Obama Foundation Holds Annual Democracy Forum In Chicago
By Jovonne Ledet
(Source: BIN)
Former President Barack Obama took an apparent swipe at Trump, warning Americans that the country is “dangerously close” to becoming an autocracy.
On Tuesday (June 17), Obama delivered a speech in Hartford, Connecticut, where he took aim at the Trump administration’s “weak commitment” to democracy, per MSNBC.
“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood — and not just my generation, at least since World War II — our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” Obama said.
“What we’re seeing right now … is not consistent with American democracy,” he continued. “It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orbán. It’s consistent with places that hold elections but do not otherwise observe what we think of as a fair system in which everybody’s voice matters and people have a seat at the table, and nobody’s above the law. We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.”
Obama praised Americans for pushing back against the government just days after the nationwide “No Kings” protests and urged elected officials to follow suit.
“There also have to be people in government in both parties who say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’” the former president said.
Despite his concerns, Obama said he’s still “optimistic” that American democracy will prevail.
“I’m still optimistic — I’m still the ‘hope’ guy. I guess the thing when I’m talking to young people that they need to hear the most is, it is important to be impatient with injustice and cruelty, and there’s a healthy outrage we should be exhibiting in terms of what’s currently happening both here and around the world. But if you want to deliver on change, then it’s a game of addition, not subtraction. You have to find ways to make common ground with people who don’t agree with you on everything but agree with you on some things,” Obama said.
“When people actually meet and get to know each other … what Lincoln called those ‘better angels’ come out. People start recognizing themselves in each other and they start trusting each other, and that’s not just the basis for democracy, but that’s the basis for our long-term salvation.”
