skews13
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- Mar 18, 2017
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Claude A. Clegg III's book "The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama" accomplishes various things. Foremost among them, it serves as an antidote to Donald Trump's gaslighting. Clegg, a history professor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first explores how Barack Obama's presidency was experienced by the Black community, an issue central to any account of the Obama era. In addition, Clegg punctures many of the myths about Obama's administration that have been endlessly repeated by Trump and his right-wing allies.
When Obama took office in 2009, America was teetering on the verge of economic collapse. The Illinois Democrat's policies not only prevented another Great Depression, but saved multiple industries and put the country on a path to long-term prosperity.
Trump inherited that economy and falsely claimed credit for it, over and over again, during his single term in office. With the unwitting complicity of the media, which obsessed over his every move, Trump then tried to erase Obama's other achievements — both as policies and from the public's memory — so they would either disappear forever or, if they happened to be popular, get attributed to him.
Obama's record on issues from immigration to foreign policy has either been downplayed or revised. His presidency was virtually scandal-free, while Trump's resulted in two impeachments for highly justifiable reasons, a fact no one bothers to mention. This kind of gaslighting can only succeed when there is a narrative void, one which malicious actors operating in bad faith can take license to fill with self-serving revisionism.
Clegg's book is a comprehensive rebuttal to those efforts, and it comes not a moment too soon. While Obama was certainly not a perfect president, he was more successful at pushing through liberal policies than any president of the previous half-century. His election in 2008 and subsequent success at governing appeared to forge a viable long-term political coalition, forcing the far right to resort to literal fascist techniques in order to short-circuit an era of likely Democratic dominance.
If the story of the early 21st century is going to be told correctly, Obama's leadership needs to be remembered. He came close enough to dashing the dreams of economic and social reactionaries that they elected a sub-Paris Hilton reality TV star trafficking in demonstrable lies as a panicked last effort to alter the course of history.
In so many words: Obama succeeded, if not entirely in the way he had hoped. If liberals want to again capture political momentum, they can't allow the lessons of his presidency to be lost and distorted.
I spoke to Clegg recently about his book and the Obama legacy....
Excellent interview. My next book read.
When Obama took office in 2009, America was teetering on the verge of economic collapse. The Illinois Democrat's policies not only prevented another Great Depression, but saved multiple industries and put the country on a path to long-term prosperity.
Trump inherited that economy and falsely claimed credit for it, over and over again, during his single term in office. With the unwitting complicity of the media, which obsessed over his every move, Trump then tried to erase Obama's other achievements — both as policies and from the public's memory — so they would either disappear forever or, if they happened to be popular, get attributed to him.
Obama's record on issues from immigration to foreign policy has either been downplayed or revised. His presidency was virtually scandal-free, while Trump's resulted in two impeachments for highly justifiable reasons, a fact no one bothers to mention. This kind of gaslighting can only succeed when there is a narrative void, one which malicious actors operating in bad faith can take license to fill with self-serving revisionism.
Clegg's book is a comprehensive rebuttal to those efforts, and it comes not a moment too soon. While Obama was certainly not a perfect president, he was more successful at pushing through liberal policies than any president of the previous half-century. His election in 2008 and subsequent success at governing appeared to forge a viable long-term political coalition, forcing the far right to resort to literal fascist techniques in order to short-circuit an era of likely Democratic dominance.
If the story of the early 21st century is going to be told correctly, Obama's leadership needs to be remembered. He came close enough to dashing the dreams of economic and social reactionaries that they elected a sub-Paris Hilton reality TV star trafficking in demonstrable lies as a panicked last effort to alter the course of history.
In so many words: Obama succeeded, if not entirely in the way he had hoped. If liberals want to again capture political momentum, they can't allow the lessons of his presidency to be lost and distorted.
I spoke to Clegg recently about his book and the Obama legacy....
Remember the president before Donald Trump? History definitely will
Claude A. Clegg III on "The Black President" — and how Obama's presidency led to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden
www.salon.com
Excellent interview. My next book read.