Urge Retired FPOTUS Obama Work On Part of Legacy Worth Protecting

20161018_172022 (576x1024) (576x1024).jpg Mr. Obama now has time to turn history on it's side, for the people. He should be encouraged to do so at every opportunity.

As one of the most popular leaders of all time--his recent tweet after Charlottesville was the most retweeted in all time- he has the voice and the connections to do some of that
Hope Change stuff he promised.

President Trump has agressively criticized FPOTUS Obama at every opportunity and is in the process of rolling back what positive accomplishments that Obama had asap.

And we, here, have not been shy in voicing our own, albeit, different, critiques. It should be pointed out, to be fair, that MR. Trump has actually doubled down on Mr. Obama's legacy of non judicial killings, civilian bombings, covert wars, and the like. (They both should be brought on war crimes charges, but the likelihood of this is neglible.)

What's important now is to enlist Mr. Obama to use his contacts and skills in working for we the people.

Jimmy Carter, warts and all, has shown over the last several decades that former Presidents can do a great deal for peace and people.

Today I read an email with suggestions for what Mr. Obama can do in the public interest and protect his legacy to boot.

Here's a snippet, full meal deal here.

Here are some ways Obama can strengthen the people’s resistance to many of Trump’s destructive efforts which harm his own voters as well as those citizens who opposed his candidacy.

He can raise funds to expand the staffs and programs of existing citizen organizations straining to preserve and defend conditions that help people from all backgrounds. Obama, as president, went to nearly five hundred major fundraisers outside Washington to court campaign donors. By contrast, fundraising for civic action groups, ranging from civil rights/liberties to consumer, environmental and health initiatives, will not be dissipated on gouging political consultants, empty television ads and cowardly candidates unwilling to speak truth to power.
He can elevate already declared positions to block Trump and his Wall Street collaborators from words to action. For example, earlier this year over 100 outdoor-recreation companies – led by Patagonia and REI – paid for full-page advertisements telling Trump in no uncertain terms to lay off the public lands. Obama can nudge them to hire some full-time lobbyists on Capitol Hill to provide them with early alerts and guidance as the looming assault on national forests, wilderness areas and national parks gets underway. Big majorities of Americans agree with these companies, but they are not organized to focus on a handful of Senators and Representatives who need some firm education.
Obama can help start new civic advocacy groups. He has close contacts with people who are very rich and share his views. For example, there needs to be new organizations filling important vacuums on such important matters as what the Trump FCC wants to do to the Internet (end net neutrality), to increase concentration of ownership in the mass media – which is already in a few giant corporate hands – and to deliberately ignore the 1934 Communications Act which conditions licenses on providing public interest programming.

There needs to be additional civic groups to propose good directions and to oppose Trump’s forthcoming reduction of taxes for the rich, and, very importantly, to organize prominent retired military, national security and diplomatic officials who are against aggressive wars and seek dynamic diplomacy to wage peace, and to move toward full Medicare for all with free choice of doctor and hospital – with more efficient and better outcomes.

The reality is that Barack Obama is a big draw. No one comes close to playing such a role. He can get big media, attract large audiences, and raise large sums of money for the civic groups. The civil society has built and protected our democracy throughout history. Moreover, he can surely elevate public morale in an era of Trumpian gloom, flakery and attract new leadership to invigorate a leaderless Democratic Party down to the local levels.

If you agree, start petitions with your own ideas for Obama getting with America’s future and not just chronicling his eight year presidency’s past. His silent withdrawal has been astonishing and disturbing. He doesn’t yet realize what a historically crucial role he can play in the next few years.

Again, we have and still can, and should critique the former President. At the same time, we should publicly present him with suggestions of how he can lead for progress and expanding on the positive parts of his legacy. You know, get back to community organizing?

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divineorder's picture


Barack Obama: What's He Waiting For?

The most popular Democratic leader by far is still former President Barack Obama. Despite this popularity, many of the signature accomplishments of his modest legacy are being brutishly unraveled – being repealed , suspended or slated for extinction – by the Trumpsters. Donald Trump seems to revel in the destruction of consumer, investor, environmental, work and public land protections and standards. Whether at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration or the Securities and Exchange Commission, Trump’s big-business friends are running the very agencies tasked with regulating them.

https://www.change.org/

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190,140,000 people taking action. Victories every day.
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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

detroitmechworks's picture

But then he wouldn't be able to collect multi-million dollar speech fees.

Call me cynical, but when it comes down to his paychecks vs legacy, I think Obama knows which side he needs to be on.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

divineorder's picture

@detroitmechworks ideas of how he could make himself useful these days.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

gulfgal98's picture

@divineorder He used the revolving door to further enrich himself and he will continue to do so.

He could have done a lot of things without involving Congress during his Presidency to ensure that his legacy was positive. He did not do them then so there is no reason to believe that he is motivated now to do them. He is a smooth talking con man.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

divineorder's picture

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98 like to see is Ralph Nader get some face time in the media with @gulfgal98 this as an antidote to the inevitable campaign to cover up his faults as Pres.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Wink's picture

@detroitmechworks
if he gave a damn about his -ahem- "Legacy" he would have actually attempted to accomplish something in his second (and last) term. But, then, he was prolly too busy lining up retirement speeches, attending fund raisers.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@detroitmechworks

The paychecks are his legacy.

Some people, once out of public office, should just run away and enjoy their ill-gotten gains... which covers rather a lot of them still with their nose in the trough and greedy fingers still manipulating policy in the background along with others having no business there either. Such as Cheney and the Clintons, perhaps especially.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

ggersh's picture

when he was president zero, why would he bother now?
you make a legacy through ones actions, not ones BS.

