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Why Obama's Statement, "The country is better off" Rings Hollow


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I still have not heard the President's farewell speech, but I have heard clips and I watched an Interview on TV last night.  In each instance, I've heard Obama state that the country is better off as a result of his presidency.  In fact, in the interview I watched last night, Obama said this was "objectively" true in any way you want to measure it.

As an entrepreneur; educator; and someone who has been involved in a wide variety of industries including, defense, financial services, publishing, and technology the notion that the country is better off now, than it was 8 years ago, does not ring true.

While it is true, based upon the data I have access to, that the Nation's GDP has increased, during this same period of "growth," income has remained stagnant and wealth inequality as increased.  

If we measure the success of the economy based upon the increase in wealth of the extremely wealthy, then Obama is right. However. if we look at the prospects of most Americans, the picture is bleaker.

I see education costing more and more, so much more that a decent one is out of reach of many—especially for those you can't, or refuse, to take on oppressive debt.  At the same time, the prospects of a decent, well-paying job, as a result of this expensive education is no longer guaranteed.

I see opportunities for running independent businesses, swiftly evaporating as super massive and ultra wealthy corporations are allowed to operate as virtual monopolies, utilizing the capital markets, tax loopholes, and politicians in a way that would be considered criminal is an individual engaged in this behavior.

We have witnessed the death of journalism; and the rise of fake and biased news spewed by people armed with misinformation and biased opinions on platforms whose sole motivation is revenue. Trump's dysfunction became much more newsworthy than the coverage of legitimate candidates.

If the country is doing better, why have the American people decided to radically change direction and go with Donald Trump?  I submit for the very same reasons we chose Obama over Clinton in the primaries and again over Romney in the general.  We were full of "hope" for a "change."   

Of course, wealth inequality did not start with Obama, but not only did he not reverse it, it grew under his watch and people are feeling the pain.

Bernie Saunders spoke directly to this pain, while Obama attempted to convince us everything was going great.  This is why Bernie's message resonated so strongly with many people, while Hillary just promised more of what Obama delivered--the rich getting richer.

When Hillary modified her message to be more Saunder's like, she came across as a typical poll-monitoring politician, more commonly known as a liar, the chants of "lock her up" made perfect sense to many.

Now that Trump is practically in office, the media will continue to cover his silly tweets and fail to directly challenge his lies.  

Our country is broken. God help us.

 

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Guest Dusky Literati

For the last couple of weeks, I haven't even able to watch all of these 'Final' moments of POTUS. To your point, this didn't start with Obama as he continued so many policies of the previous admins and kept things at the status quo, which continued to hurt so many Americans. So, I did appreciate the WPost article talking about the Clinton admin.

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Image was always important to Obama. I'm sure this is why he avoided the Black press, ditched Dr. West and Tavis Smiley from jump street all of whom all would have been held more accountable for his actions regarding Black people.  Instead, he latched on to sycophants like Al Sharpton.

This is not an issue of "messaging" as Obama likes to claim, this is an issue of the struggles of Americans.

Perhaps the democrats can find a truly progressive candidate to run against Trump in four years and truly make America great.

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  • 2 weeks later...


Troy

I agree, this nation isn't better off today than 8 years ago.
And Black America is certainly in worse financial shape today than 8 years ago.
The financial crisis of 2008 really hit Black America hard and a lot of people lost their homes and other real estate from that bubble bursting.

All Obama did was just slow down the ball George W. had already got rolling.
He didn't even stop it let alone reverse it.

Perhaps out country is indeed broken right now.

But you know what?

Just like it's better to have a broken family where the parents are separate than for a woman to continue living with an abusive husband who beats her every night....

Perhaps it's better for a nation to be broken and divided than for them to be united under an oppressive regime of terror.

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