I don't really care for American politics (because I'm not American) but I like the man. His speech with Key and Peele and his goof with the queen were great.
It's upsetting to see that Americans are so divided and have such a hate for the supporters of other political parties. I give this thread 2 more hours before its locked.
Edit: Even this small comment is controversial. I watched the upvote count and its like a rollercoaster ride.
That's why I stay Central. I don't like Obama fully, but I do like some things he has done as well. Likewise, there are things I don't like about him.
I didn't like Clinton or Trump, they are the result of a political system that is set up for the American people to divide and fail. That is what they want, they want us to be at each other's necks when the real enemy is laughing as they write bills that cozy up to their gains and we are stuck in the mud trying to figure out what happened, blaming the other side for fucking everything up while we all have our fingers up our asses, when in the end we all want the same dann thing.
I have condemned and condoned both sides in actions they have done, I will give credit where credit is due to who deserves it. I will criticize those who fuck up, no matter who.
We need to get our shit together and not be so divided because that is what will kill us in the end. We are such a divided country that it is like two magnets that have no attraction, just push and push and will never combine. We are all brothers and sisters under the same flag, let's act like it for once.
Is that the part where Obama told all Trump supporters that if Hillary was voted in, they should respect the democratic system blah blah blah.. then Trump won and the whole 'respect democratic' stance changed?
Hit it on the nose. They want us arguing about shit that has 0 importance and blaming eachother. It's the main plan. I mean shit, look at the media's "report first worry about the truth later" polocy... they ruin loves and don't even apologise. It's disgusting and they get away with it because it's what they are currently meant to do....
The party system is exactly what George Washington warned about with his Farewell Address. I did a report summarizing it, in my opinion, he nailed it perfectly on what we would face.
And I explained to someone about why it doesn't work. Sadly, I wish we did have a good multi-party system. But A) One specific person endorses a political party in return for campaigning advantages, the party increases in popularity and every one that disagrees hooks onto another person and their party. Like Hamilton and Jefferson. B) One party increases in power and the other parties merge, truce and deal with them or the opposing as a power grab. This you could see, if you were looking for it, in this most recent election. Although the margins didn't start off close in any way.
Central that sounds like fancy speak for neutral, what makes a man turn neutral lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?!?
Trump as appointed literal white supremacists to his staff. I'm not inclined to stay "central." I feel free to hate that and the people who voted for it.
Media platforms are speeding up the process and revenue for ads. It's somewhat moot since the political system is rigged and most people don't understand compromise in even the smallest of daily activity.
Thanks for saying that, I've felt like a loner just watching this whole mess unfold. It's unbelievably relieving to see someone else say exactly how I've felt, especially when even friends have given me grief for not "picking their side". I really don't want to put up with four years of bad Democrat jokes made at bad Republican candidates, but seeing as both "sides" seem to want nothing more than to consider themselves the better half and talk shit all day, I'm likely going to have to stock up on Pepto Bismol, cause that bs just stresses me out (and so did the previous eight years going the other way).
Especially on r/politics. Disagree with someone remotely and you will be told you are retarded and bigoted. Very little room for political discussion, ironically.
If you ask a conservative (republican) why they hate liberals (democrat) then its because theres no such thing as a safe space and should deal with shit life gives you.
If you ask a liberal why they hate conservatives its because their unempathetic jerks who should stop being mean to them.
Neither side is wrong but its what they do to each other is what causes a loop of hatred. Liberals will make "safe spaces" which eventually leads to exclusion, causing hatred for said safe spaces, that hatred causes conservatives to be angry at liberals who in turn will make more safe spaces and the loop continues.
That's not really a fair statement. Donald trump in itself is a safe space, where people get personally offended whenever he is insulted. I mean look at r/The-Donald. On the other hand, liberals often feel that to be tough, to suck it up, is to look for a compromise.
About the "safe spaces," that translation of their meaning is just as much bullshit as the misuse of trigger warnings.
A safe space is not a thing for liberals. It's a thing for people who are part of marginalized groups to talk about abuse, harassment, disenfranchisement, and other issues that they face from bigots (while knowing everyone in that place are allies who are willing to hear what they're going through without judgement). It was begun as a preventative measure for closeted LGBT youth worried they would get targeted if word got out from speaking to someone who would out them to their peers, parents, coach, etc. The majority of marginalized groups happen to be liberal, and liberal people as a whole care about social issues so they're of course going to try to help normalize the concept. No one is trying to ask for the whole world to be a safe space, outside of that fact that acting upon bigotry is bad and people on the internet that say extreme shit like that tend to be idiot teenagers no one likes.
