have a theory that Obama is why we have Trump. For 8 years you had rural conservatives essentially be told they were backward, evil, and on the wrong side of history. They got largely left out of the economic recovery. Instead of feeling represented, they felt the government was actively working against them.

Enter Trump the demagouge. Like and demagouge, he needs a group of marginalized people to form his core support. He steps in, tells these people they're not evil, they're not backward, and that they matter and these people flock to his banner.

This is an object lesson in why we need presidents who strive to represent every American and try to make every American's life better. The more people feel marginalized (whether legitimately or not) the better the climate for demagouges.

Things like Medicaid Expansion in the ACA would have helped those people a lot, but nearly every red state governor blocked it. I think Kasich accepted it. The stimulus had money solely dedicated to helping transition coal workers from a dying industry and train them into green jobs.

The cling to religion and guns thing, while probably not the best politically tact moment of his career, pales in comparison to any of the insults Trump has made to marginalized groups. If rural folks were that offended by Obama's comment, then I think we know who the real snowflake are in this country.

I think you underplay the Fox News and right wing media's role here in all of this.
 
C'mon, Obama's complicity in creating Trump was not in that comment
It was being black
and his middle name is Hussein
period

"economic anxiety"
................................

rural whites have had a chip on their shoulder long before Obama.
History moving backwards
Welfare Queens in Cadillacs, Southern Strategy, George Wallace, Dixiecrat etc etc etc
all political strategies / PR campaigns aimed at rural whites
Sold like a box of laundry soap

In 2008 Palin taught the TeaParty how to tap into that on a national scale.
Or should I say rip off the scab rather than tap into
 
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-WaPo
 
"They cling to their guns and religion"

I believe Obama said that during the primary campaign in 2008 in reaction to Hillary's attacks on him. I don't recall that as being a constant drumbeat during his Presidency. He was revived it somewhat during the 2016 campaign, but I don't think he ever used the term "deplorables."

Trump is the culmination of a lot of trends and the reaction to the Obama Presidency certainly contributed. But it goes back to the 1990s and a lot of Clinton Third Way decisions.
 
Man Obsessed With Hillary Clinton's Private Server Hid Documents On A Secret System

You can't make this schit up.
 


US special envoy to Ukraine who is expected to be a key witness has resigned. That does it for me. I am ready to call this thing. This is it for Trump. Hopefully he takes as many people down with him as possible.
 
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