Iran Press / America: Barack Obama made a lengthy appeal to voters across the US to restore “a healthy democracy”, and denounced the tactics employed by Trump and Republicans in Washington as an unprecedented threat to the country’s future.
Speaking at the University of Illinois on Friday Obama said: "Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security would be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us, or don’t sound like us, or don’t pray like we do – that is an old playbook, it’s old as time."
He added: "It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause. [Trump’s] just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. When there is a vacuum in our democracy, when we don’t vote, when we take our basic rights and freedoms for granted, the politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold.”
Speaking to students at the University of Illinois where he accepted an award for ethics in government, Obama foreshadowed the themes he is expected to take to the campaign trail in the coming weeks while stumping for Democrats before the November midterm elections. The former president also urged a big turnout for the midterm congressional elections.