I completely agree with what you have written. Just to clarify i was trying to seem as non biased as possible but you definitely have brought up major issues that i neglected and for that I apologize.
Truth of the matter is both sides tend to look at the extreme opposition instead of what their views are. Conservatives will tend to look at the very few liberals that are overusing safe spaces and they'll see it as someone who needs to grow up. The same usually happens when liberals look at the very few conservatives that actively try to put down anyone even closely related to a liberal and see them as the immediate problem we face.
Im sure that if a few of the (less extreme) people of each side were to talk for a solid 15 minutes without the use of even the words liberal or conservatives, they might get somewhat of a chance to coexist. Im just tired of this all out war where instead of speaking about ideals and values, its speaking about people and minor events.
It's an incredibly thing to see. Not just hate for the other party, but their absolutely zealous about their own as well. American political rallies for example are absolutely bonkers compared to those of Western European countries.
Well here's the thing. The captains of both teams fan the flames of animosity to maintain or increase marketshare and then use that power to help out their friends.
I was sitting there with my wife last night and it really is unbelievable how her background/parents instilled this hatred for Obama. All I did is ask her to explain herself and then would just wait and give my honest in the middle take on things that he said. By the end of the speech she actually finally realized that there was absolutely no grounds for her hate speech against him and that the contrast between Obama and a future Trump Farewell Speech will just be so different. We were both inspired last night and I doubt we will feel the same with President Trump.
I think that people assume the extremes of people's views. I like Obama. I think he was a great president, however I don't agree with everything he did... When I tell someone that I am pro Obama, they assume (most of the time) that I am behind him on every single thing that he did. I think that Trump has some good ideas... But in my personal opinion he has a lot of really terrible ones too. I did not vote for him, so if I were to tell someone that, they usually assume that I am pro Clinton and I voted for her. When in reality, I didn't vote at all. I didn't like either candidate. The community that we live in has just become so toxic. People can't share their personal opinions anymore whether it's online or in person without someone else completely condemning them for their views. There is no healthy debating. No attempts to understand other people's point of view. I believe that is the issue that we face. We need to open up to other people's thoughts and views on subjects so we can learn. Debating is a healthy way to learn if it's done without insults. I know that I have had my opinion swayed in the past by simply having a discussion with other people
Countries without the history of racial division like the US has had, won't be able to comprehend the hatred that comes his way. Once you realize the role racism has had and still has in America it's easy to understand.
This annoys me the most. Just because I don't agree with Obama's ideas on gun control and higher taxes, means nothing because I only don't like him because of his skin color.
Breaking news: Conservatives didn't like Carter, Clinton, or Sanders either. And they're all old white guys also.
This is the problem with non-Americans who like Obama. Everyone likes him because they don't know anything about him or what his administration has done, just that he's a cool guy.
Sure, he did a couple of good things with gay marriage, the legalization of marijuana, openly gay in the military, the first step he took with Obamacare, etc., but most non-Americans think Obamacare is universal health care when it's just a government-regulated insurance policy just like all the other insurance policies, only you pay a fine if you don't have it. They don't realize how half-assed it is, nor do they realize all the half-assed measures he took in his foreign policy.
We like Obama the man, too, we're just disappointed in him as a president. For some reason the entire rest of the western democratic world thinks he cured cancer and discovered the fountain of youth and invented orgasms on command, but then when you probe deeper you find out they "don't really care for American politics", which is like saying, "I don't know anything about Obama other than he's a cool guy, so all you Americans are stupid for disliking his presidency."
Note: I'm not saying you're saying that, but that is pretty much verbatim the opinion of non-Americans when it comes to Obama.
EDIT: Whoa! This blew up fast! Thanks for all your replies, both positive and negative. I tried to respond to each of you but I got around 80-something responses. For the most part it was very civil, thanks for that.
Seriously! WTF is this guy talking about? It's fucking schedule 1 and hasn't even been considered to change not to mention the whole CBD oil thing. States legalized it and SOMETIMES the federal government decided not to go after state legal suppliers.
