Charles P. Pierce: President Obama Must Wonder If He Ever Understood This Country At All

[babylonsister]

President Obama Must Wonder If He Ever Understood This Country At All

Reflections on the final day.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jan 19, 2017

(Optional Video Accompaniment To This Post @ link)


WASHINGTON, D.C.—This is going to be a different town, starting on Friday afternoon, when the American republic becomes set decoration for a performance piece. The Washington Post has a preview of how it is being repurposed as a large, gilt-edged mirror.

Halfway through his interview with The Washington Post, Trump shared a bit of news: He already has decided on his slogan for a reelection bid in 2020. "Are you ready?" he said. " 'Keep America Great,' exclamation point." "Get me my lawyer!" the president-elect shouted. Two minutes later, one arrived. "Will you trademark and register, if you would, if you like it — I think I like it, right? Do this: 'Keep America Great,' with an exclamation point. With and without an exclamation. 'Keep America Great,' " Trump said. "Got it," the lawyer replied. That bit of business out of the way, Trump returned to the interview. "I never thought I'd be giving {you} my expression for four years {from now}," he said. "But I am so confident that we are going to be, it is going to be so amazing. It's the only reason I give it to you. If I was, like, ambiguous about it, if I wasn't sure about what is going to happen — the country is going to be great."

And there will be grand production numbers.

"Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country," Trump said. "And we're going to show the people as we build up our military, we're going to display our military…That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we're going to be showing our military," he added.

We are all going to be in the chorus of the extravaganza, whether we like it or not. We might even get paid scale, but probably not. The bread will be stale and the circuses, tacky. These are the thoughts on the morning of the last day on which Barack Obama will be the President of the United States. Nine years ago, I wondered whether or not he truly understood the unresolved darkness in the American soul.

There is nothing about Obama that bleeds, not publicly. Everything about him that bleeds he left back between the covers of his autobiography. Look for it there, not in this campaign. But mainly, he's not leading a movement because he's telling people that, through him, and through their belief in him, they can reclaim the country's lost greatness, as though the country he's talking to didn't hock all that stuff in the first place so it could afford guns and burglar alarms. He's asking it to value what it's already peddled on the cheap.

To be sure, there have been reasons to criticize him on the merits. But the resistance to his own fundamental legitimacy never died. (This makes the vapors over what John Lewis said even more hilarious.) I think, perhaps, he only really got a handle on it in his second term, when he realized that his political opposition was something far deeper than merely political. They were not going to allow him to fulfill the mandate he received when he was elected, twice, through the popular vote and the electoral college, and without the help of the FBI or the FSB. At that point, to paraphrase Shakespeare's Harry Plantagenet, he determined that he would keep his state and be like a president.

But the one thing he never did—and the fact that his political opposition is so contemptuous of his personal style is proof enough that he was right—was to turn the office into what his successor apparently intends it to be: an endless celebration of nothing. On his last day, despite all the interviews he's given about how his faith in the American people has grown stronger, it's hard to believe he doesn't look out the windows of the White House now and wonder if he truly understood the country and its people at all. It is the last day he will be President of the United States, a once-great country that doesn't understand itself.

[Blue_Tires]

1. k+r

[True Dough]

2. Despite Obama's brave face and spirit of optimism

It must be truly disheartening to know he is turning over the White House to this colossal dork.

[Fast Walker 52]

14. of course, yes... depressing, worrisome, aggravating, etc

[tblue37]

31. Your "or" "ic"--There. FIFY. nt

[longship]

2. Love Charlie Pierce!

R&

[The Polack MSgt]

4. K&R nt

[cilla4progress]

5. This is what I've been thinking

Hate to say it, but I think he got us wrong...

[jodymarie aimee]

6. I want to be charlie in my next life

or his pen.

