I'm pretty sure everyone has a subtle, nuanced mind, each one attuned to various things. Obama was the first president, where I thought I could see the workings of a mind that I appreciated. I can't understand the callousness and tough love of republican presidents, their kind of lying and rhetoric rubs me the wrong way. Clinton too was a centrist in a nation that had swung far to the right. Biden and Clinton would be republicans in other countries.
That's why I don't see the red scare stuff as effective in talking about Biden. He's clearly in the pockets of big business, who allowed him to win, and while that red scare stuff does work with a certain kind of person, he is against Medicare for all, and anything that would truly help all of America.
Obama is both committed to justice and the future in ways that challenge a republican mindset, but was also not interested in stepping into narrow us versus them binary thinking, and was thus seen as a race traitor by some black folk. His wanting to lift all boats was too general for them. Never mind that a black focused president would never win with 13% of America being African American. His Hawaiian, intellectual and balanced approach is just what we need in a leader. He worked to bring America together.
That the opposite was elected right after his administration--you can't but help wonder what that means. The Trump administration was a thumb in the eye of liberals to the very end, including trying to subvert democracy. Trump produced a volume of crimes America couldn't cope with, exposing how much the culture around presidential expectations was not enough to secure an effective president.
His failures around Covid will be debated into eternity. You can't put every death at his feet, even in the countries that did it right, there were deaths. If you compare the graph for New Zealand Covid to the graph of USA, I can't help but see the initial bump that was the worst for New Zealand, is just a small bump for America, which keeps getting worse wave after wave. New Zealand did it right but still 25 people have died from Covid. Adjust that for population and that's about 1,673 cases would have been in USA if we'd been as effective as New Zealand. Now maybe it's harder to control more people, and there are a billion other reasons why New Zealand could do well, and the USA could not, but if you subtract say 2K from the USA total, we would only have 354K instead 356K dead. Well, that 2K, wildly exaggerated round up, would not be much of a drop in the bucket compared to 354. OK, maybe he is guilty of pretty much murdering 350K odd people so far.
Could the USA president have done what the New Zealand Prime Minister did? Is the USA's ideas of freedom make wearing a mask feel like a totalitarian move that the right wing would resist? Was Trump's inaction really just rubber stamping what the right wing would have done anyway?
We'll never know. What we will see is how much Biden's leadership and actually addressing the issue will mean to driving down numbers, past expectations, which is another metaphysic.
I did not directly know anyone who died in 9/11. I had a man cut my hair once, who there, but got out and survived. In a very real sense, I was not personally affected by it. I had a co-worker who's wife was there, and she survived too. I had another friend who worked there, and turned around right away and got home safe. For a few years, I lived 2 blocks from the WTC, and the changes were immense. The way it changed America was something that affected me.
For some reason this tragedy was a public one that got sympathy. The 35 children who die every year for America's so called right to bear arms, that is not a tragedy we recognize. I could go on and on. I'm not saying we shouldn't have done right by the families of 9/11, I'm saying we should prioritize every life in America. Justice is blind before the law, which means it's not just justice for the rich and not for the poor.
I do know someone who's died of Covid. My ex-wife's aunt, who let us visit with her for a little while in Quito Ecuador, and later came to the USA, died. She was a wonderful person, kind, generous, and she raised two kids who fought to get into the USA, and are both positive contributors to our country. Her husband had a second wife, and when she found out, he went to live with her children in the USA. So she decided to come to America, as a middle aged woman, who didn't speak the language. And she was a positive working contributor to America while she was here. NYC is filled with these types of immigrant stories. Do I lay her death at the feet of Trump? Based on the above analysis, I'd say yes. This tragedy has personally affected me.
Whether or not a tragedy has personally affected you or not, because of interbeing, we are all connected, and the racism, and oppression of others is a wound upon myself. The income inequality in this country affects me. The lack of universal health care affects me. The lack of sane housing prices affects me. The savage inequalities in education affects me. And global warming and pollution affects me, even if I won't really be around to see all the consequences. The idea that my daughter and sons will is quite terrible.
My cousin says when Obama goes off the election and into his presidents, the feel is different in the book. I'm not there yet, but his campaign is energizing me. Nobody ever fulfills the hope of the campaign. I look forward to imaging the choices that Obama sees.
I've enjoyed the first 100+ pages. I'm tempted to read other books of his.
In a small part I also wanted to read Obama's presidential memoir after I read Samantha Power's memoir, which I highly recommend.
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