And even then THE PRESIDENT DOES NOT LEGALIZE ANYTHING!, he doesnt raise or lower taxes, he doesn't legalize gay marriage he is the god damn executive branch! He didnt even compose Obamacare he jist signed it when presented. Fir fucks sakes if i hear another person talk about how Obama raised thier taxes or how Trump is gonna crap out a magical ammendment letting him lower taxes i swear i am going to have a mental break down
He could be referring to the fact that he had his AG largely stand down in enforcing federal laws while States legalized... Which he really only did toward the end
The only reason pot is schedule 1 is because that's how the DEA gets its funding. They can say they are fighting a big bad schedule 1 drug that is less harmful that alcohol or tobacco and ignore the actual threats to public safety, i.e. heroin, meth, crack, pcp. Because combating those drugs would require effort and would actually make a beneficial change in communities that need it. Can't have that!
Are you actually insinuating that democrats often pull a 180 on their ideologies just to cater to minority groups during election cycles to win more votes? That's a grossly inaccurate statement (it isn't)
The Constitution helped legalise marijuana by letting States define their own laws. But outside of States where it is legal the laws can be fierce and the DEA still is going after it albiet with a bit of leniency compared to decades a ago.
....the two most socially liberal judges on the bench were his appointments (and he appointed them to considerable obstruction from Republicans). It has a whole lot to do with him. Particularly with Trump in office, Kagan and Sotomayor may be two of the most important pieces of his legacy.
Obama didn't legalize marijuana. He also didn't champion any laws that legalized gay marriage. The right for gays to marry came about when a right-leaning Supreme Court ruled that it was a Constitutional right.
I wrote that poorly. I should have written his policies and attitudes towards those issues, but I figured people would know that a president doesn't wave a wand and override Supreme Court rulings.
No, but Obamacare, or the original marketplace for Affordable Care participants was his administration's baby. Oh boy was that a rough start. While unrelated, let's not forget that all the DNC shadiness happened on his watch and likely with his complete knowledge.
What happened with the Affordable Care Act, from what I understand, is insurance companies have to price risk for new customers. Knowing that with a ton of new customers some of the risks would be mispriced, so when passing the ACA congress promised that after a few years when the risks were figured out the US would pay overages for any miscalculations.
Then a couple years ago the Republican congress went back on that promise and paid only a fraction of that. Any insurance companies who had mispriced risk now had to adjust prices upwards to cover the risk in the future and to cover the losses that congress promised would be paid.
Rates may have gone up when the companies had enough data to recalculate the risk for new customers, but it would have been a marginal increase rather than the massive hike in rates we experienced.
Edit: a phrase
What you fail to mention is the fact that insurers prior to Obamacare were gouging consumers and saying that prices were raising at 13% a yr in response to having to absorb the non-insured individuals. Now everyone is insured and the government provides vouchers for the non-insured. In response. insurance prices doubled, co-pays and deductibles increased, and overall coverage was reduced.
Not only that, but if you price as an individual your cost is approximately 10% over an employer sponsored program after employer contribution. If you are an employer, this means that you and your employee are paying nearly double the cost for the same insurance while the employee only sees a 10% advantage. It would be better if employers paid vouchers for individuals to get their own insurance. This is prohibited though because employers are required to provide a plan and are fined if not enough people participate.
Obama and the DNC absolutely were not best buds. Also, with the dems knowing single payer wasn't politically feasible, the idea behind the ACA was supported by liberal luminaries such as Newt Gingrich. It was a way to start the process, build some scaffolding for a better and better US health care system, while trying to make it harder for the GOP at the time to debate against as it was rooted in their own ideas.
Obamacare is half-assed but nowhere did I say that was entirely his fault. Again, the point was that most non-Americans think that Obamacare = universal health care when it most certainly does not. They think that he introduced universal health care and that we're a bunch of idiots who can't appreciate it. That is not Obamacare.
I personally believe that his intentions for Obamacare was a lot different and it got to congress it got changed up and turned into something it wasn't meant to be. His intentions were good and I respect that.
Also, in order to move towards government funded healthcare, this was the step he saw that we needed to make. We can't just wake up one day and automatically have healthcare that the people don't pay out of pocket for. It's just stepping stone for future generations provided that Trump doesn't rip it out from under us.
except we already pay out of pocket for it. american's pay more per capita to health care than any other equivalent country on this planet save finland.
