Originally published December 23, 2015.
Thank you, President Obama, for once again letting us know how you feel about America.
In a move akin to your repeated trashing of the United States while abroad, much like when you dismissed a vast swath of the electorate voters as bitter clingers, you recently took to NPR to lament the foolishness of “blue-collar men” vis-a-vis their support for Donald Trump, which is a symptom of their “potential anger, frustration, fear.”
In fact, Mr. President, you own the Trump phenomenon. You created it.
Underemployment has not been this high since the Sex Pistols were touring. Speaking of touring, maybe foregoing the annual two-week Hawaii jaunt — estimated cost to taxpayers almost $4 million dollars — would go a long way toward assuring the commoners that you feel their pain.
When we see the Islamic State blitzkrieging— I know you prefer to call it “ISIL,” the Islamic State in the Levant, as euphemistically as possible — and you tell us there is no greater threat to us than climate change, we pray you don’t actually mean it. But when you tell us that a climate summit is a “powerful rebuke to the terrorists,” we know you do.
Maybe some lumpenprole Americans are peeved that instead of declaring war on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, you’ve declared war on what is left of our nation’s coal industry.
Maybe us rubes are sick of health-care costs skyrocketing. You blew up the American healthcare system in the midst of an economic crisis and a couple of wars as a vanity project because, about 14 percent were uninsured way back in 2008. That number hovers around 12 percent now. Problem solved?
Portraying working Americans who were concerned about federal spending as racists also wasn’t very nice. Siccing the IRS on them was downright mean. No doubt you had the best intentions when you ripped up the Constitution. I hate to tell you, that’s why the little people are mad at you.
Here’s how you could start to make it better. Shut up about climate change and try calling our biggest threat “ISIS” instead of “ISIL.” The Islamic State is very much in Iraq and Syria — two places you abandoned. No one knows what “the Levant” is. I know you prefer it that way, but I’m just saying ... it makes us think you are afraid of the “potential anger, frustration, fear” we might vent if we knew the full extent of the disaster you’ve created.
But here’s the thing. We do.
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