Barack Obama calls on Americans to defend democratic values in face of Trump agenda

[TCC]

Barack Obama calls on Americans to defend democratic values in face of Trump agenda

‘It is up to all of us to fix this,’ former president said in speech at Hamilton College in New York

www.theguardian.com

Barack Obama has called on US citizens, colleges and law firms to resist Donald Trump’s political agenda – and warned Americans to prepare to “possibly sacrifice” in support of democratic values.

“It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not have to pay a price for it,” Obama said during a speech at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, on Thursday.


The two-term former Democratic president painted a picture of the Trump White House looking to upend the international order created after the second world war – and a domestic political reconfiguration in which ideological disagreement falling within mutual respect for free speech and the rule of law being eroded.

 

[mattfivefour]

and a domestic political reconfiguration in which ideological disagreement falling within mutual respect for free speech and the rule of law being eroded.

What hypocrisy! It was under the Democrats that mutual respect for free speech and the ruler of law has been eroded over the past couple of dozen years. How someone can speak such a lie as was just asserted by the lips of President Obama is incredible. And it speaks to why so many of us are pessimistic about the future of this nation if that party ever returns the power.

Politically I do lean to the right, although I appreciate some of the goals of the left: not just the methods they propose to achieve them. People can share opposing views, and I appreciate the fact that the Republicans permit that. That's why there's far more disagreement within the Republican party than within the Democrat party. It's why a Democrat-controlled Congress with a razor thin majority will nearly always succeed with its legislative agenda while a similar Republican-controlled Congress will often fail. It's because the Democrats do not permit disagreement, whereas the Republicans are built on it. So, it is not surprising when we find Democrats trying to eliminate opposing points of view even in the public arena. But how they do that while claiming to protect freedom of speech and a variety of opinion escapes me. These days they are, sadly, the antithesis of what they proclaim.

 

[TCC]

What hypocrisy! It was under the Democrats that mutual respect for free speech and the ruler of law has been eroded over the past couple of dozen years. How someone can speak such a lie as was just asserted by the lips of President Obama is incredible. And it speaks to why so many of us are pessimistic about the future of this nation if that party ever returns the power.

Politically I do lean to the right, although I appreciate some of the goals of the left: not just the methods they propose to achieve them. People can share opposing views, and I appreciate the fact that the Republicans permit that. That's why there's far more disagreement within the Republican party than within the Democrat party. It's why a Democrat-controlled Congress with a razor thin majority will nearly always succeed with its legislative agenda while a similar Republican-controlled Congress will often fail. It's because the Democrats do not permit disagreement, whereas the Republicans are built on it. So, it is not surprising when we find Democrats trying to eliminate opposing points of view even in the public arena. But how they do that while claiming to protect freedom of speech and a variety of opinion escapes me. These days they are, sadly, the antithesis of what they proclaim.

Amen Pastor. The left for decades was all about freedom of speech. Not limiting it. I believe for them, until enough of the language they would like to see got into the public sphere. Once their language could be shaped to embrace the norm, hate speech became a thing...to weed out what the left did not like about freedom of speech. Blessings.