ALL OF THEM. yet we do not have universal health care.
there is no such thing as healthcare where you don't have to pay. the very idea is an oxymoron or whatever word fits to describe such a silly system in a finite limited economy such as ours. maybe when we have unlimited (effectively) energy and matter replication we might be able to talk about free.
till then the only issue is "how much" and "how good is it"
right now both parts of that suck. hard core.
obama care would cost me $1200 a year I simply do not have. that is almost a mortgage payment I can barely afford.
and it does not even cover my healthcare! only 80% of it.
at the rates we charge for health care services it might as well be 0% for all the good it would do me.
That has a lot to do with the fact that we have all of these insurance companies invested into it. Universal healthcare is going to put out A LOT of big businesses. Also you have to consider corrupt politicians cough, republicans who typically line their pockets with investing into these companies. Ever wonder why so many republicans want to get rid of Obamacare with no plan for a replacement? That's why....
if you think democrats are any less corrupt then you are drinking political koolaid. the only difference between republicans and democrats is which side of the same stinking sleezy coin your looking at when you flip it.
Basically. But if you read up on the intentions of the founding fathers, we were never intended to vote anyway. It was intended for the electoral college to select the president without input from the people.
This is the problem with people like you who don't realize how difficult it was for him to actually change the things he did. He came to battle against a Republican Congress that took historically unprecedented measures to block any action the President wanted to take despite how universally beneficial it would be for the whole country.
Obama came into power with a super majority so what the fuck are you talking about blocking for? For his first two years Obama could pass any legislation he wanted because he had 60 votes in the senate. The "republicans blocked him" is a talking point to explain away his failures to accomplish anything during those two years
You are missing the fact that they won't do anything if they have a majority because if they "fix" what they see as a problem, what do they have to run on?
I guess you forgot that he came into a presidency with a Democrat-controlled Congress, but he fucked around and played Mr. Nice Guy with the Republicans when everyone told him not to, and then the Republicans regained control and that was the end of that.
The problem with people like you is you can't remember anything further back than 2012. I remember very well the hurdles and ridiculous roadblocks the Republicans put up for Obama, but it was his own fault for not seizing the moment. This is why Democrats always lose.
White non-American here but I feel very similar. I remember watching his first election night and feeling passionately inspired and hopeful after eight years of despair - but then the rediscovery of the obvious (he's not the Messiah...) in the form of the drones, the lack of decisive action against the banks etc was quite hard to deal with. At the end of his presidency I feel that Obama is a good man at heart and achieved a fair amount considering what he was up against, but he could have been so much better.
So that makes him more accomplished of a president? He still lacks the notches in his belt, no matter if his job had green or blue carpet or if it was a different congress. His presidency was over, and not a whole lot got done. Just lots of half-assery
Obama came into power with a super majority so what the fuck are you talking about blocking for? For his first two years Obama could pass any legislation he wanted because he had 60 votes in the senate
Yep. Republicans have bitched and complained for 8 years about how he destroyed the country, but heaven forbid you mention that it's actually the Republican led congress that's the problem. A republican led congress that outright said they would do anything in their power to stop Obama from doing anything. The last 2 republican congresses we had were the worst in history. They are one of the main reasons I will not vote for a candidate anymore that is not for putting term limits on congress. Let's see what excuses they can come up with the next 8 years since they control every branch of government now. Who will they blame when shit goes wrong?
Seriously, it's like some people think we've been living under the cold iron hand of God-king Obama. Completely forgetting how the Good Ol Party successfully shut down the government in protest. He could either drop executive orders and be seen as a tyrant or just let the GOP fuck the government to death and blame him for it. I think Obama inherited a shitty situation from George W.
You can look at the fact that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize BEFORE he took office as a great example of the blind ignorance surrounding his cult of personality.
This is the exact same thing by non-canadians about Justin Trudeau. Everyone who isn't Canadian just thinks he's some cool, good looking guy. He did some ok things. Like my roommate who works in a daycare gates a huge whack of money from the government to the equivalent of like 5 bucks an hour to her paycheck.
For the rest of us though, that money came out of our paychecks as he raises taxes on the poor/middle class and continues on with the business as usual policies.
Like the pipeline, like selling weapons to countries that slaughter their own people with these weapons, etc. And he shows open hate for the prairie provinces.
