The Gaslighting National Convention: Michelle Obama, Mother of Empathy

TRINICY.org

Photo by Alex Nemo Hanse

Michelle Obama. Beloved former FLOTUS. Lady of the people. Apolitical figure. Closer of DNC Night #1. The one they wish they had nominated. 

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Let’s get this out there right quick. Michelle Obama is a very radical, very political figure. She said in 2008 that she was never proud of this country until Obama was nominated. She is also an incredible liar, having said numerous times that she does not want to be a political figure–including in this very speech–and yet, here she is, giving the keynote on Night #1. She has always been political, and this speech was no exception. Let’s get into it.
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“You know I hate politics...”
​[^ see the above paragraph, and laugh]. 
“...but you also know that I care about this nation.
​You know how much I care about all of our children.”

In other words, Donald Trump and the Republicans by default do not care about you or your children. Here’s the first of many plays on empathy from the former FLOTUS. The issue with all of this is that there is no room for empathy within politics. Author Paul Bloom, in his book Against Empathy, advocates for rational compassion instead of empathy when dealing in politics. The difference is that empathy involves emotions and can lead to the reckless abandonment of all rationality regarding actions taken. Politicians should act rationally, not emotionally. But the Democratic Party is the party of emotional plays. 

“A lot of people have asked me, ‘When others are going so low, does going high still really work?’ My answer: Going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else.” 

The Democratic Party: The party of going high when those dirty Republicans go low. Never mind that Joe Biden said Mitt Romney was going to “put” black people “back in chains.” Barack Obama made fun of Mitt Romey for (albeit, awkwardly) alluding to the “binder full of women” that he was examining to choose a VP candidate (cough cough, Biden?). Nancy Pelosi called President Trump fat. There isn’t enough time in the world to talk about every terrible thing the members of The Squad have said over the last four years. Michelle herself earlier this year in a commencement speech told graduates that no matter how hard some of them worked, they will never be successful because of the structural barriers against them. In other words, your melanin levels will determine your amount of success because America is a terrible, racist place. 

That doesn’t seem very “we go high,” does it? To me, telling graduates that some of them will just never amount to anything no matter how hard they work sounds an awful lot like the ugly noise against which she just spoke. We will look at more instances of Michelle going so low within this very speech. 

“They see our leaders labeling their fellow citizens as enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protesters for a photo-op. Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation.”

Whose administration caged children before the Trump administration? And who built the cages? Who was president while the Ferguson and Baltimore race riots brought national chaos and unrest? Just because Joe Biden still doesn’t acknowledge that race was the cause of these riots does not make it untrue. Such a high road Michelle is taking, she can’t even see the ground anymore. 

“As George Floyd, Breonna Taylor,
and a never-ending list of innocent
people of color ​continue to be murdered…”

Quick fact check here. That never-ending list actually ends pretty quickly. It ends at 15 people. That’s how many unarmed black people were shot in 2019 according to the Washington Post. Contrast those 15 deaths against the number of innocent people who have been killed during these mostly peaceful “protests” and it becomes pretty obvious that these riots are far more threatening and damaging to our country than are the police. 

“...stating the simple fact that a black life matters
​is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office…” 

The White House has never had an issue stating that a black life matters. President Trump and America’s sweetheart Kayleigh McEnany have both made it clear time and time again that of course all black lives matter. But to show any support for an organization whose website calls for “disruption of the nuclear family” and also claims to “practice empathy” while burning down cities is problematic, whether you are the POTUS or not. 

Look at what is happening in our country right now in the name of BLM. For months at this point, these rioters have set fire to and wreaked havoc on many of our major cities while the Democrat leaders of those cities are still instructing cops to stand down. The chaos in Portland has now moved into the suburbs, where BLM rioters are marching through neighborhoods in the middle of the night and screaming profanities at the residents to keep people awake. But the DNC made sure to overlook all of this. 

