On November 14 2016 at a press conference on the then-president-elect Donald Trump and less than a week after he found out that Hillary Clinton was not the one who would continue his policies the then-president Obama blistered Trump for being more of a pragmatist than an ideologue.
My feeling is that with this statement the former president aimed at a certain direction but it backfired. I think that his original intention was to hint at the Republicans in Congress that their elected guy" is not so reliable ideologically and therefore the GOP might have some problems in the future.
Having said that I think that this statement showed us that Barack Obama unintentionally of course did admit indirectly the following things:
(1) That he himself had been an ideologue. Although the whole nation knew it from the very first beginning by indirectly admitting this Obama admitted also indirectly that:
(2) He had been a nation dividing president. Ideologues cannot represent completely a diverse nation like the U.S. (nor anyone else for that matter). By admitting this he told us that he let his ideology talk against half of the nation. That had been proven beyond any reasonable doubt with his Obamacare (voted just by Democrats) and his multiple executive orders (that defied even his own Democratic members in the U.S. Congress).
(3) Also Obama admitted indirectly that his opponent Donald Trump by being pragmatic" would have consequently a wider margin of covering the other half of the nation. That coming from a Trumps political nemesis like Obama turned itself into a great albeit unintended compliment.
After being relieved from his presidential burden Obama can spend more time reading (aside from golfing). He could start with The Art of the Deal for instance.
In the end leaving all aside this may mark our nations long nights journey into day.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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On November 14 2016 at a press conference on the then-president-elect Donald Trump and less than a week after he found out that Hillary Clinton was not the one who would continue his policies the then-president Obama blistered Trump for being more of a pragmatist than an ideologue.
My feeling is that with this statement the former president aimed at a certain direction but it backfired. I think that his original intention was to hint at the Republicans in Congress that their elected guy" is not so reliable ideologically and therefore the GOP might have some problems in the future.
Having said that I think that this statement showed us that Barack Obama unintentionally of course did admit indirectly the following things:
(1) That he himself had been an ideologue. Although the whole nation knew it from the very first beginning by indirectly admitting this Obama admitted also indirectly that:
(2) He had been a nation dividing president. Ideologues cannot represent completely a diverse nation like the U.S. (nor anyone else for that matter). By admitting this he told us that he let his ideology talk against half of the nation. That had been proven beyond any reasonable doubt with his Obamacare (voted just by Democrats) and his multiple executive orders (that defied even his own Democratic members in the U.S. Congress).
(3) Also Obama admitted indirectly that his opponent Donald Trump by being pragmatic" would have consequently a wider margin of covering the other half of the nation. That coming from a Trumps political nemesis like Obama turned itself into a great albeit unintended compliment.
After being relieved from his presidential burden Obama can spend more time reading (aside from golfing). He could start with The Art of the Deal for instance.
In the end leaving all aside this may mark our nations long nights journey into day.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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