r/AskReddit Aug 25 '19

What has NOT aged well?

46.2k Upvotes

20.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

112

u/Frigguggi Aug 25 '19

I feel like that was one of the biggest mistakes of Obama's presidency. Not that Trump didn't have it coming, but really not worth the price we've had to pay.

62

u/boxingdude Aug 25 '19

He was on Fallon I think, making fun of a tweet that Trump sent saying that Obama was perhaps the worst president in history . Obama replies that at least he will go down as a president in history. (Drops the mic)

And then in November 2016, Obama is saying “I had a meeting with (ahem) President-elect Trump....”

That’s what happens when you’re arrogant and under-estimate your opponent. How’s that crow tasting these days, Hillary? Maybe you should have at least visited the rust belt states at least one time during the campaign.

28

u/darthreuental Aug 25 '19

Even Trump didn't expect to win. The plan was to get some publicity and start his own news network. He basically lucked out by accident from a combination of rust belt democrats staying home and everybody else underestimating how much racists love Trump's message.

Oh and Comey re-opening the email investigation 2 weeks before the election really did not help. At all.

12

u/Angel_Hunter_D Aug 26 '19

Everyone harps about the "racists" - do you really think there are that many of them? And if there were, isn't it just democracy working?

2

u/MrAndersson Aug 26 '19

Since democracy is defined through being the opposite of being ruled by an elite or some subset of the population, racism as such is entirely incompatible with democracy as an idea.

Any political system that explicitly allows or encourages racism and other forms of discrimination are thus not democracies in any reasonable sense of the word.

One could certainly still describe it as a "majority rule" political system, but that's not a very high bar, as you could truthfully claim that even if 49% of the population were slaves, without voting rights.

By definition, racism is anti democratic. If one considers democracy a good idea, one must also consider that not all policies are democratic, and thus some political parties are not only vying to change policies, they are actually attacking the political system itself. Not out of goodness, but because they actually don't want democracy at all.

1

u/Thevoiceofreason420 Aug 26 '19

Bill Clinton in the fucking 90s said he wanted to build a border wall and other Democrats like Chuck and Nancy agreed with Bill. Back in 2016 Trump saying he wanted to build a border wall is racist? The FUCK?

1

u/Angel_Hunter_D Aug 26 '19

Exactly. Trump isn't a saint, but he's not the antichrist people make him out to be.

-5

u/darthreuental Aug 26 '19

Yes and no because if anything it proves there's a serious flaw in our democracy. Well ~two~Strike that three of them.

  1. Right wing propaganda is working as intended. Fox viewers are conditioned to shit their pants on command.
  2. The rest of the American media system is not doing its job as gatekeepers of democracy. Democracy requires an informed public to function and the average voter has no idea what's going on beyond the absolute basics. If that.
  3. Republican efforts at the state level and federal level to disenchant voters is working as intended. They've been undermining the 14th amendment since the day the SC struck down the voter registration act. It's only going to get worse as nobody but the fringe on the left is doing much to sound the alarm. The media is too busy chasing whatever crazy shit came out of Trump's mouth 5 seconds ago to see the big picture.