Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it. Jonathan Chait More Quotes by Jonathan Chait More Quotes From Jonathan Chait Trump is what Obama critics think Obama is: Someone who's focused on symbolism rather than substance. Jonathan Chait substancesymbolismthinking Everything on Twitter is true. Jonathan Chait At best, Trumpism will be a more right-wing version of the same old Republican Party. Jonathan Chait republicanpartywings Barack Obama is a very impressive human being. Jonathan Chait barackimpressivehumans Barack Obama knows a lot about a lot of things. Jonathan Chait barackknows Barack Obama is pretty similar to the person you see in public, at press conferences. He's a little saltier, a little more sarcastic and cutting. Jonathan Chait cuttingsarcasticlittles In public, Barack Obama's giving the simple version of his beliefs for the mass public. In private, he can discuss it at a really high level. Jonathan Chait levelssimplegiving Barack Obama is an intellectual. Jonathan Chait barackintellectual Republicans fighting back against changes Obama made means those changes are important, as with most of the major progress in American history. Jonathan Chait progressfightingmean On Obamacare, every day that goes by I have more evidence that I wish I could put in my book, on how difficult it is for the Republicans to eliminate this law. They have no real alternative. They're afraid to take away health care from the 20 million people who now have it. Jonathan Chait reallawbook Conservatives are much more comfortable supporting the leader who's in power than liberals. Jonathan Chait comfortableleader It's absolutely true that people who believed Hillary Clinton would be a decent or even strong nominee need to think why that got that wrong. Laying the entire blame at the feet of Russia and the FBI is not sufficient. The biggest reason things went wrong were her own choices and her own weaknesses. Jonathan Chait russiastrongthinking I never thought Hillary Clinton was a very good politician. Jonathan Chait very-goodclintonpolitician I don't think the Democrats need a silver bullet. Jonathan Chait bulletsneedsthinking It's pretty clear that Hillary Clinton was a deeply, deeply flawed alternative. She had the wrong combination of the internal political chops to muscle out all the mainstream nominations from the field, leaving only Bernie Sanders, who was unacceptable to the Democrats' party establishment. But she also had a real lack of political skill that would enable her to win the general election. Jonathan Chait partyrealwinning In some ways, Trump is just going to continue the trend: by continuing the norm-smashing behaviour that Republicans used in opposition. Jonathan Chait trendsbehaviourway Obama took 20 million people from the category of ignorables and put them into the category of unignorables. No one had to do anything for these 20 million people because they were outside the system. Now they're inside the system. Taking away their health care imposes all kind of political pain. We don't know the outcome, but every passing day it show how difficult it is for Trump to deprive them of what they now have. Jonathan Chait politicalpainpeople Because many people remembered a time when the Republican Party was not so extreme, and hadn't full grasped how much it had changed, people blamed Obama for his failure to get Republicans to agree with him. That blame coloured so much of how the public saw Obama during his presidency. The public thought he was dealing with a brand of Republican leader that just didn't exist any more. Jonathan Chait partyleaderpeople The Republicans' response to Obama confused a lot of people. I really think there's been a measure of clarity at the end, with Trump's election, that was not present during the Obama presidency. Jonathan Chait confusedpeoplethinking Trump was the logical outcome of the Republican's irrational, racialized backlash to Obama that had utterly come to dominate the party's thinking. Jonathan Chait outcomespartythinking
