As the New York Times has noted:
Former President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday night that the country was “dangerously close” to allowing its government officials to act in a way “consistent with autocracies,” offering a veiled rebuke of the Trump administration that was delivered with trademark caution.
They added:
Appearing before a civic group in Hartford, Conn., during a tumultuous stretch for the country both at home and abroad, Mr. Obama offered a winding explanation about the dangers facing American democracy. He pointed to an erosion of traditional values like the rule of law, an independent judiciary, the freedom of the press and the right to protest.
I have three thoughts.
First, this is overdue. Former Presidents Clinton, Bush and Biden need to be doing the same thing. They keep their titles for a reason.
Second, the intervention is correct: idealised values are being eroded. They should not be.
Third, it has to be said that no living President was a paragon of virtue on these things. The US was very far from being the land of the free before Trump got into office on either occasion when he has succeeded in doing so. Maybe Obama should also be talking about how things can be improved so that freedoms exceed those available when he was in office, so that the US might move to something that looks more like a democracy.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Might have helped if he called out the deliberate exclusion from voting of mostly poor, many non-white, mostly “democrat” voters.
USA is heading back to Jim Crow territory.
I fear expecting any president to give up the American war machine is impossible.
To his immense credit, Obama made it a lot better in America for everyone.
That must be priority #1 right now, since the mad king will ignore international treaties if he gets his “kingdom” at home.
The USA was set up first and foremost as a Republic, which is a different concept to being a Democracy. Peter Schiff has done a long video explaining the key differences.
“Was set up” yes but 250 and fifty later there is no real distinction.
It is largely invoked by the Right Wing to justify the undemocratic features:
States deciding who can vote in their state and who can be excluded ( e.g. prior conviction) So voter purging
the electoral boundaries (there is no nationwide independent commission to set them) so gerrymandering
some dozen or so states can veto constitutional change. They could be the rural states with about 15-20% of the population
South Dakota has two Senators and less than a million people. California has 40 million and two Senators.
The Electoral college set up to give more seats in the House to slave owning states so a President can be chosen by a minority ( as in 2016)
Regrettably the former Democrat Presidents will not be listened to whatever they may say.
There is amazing bitterness especially against Obama that his actions in the Great Recession saved the the banks and financial system but screwed ordinary members of the public.
The Democrats need to repeat the Stacy Abrams programme encouraging voter registration in the GOP states that for example insist that for example the only acceptable voter registration proof of id is a driving licence. Stacy helped people get licences and encouraged them to vote. She won her own election this way.
The same voter id restrictions apply in the UK recently passed law changes to ” prevent fraud”. But LINO will not do anything because it is not interested in encouraging increased voter participation in elections.
This analysis of Obama still resonates – he chose to side with the corporate overlords and was just a brand like Calvin Klein using black models for their underwear for the first time. “Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.
What, for all our faith and hope, has the Obama brand given us? His administration has spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion in taxpayer dollars to Wall Street and insolvent banks in a doomed effort to reinflate the bubble economy, a tactic that at best forestalls catastrophe and will leave us broke in a time of profound crisis”
Ok, was he better or worse than Trump?
Shall we get real here?
I known all the faults. But there’s failure and fascism. Let’s not confuse them.
A driving licence as the only way to be able to vote? So what would happen to someone like me? I gave up driving around 20 years ago as I felt my reflexes were too slow to continue driving, and that I might be a danger on the road if I drove. So I no longer have a driving licence. I really loved driving, and I really miss it. But I still vote – I have a postal vote since it would be difficult for me to get to a polling station.
Thta is not the only way to vote and no one is suggestng it should be
For such purposes driving licenses are issued, suitably endosed ‘not allowed to drive’, to people unable to drive, because, e.g. they are blind, but who need a state produced id…
We can do better than that, and other identity is accepted in the UK.
Obama is a political chameleon.
He won the Nobel Peace prize for make a rhetorically splendid speech against nuclear weapons very early in his presidency, then failed to reduce the YS nuclear arsenal in the eight years he held Presidential Office; he ordered several devastating US military attacks on “third world” counties; he deported more immigrants than even Trump is currently doing, but in a nastier fashion; and he propped up an unfair neo – liberal economy that structurally maintained millions in poverty without affordable medical care.
Worryingly, around 30% of us are less bothered about democracy and freedom, and would be more comfortable with authoritarianism.
I suspect there is another percentage who are not inclined toward authoritarianism by disposition, but just want power, and have the money to manipulate the 30% who are inclined.
It is that combination of numbers that has moved us along to this current position, in the UK and US.
In the UK a party can win a GE on a vote as low as 35%, that’s a worry.
Even more worryingly, 40% of young voters would prefer a “strong leader” at the expense of some freedoms.
There’s a very good segment on the authoritarian turn – and particularly its millitarisation – on the Chris Hayes current affairs programme from Wednesday evening on MSNBC https://www.msnbc.com/all (and got to the second segment from the top). Hayes includes some examples, which I think most people will find pretty shocking, along with how this whole approach (and the arrests of anyone suspected of being an “immigrant”) is being turned into propaganda.
However, for those who want to enjoy the latest demolition of Donald J Trump – focusing on this occasion on the pure, delusional rubbish that spews from his mouth, and the extent this is due to his mental decline (something that was a topic even in his first term) then nothing can beat the latest broadside from Lawrence O’Donnell. Amongst other things, it’s interesting to note the extent to which Murdock is shaping Trump’s thinking – particularly in the conflict in the middle east – via Fox News (which Trump watches all the time). Watch and laugh and cry. https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-donald-trump-proves-he-s-the-stupidest-man-in-the-situation-room-241885253629
Which leads me to conclude by posing this question: Has anyone in the 20th AND 21st centuries had such a CONSISTENTLY negative impact on politics and society in the UK, US and Australia than Rupert Murdoch? Of course, there have been plenty of people who visited hurt and evil for periods of time – often years. But Murdoch, through his media empire and his minions, has been at it now for decades. And he (and now his eldest son) now stand on the brink of aiding and abetting – and being the cheerleader for – the demise of US democracy. That surely is some record?
As usual, thanks, Ivan. Saved for this evening. Better than most UK news now, by far.
Wow Ivan! Thank you for that! Just bloody unbelievable – except nothing concerning Trump is unbelievable of course. He’s definitely losing it. How long will it take for him to be removed from the Presidency do you think? Surely even his supporters must realise by now that he’s gone completely doolally? Except if they support him, probably not! 😉