Donald Trump’s least favorite thing in the world is happening again: President Obama is acting “unpresidential.”…. Yes, apparently the president has offended Trump once again with his wild behavior and lack of manners. What did he do this time, you ask? He walked off a plane. Gasp! Hopping and bobbing!?! That is almost as bad as when he didn’t wear a tie during his Super Bowl interview. Almost.
What if no matter what you (did or didn’t) do, someone would immediately leap to the fore with criticism of your efforts (or lack of same). It wouldn’t matter what you said, how you shook someone’s hand, the color of your tie, or the brand of diet soda you drink. Everything about you would be open for criticism from self-appointed “experts” who believe they’re qualified to identify and address your (evidently myriad) shortcomings.
Welcome to the world of Barack Obama. I’ve often said that you couldn’t pay me enough to be President. When people ask me why, I point to our current President, who’s criticized 24/7/365 for things he has control over and things he doesn’t. He’s been criticized for things done before he took office (the Wall Street bailout), and every negative thing that happens overseas is his fault. No person should have to deal with such pettiness; it must feel like being nibbled to death by ducks. Since January 20th, 2009, President Obama has been subjected to perhaps the most intense, ugly, mean-spirited, and racially-inspired criticism ever directed at an American Chief Executive. The petty, minuscule things the nattering nabobs of negativity on the Right see fit to nitpick the President about are truly astonishing. This President is blamed for most everything while simultaneously getting none of the credit for the things he’s accomplished.
It was Hillary Clinton who coined the phrase “politics of personal destruction,” the desire by those on the Right to destroy their opponents utterly. It’s a philosophy that holds merely defeating your opponent is insufficient. No, to truly experience and appreciate victory, one must vanquish- nay, crush- your adversary, grinding the last shred of their dignity and humanity into dust and scattering them to the wind.
That Donald Trump has deemed himself worthy of criticizing the way the President walks is as arrogant as it is offensive. Trump is an opportunist, a man who’d roll over his own children to make a buck. His qualifications to criticize ANYTHING the President does is suspect at best. It seems simplistic to attribute Trump’s abject hatred of the fact that Barack Obama is walking the Earth to racism, but it would be naive to think it doesn’t play a part in this tragicomedy. You’ll never hear the Donald (or any of his fellow ideological travelers) admit that this is about race, but not even Bill Clinton faced this sort of raw, visceral rage and personal hatred.
Barack Obama could walk on water and cure cancer…and the “experts” on the Right would be criticizing him for failing to cur diabetes and obesity. Virtually everything he does and the manner in which he does it is “unpresidential.” People like Donald Trump act as if they have the answers, but the truth is that “their” people have held the White House for 20 of the last 34 years…and look where we are for it. Republican Presidents have presided over the creation of a plutocracy, where power has almost completely devolved to the moneyed elite. We call America a democracy, but the truth is that “one man, one vote” is a quaint, outdated concept that’s become the property of people like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson. America is no longer a democracy as the word is defined. Money has corrupted American politics, allowing people like Donald Trump to speak of American government as if its their personal property. It now is.
(No, I’m not about to claim Democrats are perfect. Far from it…but Republicans are nuts.)
In many respects, Barack Obama has been a good President. When people criticize his “lack of accomplishments,” my admonition would be to check his record, which makes his predecessor’s look childish. Despite being surrounded by an entire city full of people committed to overseeing his personal and political destruction, this President’s done pretty well. We now live in an era where the denizens of the Far Right would rather see America fail and crumble than to allow The Black Guy in the White House © anything resembling a victory. It’s no longer about doing what’s best for the country; it’s about destroying a President disinclined to do the bidding of the moneyed elite.
Donald Trump has no problem criticizing a President whose main “crime,” in his estimation, is merely existing…but dealing out criticism is easy. It’s doing what’s best for America that’s a much more difficult proposition…not that Trump would have any idea about that.
