Obama: Issues ‘not insolvable’
Ex-president hopes to get young Americans to ‘take up the baton’
CHICAGO — In his first public appearance since leaving the White House in January, former president Barack Obama told young leaders here Monday that “special interests dominate the debates in Washington” and that he had failed to realize his “aspirational” goal of uniting Americans in red and blue states.
“That was an aspirational comment,” the former president said of his famous 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, prompting laughter from the audience at the University of Chicago. He added that when talking to individual Americans from different political backgrounds, you learn that “there’s a lot more that people have in common” than it would appear. “But, obviously, it’s not true when it comes to our politics and our civic life.”
Obama, who has kept a relatively low public profile since the end of his second term, did not mention President Donald Trump once during the 90-minute event. But he said he was determined to galvanize younger Americans to do more politically because they were the ones best positioned to bridge the current political divide.
“The single most important thing I can do is to help in any way prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world,” said Obama, who sat onstage, wearing a black suit, white button-down shirt and no tie, with a half-dozen Chicago-area activists in their teens and 20s.
In keeping with his previous vow not to criticize his successor, Obama — speaking days before Trump’s 100-day mark — made little mention of Republicans’ rush to dismantle his legacy back in Washington as quickly as possible. Republicans are debating whether to try again this week to dismantle parts of the Affordable Care Act after failing to vote on a bill in March. Trump has signed executive orders and bills from Congress undoing Obamaera regulations on everything from climate change to guns. And the Senate just appointed a conservative to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court after refusing to hold nomination hearings last year on Obama’s pick, D.C. Circuit Court Chief Judge Merrick Garland.
Obama referred to none of that. Instead, he focused on political polarization, which he ascribed to gerrymandered electoral districts, money in politics, a politicized media and voter apathy, especially among young people.
“The one thing I’m absolutely convinced of is: Yes, we confront a whole range of challenges, from economic inequality and lack of opportunity to the criminal justice system to climate change to issues related to violence. All those problems are serious, they’re daunting,” Obama said. “But they’re not insolvable. What is preventing us from tackling them and making more progress really has to do with our politics and our civic life.”
The session marks the start of public appearances the former president will deliver in the United States and overseas.