Exactly how was Obama "telling the truth" about small-town America's "anti-trade" sentiments?

[brentspeak]

I keep reading threads and posts from Obama's most starry-eyed supporters where they claim that "Obama spoke the truth!" in his comments to the SF donor gathering. "He's being crucified for telling the truth!" But the Obama super-partisans are deliberately leaving something very important out when making their rationalizations:

Ignoring the rest of his comments made at the SF speech, how, exactly, was Obama "speaking the truth" when he said that rural Americans "explain their frustrations" by clinging to anti-trade sentiment? Isn't Obama supposed to be on the same side of working class Americans on that issue?

[anonymous171]

1. So they're not bitter or frustrated?

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. You mean he's wrong?

And that working class Americans are actually HAPPY to see their jobs shipped off to China, or Mexico, under the auspices of free-trade neoliberalism? Because that's what he's talking about. Can you honestly say it's not the case? That people aren't genuinely concerned about outsourcing, about the economic inequities between the US and these other countries that make the very idea of 'free trade' a bad joke? Come on.

[Enrique]

4. he's suggesting that "anti-trade sentiment" is pathological

he lumps it in with the other symptoms of bumpkin bitterness.

[EFerrari]

20. Nope. But, project away. n/t

[Enrique]

31. here's the quote

they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment.

see that? "Anti-trade sentiment," among the things that the folks cling to.

[EFerrari]

32. He named a range of things that people might latch onto

as a way to explain their situation to themselves.

That array was not closed.

He did not express an opinion about those items.

[baldguy]

38. Full quote in context:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/11/18416/8034/341/493923


Anybody who can read can see that he is clearly criticizing the politicians (like the Clintons) and corporations (like those that Clinton has represented) that created these conditions & have allowed them to continue.

[brentspeak]

5. Holy crow

Somehow,you got everything in reverse. Obama's speech criticized rural Americans for their opposition to trade. And that's a mind-boggling criticism to make considering that Obama has up until now been saying that he himself shares their views on the issue of trade.

[Sinistrous]

7. Wow! What a complete twisting of what was said.

Obama was sympathizing with people for the causes of their bitterness, and you warp it into a baseless accusation of "criticism".!

Was your remark culpably dishonest, or just stupid?

[Capn Sunshine]

15. either one fits

the poster is in denial about the election

[brentspeak]

22. If there's anyone here who can translate the above post, please do so

Because I have no idea what this person is talking about.

[brentspeak]

19. Apparently, being disingenuous comes naturally to you

[Sinistrous]

35. Well, I was trying to be diplomatic.

If I had written the true evaluation of your spew, I would have been TS'd, and you are not worth that.

[baldguy]

37. No, he was criticizing politicians & corporations for creating & nurturing those sediments.

[DJ13]

3. Our government has screwed people over for 30 years

And yes, that INCLUDES Bill's two terms.

Profit margins on Wall street became the only goal, a goal that led to tens of millions of middle class jobs being outsourced.

Can you seriously believe Americans dont remember getting F'ed by every administration from Reagan through Bush today?

Wake the F up.

[brentspeak]

6. ..

:eyes:

You might want to state what you just stated directly to Obama; I'm someone who spends half his time on DU railing against our "free-trade" policies.

[Gore1FL]

8. The democrats abandoned them

And the GOP wedged them with gun, "family values," etc. issues.

When the Democrats decided to write off "red" states, and "red" areas of "blue" states, the GOP swooped in with a fear strategy and then offered solutions.

Our party allowed this to happen. Rural voters are naturally Democrats, when you get right down to it. But instead of countering the GOP's strategy of setting fires and pretending to put them out, The Dems just wrote them off.

There is no good reason that West Virgina, The South, the West and the Midwest should inherently vote Republican. Obama simply addressed why they seemed to do so with such regularity.

Why isn't that the truth?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Amen! n/t

[brentspeak]

17. You're not addressing my question

which is: why did Obama criticize rural voters for having "anti-trade sentiment" when he's been running as someone who shares the exact same sentiments?

[Gore1FL]

40. I never said he criticzed them

I stated the contrary.

