by Dwight Cornel III
Dwight Cornel, the attempted moderate conservative, is a political commentator for the Ragbag Ramble. His columns appear every other Friday. Find him on Twitter, @DwightCornellIII.
As I feel most weeks will be for the next four years, it was an annoying one politically.
So long, it’s been good to know ya
It began with Barack Obama's celebrity packed farewell party. It's ironic that those who deride President-elect Trump for his past as a celebrity don't internalize that a large amount of Obama's appeal and legacy were tied up in his status as a celebrity. For the last eight years the Obamas have been at the forefront of fashion and fancy. Culturally, they're at least as much of a phenomenon as Trump is or ever was. Yet, what makes Obama a rock star makes Trump unfit for office.
Obama's farewell party ended a glitzy, poppy, substance-lacking presidency on a typical note. And now, on January 20th, we replace one celebrity with another.
Okay, calm down
Then there was Meryl Streep's anti-Trump rant at the Golden Globes.
Conservatives need to understand something: stupid shit like this, like the cast of Hamilton harassing the VP-elect from the stage, is going to keep happening for the next four years.
The best thing we can do? Ignore it. These irrational, mean-spirited, immature actions are meaningless, at least in a practical sense. They are nothing more than the left preaching to the choir in the same walled-off bubble echo chamber that lost them the election. It's meaningless. Pointless.
So stop bitching about it and simply ignore it. Nothing good can come out of doing anything else.
Hold back the tears
The long week politically continued with Obama’s farewell address, followed quickly by Trump’s first press conference as president-elect. I don’t have as much against Obama as many conservatives have been programmed to. He’s a man of strong convictions and respectable principles, even if I disagree with him in many fundamental ways. He’s a human being, a good man. Let’s start treating those who we disagree with as such, instead of constantly demonizing and dehumanizing them.
In fact, the "put yourself in other people's shoes" bit during his strong farewell speech was brilliant. Hardcore, perpetually whining conservatives are taking it as an attack on them, which says more about their insecurity than it says about Obama's intent. It was obviously as much a reminder for Democrats as it was for Republicans.
Regardless of these warm fuzzies, the slobbering love affair that the media have for Obama and his family – that, of course, has been passed on to the masses at large – is silly. People were crying about his farewell. What has Obama done, or what does he represent, that is worth crying about? What am I missing?
In a Facebook post a friend of mine said “farewell to a great leader.” A great leader? What exactly did Obama do as a great leader? Rush us into national health care that, for all intents and purposes, has been a disaster? Left us a crippling amount of debt? Set race relations back like 50 years? Done nothing to combat terrorism, perhaps even exacerbating it?
The only people who could say that Obama was a great leader are those who agree with him ideologically or are blinded by fashion and fancy.
Watch your parking meter
Implied in my friends post, of course, is that we are losing a “great leader” as we are gaining a terrible one in Trump.
In his first press conference as president-elect, however, he definitely looked the part of a leader: strong, smart, willing to back down when he has to, and savvy enough to defend himself with toughness when necessary. Rough around the edges, sure, but that only adds to the charactaristic that he has that Hillary Clinton simply couldn't buy or fake: authenticity. A too-large contingent of the right might blindly hate him, but Obama is also obviously authentic, albiet in a very different way.
Who else?
Consider everyone who is against Trump: the entire left (and the media that they essentially run), establishment Republicans, and a myriad of people of all political beliefs that are too lazy to see past what is presented to them in the media. How is he supposed to do anything? How is he supposed to be successful at all?
Who could conceivably handle such an insurmountable task? Only a person as relentless, confident, and savvy as Donald Trump. With the silent majority of reasonable Americans on his side – those not-so-deplorables – I have faith and hope that he might succeed at moving America forward in a positive way.
Dwight Cornel, the attempted moderate conservative, is a political commentator for the Ragbag Ramble. His columns appear every other Friday. Find him on Twitter, @DwightCornellIII.
As I feel most weeks will be for the next four years, it was an annoying one politically.
So long, it’s been good to know ya
It began with Barack Obama's celebrity packed farewell party. It's ironic that those who deride President-elect Trump for his past as a celebrity don't internalize that a large amount of Obama's appeal and legacy were tied up in his status as a celebrity. For the last eight years the Obamas have been at the forefront of fashion and fancy. Culturally, they're at least as much of a phenomenon as Trump is or ever was. Yet, what makes Obama a rock star makes Trump unfit for office.
Obama's farewell party ended a glitzy, poppy, substance-lacking presidency on a typical note. And now, on January 20th, we replace one celebrity with another.
Okay, calm down
Then there was Meryl Streep's anti-Trump rant at the Golden Globes.
Conservatives need to understand something: stupid shit like this, like the cast of Hamilton harassing the VP-elect from the stage, is going to keep happening for the next four years.
The best thing we can do? Ignore it. These irrational, mean-spirited, immature actions are meaningless, at least in a practical sense. They are nothing more than the left preaching to the choir in the same walled-off bubble echo chamber that lost them the election. It's meaningless. Pointless.
So stop bitching about it and simply ignore it. Nothing good can come out of doing anything else.
Hold back the tears
The long week politically continued with Obama’s farewell address, followed quickly by Trump’s first press conference as president-elect. I don’t have as much against Obama as many conservatives have been programmed to. He’s a man of strong convictions and respectable principles, even if I disagree with him in many fundamental ways. He’s a human being, a good man. Let’s start treating those who we disagree with as such, instead of constantly demonizing and dehumanizing them.
In fact, the "put yourself in other people's shoes" bit during his strong farewell speech was brilliant. Hardcore, perpetually whining conservatives are taking it as an attack on them, which says more about their insecurity than it says about Obama's intent. It was obviously as much a reminder for Democrats as it was for Republicans.
Regardless of these warm fuzzies, the slobbering love affair that the media have for Obama and his family – that, of course, has been passed on to the masses at large – is silly. People were crying about his farewell. What has Obama done, or what does he represent, that is worth crying about? What am I missing?
In a Facebook post a friend of mine said “farewell to a great leader.” A great leader? What exactly did Obama do as a great leader? Rush us into national health care that, for all intents and purposes, has been a disaster? Left us a crippling amount of debt? Set race relations back like 50 years? Done nothing to combat terrorism, perhaps even exacerbating it?
The only people who could say that Obama was a great leader are those who agree with him ideologically or are blinded by fashion and fancy.
Watch your parking meter
Implied in my friends post, of course, is that we are losing a “great leader” as we are gaining a terrible one in Trump.
In his first press conference as president-elect, however, he definitely looked the part of a leader: strong, smart, willing to back down when he has to, and savvy enough to defend himself with toughness when necessary. Rough around the edges, sure, but that only adds to the charactaristic that he has that Hillary Clinton simply couldn't buy or fake: authenticity. A too-large contingent of the right might blindly hate him, but Obama is also obviously authentic, albiet in a very different way.
Who else?
Consider everyone who is against Trump: the entire left (and the media that they essentially run), establishment Republicans, and a myriad of people of all political beliefs that are too lazy to see past what is presented to them in the media. How is he supposed to do anything? How is he supposed to be successful at all?
Who could conceivably handle such an insurmountable task? Only a person as relentless, confident, and savvy as Donald Trump. With the silent majority of reasonable Americans on his side – those not-so-deplorables – I have faith and hope that he might succeed at moving America forward in a positive way.
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