I remember asking some Trump supporters back in '16 if they thought that Obama was a citizen, and they mostly said Yes. Then I asked how they could possibly vote for Trump who was the most vicious spreader of the lie that he wasn't. Wasn’t that a litmus test that should be automatically disqualifying for any sane, decent American? For me to pose such a question wasn't persuasive for such Trump supporters, and at the time I didn't care because it never occurred to me that Trump could win. And neither did the Trump supporters I spoke with think he could win, which gave them permission to vote for him as a protest vote.
I could accept a protest vote motivation. But what were they protesting? I think they were protesting in '16 the same thing that led me to vote for Nader in ‘96, which was to reject the triangulating Clinton's–and the broader Democratic Party's–cooptation by Neoliberalism. I understand that now, even if I didn't in '16. I'm not saying these Trump voters would understand their motivation in these terms, but I'd argue that's really at the root of it.
So I've come to understand that to argue that Trump's birtherism was automatically disqualifying was a function of how little I understood about what Trump's appeal was at that time. I've learned a lot since then, but after listening to the Obamas last night, I have to wonder if they have. Barack's speech was a rerun of his 2004 convention, a speech I loved when I heard it. Michelle's was a heartfelt plea to respect the wisdom of mothers. Both speeches were tours de force. Both got in some really juicy, well-deserved digs at Trump. Both are celebrity superstars, and the crowd went understandably ape. Both were great convention speeches, but did they accomplish anything more than to be a thoughtful, eloquent preaching to the Liberal Establishment choir?
Like most Americans I admired Barack the campaigner, but I thought he mostly failed to meet the moment as president. He talked a good game on the campaign trail about re-alignment and reconfiguring American politics, but he fell right into line as a good Neoliberal once in office. He got the ACA passed on terms acceptable to the Neoliberal consensus rather than taking a Medicare-for-all approach. He promoted an idiotic Neoliberal education reform program cluelessly named ‘Race to the Top’. He continued the absurdity in Afghanistan, but worst of all, he turned to the Neoliberals who created the crisis of 2008 to solve the crisis, and they did what you might expect–promoted their own interests rather than the interests of the ordinary Americans who suffered because of their hubris, greed, and folly. If there are people who think that Obama's going along with the Beltway consensus on all these issues did not contribute significantly to the rise of Trump, they really don't understand what's been going on for the last forty years.
So while both speeches were impressive for their inimitable rhetorical flair, I was unimpressed. What would have impressed me would have been a full-throated apology for the stupidity and political malpractice committed by Democrats since the 90s, and a call to reject the influence of donors and lobbyists going forward. That would have impressed me. We got such a plea from Bernie last night, even if not in words so eloquent.
Both Michelle and Barack Obama are impressive human beings, but they've become elite celebrities, and they strike me as figures who have become more comfortable in the Aspen Institute wing of the Liberal establishment than with the Tim and Gwen Walz wing. Yes, they have proved that hardworking, intelligent, ambitious Black people can be elites too. They are winners in their 'race to the top'. Two cheers. But as such they've come to represent what most everyday Americans hate about what the Democratic Party has become, and they don't seem to get that. It's not (mostly) about the racism, it's about the elitism.
So despite the "no-red-or-blue-America" trope and the plea for us all to just get along in a multi-racial Shangri-la, it all falls flat for me. Not that I don't want that–what decent human being doesn't? It's just that Democrats like the Obamas still think that meritocracy is what makes America great, and that's just plain tone deaf for the populist moment we're in.
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