Former U.S. President Barack Obama has shown serious concerns regarding the direction that the United States is headed under his successor Donald Trump by making it clear that the country is currently
heading towards a dangerous and quite dangerous path of losing the major attributes of democracy in lieu of dictatorial leanings.
At a public speech in Hartford, Connecticut in the evening of Tuesday, June 17 th, Obama made these comments.
Coming out of a relative public silence since he left the office at the beginning of 2017, interspersed largely with low-key appearances and the occasional criticism of particular Trump administration moves,
such as the temporary hold on Harvard funding and proposed escalation of tariffs, Obama issued his bleakest warning about the course of the nation in politics so far.
According to him, the latest developments during the Trump administration are essentially not in line with American democracy.
Obama named in particular a threat of autocracy. He described this type of government, once represented by the emperors, kings, and contemporary dictators, as the one in which only one person had an absolute right to make decisions,
not accountable to either his advisors, courts, population or the media. In this form of governance, the citizenry does not play any significant role in formulating or implementing the law.
The current events, as Obama put it, were not in line with American democracy. It is in line with autocracies.
It is in line with Hungary under Orb226n. It goes hand in hand with places where there is an election but where otherwise we do not have what we consider to be a democracy in which every opinion counts and
everyone has a place at the table and where one checks the power of the other and no one ranks higher than the rule of law.” Though he did not come out and call the U.S. a complete autocracy, Obama emphasised,
“We have not reached the level of full autocracy yet but I think we are very close to passing off something such as that as being normal.”
He cited an apparent lack of fidelity by present-day federal leaders to the existing principles of liberal democracy, precepts which have supported the American system of governance since at least World War II.
Obama had his warning put in the perspective of an increased level of political tension by directing the reference to the extensively covered rallies with “No King” signs delivered in all 50 states only several days ago on June 14th.
Reports show that those protests came up to more than 2,000 explicitly to reject authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics as well as the militarization of our democracy. He mentioned as well that there are continued protests against trump immigration policies and the use of National Guard.
As he spoke about the success of the citizens in initiating the change, Obama underlined that opposition to autocratic drift cannot just be based on outcry.
He cautioned that elected members of both political parties played a very important role of protecting democratic institutions. Also there has to be people in government in both parties who say, Well, no, you can not do that, he maintained.
Nevertheless, Obama ended on a typically positive note, reassuring himself, and everyone to remember that he is the guy of hope. He addressed certain specific guidance to youth, encouraging youngsters to have a healthy sense of anger at wrong and brutality.
But, he added, to make any lasting change, one needs to get broad coalitions. He went on to caution that if you want to implement change, it is not a game of subtraction but rather addition and therefore
you need to find common grounds with people who do not necessarily think like you but who share some of your sentiments.
In reference to the underlying necessity of connectedness in the working democracy, Obama referred to Abraham Lincoln explaining,
“When people actually come face to face; then when they see one another, and they wind up working on some common project, then what Lincoln called those better angels come out.”
The individual members begin to see themselves in one another and trust others, and that is not merely the foundation of democracy, but that is where we have been trying to push towards salvation over the long-term, i.e. our salvation.
” His speech was both a warning of serious danger as well as a mission to restore faith and a shared ideal in order to protect American democracy.
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