Did Obama or Trump start the public discord movement

The year was 2008 I worked for a very large fortune 500 company.
Our office was a true mix of ages, races, and sexes.

I remember clearly having a political conversation with my coworkers. We all talked
openly about who we were going to vote for. Our VP was the only one that declined to say, but he said
it would surprise us all. We all took that as his way of saying he was voting for Obama without saying it. We all shared
who we would vote for, and it was a pretty even split. Soon after we all went back to work and with no ill feelings.

I'm pretty sure that is the last time a conversation like that could happen in an office like that. Who knew!

As we all know, President Obama was soon elected after that. Some people had very strong views with this win, or loss for them. I remember that if anyone questioned him, they were being labeled as a racist. It stopped being about political ideology. It's true, some people were really racist, but not all.

I really think one of the wedges that the Obama Presidency created was when he said if he had a son, he could look like Trayvon. People were already split on that issue and the President clearly took a side and split the people right down with it. Little did we know the division would only grow wider. Soon if you were republican you were for the police, and if you were democrat you'd be against them.

I know there are a lot of people that blame Trump for loss of civility in our political environment. I actually think it started with Obama. I'm not saying Trump hasn't added kindling to the fire, but he didn't start it.

Maybe neither started it.

Maybe it was always there. Political memories seem to be short in most people.

a reply to: JAGStorm

did it begin with they bring a knife we bring a gun?

Cut it all right in two.
Tool started it.

It started during the Obama administration but he didn't start it.
An us vs them mentally started at that time and he just happened to be president.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
It started during the Obama administration but he didn't start it.
An us vs them mentally started at that time and he just happened to be president.

He sure did fan those flames though.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
It started during the Obama administration but he didn't start it.
An us vs them mentally started at that time and he just happened to be president.

The "us vs them" mentality has existed pretty much as long as humans have.
You really can't think of any other point in history before the Obama years?

a reply to: Jefferton

Not really.
I lived through Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr...
There was always a divide but not with the venom there is today.
All tolerance is gone.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: Bluntone22
It started during the Obama administration but he didn't start it.
An us vs them mentally started at that time and he just happened to be president.

He sure did fan those flames though.

Neither has done much to ease the tension..

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Jefferton

Not really.
I lived through Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr...
There was always a divide but not with the venom there is today.
All tolerance is gone.

I can think of some pretty turbulent times in the 60s, where things got pretty tense.
And plenty before that. Just because Internet forums for nerds to vent weren't around, doesn't mean political discord wasn't.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Agreed. Also want to add Michelle hasn't helped the situation either, she just adds fuel to the fire.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Jefferton

Not really.
I lived through Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr...
There was always a divide but not with the venom there is today.
All tolerance is gone.

Yep, it was not as bad. Like I said we could easily talk about it at work with no problems. I don't think that is the case now.

It started when social mddia got popular. It allowed millions to team up at the click of a button. I felt, that as a mixed race person, Obama sold out his white half which alienated lots of.peeps.

Did Obama run on a campaign of division? No.
Did Trump run on a campaign of division? Yes.

Only one of these 2 took/takes traitorous pride in angering/trolling/pushing away (over) 1/2 of the country.

Doesn't mean Obama wasn't a center-right corporatist. He's still that. But at least the left could see him for what he actually was.

a reply to: okrian

I thought Obama was very divisive.
He definitely pushed me away from his party.

But as I said above, the divisive public culture started during his administration but wasn't his fault.

Obama was the KING of divisive.

Personally, I was more than willing to give him a chance after the 8 year nightmare of W. and Satan..errr Cheney.

He came right out of the gate, lying about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his "Godamn America" speech.
Obama's exact words were: "In 20 years of attending services at his church, Ive never heard him say anything
like what he's being accused of." Did Obama think that no one had ever recorded it?? That's when I suspected he
was a racist. He was defending Wright, who was a blatant racist.

How about when he referred to his own grandma as a "typical white person". Gee, that's not divisive at all, is it?


Then there was the "guns and bibles" comment. That was akin to a white person saying "the black folks have their fried chicken and watermelon". But the media always gave him a pass. What about George Zimmerman? "Treyvon couldve been my son." When he uttered those idiotic words, Obama had absolutely no idea what actually happened. He just asssumed the thug was innocent, because he was black.

The beer summit was one of the best. Again, no idea what really happened. Just condemn the white cops.


EVERY single time it looked like race relations were improving, our divider-in-chief simply could not restrain himself from throwing a ton of gasoline on the smoldering ashes, by making a point of telling the world that racism is still alive and well in America.


The guy is an absolute buttwipe. A p.o.s. It's shocking that people dont see it. He's a super con-man.
It's truly bizarre that he still has his cult going. God, people are stupid.

Did Obama or Trump start the public discord movement?

Short answer: NO (seems to be the consensus thus far)

Long Answer: Discord has been around forever. Political Discord with American Policy has been around since WWII in my experience. The seeds of discord lay in our very foundation documents, for where would we be today if not for the discord of the Founding Fathers with their foreign master on the English throne?

The W (Bush '43) administration saw post-911 (sociologically "post-apocalyptic") expansion of Al Gore's Internet [/sarc off] and the beginnings of the Social Media 'revolution'. Technology has instantiated another 'dimension', a new SPACE(time) of interactive information exchange far beyond the possibilities of the current physical realm, where communication is individual or broadcast/published.

Seeds sown in newly created space blossomed into a major cultural influence (among developed countries) and a prime driver of societal heterogeneity throughout the planet. Today's internet butterfly flapping its' wings certainly can cause hurricanes (go viral) world wide. Instantaneous planetary communication among individuals via the Internet has changed the reality of our perceived universe and whatever discord we have among us is amplified in this space.

Best remember the Internet is just one space, not all space and its' influence need not be over valued.

ganjoa

originally posted by: okrian
Did Obama run on a campaign of division?

Are you asking what he said he would do or what he actually did? He's the most divisive president of my lifetime. Obama most certainly did not create the division, but he sure did encourage it and ensure the divide grew wider than it had been. He encouraged black people to hate cops and white people and fanned the flames of race tensions.

Obama: 'If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon'

Trayvon, who had behavioral issues, several suspensions from school, and was caught with jewelry that was not his along with burglary tools, and would not say how he got the jewelry ... because he almost certainly stole it.

Obama helped fuel BLM who rage against any instance of force used against black people, even when those black people are violent criminals fighting the police.

Race relations were destroyed under Obama.

a reply to: ColeYounger

You call Trayvon a thug? He didn't shoot an unarmed man. George Zimmerman did. Shooting an unarmed man is what a real thug does...

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Who cares if he had issues? Everyones got issues not everyone shoots an unarmed teenager!