Tuesday Open Thread [12.9.14]

In an interview with BET, President Obama spoke to the one truth that Republicans always avoid: that racism is deeply rooted in American society. There was a hope, one I had shared, that when Barack Obama was elected President, racism would decrease as racists would see a qualified black man do the job. That hope has obviously been dashed. It is now clear that Obama’s election, and reelection, means two things. First, a racist’s racism was reinvented from an ugly character flaw and moral failing into simple political opposition. A lot of racists came out of the closet during Obama’s presidency, feeling emboldened by the vehement opposition to Obama. They always existed. They just were silent. Second, there are more of us than the racists. Obama won. Twice. By significant majorities. So that is the good news. But the mountaintop is still a long ways off.

A new Bloomberg poll finds Hillary Clinton “would enter the presidential race with positive views of her past experience and personal traits, making her a formidable contender against lesser-known Republican rivals.”

“Greater numbers of Americans view her as a strong leader, who has a better vision for the future, shares their values, and empathizes with their concerns… Among the Republicans tested against her, former Republican nominee Mitt Romney has the best name recognition and strengths to challenge her standing as this early stage in the 2016 race. Romney, however, has repeatedly said he won’t campaign for the presidency for a third time.”

Just like in 2010, after the Republicans garner a victory, they immediately try to ban abortion. From the Wall Street Journal:

“Now, for the first time since the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was passed in 2003, outlawing a late-term procedure, the antiabortion movement sees opportunity on Capitol Hill as the GOP prepares to take charge of the U.S. Senate.”

“At the top of the agenda: legislation that would ban abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy or later, pushing the legal boundaries set by the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Activists on both sides of the debate are gearing up for a fight that will demonstrate the consequences of Republican gains in the 2014 election.”

Too bad women stayed home in the last election. They will now lose their freedoms.

Paul Krugman wonders if we finally have a real economic recovery at last:

Last week we got an actually good employment report—arguably the first truly good report in a long time. The U.S. economy added well over 300,000 jobs; wages, which have been stagnant for far too long, picked up a bit. Other indicators, like the rate at which workers are quitting (a sign that they expect to find new jobs), continue to improve. We’re still nowhere near full employment, but getting there no longer seems like an impossible dream. [..]

Just to be clear, I’m not calling the Obama-era economy a success story. We needed faster job growth this time around than under Mr. Bush, because the recession was deeper, and unemployment stayed far too high for far too long. But we can now say with confidence that the recovery’s weakness had nothing to do with Mr. Obama’s (falsely) alleged anti-business slant. What it reflected, instead, was the damage done by government paralysis—paralysis that has, alas, richly rewarded the very politicians who caused it.

A new CNN/ORC poll finds 50% of Americans “believe Republican control of both chambers of Congress will be bad for the country, and a majority say it will in fact cause more gridlock in Washington.” Further, 68% of Americans polled say the GOP isn’t cooperating enough with President Obama, while 57% say it’s Obama who’s not cooperating enough with the GOP. And 100% of me is sick and tired of an American public that expects bipartisan cooperation. Liberals and conservatives, represented by Democrats and Republicans, respectively, don’t agree on much, and the public either needs to stop expecting them to agree, or they should stop electing divided government.