I agree with a lot of what "Democrats" say, but I totally disagree with their impression of Obama. Personally, I can't think of one good thing he did (including ACA -- it might be better if anyone actually understood the law and what their rights were under it). The man pushed Israel under the bus so many times. And Carter (still a darling of the left to some degree)???? What in heck did he do that was so wonderful? He also threw Israel under the bus. When handed a list of the people who were to be officer/trustees, etc of the Holocaust Museum, he looked at the list and said "too many Jews". Even after his presidency he has been buddying up to the Arabs and that's not even mentioning his "lovely" "prosemitic" book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.
I never said Trump was the greatest president who ever lived (I still think Truman was the best president and with the way things are going these days, with presidents getting worse, I doubt that is going to change any time soon. I didn't vote for Trump, but so far I don't see tons of Nazis coming out of the woodwork (as I have in the past). Trump says the stupidest things but I don't think people should be excoriated over things they say (particularly on social media -- I wonder what stupid things the man who beat a bunny would have to say on Twitter). The one thing about Obama is he knew how to shovel the manure. He knew how to say one thing at an ADL (B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League) dinner and another when he went to the Middle East to talk with Arab leaders. The man polarized Jews and African Americans.
I'm really getting annoyed (ok, understatement) that people are so "black and white" (that's colors not racial) these days. Everything anybody says is either all good or all bad. I didn't notice it so much until I read Bernard Goldberg's book Bias. It made me realize that I was falling into that also. It's hard to explain, but I notice it constantly these days. I notice it when Roseanne does something stupid (which she apologized for) and suddenly she's out of a job and a pariah. To me, it makes no sense -- we ALL say stupid things. And we all have always knows that Roseanne says and does stupid things, so why is everyone so shocked? BTW, I had no idea until VERY recently that there was ANY racial connotation to calling someone any primate. I called my niece (decidedly very light skinned) a monkey because I was in awe of the way she could swing from one bar of a "monkey bars" to another with ease (and aplomb) and I couldn't do more than hold onto two bars, one with each hand.
The constitution gives us a lot of rights but nowhere does it give us the right to not be offended. To be honest, I'm offended every time someone uses the term "Good Samaritan" (and if you don't understand why, read the NT story that the term comes from -- it's VERY offensive to Jews). But I don't assume that everyone who uses the term in an Antisemite. Why do people automatically assume that someone says something it means what is the most obnoxious or unflattering meaning of the word? And even if that IS what the person means, does that mean (s)he should be shunned for life.
I'm suddenly reminded of a story Phyllis Chesler tells -- she is a relatively famous feminist author who just so happens to be Jewish (as are a lot of the feminist leaders of the 70s -- Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug leap to mind, but I digress) -- I first heard of Phyllis Chesler when my Mom was in college (in the 70s) and she was the darling of liberals until... She was speaking to a group of academic feminists and they cheered her talk. Then, during the Q&A, they asked her how she felt about Israel and she committed the crime of stating her pro-Israel stance. She was booed off the stage by the same people who had just cheered her.
Why is it that these days if one disagrees with ONE thing a person says or espouses they dismiss everything else the person says? Why do we always take the worst that people we don't like say and the best that people we do like say?
This is not the Soviet Union -- we don't have to "toe the party line" not matter what. I agree with some things "democrats" say and I agree with some things "republicans" say. I'm an independent thinker -- I can take one from column A and one from column B -- it's all about what I think is right.
