What does that even mean in this context? I read it the same way now as I did then. There are the two paragraphs; we know the audience and the purpose. The words aren’t large. The concepts aren’t difficult. Please, explain the “non-revisionist” interpretation of them—with special emphasis on the mean-spirited parts, that wounded you so.
Here you go:
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you’ll find is, is that people of every background – there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you’ll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I’d be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you’re doing what you’re doing.
Even if you’re inclined to hear condescension, the guy was explicitly arguing not to make assumptions, and acknowledging a bipartisan failure. He’s not writing that demographic off at all, nor does he belittle the actual problems caused by de-industrialization.
But that was the context for “bitter clinger” comment. In the two examples it is compared to (then, Romney: 47%; now, deplorables/semi-fascists), the speakers were essentially writing-off voting demographics. Candidate Obama (this was 2008) was doing the exact opposite: Don’t write off X; Don’t take Y for granted.
Well they have a point in that the constitution is not an exhaustive list of rights, where they fail is in proving it was ever considered a societal right prior to Roe. And in any case it has been returned to a democratic solution instead of judicial fiat. Which anyone screaming about democracy in danger should applaud instead of denigrate.
What they do not (or refuse to) understand is that inalienable means that it cannot be taken away, and conversely, it cannot be created out of thin air. It simply is. All inalienable rights, existed before man ever created a law to protect those rights or to deny those rights. We (humanity) have never had an inalienable right to kill anyone, let alone our unborn children.
But we are talking to people who think they can change the constitution to outlaw self defense and who don’t realize that would make it an illegitimate document.
I never said that. I’m sure Obama was (is) capable of empathy … just not toward Christian gun owners and toward people on the right in general. Trump, Bush, Clinton and Reagan had (have) their own biases, i am sure.