'When they go low, we kick them': How Michelle Obama's up to angry and divided times



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The advice is a blueprint for the midterm elections but a moral lesson for her daughters.

As Malia and Sasha Obama were used in the discord of the United States, their mother urged them to ignore the angry voices at odds with the "true spirit of the country" and unworthy of a response. "No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high," Michelle Obama declared in a rousing speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, saying that Donald Trump's name-calling.

But now, in the vertiginous political moment testing the nation's "true spirit," the train first lady's words are repainted and rewritten by opponents of President Trump looking for guidance – moral, tactical, emotional, spiritual – as they seek to wrestle back control of the country. Their efforts have been taken up by statues and low down in the mud, testing whether the lofty ideal can compete with the anger convulsing American politics.

Eric Holder, a former president of the White House and a possible 2020 presidential contender. Rallying Democrats on Sunday in Georgia, he said the trainer first comments, and a new word for a new era.

"Michelle always says, 'When they go low, we go high.' No. No," he said. "When they go low, we kick them out." He said, "This new democratic party is about," adding, "We are proud to hell to be Democrats. We are willing to fight for the ideals of the Democratic Party.

He said, "I do not mean anything we do, we do not do anything illegal, but we have to be tough and we have to fight. "A combative strategy, he said, would honor the legacy of civil rights leaders, such as Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) And Martin Luther King Jr.

Republicans pounced. One of them, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Co.), Countered with another mantra – also popularized by the Obamas – which has been formulated over the past year.

The president was more blunt. "I think it's disgrace," he said of late Wednesday when he said "Fox News @ Night."

It's not just a bearer who has grown weary of the well-mannered approach. Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, at one time quoted the maxim approvingly. "I am reminded of what my friend Michelle Obama advised us when they go low, we go high," she said in the fall of 2016 when Trump brought up allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband.

But her thinking appears to have changed.

"You are not civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for," she said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

Some reached that conclusion long ago – as in, right after their party lost the bitterly contested 2016 election.

"Michelle Obama had that beautiful line, 'When they go low, we go high,'" Rep. Ted Location (D-Calif.) Told the Los Angeles Times columnist in March 2017. "I thought about it a lot. But I also thought, 'We lost the election.'

The stiffened stance of bigwigs is a high profile, and it is possible that they would take the gloves off.

For Dana Beyer, a transgender rights advocate in Maryland, the election itself was the turning point. In a December 2016 HuffPost column, she watched as the first lady's feeling, while "appropriate for the Convention," no longer applied. "The campaign is over, and the worst has happened," Beyer wrote. "Now, when they go low, we must go lower. We fight with everything we've got. Americans love a fighter, so let's give them a fight. "

Last June, Neera Tanden, The Hillary Clinton, Apostle and Head of the Center for American Progress, used colorful language on Twitter to argue that, when the other side goes low, "going high does not. . . work. "

No one has gotten off the run, but it has not been in the air, but it has not been in the air. Stormy Daniels in her bruising legal battle with the president. He famously ventured to Iowa in August and delivered to eulogy for turn-the-other-cheek politics.

"When they go low, I say, we hit harder," said Avenatti, who has been flirting with the notion of a bid for president in 2020.

The bare-knuckled approach is favored among some self-avowed liberals who are maddened by the inability of Democrats to stymie the president.

Speaking in February on the "Lovett or Leave It"Podcast, hosted by former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett, author and commentator Roxane Gay declared the first lady" when they go low, we go high "remarked" the worst thing that has ever happened to democracy. "

"When they go low, we need to go[f—–g] subterranean, "she said in the race of a discussion about the convictions over the fate of" dreamers, "young immigrants in the country without status. "Until Democratic politicians start adopting that, we're never, ever going to overcome these kinds of obstacles."

Lovett and Gay speculated about what Democrats might find in plumbing those depths.

"Oh look, it's Ted Cruz's talking points," he quipped. "Oh my God, it's Omarosa's application to 'The Apprentice.'"

Gay added: "Donald Trump's original hair."

Still, others do not see controversial tactics as opposed to Obama's adage.

On the Fourth of July this year, Patricia Okoumou, an activist and Congolese immigrant, invoked the first lady's words in the United States. -hour standoff with police, an evacuation of the New York landmark and three misdemeanor charges.

Trump, in a rally in Montana the next day, mocked her as a "clown."

Okoumou, after an appearance in federal court, did not quote "The New Colossus," the Emma Lazarus poem that entreats, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Instead, she said that she had taken the advice of Michelle Obama to her daughters literally. "Michelle Obama – Our beloved first lady that I care so much about – said, 'When they go low, we go high,' and I went as high as I could," Okoumou said.

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