[Hekate]

7. That is absolutely devastating. nt

[Boomerproud]

8. Beautiful piece.

Every word is TRUTH. I hope Obama doesn't get PTSD by internalizing his anger. Let it out, Sir. and let the world hear it.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. A lot of us are feeling that way

This was my own reaction:

http://www.dvorkin.com/essays/imcotr.php

[Big_K]

15. Wonderful essay

I feel very much the same way as your final paragraph -- yet I was born here, a white male, in the South. I am not celebrating. I am in a constant state of near-panic and taking a very dark view of the future. I sat under my desk in elementary school during the Cuban missile crisis. This time I'm just going to stand up and let the blast take me.

[mobeau69]

18. Well put.

This country is racist from top to bottom - Malcolm X

[DavidDvorkin]

24. Thanks.

[Paladin]

10. "...the unresolved darkness of the American soul."

Charlie Pierce hits it out of the park, as usual.

[Maven]

11. We're all wondering that. nt

[ancianita]

12. Having seen much America's ugliness in the South, I thought I understood it better than most. But

but now, I wonder right along with him.

Since 2015 I've defined America by the 70-30 education split -- the 70% without college educations and the 30% with. Of course there are discountable exceptions for either group, but I'm still pretty sure in which group there is light, and in which the "unresolved darkness" lies.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Link:

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52397/trump-circus-obama-last-day/

The video accompaniment:

[Hekate]

26. "And we're going to show the people as we build up our military,we're going to display our military"

From Pierce's article:
"And we're going to show the people as we build up our military, we're going to display our military…That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we're going to be showing our military," he added.

[Crunchy Frog]

28. We're going to emulate the greatness of North Korea. n/t

[CanonRay]

16. "An endless celebration of nothing"

That is perfect. I need to remember that.

[certainot]

17. liberals have been studying fish without water

the single most important component of the trump 'win' is talk radio and liberals, dems, left completely ignore it.

it kicks our ass and we analyze politics and evaluate our reps as if it doesn't exist and we let our universities support it!

obama named talk radio numerous times and the people who said they'd get his back stuck their ipods in their ears and thought he was deluded, like they did when hillary called it a vast right wing conspiracy

it's fucking idiotic - it's the only reason trump is there, democrats ignoring talk radio for 30 years because it hurt their ears.

analyzing symptoms of the problem and ignoring the major cause- the biggest political mistake in history

[Fast Walker 52]

21. I listen to progressive radio on SiriusXM and several liberal podcasts

but yeah rightwing hate radio is very pervasive.

I had no idea that college stations were broadcasting Rush. That's INSANE.

[certainot]

22. clarification - they're not actual college stations

[Fast Walker 52]

23. what are they-- stations in college towns?

[certainot]

27. they're just regular old rw talk radio stations

that are paid or pay to be able to broadcast sports so they can use the association to sell advertising

[Fast Walker 52]

30. oh, so they broadcast college sports?

and thus have a deal with colleges?

[tblue37]

32. Our military broadcasts Rush a lot, too. nt

[Initech]

19. Oh he did. The hate was there from day one.

Remember Glenn Beck And the early beginnings of the "Taxed Enough Already" party? And thanks to social media, Obama got more death threats than any president before him. Then Donald Trump comes and starts questioning the legitimacy of his birth certificate cranks the hate way past 11. Add Alex Jones, who says that a shooting of 20 school children didn't happen and was a false flag to get the government to take your guns away, and all hell breaks loose. It was the ingredients for a toxic storm waiting to happen, This is what we get when we don't have a checks and balances system in place.

[Fast Walker 52]

20. that wapo piece is fucking insane-- reads just like a comedy skit

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[0rganism]

25. here's what the guys who DID understand it had to say

“America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil. Before the settlers, before the Indians... the evil was there... waiting.”
― William S. Burroughs

"And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
― Hunter S. Thompson

[geek tragedy]

29. The end of the USA's greatness--and goodness-- as a nation ends tomorrow at 12:01 PM EST nt