Jonathan Chait Quotes
Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it.
President Obama is so much smarter and a better communicator than members of Congress in either party. The contrast, side by side, is almost ridiculous.
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.
Trump was the logical outcome of the Republican's irrational, racialized backlash to Obama that had utterly come to dominate the party's thinking.
In some ways, Trump is just going to continue the trend: by continuing the norm-smashing behaviour that Republicans used in opposition.
There's an element of clowning and entertainment to Trump, that makes it surreal and hard to understand to what extent he is pretending to be a fascist or an authoritarian.
Conservatives are much more comfortable supporting the leader who's in power than liberals.
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.
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.
At best, Trumpism will be a more right-wing version of the same old Republican Party.
Republicans fighting back against changes Obama made means those changes are important, as with most of the major progress in American history.
Trump is what Obama critics think Obama is: Someone who's focused on symbolism rather than substance.
In the long run, however much damage we come through, Obama's vision is the one that's going to be left standing. It's a question of how much pain and suffering America has to endure in the meantime.
We're not going to be living in a world where white identity politics is the basis for a major political party.
I'm convinced in 100 years Obama will have an important place in the civic pantheon of American life.