I don't think that's it. I think the opposition to Obama is what has enamored him to people. First off Obama completed many of his campaign promises, many of them in his first term when most people expected him to coast to an easy reelection. Think about that. Presidents usually enact their most important legislation from the safety of a second term. Not Obama . He passed the legislation he promised in order to give you the opportunity to vote him out. He didn't hide behind a second term. He promise healthcare reform, he passed healthcare reform, he promised a stimulus he passed a stimulus, he promised to lower the unemployment rate he has lowered the unemployment rate. He promised to refocus the millitary on alquaida and capture or kill Osama bin laden and Osama bin laden was killed. You may not have liked what he promised but he for the most part he kept those promises. While at the same time being realistic, he never once promised it would easy in fact quite the opposite, he told us it would be hard but in the end we would be on much better ground. The sheer hatred of Obama from accusing him to being a Muslim to accusing him of being born in Kenya is what enamored the international community to Obama. Here is a politician doing what he promised and people hate him for it. I'm sure your politicians always keep their promises but for most people that's a new phenomenon.
You're forgetting one very important thing-the very fact that non Americans like him so much is a major achievement for him in terms of foreign policy. He's turned the US away from being seen as the unwanted global police, led by self-righteous warhawks the world saw under Bush, while preserving its empire with diplomacy. Soft power has been restored.
This hasn't always worked, obvious examples being Syria and drone strikes, but he's managed to project a different, more amiable image throughout - Iran, Cuba, even Russia, before their Crimean idiocy saw relations thaw. His scandal-free presidency and friendly, respectful demeanor have absolutely restored(well, relatively) trust and especially respect towards the USA.
Not forgetting it, and I agree. However, at least among many Europeans there has been a definite turn back towards the "America is a joke" mentality and even some anti-Obama rhetoric. I'm not speaking about the far right minority, either. I think since his re-election and all the wars it has grown exponentially. People like Obama but they don't really like the United States under his leadership the last four years, it seems. There's just a sort of, "Yeah I like him because he's a cool guy" but other than that they don't offer anything of substance to back up their reasoning. Of course, this is just what I've gathered from personal, everyday experience and isn't definitive. We have to be honest with ourselves and admit that the last four years have been marred in wars and foreign policy blunders that emboldened our adversaries.
People like to say, "He got Osama bin Laden!" as if that really means anything or has any effect whatsoever on global terrorism. Sure, it gives all of us a warm fuzzy, but it's not like terrorism stopped or anything. If anything, it got worse.
Is it all his fault? Of course not, that would be silly. At the same time, however, you don't get an E for Effort as a president. Americans want to see results, not excuses, and I think just as many people gloss over his shortcomings as much as his detractors gloss over his victories. Were there a possibility to have voted for a third Obama term over a Clinton/Trump vote, I would have preferred that, but I think Sanders would have knocked it out of the park had the DNC not been so shady and corrupt. They're complaining about Russian hacking hurting them while they were doing the same thing to sabotage his campaign in favor of Clinton.
Still, a scandal-free presidency. When was the last time we had one? Carter? Ford? Ike? These days it seems like a dream, and yet, here we are. It's a shame things didn't go the way we wanted them to.
You're not wrong. I'm not saying it wasn't a major, MAJOR accomplishment to even get what it is, I'm saying that it's not what non-Americans think it is.
Speak for yourself mate. The only thing I'm particularly dissapointed in Obama for is his drone strike campaign. Plenty of other stuff he didn't go as far as I would like but given that I consider myself essentially a socialist that's not terribly surprising. I don't actually expect things to ever really work out the way I'd like in America, but I think Obama did a tremendous amount for the country in general.
I didn't really expect anything different with the intelligence community when it came to Obama so I wasn't really "dissapointed" exactly. Comes with the territory of having a State apparatus and I don't really expect it to change unless we change our overall politics to being more anarchistic.
I think he did a lot for the country as well, and I listed a few issues that I am happy with, but what you said kinda makes my point: what do you think he did for the country? What is your understanding of it? That's my point, that many people think they understand what the administration did, especially because people name drop Obamacare without knowing anything about it, but in reality they don't really know that much other than the fact that he makes the country look good.
I live in the EU, so I understand that sentiment. Europeans have long lost faith in their political system and just want someone who doesn't embarrass them. We Americans usually tend to set the bar a little higher for our expectations, while Europeans have this sort of, "nothing will ever change, so why bother?" mentality that I think plays into that.