[uponit7771]

10. Wal Mart board executive = friend of the people!?? 109 million = non elitist? WTF!!!!

Are you fuckin crazy?

Lack Caferty said even college drop outs can understand what the hell he's saying/

[brentspeak]

28. I'm not a Hillary supporter

Just someone who's going to dutifully but unhappily pull the lever for either Obama or Clinton in November. Don't take my posts concerning Obama as any kind of tacit support for Hillary. The best Dem candidates are long gone out of the race: Edwards (best), Dodd (second-best), Biden (third-best), Richardson (fourth-best).

[Vinca]

11. Are you kidding? There is a definite anti-trade sentiment.

Not just in the rural areas, but in the cities, too. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where our wonderful trade deals have gotten us. Jobs gone, cheap crap from China in and a huge trade deficit to boot. If workers were on a level playing field, trade would be just fine, but they aren't. If you think small town America is such a bunch of rubes they don't get this, you're wrong.

[brentspeak]

16. Are you talking to me or Obama?

I'm not the one who criticized workers for having an anti-trade sentiment.

[Vinca]

26. I didn't take his remark to be critical at all - he was stating a fact ,

not accusing people of anything.

[brentspeak]

29. So then, is he saying that HE'S "clinging" to anti-trade sentiment?

???

[Vinca]

30. He's saying it fucking exists. For the love of God, go hunt for snipers. nt

[Armstead]

12. He was referring to overreactions

I am very much against the "free trade" con job. However, trade in itself is not a bad thing, and can be helpful to the ecoinomy and to people if it is done in a balanced way.

Obama wasn't saying guns are bad or religion is bad. He was referring to how people's anger at the government's failures to address their problems get transferred onto other issues.

I think he meant the same thing in regard to overreactions about trade.

[VotesForWomen]

13. seems like he was being a little slippery. surprise. nt

[EFerrari]

21. I've never read a positive post from you on this board.

[Avalux]

14. He was making a truthful observation. Take it at that.

It doesn't mean he's not on their side. The only way to work through the issues dividing this country is to understand why - to talk about them. People in small town PA are deeply scarred by the plant closures and outsourcing; they are also resentful of those who move to their towns who compete for the only jobs that are left (usually retail).

Obama is on the same side of working class Americans. If the country is engaged in a discussion about what's going on with them, it only helps. Especially when they've been ignored for so long.

[EFerrari]

18. Unlike you, Obama was trying to put himself in someone else's shoes

to understand something.

I hope you're never challenged in the same way.

[brentspeak]

23. Uh, yeah, ok.

:eyes:

In the meantime, can you directly address the actual content of my OP? You know, about his apparent flip-flop on the issue of trade?

[EFerrari]

25. But he wasn't talking about his own position. That's the point.

He was trying to understand where OTHER PEOPLE are coming from. You know, other people?

[moondust]

33. Exactly.

He's feeling the pain of many. On the campaign trail he's likely heard hundreds if not thousands of painful stories of life in rural America.

[Critters2]

34. No one in Iowa needs to put themselves in someone else's shoes

where trade issues are concerned. Like Pennsylvania, brentspeak's state is paying heavily for the trade policies of the last two+ decades.

[BenDavid]

24. Is obama bitter because white men can jump?

The Obama Aid drinkers are out in full spinning for their messiah.He is not bitter but he probably has noticed that racists always make it about race. He's bitter because his race card, hypnotism, political/religious revival gig is exposed... and he looks like a really slick con.His big money doners are probably drying up too and losing admiration because of backing him.

[Orangepeel]

27. Trade isn't bad. Unfair trade is bad.

A WTO that doesn't enforce fair trade practices, environmental protections and labor standards is bad. Trade isn't bad. Religion isn't bad. Immigration isn't bad. Hell, guns aren't bad unless they are used badly.

:shrug:

[Life Long Dem]

36. .They should call it the path to cheap labor. n/t

[Bensthename]

39. HERE... Read this.. PA blue collar workers not bitter???

http://www.reliableplant.com/article.asp?pagetitle=Manufacturing%20job%20losses%20cripple%20growth%20in%20Pennsylvania&articleid=11398