President Obama recently stated at a fundraiser that social media and the nightly news are making the world look like it is “falling apart.” As reported byThe Hill:
“The world’s always been messy … we’re just noticing now in part because of social media. If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart.”
The President made the remarks at a fundraiser tonight in Purchase, New York, for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Mark Knoller from CBS News was there to relay the remarks via Twitter.
One of the benefits of the information age is that news and information have been broken down into a way that makes it more friendly to social media.
Social media is not causing the following national and international issues, it is merely reporting on them:
- Workforce participation rates at a 36-year-low, along with rising national debtobligations now at $17.7 trillion, primarily due to social programs.
- Russia’s ongoing “incursion” into the Ukraine, which is a de facto invasion of a sovereign country on the edge of Europe.
- ISIS (or ISIL/IS) terrorists taking over the state of Iraq after the United States withdrew from the territory.
This is not the first time that President Obama has blamed the media for frustrating his political agenda. For some context, the President is currently struggling with a low approval rating in the 40s and bad optics of late because of his perceived lack of leadership confronting ISIS.
The President has variously blamed Fox News and conservative talk radio for misleading the American people and creating an unfair “caricature” of him. Obama has also blamed Bush for the stagnant economy, as well as hiswithdrawal of troops from Iraq.
On numerous occasions, the President has blamed the House Republicans for failing to move legislation through the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House.
President Obama’s solution has been to use his ‘pen and phone’ to bypass or even override the American people’s representatives in Congress, by legislating from the executive branch.
Given that the President’s hallmark pieces of legislation – from so-called “Obamacare” to the exorbitant “stimulus” package – failed to produce the results that were promised, it is an unacceptable premise that Americans should jettison representative government.
The challenges of the presidency are both of enormous magnitude and entirely predictable. Those elected to become the leader of the free world must have extensive experience and must be fully prepared to deal with a world that is “messy.”
President Obama’s blaming of other politicians or the media for this state of affairs just further confirms what many Americans have suspected all along: he may simply not be up to the job. It is not the fault of social media that it is doing what other major news media have often failed to do, and that is tell the American people the straight truth.
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