Presidents Trump and Obama have an important thing in common and few Americans know what it is even though our lives have been affected.
Once elected, a president is supposed to represent all citizens. But Trump and Obama have largely rejected that axiom. Instead, they play to their constituencies leaving millions of Americans unattended.
Donald Trump well understands what his base wants: the country first, a robust economy, and national security - protection from outsiders who would bring harm or sap national resources. Therefore, the President can be insensitive to those who disagree with that philosophy, calculating his words will not ultimately hurt him at the voting booth.
Barack Obama had a similar attitude. He was caught expressing disenchantment with Americans who “cling” to religion and guns. President Obama’s policies were geared to redistributing income even though, over time, that hurt the majority of Americans by inhibiting a strong economy. But Mr. Obama did not care about the majority. His policies were geared to the hard left and minorities, his core constituents.
If you look back at recent history, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy governed fairly. Lyndon Johnson lost his way because of the Vietnam War. Richard Nixon despised the folks who despised him, he was not a national leader despite his landslide victory over George McGovern.
Gerald Ford governed in the Eisenhower mode, but Jimmy Carter would not accept conservative Americans. Ronald Reagan was very conservative but did respect the other side as his strong relationship with Tip O’Neil demonstrated.
President Bush the Elder governed like Eisenhower and so did Bill Clinton until the Lewinsky affair. After that, he became partisan.
President Bush the Younger was consumed by the 911 attack and generally sought national unity. Iraq derailed that.
But Obama and now Trump have both abandoned a style of consensus, thus the country is bitterly divided. Tonight on the No Spin News, I will tell you my feelings on this and explain how it is affecting the country.
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