Speaking alongside historian Heather Cox Richardson, Obama told the audience that during his time in office, progressive ideals didn’t come with real consequences for the wealthy.
“You could be as progressive and socially conscious as you wanted, and you didn’t have to pay a price,” Obama said, according to The New York Times. “You could still make a lot of money. You could still hang out in Aspen and Milan and travel and have a house in the Hamptons and still think of yourself as a progressive.”
“But now,” he continued, “things are a little different. You might lose some of your donors if you’re a university. If you’re a law firm, your billings might drop a little bit. That means maybe you don’t get to remodel your kitchen in the Hamptons this summer.”
Though he avoided naming President Donald Trump directly, Obama’s remarks clearly targeted the current political climate, one shaped by Trump’s policies and rhetoric. He urged institutions like businesses, law firms, and universities to stand firm and resist what he sees as a troubling drift in the nation’s direction.
“All of us are going to be tested in some way,” Obama said. “And we are going to have to decide what our commitments will be.”
The former president also addressed immigration in a post on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this week, defending his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy and criticizing current treatment of migrants.
“DACA was an example of how we can be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,” he wrote. “It’s an example worth remembering today, when families with similar backgrounds… are being demonized and treated as enemies.”
Despite these comments, some progressives have expressed frustration over Obama’s relative silence in directly confronting Trump’s comeback. “There are many grandmas and Rachel Maddow viewers who have been more vocal in this moment than Barack Obama has,” said Adam Green of the Progressive Change Institute, speaking to The Atlantic. “It is heartbreaking to see him sacrificing that megaphone when nobody else quite has it.”
Still, Obama’s remarks in Hartford suggest he’s acutely aware of the stakes in this moment — and that he believes rhetorical progressivism must now meet reality, even among the most comfortable of liberals.
Be First to Comment