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When an awful event like the shooting of police officers in Dallas happens, we inevitably yearn for leaders who will bring us together, bind up the nation’s wounds, unite us all in common understanding and common purpose. And when they don’t, we’re disappointed and decide that a different individual, perhaps like a politician we admired from our youth — Ronald Reagan, Bobby Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt — could have succeeded where they failed.
There are multiple reasons why. The first — and you’ll forgive me for sounding divisive and partisan at a time like this — is that his opponents have guaranteed that he would never be able to unite Americans about anything. A healthy chunk of the country, spurred on by their political leaders and media figures, has spent the last eight years becoming convinced that nothing Obama does, no matter the situation or the issue, is ever for admirable or even mundane reasons. Those politicians and media commentators have told their constituents, thousands upon thousands of times, that Obama is not merely wrong or misguided but is literally trying to destroy America. So for them to turn around now and say, “Why won’t Obama bring us together?” takes a truly superhuman level of gall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...g-us-together/
There are multiple reasons why. The first — and you’ll forgive me for sounding divisive and partisan at a time like this — is that his opponents have guaranteed that he would never be able to unite Americans about anything. A healthy chunk of the country, spurred on by their political leaders and media figures, has spent the last eight years becoming convinced that nothing Obama does, no matter the situation or the issue, is ever for admirable or even mundane reasons. Those politicians and media commentators have told their constituents, thousands upon thousands of times, that Obama is not merely wrong or misguided but is literally trying to destroy America. So for them to turn around now and say, “Why won’t Obama bring us together?” takes a truly superhuman level of gall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...g-us-together/
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