Barack Obama says Democrats must avoid being a ‘buzzkill’





CNN

Former President Barack Obama thinks Democrats can get a little “buzzkill,” too easily offended by accidental slights and the convoluted scenarios of modern life, he said in a podcast interview at the end of the week. last week.

“How is politics itself – how is it even relevant to the things I care about most? My family, my children, a job that gives me satisfaction, having fun, not being a buzzkill, right? » Barack Obama said in an interview with “Pod Save America”. “And sometimes Democrats are, aren’t they? You know, sometimes people just don’t want to feel like they’re walking on eggshells. And they want it recognized that life is messy and we can all, at any time, say things the wrong way, make mistakes.

Obama is publicly responding to a concern privately voiced by Democratic strategists for some time now — that the party’s liberal base is so focused on “waking up” and potentially offending certain interest groups that they are losing track. wider to speak to what voters actually care about.

James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist, was more outspoken — certainly than Obama — in denouncing the emphasis on awakening.

“We let a loud wing of our party define the rest of us,” Carville said last summer. “And my point is that we can’t do that. I think these people are all nice. I think they’re very naive, and they’re all into language and identity. And that’s fine. They’re not storming the Capitol. But they don’t win the elections.

And then, when Republicans won the governorship of Virginia last November and scored other victories across the country, Carville blamed it on the woke warriors within his party.

“Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey,” Carville told PBS’s Judy Woodruff at the time. “Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Washington. I mean, this ‘defund the police’ madness, it’s taking Abraham Lincoln’s name out of schools. I mean – people see that .

He added: “Some of these people have to go to a ‘woke’ rehab or something. They express language that people just don’t use, and there’s a backlash and frustration to that.

While there may be debate within Democratic circles over the emphasis on awakening, there’s no doubt that Republicans see an opportunity.

Ad after ad in hotly contested midterm campaigns accuses Democrats of backing measures to defund police and eliminate cash bail. A running ad against Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes opens with a fiery image of rioters accompanied by the words “Do you feel safe?” The ad ends by saying ominously, “Mandela Barnes: He’s with them, not us.”

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has built a successful national brand around his opposition to so-called woke culture. DeSantis signed a bill earlier this year called the “Stop Woke Act” that aims to limit conversations about sex and race in the workplace and in the classroom.

“We believe an important element of freedom in the state of Florida is the freedom not to have oppressive ideologies imposed on you without your consent,” DeSantis said of the legislation. “And we decided to do something about it.”

House Republicans echoed that message. Part of their “Commitment to America” ​​plan, for example, aims to “ensure that only women can compete in women’s sports.”

To be clear: Obama is not saying the Democrats are entirely wrong to focus on awakening. Instead, he suggests they operate from a place of understanding for those who are still evolving in their thinking – and not assume the worst motives from them.

Obama cites his own mother-in-law as an example. “She’s 86, you know, and sometimes tries to have the right phraseology when we talk about issues, like Michelle, it’s like she’s trying to learn Spanish. That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t try to learn Spanish, but it does mean that sometimes she won’t find the right words. And that’s OK, right? »

It is this attitude of understanding that is “a little more real and a little more grounded,” according to Obama, that would help the Democrats. He said it “goes a long way to counter the systematic propaganda that I think is pumped out by Fox News and all these other outlets all the time.”



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