Jim Geraghty:
As his presidency comes to a close, it’s clear that Barack Obama still finds Americans who disagree with him an illogical and inscrutable species, so inherently backward that there’s no point in making much effort to understand them.
Discussing the Democratic party’s troubles in winning the votes of working-class white voters, Obama told Rolling Stone’s Jann Wenner that, “Part of it has to do with our inability, our failure, to reach those voters effectively. Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country.”
Put aside the question of when Obama was last in a bar — how often have you encountered a bar or restaurant that displays Fox News for its patrons? Surely they exist, but they aren’t common — for a moment. When was the last time Obama watched Fox News?
For the entirety of his presidency, Obama has described Fox as an alien force that exerts an unnatural and sinister level of influence on the public’s views.
In 2010, Obama contended that the channel was potentially destructive to the country’s interests, declaring that it has “a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.” How many television channels does Obama think can affect America’s long-term growth?
In 2015, Obama suggested Fox News makes the American public seethe with resentment against poor people:
I think that the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, don’t want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction. And look, it’s still being propagated. I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant venue. . . . We’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues.
In April, he remarked that, “Republicans, they have their own TV station.”
Contemplate what President Obama must think about working-class white voters to conclude that their vote was determined, or at least significantly influenced, by what was on the television in their favorite bars and restaurants. It implies that if Rachel Maddow had been playing above the pool table or Golden Tee cabinet, Hillary Clinton and Congressional Democrats would have cruised to victory. What kind of fools does he take these voters for? Drones? Zombies? Empty-headed hicks, hypnotized en masse by Bill O’Reilly?
Typical thinking liberal demacrat sneering his fat snout at the working class who pay the taxes that he gives to the Useless Nations and terrorists sponsoring nations He is the worst of them all
He hasn’t lost an iota of respect for the american working population paying the bulk of the tax money so recklessly wasted. He never ever had any respect for anyone ever no respect, no empathy, didn’t want to give anyone true hope,but change yes he wanted change. That we got now more government than factory workers. No jobs for the poor give them a stinkin cell phone made in china and make me pay for it with a new federal fee on my bill, cell phones also are proven to cause brain damage, that will keep em voting for the dems.
Yea Carrier will stay with 1000 $30.00 hour jobs, all the little businesses that feed that manufacturer nuts bolts metal wiring ect all the cafes that feed them when they go out to eat ect….he saved many more than 1000
This guy is a light weight bigot.
He got the job, affirmative action, he fights his whiteness.
No qualifications, his people know he isn’t one of them (yes, yellow/red bone).
THEY actually believed they could role out a white female crook, and sell the 1st Female, then the 1st Hispanic, LBGQ, LMNOP, you get the point.
Anyone that votes for a Dem at the Federal level, isn’t thinking.
Please, I trying to understand your logic of supporting a dem?
While I was rearing for deployment to Iraq, I read many book written by people who had dealt with Muslims. One of the most interesting comments was this passage.
If Ali had 5 sheep and Mohammad has two sheep, Mohammad would want to kill 3 of Ali’s sheep to attain equality. Obama wants to destroy the income/lives of white workers to provide equality for non-working/poor blacks. A western solution would be to assist the poor to increase their herd by hard work so they could attain equality. Doesn’t this explain some of Obama’s actions?
Projection is what’s behind this, but Obama haters will never figure that out. Some understand the concept, but lack the capacity for self-examination that would allow them to see it in themselves.
Why would it be the white working class that Obama has contempt for? Is the working class white? In fact, a high percentage of the black and Hispanic populations fall into the working class category. The upper middle class and above tend to be more heavily populated by whites. The massive job losses associated with recession, such as were experienced in 2007 and 2008, tend to hit blacks, Hispanics, and other minority populations at least as hard as they do “the white working class.” Most of them are in the category that gets slammed the hardest.
Democrats like Obama are accused of identity politics, apparently because they acknowledge this reality, speak to it, and at times actually attempt to remedy its consequences. Trump, of course, does not politically exploit racial or ethnic divisions in any way. Right?
@Greg:
The obama campaign of 2012 abandoned white working class voters. None other that the NY slimes’ Thomas b edsall wrote about it in November 2011. Check algores amazing internet.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/285200/obama-abandons-working-class-michael-barone
I hadn’t really though of white working class voters as an oppressed minority, since the percentage of the white labor force that’s unemployed is substantially lower than any other racial group, except for Asian Americans.
@Greg:
They are not oppressed. The 2012 obama campaign consciously chose to not target the white working class as a voting block. My goodness, this is not new news. It has been known since November of 2011.
@Greg: Not oppressed, just pay the taxes to support the rest.