I really resent Obama framing white supremacy, slavery and class oppression as "imperfections" of the constitution and somehow spinning a tale of American exceptionalism out of genocide, injustice and dehumanization. We see echoes of this harmful propaganda throughout society.

Reminds me of his "We tortured some folks" shrug. Shrugging at oppression. Shrugging at slavery. Not even recognizing the immorality of colonization enough to shrug it off. All of these evils washed away by the "promise" of American exceptionalism--as long as Dems regain control.

I wrote about this loathsome (neo)liberal rhetorical strategy of excusing American violence in the name of American "promise" a few years ago on my blog . . . https://awareofawareness.com/2017/10/09/never-too-much-never-too-much/

"No matter how horrific the systemic crimes..

No matter how many millions slaughtered, discriminated, left without water..

No matter how many innocent people incarcerated by the state..

No matter how many colored and colonized people abandoned..

No matter how many children killed by police..

No matter how many miscarriages of justice..

No matter how many under-resourced schools..

No matter how many generations of environmental racism..

No matter how many capitalist-produced humanitarian crises..

"No matter . . . The original sin is damnable, but never quite damning enough to curtail the possibility of absolution. The body count can never be too high, the death toll never too devastating. The evils of the 'horrible system' can be washed away again and again . . ."

I suppose that's one difference between Democrats and Republicans. Dems acknowledge past injustices (without ever acknowledging their complicity) -- but continually excuse them with patriotic exceptionalism. Republicans generally refuse to acknowledge past injustice altogether.

"The problem.. is that the moral and political imaginations of the citizenry are so abhorrently atrophied that even those relatively few citizens brave enough to.. challenge [our] systemic crimes against humanity feel that they must also immediately perform patriotic devotion.."

"The ruling elite demands endless forgiveness and redemption for their bottomless pit of violent oppression–even and especially when critiquing that oppression. The state requires *all* your love.

Never too much, never too much, never too much . . ."

"The suffering that..foot soldiers for the empire reference and.. minimize functions to frame the 'horrible system' as a space of redemption and endless possibility, where patriotic hope can soothe the broken places, despite the ever-rising body count of marginalized lives.."