Former President Barack Obama delivered a hard-hitting speech Friday afternoon attacking President Donald Trump by name, and chastising those who enable him, on both sides, including, especially, those who do not bother to vote.
“This is not normal. These are extraordinary times, and they’re dangerous times,” President Obama said. “But here’s the good news. In two months we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics.”
The two-term Democrat who took America from the brink of financial catastrophe to a well-running economy while improving the civil rights of many Americans received cheers and a rousing ovation after speaking to students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was at the school to receive an award in ethics in government, but took the opportunity to reveal his midterm strategies for the Democrats.
And departing from his usual deference to tradition, the former president mentioned his successor by name, as he attacked him.
“It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause,” Obama told students, noting Trump counts on fear and anger.
President Obama tried to build bridges while also reminding listeners that the Trump administration is responsible for the deaths of nearly 3000 Americans in Puerto Rico:
And he attacked bullies, discrimination, and neo-Nazi supporters.
“We are Americans, we’re supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them. We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination. And we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers,” President Obama said, to applause. “How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?”
And he urged students to vote for actual gun reform:
He also did not shy away from scolding millennials for not voting – many, he said, out of apathy.
The biggest threat to democracy, Obama told students, is cynicism.