There are probably over active 100 threads here on the SDMB, some in nearly every forum, dealing with what is presently going on in our government. I rarely go to Facebook, but I checked it the other day and it is chock-full of politics. People are protesting in the streets and airports. Celebrities are hi-jacking programming to make their statements.
I roam mainly in lefty circles, so it seems like there is an unusual amount of concern and consternation and doomsday talk happening over here. I don’t recall such widespread reaction during the last transition of power. My question is: For those leaning to the right, were people losing their sh-t like this back in 2009 when Obama took office?
I’m going to say no because it was not a shock when Obama won the '08 election. We kind of knew it was coming. I think there was displeasure or disagreement from the right, but I don’t recall the kind of outrage that exists today related to Trump.
Plus, while his being black was a novelty, Obama in terms of his policies, character, values, etc was not an egregious departure from what is traditionally considered appropriate to a President of the United States. If anybody thought of Obama as unelectable, it was only on account of his colour, and I think the majority of those who considered a black man to be unelectable would have seen that as a bad thing, and were delighted to be proved wrong.
Whereas Trump was considered unelectable for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with his race, and most people who have been proved wrong about this are appalled.
Well, indirectly. Most native born Kenyans would have similarly been unelectable.
I seem to recall that it was hard to buy ammunition for several weeks after the election, presumably because gun owners thought there were going to be crackdowns on gun/ammo ownership, so supply couldn’t keep up with demand.
The reaction you are seeing is not because the other party won an election. We have had a long history of all kinds of Presidents, from very good to very bad. We have never had one as unqualified in intellect and temperament (and experience and judgment) as we do now. So, no, it wasn’t like this in 2009, and it wasn’t like this in 2001. Hopefully, it will never have to be like this again. This election truly is different. It’s not “business as usual.” It’s deplorable.
In my estimation, 2017 is a unique phenomenon. As the OP notes, social media may have played a role, as the echo chamber is in full effect. But from what I recall, the right under Obama wasn’t any different from the left under Bush at this point after the election. The “Obama derangement syndrome” came later on.
It’s true, but not just for that reason. If you haven’t been able to find ammo for weeks, you will buy as much as you can the next time (and many stores limited the amount you could buy). Only the most paranoid would ever think that .22 was under threat, but it still experienced shortages because people bought it in lieu of more expensive ammo. I have literally not seen a single box of bulk .22 for sale in 8 years, except once when it was marked up 400%.
Most of what I remember now after Obama’s election was just friends posting on Facebook, “Not my president,” and “So this is how liberty dies: With thunderous applause.” (Star Wars quote) In fact, even on Election Day itself, I remember a McCain-supporting friend engaging in cheery interaction with Obama supporters.
This has me thinking: Suppose Trump had always held a huge lead over Hillary from the very onset of the race, and held it all year long, and won in a landslide. Would we still see the same protests today, or would anti-Trump protesters have mentally caved in and felt hopeless?
I actually thought Obama would make an effort to improve race relations… didn’t happen. Instead he used the minority of right wing whack jobs to his own political benefit.
No. Obama was expected to win, and though unpopular to some, it was expected. McCain was a lousy candidate, and picking Palin was quickly recognized as a mistake by most. Obama was seen as an unqualified, egotistical empty suit, but with obvious charisma.
Watching Romney lose to Obama in 2012 was actually harder to stomach, given the state of the economy at that time, and GOP picking up strength in congress and governors mansions. And Obama was no longer the bright shiny penny popular with college kids in 2012. I still don’t see how Romney lost, other than demonetization by the media and Dem activists.
Bullshit. There are no doubt a few racists who obviously don’t like Obama. But most of the opposition is not due to race. That’s playing the race card, pure and simple. Disgusting.
No, it didn’t happen. Race relations are worse, as Obama never missed a chance to blame anything on race. I was hoping that having a black president would represent a big step towards a colorblind society where merit, education, talent and qualifications trumped skin color. Instead, the opposite happened, and skin color seems to be at the forefront of every democrat’s thoughts, no matter the issue.
Judging from the amount of noise generated, and using my cat as an analogy, the difference between the two is similar to “having claws carefully trimmed with a tool designed for the purpose” (reality) and “having claws pulled out at the root with a rusty pliers” (reaction).
Demonetization? When he got “demonetized”, did he get the car elevator repossessed, or what?
The outrage was there but the extremists were a little more guarded in how and where they expressed it. Because, let’s be honest about it, any time anyone spoke against his actions or his election we played the “racist” card and that pretty much trumped (sorry) any argument they wanted to make. We had a lot of reasons to be for him but we only thought there could be one reason for people to be against him. That changed a little in 12 when the more radical socialist branches abandoned him, but it was still the easy ploy for me to use against the extreme right.
The extreme right did what we are talking about now — biding their time to “reclaim America”. If we can do half as good a job ----------
True. If Trump means that the dems. Take back the house, start making inroads in state legislatures and governorships and increases turnout then it will not be that bad.
That is what happened to the right. They won the federal legislature as well as tons of state races, and also built a strong political movement.
I suspect that the energy of protest would be considerably reduced without the factor of illicit (Comey) and external (Putin) interference – they’d either be implausible as explanations for the result, or perhaps absent entirely if neither had considered it necessary to take a hand.
Given that registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans by around 20 million (?) at that time, there was already a built-in numbers advantage for Obama no matter what, as well as natural incumbent advantage. And I think Obama was still able to convincingly blame the eight years of GWB for the economic woes - at four years after Bush left, it was right on the borderline of blame and Obama arguments that “This wasn’t my fault, it was Bush’s fault” could still convince many. Also, Romney was not charismatic in the least. He was like a less experienced, Republican, version of Hillary, and just as wooden.
It is worth noting though that Obama was the first president in a long time to win reelection by a smaller margin than he won his first election. Reagan, Clinton, and Bush Jr. all won reelection by a larger margin than their first presidential win, whereas Obama’s margin of victory shrank. So there were already warning indicators for the Democratic Party in 2016, that they should have heeded.
