Obama Contemptuous, Condescending, and Dismissive of Trump

Say what you will,  President Obama is contemptuous, condescending of Donald Trump.   Of Trump’s flamboyance and entertaining style,  Obama says,  “We are in serious times, and this is a really serious business. This is not a reality show.  This is not entertainment.  This is a really serious job.”  His dismisses Trump’s tweets, “ I have not thoughts on Mr. Tweet’s tweets  As a general rule I don’t pay attention to Mr. Trump’s tweets.”

Perhaps Obama should.   Trump is running neck to nick with Hillary Clinton in swing states and in some general election polls.   And if elected,  Trump may undo much of Obama’s foreign affairs,  immigration, trade, and health care legacies.

Self-Righteousness and Sense of Seriousness

But dismissal of Trump as an unserious man is in keeping with Obama’s self-righteousness.  He is certain he  is right,  and Trump and Republicans are wrong and have no substance.  Obama  is contemptuous  in his certainty.  In his mind, as H.L Menchen once said, “The public demands certainties.”  There are no certainties, except Trump’ lack of seriousness and gravitas.

But Obama reeks of self-righteous certainty,  as evidence by history of passing ObamaCare without a single Republican vote and  how he and his alter ego and speech writer,  Ben Rhodes,  sold the Iran Deal,    They sold it by hiding how long the deal had been in the works and by announcing their position with frequent emails  to 20 influential journalists to create an “echo chamber” effect that the deal was sealed and agreed upon by all parties.   According to Rhodes, said to be in a “mind melt” with the President, he and Obama chose this approach because the top journalists “literally knew nothing” compared to Rhodes and his highness.

Arrogance and Ignorance

In his Rutgers commencement speech last week,  Obama was not only self-righteous,  he was downright arrogant, when indirectly but obviously referring to Trump, he declared “Ignorance  is not a virtue.” 

When he said this he might have been thinking of Goldwater’s overwhelming defeat when he said,  “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.  And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” The idea is to label Trump and his followers as a bunch of “crazies, ” as the electorate in 1964 perceived Goldwater  to be.

Trump’s ignorance, according to Obama,  is  his lack of grasp of substantive details,   his building of wall in a global economy with its inevitable trans border migration and transfer of knowledge,   his policies of isolation and hostility towards international trade,  his denial of Islamic immigration,  his bias towards women and minorities,  his denial and distortion of facts, science, and simple logic in the global warming debate.

“Facts” in Eyes of Beholders and Intellectuals

“Facts,”of course, are in the eyes of the beholder.  There are “intellectuals” on both sides of the political aisle,  There are  business intellectuals as well as progressive intellectuals, and yes, even populist intellectuals, who believe you must listen to the people.  Brain power is not restricted to one ideological groups.

 No one group has a hammerlock on intellect or the proper course of action, whether they be a  Harvard Law school graduate  turned social organizer turned politician or a Wharton Business School  man  turned  politician.

Action Not Words

Americans want action, not words, to spur economic growth and to restore pride in America.  People want to reduce the national debt, which has doubled under Obama.   People want health care they can afford.  People want security,  And they will vote for someone who will take action to achieve these things.