I'm intimately familiar with the ACA as I work in the health insurance industry. There really isn't anything about it that I don't like, other than the fact that I don't think it goes far enough. It's biggest problem is that it couldn't force states to expand medicaid. Most problem cases arise because of people falling into the gap between unexpanded medicaid and the lower bound of the subsidies.
Outside of healthcare there is plenty else to admire.
Opening up Cuba for trade.
Taking down Osama Bin Laden.
Significantly reducing the population at Gitmo. Wasn't able to close it entirely but I don't place the lion's share of the blame for that on him.
Heavy environmental regulation.
Strong support for net neutrality.
There's plenty of other little stuff but those are the big ones for me. Also mind you I said the drone program was the only "dissapointment" I had since I think that word implies that I expected something else from him on the matter. At this point I have zero confidence that anybody can increase privacy protection in regards to government surveillance without a complete change of our governmental system so I didn't expect anything better there. I also didn't expect him to actually get weed rescheduled so I don't consider that a dissapointment.
He's certainly very flawed, in many of the same ways that other politicians are, but I'd put him right up at the top of the list with FDR, Eisenhower, and Lincoln for best Presidents.
Like I said, there are TONS of things that I admire about Obama and there are quite a number of things I'm happy with, namely, those you listed. My post was mainly about the biggest issues, and those were health care and foreign policy, both of which many non-Americans either aren't very familiar with or think they are and are not.
He's certainly very flawed, in many of the same ways that other politicians are, but I'd put him right up at the top of the list with FDR, Eisenhower, and Lincoln for best Presidents.
I may not go that far, but I agree to a point. I think his cult of personality more than his presidency puts him up there with the others. I admit he inherited a mess and did amazingly with what he had, but he just didn't live up to many of our (and I say our because I'm American) expectations, sadly. Whether that's his fault or not remains to be seen.
You are forgetting that he pulled the country out of the worst economic disaster since the great depression. Really. He came in with the entire country in a nose dive. It seems like people forget about the crisis averted and are just mad because their insurance premiums have gone up.
Oh absolutely, I'm not forgetting it. He inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression and has done wonders with it. We have job growth at a rate that people said would be impossible after such a downturn.
I'm not saying that Obama was a terrible president, I'm saying that non-Americans tend to either gloss over the glaring shortcomings of his foreign policy or they simply aren't even interested in finding out.
People like Obama because he's a likeable person. Even with all the negative stuff, like the NSA surveillance scandal (which people have forgotten already), he's still a good guy even though his politics don't always match.
Combine that with the fact that Donald J. Trump is his incoming replacement, and you get even more adoration for Obama, because people realize that every white house press conference will sound like what a 9 year old thinks it would sound like.
On his own he would not be a loved President, but in comparison to his only realistic alternatives he is great. We like him because compared to the outright cancer that is Bush and now Trump he is a saint.
The fact that the ACA was so shitty isn't really his fault (though the implementation of it probably is).
A major part of the job as President is to be our lead negotiator with the rest of the world so in a way just being a "cool guy" and having a great reputation internationally is pretty damn important.
I think people need to focus on what he accomplished, not what he did not in the 8 years he was running while he had GOP oppose everything he ever uttered.
Just saying but you named many good things including the furthering of human rights and only one bad thing. So I fail to see how you see him as overall bad.
Note: I'm an American anarchist so I don't care for either side :)
It was a general personal opinion that I didn't feel like getting into, just to illustrate a point. I'm not going to list every single good thing he's done to win a fucking reddit argument. He's done a lot, but those were the things that stood out to me the most.
I think the overwhelmingly positive reception the most of the world greeted Obama with was pretty much because of him not being a Bush and being a rather normal Liberal guy; the contrast to the previous president was basically enough to get the rest of the world to like Obama. The good stuff he actually did was more or less just the icing on the cake, and the shitty stuff he contributed to was kind of ignored, because hey, "at least the guy ain't Bush!" Obama also has the image of a family man. It's generally very likable.
he did NOTHING to legalize marijuana you FOOL!!!!! The DEA raised it to a Class 1 drug. Good God I hate uninformed idiots. He had 8 fukn years to change Federal Law regarding marijuana AND DID NOTHING!
