I thought you made a very coherent well-reasoned post.
I initially didn’t know what that poster meant, whether you need to rewrite or if your comment was worthy of being published.
Seems like a hit-and-run artist. No need to worry about it.
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When you walk like duck, sound like a duck, and look like a duck…
Obama and Clinton are Republicans.
Obama is a weak leader and terrible negotiator. He and Clinton gave away the farm to Republicans and the middle class got screwed.
I’m very sad to see what BLM has become; I fear that the movement is going to fade into irrelevance. Until they went full Berniebro, they actually moved the needle on police reform. Agitating to bring all those videos up into the faces of an indifferent public was having a true and important impact. People were listening, people were becoming convinced that police power was out of control. Police organizations were taking them seriously, looking at the unfettered power they have amassed for the past three decades.
Skeptical people, seeing those viral videos, the outrage, the heartbreak, started to open their ears and their eyes like never before.
Now it seems like they are just another screaming mob like the whole berniebro “movement.” We haven’t seen any videos lately to keep the issue at the fore. They have taken the eyes off the prize, which is profound and fundamental police reform.
After Bernie, I sincerely hope they don’t fade into the left-wing wilderness like OWS, howling into the night with nobody listening. I fear they are on their way.
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Highlight the violence that is often perpetrated against black people in a way that it is not on white peeps. I believe it got started after a number of shootings that either appeared to be or were clearly unjustified, particularly by police.
I fully support the movement to the extent that they have brought attention to this injustice, but I agree with the president and some others here. After they got a significant amount of attention, they largely failed to pivot to working with institutions on solutions. It’s obvious that there shouldn’t be a compromise on the goal, but discussions have to take place. When people say, “OK, you have my attention. Let’s talk about this,” you shouldn’t assume they’re working in bad faith and just keep yelling.
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Don’t agree. Sure, in the heat of the political season, some people have acted foolishly, but the organization is making gains.
Support for criminal justice reform is becoming bipartisan. Movements such as Moral Mondays are providing leadership and gaining acceptance with a wider audience. And tragedies such as the Flint water crisis will mobilize more grass-roots efforts.
The message of BLM – equal justice – is gaining strength through new alliances. I don’t believe they will suffer the same fate as Occupy.
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It’s clear you’re taking our president’s wise advice, but not because you care what people think of an oppositional stance.
"That’s why I think it is so important for all the young people here to seek out people who don’t agree with you.
While I certainly agree that support for reexamining the criminal justice system is gaining a wider audience where it had none before, I don’t really attribute that to BLM but more to the wildly unjust events that have taken on lives of their own. I don’t see the alliances they’ve made but maybe I’m just tuning them out.
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Don’t you think the Charleston massacre opened people’s eyes?
These were innocent, god-fearing people who who were respected, and some dumb kid who was influenced by total morons who pathetically think white people are somehow not getting…
something for nothing.
Projection.
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I hope that you are right, randy. I don’t put Rev Barber in that category; he is very smart politically, and unless I’m mistaken, Moral Monday movement existed before BLM and is independent of them. I think he has had an impact and will continue to do so.
I’ve seen the left blow it time and time again – starting out with an urgent and relevant issue and watched it deteriorate and degenerate into ultra-leftwing puritanical blathering. Or worse. I see that same tendency in current BLM. Maybe it’s just campaign season, I don’t know. Hopefully, they will get back to their message after it is over.
And hopefully, they don’t act like such jackasses that people start tuning them out. Many a worthy movement has gone that route.
I’d be happy to wrong. 
Very happy.
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You truly are a special kind of ass.
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Your point is well taken: either way not much may have gotten accomplished with the kind of rigor mortis that has set in Washington…but I feel there must have been ways for Obama to arm-twist, threaten (for the common good), retaliate (for the common good), coerce and generally whip some political ass with both his Democrat colleagues and Republican enemies instead of wearing a “Kick Me” sign for 8 years.
Agreed. There’s a contingent of ignorant and/or bitterly angry people who’ve convinced themselves Obama could’ve done so much more, but almost none of them can ever provide a credible answer as to how he couldve done more. They say he shouldn’t have compromised or negotiated with the GOP, but they don’t explain how, when faced with a divided government, refusing to compromise could actually work. Do they think he could just shutdown the government until he got what he wanted? How many people would suffer in the meantime? And how many Americans would be sympathetic to the idea that the president doesn’t even have to try to compromise with the duly elected opposition? Not many, I’m guessing.
Others claim he could’ve used his bully pulpit. Yeah, right. The same people who would hold their breath if the president spoke out about the greatness of breathing are somehow going to be moved by more speeches and press conferences. The same people who refuse to believe the man was even born here or that someone they castigate for attending a Christian church is even a Christian, these are the folks who are going to listen and urge their congressperson to listen to the president?
And then there are some who claim he could’ve done more by executive order. Right, do any of these people know anything about the make up of SCOTUS before Scalia died? Are they honestly so naive as to believe that SCOTUS would let him get away with anything sweeping via EO?
I think they’re just as divorced from reality as any tea bagger who is angry that their congressperson hasn’t repealed Obamacare or ended marriage equality and abortion. They’re just as reality challenged, bitter, and stupid.
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How about the Tea Party members in Congress learning to COMPROMISE??? Hmmm?? Izzat too much to ask?
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How so? We have a polarized ineffectual government that gets not a goddam thing done because the Tea radicals insist on never compromising. That is “working better”??
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Consistent voice of reason and practicality, this president. Activism is great for publicity, but it is a shitty way to actually ORGANIZE.
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I disagree,quite strongly actually. Obama does not have to worry about his children being murdered and and is way out of line telling people who do to one it down. I don’t want to get in a heated exchange. I just had to say my peace.
And that is why the Democrats will win the Presidential election, and quite possibly the Senate back, in November. So yes, it IS working. Most of the country, including a very large amount of Republicans, are disgusted with their own party on the Garland thing.
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No heat here, but denying Obama’s legitimacy as a thought leader on these issues puts us in a bad place. He has accomplished tremendous things under very difficult circumstances. What have they accomplished?
We are having the conversation because of BLM & other groups, but the tactics that bring a subject to the fore are by definition different than those used to push through for solutions. He has every right, even an obligation, to help them understand that. What good does it do to have had the awakening if you can’t get past your own orthodoxy to make change actually happen? Shutting down Obama, and others like him, because perhaps his children aren’t in the crosshairs, just seems myopic.
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That has been THE main problem with the OWS, BLM, etc. protests. Many of the protesters have decided this is their chance for attention and to get in the spotlight (TV) by doing stupid stuff. Their craving attention has taken priority over any cause. It’s not about showboating, it’s about substance. Storming a restaurant and interrupting the meals of people who mostly support you is as stupid as it gets, and there are many other instances of such stupidity.
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Exactly, the one thing they appear to have accomplished is ensuring they lose the Presidency again in 2016, and potentially the Senate (there is a good chance of that happening too).