Politics Nation: Our Two-Party System; Extremism Triumphs in The 2016 Election
The 2016 race for the U.S. Presidency has been for the most part transformational. Our two-party systems [Democrats on the Left and republicans on the right] has traditionally relied on its own version of centrist to keep them securely positioned in the middle of their respective party establishment. However, since the end of the 2008 Presidential election, both parties have retreated away from the middle of their respective party’s center, and have instead embraced the most extreme factions within. What caused this mass migration can be attributed to many factors, however, for the sake of argument; I will discuss what I believe to be the most prominent reason, which was the election and subsequent re-election of President Barack Obama.
After President Obama’s improbable victory in 2008, the Republican Party was left shattered and in disarray. They could not fundamentally comprehend how they had lost the general election to an unknown African American 1st Term Senator from Illinois, who also happened to have a Muslim name. This, too many of them was the most unreasonable accommodation. The Obama victory also resulted in the Democrats taking control of the House and Senate as well. This sweep, which was akin to running a “Boston” in the card game spades, left the Republican Party, which had ruled the proverbial roost for almost a decade, reeling in its own defeat.
The world saw Obama’s victory in 2008 as a transitional time in American Politics. For once, America had finally lived up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and equality for all. However, within the GOP, and the minds of those who reside of the extreme right of the party, Obama’s election was viewed as a total collapse of the political establishment. It literally left them reeling; so much so, that in a feat of desperation, the GOP employed the 60’s era tactic of equalization, by electing an African American leader of their party [for the first time in its history], who oversaw the party’s utilization of a type of slash and burn politics that hadn’t been seen in modern American politics in over 50 years. These two actions were the precursor to what will go down in history as the most obstructionist period in American Politics.
As much as President Obama’s election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 was seen as a triumph in American Politics by the Democratic Party and moderates all over the country, the same could not be said for the Republican Party and the majority of Whites Conservatives. What the Nation observed and endured over the past eight years, can only be described as the modern-day lynching of Americas’ first Black President. The things that were said about him, his wife, and his daughters is just sickening. For example, there were conservatives who snidely criticized Michelle for wearing a sleeveless dress who are now totally okay with the present Republican Presidents’ wife appearing naked in GQ magazine!
President Obama was going to round up Christians/conservatives/his opponents and place them in FEMA camps. He was going to surely declare martial law and remain president after his second term is up (I guess that one could still happen!). He is really a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and wants to make shariah law the law of the land.
Somehow, both his parents, back in 1961, foresaw the day when little Barry would run for president… and win! This in 1961, mind you, before the Civil Rights Act had even been passed! So they put into place a diabolical scheme to make it look like he was born in Hawaii, when in fact he was born in Kenya, went to a Muslim school in Indonesia, and graduated (or did he…?) from Harvard just in time to be elected to the Senate and subsequently POTUS! He’s magic! Black magic at that! I could go on and on. The stupidity of racist white people is awfully depressing sometimes.
Simply put, you would’ve thought Satan himself had been elected president. No president in history (at least, modern history) has faced the level of sheer hatred that Obama has, or been subjected to such absolute obfuscation in the performance of his rightful duties. Republicans from day one decided they were going to give no quarter, that if Obama was for something, they would have to be against it. It’s become an old joke, but all Obama had to do to solve “the Republican problem” was to come out in favor of air; the Republicans would have subsequently suffocated themselves by the millions.
So, what has this suffocation brought us? It brought us Trump…a politician, who’s not a politician. A self-made billionaire [who inherited a father’s fortune], who ran a campaign based on the principles of standing up for the working man, and bringing jobs back to the working class of America…except those who have had the misfortune of working on a Trump building project of resort. Those people aren’t the working class, they’re just cheats who do substandard work and don’t deserve to be paid what they were promised. This suffocation also brought America, fundamentally the most uneducated president in history. But because of White Privilege and an overwhelming since of entitlement, all over looked, because what America really needs is another White man in the Whitehouse. The bar hasn’t been lowered. It broken down and burned in the fireplace of the Lincoln Bedroom.
So, when you hear President Trump make idiotic statements, like “no politician in history … Just try to understand where this educated review of history is coming from. Since we are unable to review Trump’s high school and college transcripts, we can only make the assessment that America is being led by a man who possess the academic aptitude of a middle schooler…this of course is based on observed behavior in public and his inability to form and speak in complete sentences. But, for the record, just know that Politicians have been treated very badly and unfairly all throughout US and world history. Some politicians have even been killed for their views or actions, or solely because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or sex. Here are just a few examples, which are by no means comprehensive:
In the US, Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were assassinated. There were also assassination attempts on many other politicians, including President Ronald Reagan.
Lincoln also had to oversee a civil war.
President Barack Obama faced conspiracy theories for years, including from Trump, that suggested he was not born in the US when he, in fact, was.
President Richard Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal. While there’s no doubt that he should have resigned, surely having to resign because of scandals is worse than hearing mean words on television due to your scandals.
In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and tortured for decades due to his opposition to apartheid.
In Venezuela, Leopoldo López, one of the key leaders in the opposition to the current regime of Nicolás Maduro, is currently being held as a political prisoner.
In North Korea, the regime of Kim Jong Un keeps multiple labor camps that house political prisoners. A United Nations report called the camps a human rights abuse “without any parallel in the contemporary world.”
In Russia, China, Cuba, and other authoritarian regimes, there are many other political prisoners. Sometimes politicians aren’t even locked up in authoritarian regimes; they’re simply killed.
This list doesn’t even get into the many other horrors of the world, from slavery to the Holocaust, that afflicted some politicians among the broader populations that were all terrorized as well, often for no reason other than their race, ethnicity, religion, or sex.
You get the point. Trump may feel like he’s treated unfairly by the media and public, but his treatment is benign compared with what other politicians have faced throughout world history.
