Young Boy Shot to Death by Cop Moments After Sitting Down to Watch a Movie in His Home

[MrScorpio]

108. LBJ, you say?

Do you mean the very same LBJ who went on national TV and announced that he would not seek, nor would he accept the Democratic Party's nomination for another term as president in 1968, due to the way that the country was torn apart, in response to his prosecution of the Vietnam War?

That LBJ?

Gee… I dunno.

And Teddy? Well, Teddy was a well known maniac, who would do anything on a dare. They broke the mold after made that crazy fucker.

But, really… When I talk about backlash, I suppose that there are two types to consider: Positive backlash and negative backlash.

Positive backlash happens when you're at a political advantage, a position of strength, with considerable popular support. Positive backlash basically bounces back onto the people giving it to you and makes them look bad. People who are politically inept usually make that kind of mistake, look at the current crop of Republicans. They're very good at handing the Prez a platter full of positive backlash that he takes advantage of. Just look at Congressional Republican polling numbers, vs Obama's. It's no contest.

On the other hand, there's Negative Backlash.

I seriously doubt that President Obama would receive any benefit from appearing as if he's attacking the Police State Establishment. Precisely because it's not political. The cop lobby, lawyers, Conservative judges and all the Right wing media types would have a field day. The Idiocracy Caucus in Congress would use the distorted depiction of an Obama who's hostile to the rule of law as extra fodder to further their aims of impeaching the guy. The Media would go nuts with it, to the exclusion of every other important story out there.

Frankly, it pretty naive to say that, just because the Prez has truth on his side it'll help him. Politics doesn't work that way, because politics in never about the truth… Politics is strictly about APPEARANCES.

IF the President does not get enough popular support for addressing the issue, even if the picture is distorted by the kind of politicization that always seem to happen whenever some controversy occurs, and it most certain will occur if he does what you're suggesting, then how will that help the cause of local, grass roots organizations and reformist politicians who are combatting the problems of out of control and abusive police departments?

It won't, it'll derail whatever is happening in positive term on the ground.

No, I don't want the President chiming on on this. I want empowered local activists, using democratic means to take the lead.

The people, they should lead.