It is disgusting, and I am thankful that the White House refuses to use the semantically overloaded phrase “black lives matter” for that exact reason. 

“...Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy.”
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If you believe that Joe Biden or Barack Obama would have been a better leader for this nation over the last four years (let alone the last six months), I’d ask you to review their eight years in office together and come up with one shred of evidence that supports the claim. I think my earlier remarks about the Ferguson and Baltimore chaos during Obama’s reign speak for themselves. Speaking of his reign, if division from Trump is your concern, you should recall that Barack was one of the most divisive presidents in our nation’s history. And once again: Empathy does not belong in politics. But she’s not done with that one yet. ​
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“Right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we value. They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin.”
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In other words: Mother Empathy is disappointed in you. In all of us. You and I are the problem with this country, because you and I lack empathy. Shame on us. Shame on us all. She continues to go so high, although we have all gone so low!

Do you think the rioters and looters are empathetic? Is it empathetic to break into stores and fight your fellow citizens for a pair of Nikes in the name of racial equality? Is it empathetic to shoot a black retired police officer named David Dorn in St. Louis for minding his own business during a riot? Is it empathetic for a rioter to stop a moving car and beat the life out of the driver because of his or her race? Is it empathetic for rioters in Portland to lock cops inside of a building and then set that building on fire? 

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding No. Yet, ALL members of the Democratic Party–full of our self-appointed, self-proclaimed empathy lords–are propping these people up and supporting them at every possible turn. Once again, it makes so much sense that it makes no sense at all. That is what gaslighting is. 

“Right now, folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing everything they can to stop us from voting. They’re closing down polling places in minority neighborhoods. They’re purging voter rolls. They’re sending people out to intimidate voters, and they’re lying about the security of our ballots. These tactics are not new.” 
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Remember when every single Democrat alive told us that Trump is the only one undermining electoral integrity? Yeah, me too. Yet here she is, doing that thing that she’s accusing others of doing. For a second, I mistook her for Stacey Abrams.

Let’s address this claim regarding suppression of black votes. Black voter turnout has been within 5 percentage points of whites since 2008 and is always higher than Asian or Hispanic voter turnout. In 2012, black Americans voted in higher numbers than white Americans, which is actually the sole reason why Obama was reelected in 2012. No one likes to talk about that part though; and somehow, after a brief four years of the Obama presidency, the entire system somehow reverted back to voter suppression of black people. Please stop believing the lie that black Americans are too poor or too underprivileged to vote, because it is statistically and verifiably false. And to conclude…

“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.”
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Question. Apart from writing her book, controlling what public school kids are allowed to eat for lunch, and running the White House garden, what has this lady been put in charge of? What has qualified her to say this sort of thing about the President? What has she been put in control of that even comes close to comparing to the responsibilities of the POTUS? And who is this “we” that she is speaking of? So many questions. So few answers. 
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“It is what it is.”

Classy. Seriously, she is the classiest. I’m glad she ended by going high. 

FINAL THOUGHTS ON MICHELLE OBAMA'S CONCLUSION TO NIGHT #1

After these snippets of her 18-minute long speech that I’ve discussed here, do you get the feeling that Michelle Obama hates politics? Do you feel better about the Democratic Party? Do you feel pumped to go vote for Joe Biden and earn four more years of old, white, knock-off Obama? Do you feel united by any of this? Do you think Michelle Obama and her words accurately and realistically represent what this country is all about? Do you feel as though the Democratic Party wants to unite us in any way whatsoever? 

Most importantly, do you feel more inspired to be empathetic, or do you feel browbeaten by a disappointed motherly figure who simply won’t go away even though you have moved on to a brighter, more orange stage of your life? I tend to feel the latter. This woman is good at what she does; she is opportunistic, engaging, and manipulative. I encourage you to listen to her speech in full and draw your own conclusions about its contents. Speaking for myself, this woman will never represent me or our country; unlike Michelle, I have always been proud to be an American.