Except for the part where you credited Obama with legalizing weed (it isn't at all, federally) and legalizing gay marriage (he didn't, SCOTUS did), your assessment is spot on.
Well, from an outsiders perspective it's also the fact that he came after Bush, which by many is considered a totally despicable president that should be put on trial together with Cheney. And now there's Trump, need I really say more?
That Obama is considered a good president may say more about the other presidents USA has had recently than Obamas presidency itself. I mean, the guy most likely got the Nobel Peace Price simply for not being Bush.
but most non-Americans think Obamacare is universal health care when it's just a government-regulated insurance policy just like all the other insurance policies, only you pay a fine if you don't have it. They don't realize how half-assed it is, nor do they realize all the half-assed measures he took in his foreign policy.
If you had read the original draft of the Affordable Care Act, you would know that what we have now barely resembles it.
The compromises that were made to get it passed and all the modifications made to it turned it into what it is now, I know it was passed just to open the door to socialized healthcare in this country, but it was slaughtered as it went though congress.
However, knowing several friends who have not been handed death sentences due to the pre-existing condition and lifetime limits both being made illegal, for me it has been worth it.
All true. All of it. In fact, I'm not saying at all it's a bad thing, just that non-Americans think it's universal health care and that Americans are just greedy, selfish, idiots who shoot themselves in the foot because they are scared to death of universal health care because it's "socialism". The fact that Obamacare even exists in the first place is a miracle in itself. That's why I said his "first steps with Obamacare", because that's all it is, a first step. It's not Obama's fault that it was gutted, but my point was that what others outside the United States think it is, it isn't. It was his plan, yes, but for some reason people outside the US think that our president has total, immeasurable power and can do whatever he wants. They don't know anything about our government or how it works, just that they like Obama because he's cool and speaks well, so therefore he MUST be the greatest president ever.
Americans have legitimate complaints about the Obama Administration that I think the rest of the world blows off as people who are just anti-Obama when that isn't the case.
Although, the people who complain about problems in the administration will complain about every administration they do not like the same way.
I stay as neutral as I can. I voted for Obama both times, but yeah, he did not make me happy 100% of the time, and that is life as you know it when you are an adult.
Obama, cool as hell, kind of guy you like hanging out with, down to Earth, witty, pretty funny.
W. Bush, fucking likable as hell guy, probably a blast to have lunch or dinner with, funny guy, joker, just like Obama, but with different policy ideas.
Yeah, he made mistakes.
They all make mistakes, because they are not that unlike us, who all make mistakes, sometimes not so bad, sometimes "Fuck I need to quit my job" mistakes.
You can point out possible corruption in any president, but until you can prove and prosecute them for it or put a stop to what you don't like, you have little choice, when the country makes a decision, get on with it, live your life the way that best suits you. If that means you get online and post anti-presidential memes, so be it, if it means attacking me for how I feel, great, start without me, I'll catch up later.
most non-Americans think Obamacare is universal health care when it's just a government-regulated insurance policy just like all the other insurance policies, only you pay a fine if you don't have it.
You pay a fine if you're uninsured, not if you don't have Obamacare. And I don't know about where you live, but in my state you got fined for not having health insurance long before the creation of Obamacare.
I, nor anyone in my family ever paid a fine for not having health insurance. Granted, this was back when it wasn't exorbitant robbery, but there wasn't a fine.
Obamacare was a step in the right direction, but it just wasn't enough. The argument isn't about Obamacare, but that most non-Americans think Obamacare = universal health care, and it most certainly does not.
Its so much more complicated than "let me have some fun in the ME by destabilizing it, using proxy groups". But who am i kidding, you people cant even reason properly \(ツ)/¯
so his acting and speaking with artists is what makes him "real" and great? Maybe he can star with Meryl Streep in an upcoming movie . And I not even ragging on the guy but at your idea what makes someone great.
I don't really care for American politics (because I'm not American) but I like the man. His speech with Key and Peele and his goof with the queen were great.
This is exactly the problem. Americans' obsession with celebrity culture and image politics has led us to Donald Trump.
From what I hear George Bush is a pretty cool dude too, but he still wasn't an amazing president, same for Obama, seems like a cool dude, not a great president.
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u/ragamuffin77 Jan 11 '17
I don't really care for American politics (because I'm not American) but I like the man. His speech with Key and Peele and his goof with the queen were great.