Former President Barack Obama is being slammed online for his “hypocrisy” and being “up on his high horse” in response to his first speech following the November election.
During his Thursday pluralism-themed address at the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum in Chicago, the former president argued that Democrats need to reject “holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’” when “one side tries to stack the deck and lock in a permanent grip on power.”
“… Let me make this key point: Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya.’ It is not about abandoning your convictions and folding when things get tough,” Obama told the crowd.
He then asked, “What happens when the other side has repeatedly and abundantly made clear they’re not interested in playing by the rules?”
“There are going to be times, potentially, when one side tries to stack the deck and lock in a permanent grip on power, either by actively suppressing votes, or politicizing the armed forces, or using the judiciary or criminal justice system to go after their opponents,” Obama said:
“And in those circumstances, pluralism does not call for us to just stand back and say, ‘Well, I’m not sure that’s OK.’ In those circumstances, a line has been crossed, and we have to stand firm and speak out and organize and mobilize as forcefully as we can,” he added.
Obama went on to lament the “gridlock,” “public cynicism,” and an increasing willingness among “politicians and their followers to violate democratic norms… To do anything they can to get their way. To use the power of the state to target critics and journalists and political rivals and to even resort to violence.”
The Democrat’s words garnered fiery criticism from conservatives, with Fox News contributor Guy Benson saying that Obama is his own “problem” that he referred to in his speech:
“Setting aside the unbelievable hypocrisy here, this is also the guy who’s launching a project to lessen our political divisions,” Benson wrote on X. “Being the problem — way up on his high horse, looking down disappointedly at the unwashed masses — while publicly lamenting the problem is peak Obama.”
“It’s over for Obama,” journalist Miranda Devine wrote:
“The spell is broken. Donald Trump vanquished him, Biden, Harris, the Bushes, the Cheneys. All of them, with a spring in his step,” Devine posted on X.
“Ever since his last minute desperate smear of Trump with the ‘very fine people on both sides’ lie, Barack Obama has been slowing [sic] realizing his status as false prophet of the Democrat party is no more,” added radio personality Buck Sexton:
“Obama turned our politics into ‘if you disagree with me, you are a bad person,’” said Republican communicator Matt Whitlock:
“Few people did more to pave the way for Trump. So he can take a seat,” Whitlock added.
Author Jon Gabriel said that “By voting in a democratic election, millions of people proved they hate democracy,” he posted, quipping, “Yes, this Obama fellow is quite the intellect.”
He, Obama and his wife, need to go to one of their mansions, stay, and QUIT trying to PROVE you are relevant. That ship has sailed and you WILL NOT BE MISSED. You WERE NOT and CANOT BE TRUSTED as you have shown as you tried you DESTROY THIS constitutional republic during your time in the White House and with Joe Biden. His FAILURES have your finger prints all over them. Even pushing that failure at everything she has done, HARRIS did NOT fool the CITIZENS and even GEORGE CLOONEY and his so-called other celebrities friends could not be beliveable with their endorsements and even those FOOLISH THREATS to LEAVE THE USA. Even their OVERBLOWN EGOS were seen for what they are, OVERBLOWN and LAUGHABLE. All of you have underestimated the CITIZENS and your DISREGARD for the GREAT UNWASHED. We are NOT lemmings, but we know CON ARTISTS WHEN WE SEE THEM. You have denigrated the THINKING ABILITIES of our citizens and THAT. ABOVE ALL WAS YOUR DOWNFALL. Take heed Mark Cuban and Charles Barkley. You, too. WILLL FAIL!