His legacy is there for all to see, more war, killing
surveillance, bank profit, monopolies, etc.etc.etc.etc.
and that's all before negotiating away single payer all
by his pretty self.

Fuck him, if we need his help then all is totally lost.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Pricknick's picture

for him. I want to see if he can talk out of anything but the side of his mouth or his posterior.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

vtcc73's picture

has been floating around since at least February when a good friend sent me an article on how Obama was positioning himself to lead the resistance. It went on to say he would somehow magically do all the great stuff he didn't do while in office. Of course there was absolutely zero on why or how this might happen. I think you have to be awful deep into fantasy and magical thinking to buy any of it. Or, maybe, eight years in office wasn't quite long enough to strangle the hope he "promised".

Obama is who he is rather than what so many of us wanted him to be. So, no, he won't suddenly morph that shiny knight. He'll remain Brave Sir Robin. Besides, former presidents don't criticize their fellow club members or their actions. I can see valid arguments for and against this besides being a tradition dating back to Washington. Don't expect him to upset the sensibilities of his new found friends even if some of them may not really like him being a member of the club.

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

divineorder's picture

@vtcc73

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Wink's picture

@vtcc73
start working that eleven dimensional chess board magic.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@vtcc73

... Obama was positioning himself to lead the resistance. ...

Didn't he promise paradise and lead his people into the desert to lose them there already? What more do people expect him to do, lead them further into more desert created by such as the Bush Admin-created corporate coup 'trade deals' he pushed, of which the TPP was one, with others pre-Fast-Tracked to follow?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

EdMass's picture

Too much Koolaid.

I can't support attempting to raise failed Democrat Potus's for their failures and abandonment of progressive principals.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

divineorder's picture

@EdMass especially Ralph Nader, is drinking any koolaid. What he did there was subtle. I tried to match his tone.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

Written to challenge BO and his supporters to step up. Will he? Will they? Many of us were naturally cynical and skeptical of some of his last actions that coulbe, and were, so easily overturned by DT.

I tried to write this in a way that sort of matched Ralph's tone. It still would likely have been flagged if I had posted it at TOP.

At the very least the Nader email adds to any honest discussion of Obama, his legacy.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

democrats.
"These are the things that the democrats need to do if they want to regain control of congress...."
If countless writers and countless people who are relying on the democrats to do something to save them from Trump can see what the democrats need to do, then so can the democrats.
People have been pleading with the democrats to embrace some of Bernie's ideas, and yet both Pelosi and Schumer have doubled down on their refusal to 'move the party one inch to the left'.
In fact, Pelosi has said numerous times that she sees nothing in the platform that needs to change.
And to show their utter disdain for us, they are pushing for Kamala Harris to be the front runner for 2020. She is nothing more than another Third Way Clinton/Obama democrat who sat back and watched as an elderly lady lost her house to Mnuchin's company because she owed him 27 cents!!!
Obama and the rich donors to the DNC refused to allow Ellison to become head of the DNC because he had endorsed Bernie during the primary. This sin can never be allowed to be washed off.

The Herheinousbots on ToP insist that Hillary and the democrats were running on the most progressive platform ever. The only reason they adopted some of his platform was to get the Bernie supporters to vote for Her.
Fortunately weren't dumb enough to fall for that. They knew that Hillary had endorsed every one of Obama's policies foreign and domestic, and had added more of her own.
Which meant more war, more coddling of the banks, Monsanto....ect.
As has been stated, Obama is more that happy to reap his rewards for betraying Americans for 8 years.
Let's not forget that the brutal taken down of OWS, BLM and the DAPL protests happened during his watch.
He sat back and watched as the cops brutally hurt the people he was sworn to protect.
So F*ck him and the White Horse he rode in on.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

either. He pretty much wants big media consolidation so a POTUS can have that "national narrative" as he's stated. Besides, the internet took HER down and it's causing our Dims so much pain right now, I wait for him to come out FOR censoring it, personally. There's just so much "alt-news" now that is causing people to question, and we simply cannot have that in the land of the free and the home of the brave. s/

It would be lovely to think we could shame the bastard into doing anything for the 99% but I don't think even he "does" shame. Besides, he can just whip out that trusty racism card and anyone who dares question his stellar motives can then be shamed into being a bigot. The gift that never stops giving!

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

divineorder's picture

@lizzyh7 His email was designed to possibly get some 'centrists' thinking and questioning without the in your face rhetoric he used back in the day.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Anja Geitz's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

Just for the hilarious Elmo Schtick.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Roy Blakeley's picture

The real function of the Democratic Party under the current and recent leadership, is to siphon off the energy of progressives, divert us into unproductive political dead ends and make sure the Overton window doesn't move too much. There are certainly some wonderful Democrats, but the current leadership of the Democratic party is just an impediment to progress. Obama is from the same mold. He can make great speeches and he seems to be a pleasant fellow, but he will not move us away from the corporate militaristic mess we are in.

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divineorder's picture

@ggersh @Roy Blakeley

he seems to be a pleasant fellow

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

The last thing I want is that WS crook anywhere near me. Biggest scam artist, liar, and political whore on two feet. He easily gives Hillary and Bubba a run for their money.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

divineorder's picture

LOVE what Nader did with this piece. Most at TOP would have had a complete and total meltdown had they read it in it's entirety/clicked through to discover it was Ralph Nader! But I chickened out and did not cross post it.

Given the response here even, I can see I should should have pasted Ralph's whole email in here though. It's a doosey imo.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.