Former President Barack Obama issues a bit of advice to those in his party as they rush headlong into the rapidly approaching November midterm elections, making a warning to Democrats to not be “buzzkills” and warning the party to quickly distance themselves from online cancel culture.
Obama issued these comments while speaking on the podcast “Pod Save America” alongside its host for an interview spanning a large variety of topics which was released publicly this past Saturday, and he discussed many different things such as the currently raging war in Ukraine all the way to the decisions of the Supreme Court — but when it came to speaking about the topic of the midterm elections, he issued some very pointed and specific advice for his fellow Democrats.
WATCH:
Having previously served as a senior advisor in Obama’s White House, Dan Pfeiffer kicked off the show with a strong question regarding midterms.
“All right, we’re going to start with the midterms,” he stated, prompting Obama to respond, “Of course.”
“Because we’re getting serious here,” the host continued. “So these midterms, like 2010, are happening in let’s say a sub-optimal economic environment. But sort of unlike 2010, Democrats have a handful of pretty powerful arguments that seem to be moving voters about who Republicans are.”
He went on the express that Democrats could only win by trying to push various narratives that be used to label Republicans as far more “extreme,” such as abortion access and the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill. He pushed Obama to weigh in on whether or not he felt those things could be brought together into a cohesive commentary throughout the campaign trail.
Obama stated that he believed the main message had to be about maintaining and preserving democracy — and for the embattled Democrats to do that, they had to find a way to create a “durable majority” throughout Washington, D.C.
“My family, my kids, work that gives me satisfaction, having fun. Hell, not being a buzzkill. And sometimes Democrats are,” Obama went on to say. “Sometimes people just want to not feel as if they are walking on eggshells, and they want some acknowledgment that life is messy and that all of us, at any given moment, can say things the wrong way, make mistakes.”
He went on to speak about the apparent fascination from within his party to try and utilize cancel culture and made it abundantly clear that he thought it was a losing proposition.
“I think where we get into trouble sometimes is where we try to suggest that some groups are more – because they historically have been victimized more – that somehow they have a status that’s different than other people and we’re going around scolding folks if they don’t use exactly the right phrase,” he expressed. “Or that identity politics becomes the principle lens through which we view our various political challenges.”
